1-13-19 It's Getting a Little Churchy in Here Revelation 2-3
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Introduction:
This morning we return to our expository journey through the Book of Revelation, The Book of the Apocalypse. So, simply by the title we know this book has to do with a revealing of unknown things—more specifically, previously unknown things concerning the future. However, we’ve already seen in chapter one, that the central focus of Revelation matches perfectly with the rest of scripture— pointing us directly to Christ. So before we are quick to claim that the purpose of this book is to reveal future things, we must first recognize that this book reveals Christ—who He is, what He has done, and what He will do. So the most proper answer to what this book is about, is that it is about Jesus, the Christ. In fact, there are other topics apart from eschatology that this book addresses -- especially as we journey through the next couple chapters. We’ll see that Jesus, by proxy of John seems to also be concerned about false teaching, sexual immorality, divisions within congregations, lack of love for YHWH and others, and even complacency toward the things of YHWH—all of which you and I need more instruction to live together better. So in short, listen up! This book is for you and me today, just as much as it was for the first century church.
Because of the description in Revelation of Christian martyrs and a beast who demands worship (13:1–8), many assume that the cities to which the apostle John wrote were all being severely persecuted. It is true that most of these communities were experiencing persecution at some degree. John himself had been exiled to Patmos, and Christians in Pergamum had been put to death by this time simply for remaining faithful to Christ. Nero was the first Roman emperor to persecute Christians. Yet his persecution of Christians was local to the capital city and not Empire-wide. Nero blamed the Christians in Rome for the devastating fire that had destroyed much of that city.
It wasn’t until the reign of Domitian (A.D. 81–96) that refusing to worship the Roman emperor became a punishable offense throughout the whole Empire. Before that time, emperor worship had been spreading throughout Rome, but it hadn’t yet been enforced. Even with a recorded decree that all should worship the emperor as “God and Lord,” there isn’t much evidence from Domitian’s reign of widespread persecution of Christians. Most of the persecution of Christians in the first century consisted of local challenges to specific groups of gathering believers. Out of the seven churches addressed in Revelation, John encouraged only three (Smyrna, Pergamum, and Philadelphia) to endure their suffering and persecution. So Revelation wasn’t necessarily addressed only to a persecuted church as some may claim; instead, it was a wake-up call to any complacent, compromising church.
Transition:
This morning I plan to give you guys an introduction to this next section of Revelation. I want to give you an overview of the most popular spot in Revelation preachers will preach from. Most Pastors avoid preaching a whole series through this book, but when they do a series, it is usually just a miniseries through chapters 2 and 3. I plan to go with you through this book all the way to the end; however, this is where we find ourselves this morning.
The Book of Revelation highlights the unseen realities that these early congregations were ignoring. In later chapters, as we picture Revelation to be, vivid and terrifying visions tell of a furious battle between good and evil—a battle of which the eventual outcome has been already decided—as a form of encouragement to the churches. Of course, we already know the end of the battle—ultimately, YHWH wins as always! The only question remaining then was whether the members of these churches would be on God’s side or on Satan’s side. The answer to this question was a matter of eternal life and eternal death.
The greatest threat to these churches, and might I say for our church now, was internal, not external—the spread of false teaching, spiritual compromise, and the cancer of comfortable religious complacency can and do kill local assemblies.
As the Roman authorities continued moving against the early Christians, they felt threatened by John’s powerful ministry and for good reason as history proves. They viewed John as a dangerous leader of the heretical Jewish sect. We’ve seen that when John was writing the book of Revelation under Christ’s command, he was banished, likely because he had boldly proclaimed the gospel, onto the barren and rocky island of Patmos, with its sharp volcanic hills, about 50 miles off the coast of Asia Minor, or present day Turkey, and is only 7.5 miles long and 4.3 miles wide in the Aegean Sea. Thus, he was not too far from the churches to which he was writing. Yet still during his exile, John was separated from his Christian brothers and sisters, but he was not alone-- the risen Jesus appeared to him like never before in a spectacular vision.
The seven churches chosen by Jesus in chapters 2 & 3 were located in different cities within a province of the Roman Empire called Asia Minor. Now, it is not the Asia we think of today; rather, these ancient towns were located in what we call today western Turkey. The seven cities are in a rough crescent about 400 miles in length, beginning with Ephesus on the coast by the Aegean Sea. An interesting fact to mention here is that in the ruins there today, there is evidence testifying to the truth of believer’s baptism by immersion. The ancient baptistery discovered there is about waste deep, and the only purpose for a waste deep baptistery that even historians and archaeology can figure is baptism by total immersion.
Christ selected only seven churches out of many others in Asia Minor in order to get across His message. We’ve talked briefly in chapter one how certain numbers keep popping up in this book. Seven is the number of perfection/completion, and Christ selected these churches because they represented various issues that He desired to address.
These seven churches Christ selected to illustrate the spiritual conditions possible in the churches until He returns. Certainly there were sins in the other churches, but the ones addressed in these specific seven churches cover circumstances any church can and does face at some point. No doubt you’ve heard some interpretations and maybe even some sermons about these seven churches. There are some preliminary considerations to take into account:
First, The messages are not addressed to denominations or associations or para-church organizations (i.e. Bible colleges or Missionary Boards). The application then is either to the whole congregations or to individuals.
Second, there is a four-fold application of these messages:
These messages were given to instruct the particular churches to which they are addressed at that time.
next, the messages were given to instruct all churches. The instruction given to the seven churches of Asia in the first century applies to every church of every century (“He who has an ear, let him hear...” Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22).
Every local church that has ever existed is similar to at least one of these seven.
and Forth, the messages were given to instruct individual believers (Rev. 2:7, etc.). Every believer can find a wealth of edification and spiritual challenge and warning in these messages.
Finally, the messages might offer a general overview of church history over the last 2,000 years. While this is certainly not a stated prophecy of these chapters (and I believe that any approach that focuses exclusively or even mostly on this interpretation is wrong), I do believe it is possible to see a general outline of church history here by way of application, and I do not believe this is an accident. In fact, in Revelation 3:10
10 Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth.
this obviously looks beyond anything that was experienced by the historical church at Philadelphia in the first century. By the divinely inspired order of the messages to the seven churches we see the same pattern of increasing apostasy that is revealed in other ways in the New Testament. 2 Timothy 3:13 describes the course of the church age in terms of increasing apostasy:
13 while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
“from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”
I believe we are living today in conditions that both the Philadelphian and the Laodicean churches struggled with. These issues overlap. Though we are surrounded by the most disgusting apostasy today (i.e. the Unitarian Church and other churches that are accepting gay and lesbian leaders in their church) despite that, there are still many Bible-believing churches that hold to every doctrine of scripture, and are waiting to be saved out of the world before the tribulation begins. It would be wrong to try to force every detail mentioned in these letters into a historical time-period, but the major features can be seen predominantly through our history.
Bible Commentator Theodore Epp said:
“If I were to give a title to this section I would call it ‘The Great Apostasy of the Last Days Traced from the Beginning of the Church’s History.’ We will see how Satan uses what I call ‘the whittling method’ of cutting away the essential features that make a church a church and finally makes it an arm of apostasy. Apostasy is defection from truth, revolt against it, and abandonment of what one has voluntarily professed, or a total departure or desertion from one’s faith or renunciation of it. This is a very serious matter; it began early in church history and will be consummated in the world after the true Church is gone. This decline in faith can be traced through these seven churches with the climax in the great apostate church of Revelation 17” (Epp, Revelation).
Some therefore interpret and preach that these churches are prophetic descriptions of the Western church history from Pentecost to the Second Coming:
Ephesus = the Apostolic Period, A.D. 33–100 (Pentecost to the apostle John)
The apostolic church leaving its first love. The early churches as a whole gradually began to abandon their wholehearted zeal for Christ and His Word;
Smyrna = the Period of Persecution, A.D. 100–313 (the apostle John to Constantine)
Persecution and poverty. For more than 200 years the churches were persecuted by the Roman emperors. Christ mentions 10 days of persecution, and there were 10 major periods of persecution under 10 principal pagan persecutors (Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Severus, Maximum, Decius, Valerian, Aurelian, and Diocletian). There was also much poverty, because during this period the believers often had to live hand to mouth and in hiding due to the persecution. Judaism was also rampant throughout the Roman Empire and the Jews continued to hate the Christians and to torment them as they did during Paul’s day. It is written in church history that the Jews provided the wood to burn Polycarp in Smyrna.
Pergamum = the Period of Constantine, A.D. 313–590 (Constantine to Pope Gregory)
Nicolaitanism was developed into a doctrine. “Nicolaitan” means “to conquer the people” and (in this view) refers to the rise of the unbiblical hierarchical doctrine of church government. By the days of Constantine in the fourth century the bishop of Rome was exalted, together with his cohorts, and Nicolaitanism was well on its way to producing the current papacy. In the early seventh century, Gregory the Great solidified the papacy, becoming “the first of the proper popes” and later in that century, Pope Theodore I was the first pope officially called sovereign or supreme Pontiff—thus starting centuries of people deceived into worshipping the pope.
Thyatira = Papal Rome, A.D. 590–1517 (Pope Gregory to Martin Luther)
The Jezebel spirit; idolatry, fornication, and involvement in satanic things. Jezebel brought fornication and idolatry into the churches and was associated with “the depths of Satan” (Rev. 2:20, 24). These practices, which began in earlier periods, became settled doctrine as the first millennium proceeded and the second began. Fornication became normal in the Roman Catholic Church because of its unscriptural doctrine of celibacy and confession to a priest. The fornication surrounding the papacy itself is well documented and continues today. Idolatry became prominent with the “cult of the Saints” and Mary was exalted as the chief idol.
Sardis = Reformation, A.D. 1517–1792 (Martin Luther - to the end of the Renaissance age)
An insufficient reformation. This church had a name that it was alive, but it was actually dead (Rev 3:1). Its works were not perfect before Christ (Rev. 3:2). The church was told to remember the first works, referring to the New Testament pattern given by the apostles (Rev. 3:3). These things are characteristics of most the denominations that arose out of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th to the 18th centuries. They left the Catholic Church and rejected some of Rome’s false beliefs and practices, but they did not return to the pure church model. Instead, some held to infant baptism, or keeping a special priesthood, or 2 sacraments instead of 7, and other errors. They established state churches and brought the unsaved into church membership by the rite of infant baptism. Thus, though they had a name that they lived, they were largely dead. “Nothing could describe the Lutheranism more accurately!
Philadelphia = Modern Missionary Movement, A.D. 1792–1914 (or to now) (mid Modern age to either WWI or to today)
The churches that keep God’s Word (Rev. 3:8) and escape the great tribulation (Rev. 3:10). This depicts the remnant of sound churches that remain true to God until the Rapture. From the fact that Jesus’ promise to the church at Philadelphia obviously looks beyond anything that was experienced in that church historically and can only apply directly to churches existing at the time of the Rapture (“I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth,” Rev. 3:10), we see that there will be Philadelphia churches existing in the darkest hours at the end of the church age. Many people today have abandoned the church as an institution, but Jesus said, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Mat. 16:18), and He promised that He would be with it “even unto the end of the world” (Mat. 28:20). Thus in spite of the widespread apostasy that exists in our day we can be encouraged that there are true Philadelphia churches in the world and we are responsible to continue to support Christ’s chosen institution until He comes.
Laodicea = Period of Apostasy, A.D. 1914 - Jesus’ coming (either it is WWI - the rapture or it has not started yet)
The unregenerate, luke-warm, end-time church. This church is described as physically wealthy but spiritually wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked (Rev. 3:17). The Lord Jesus is standing outside of this church inviting individuals to come to Him. According to the “church history age” view: this is a picture of the apostate churches of the last hours of the church age.
Transition:
All that to say I am not so convinced that we ought to look at these churches as only representing church history time periods. These are real congregations just like Grace Baptist Church, so next week and following, we will start to look closer to each individual church listed.
So What?
So What?
So these messages are for all churches throughout the church age. “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”
The church at EPHESUS represents the danger of losing our first love (2:4).
The church at SMYRNA represents the blessing of being faithful through suffering (2:9-10).
The church at PERGAMUM represents the danger of doctrinal compromise (2:14-15).
The church at THYATIRA represents the danger of moral compromise (2:20).
The church at SARDIS represents the danger of spiritual deadness (3:1-2).
The church at PHILADELPHIA represents the blessing of holding fast (3:11).
The church at LAODICEA represents the danger of lukewarmness (3:15-16).
in the book Storm Warning, Billy Graham wrote about these two chapters. He says:
John was a prophet. Prophets often held out hope for the present time—hope that God’s judgment could be delayed if people would repent and turn to God in faith and obedience.
That does not mean that the prophets offered an easy way out of all difficulties, as if somehow all problems would vanish if people would just profess their faith in God. Instead, like Winston Churchill standing amidst the bombed ruins of London, the prophets offered “blood, sweat, and tears” for those who would follow God. It would not be easy to serve God and fight against the evil of this present dark and sinful world, and yet the prophets knew that God would be victorious in the end and His people would share in that victory.
So John was a prophet, calling his generation—and ours—to repentance and faith and action. He knew that we could never build the kingdom of God on earth, no matter how hard we might try. Only God can do that—and someday he will, when Christ comes again. But John also knew that God’s judgment on this world could be delayed if we would repent and turn to Christ.
To some, John’s message of the future may have sounded gloomy and depressing. John knew, however, that the worst thing he could do would be to assure people that everything was all right and that there was no need to be concerned about the evil in the world or God’s judgment. But John’s message is ultimately a message of the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ.
Even though almost all these churches had huge problems, we shouldn’t fret. Why? Because there’s really only one solution we need for our congregations and for us as individuals. Jesus! Jesus is the way the truth and the life, and John saw this first hand and you can too. We are to repent that is turned totally away from sin, and turn totally towards Christ. What sin do you need to turn away from? have you repented? do you need to turn to Christ today? Jesus spoke to the Apostle John 2,000 years ago to give us hope today. Christ came, He died, and He rose again to give us hope have eternal life. All we must do is accept, believe, and repent.
Conclusion:
The pressures put on us American Christians to conform to present philosophies and practices of society are not law yet, but they are still powerful. The temptations to turn from the way, the truth, and the Life of Jesus Christ are as real as they were in A.D. 95. To turn away is still deserting him, as truly as was worshiping Caesar.
The eternal Lord is the same through the centuries. When modern men know him as John knew him, they can keep the truths of life clearly in view.