Partial Churches

Anthony Delgado

All Glory Be To Christ • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

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Pro Tip

The commands given in the scriptures were given to particular people at a place in time, not directly to you.

Scripture Reading (2)

Revelation 2:1–7 (CSB)

2 “Write to the angel of the church in Ephesus: Thus says the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and who walks among the seven golden lampstands: 2 I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil people. You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you have found them to be liars. 3 I know that you have persevered and endured hardships for the sake of my name, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 Yet you do have this: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

7 “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Revelation 3:1–6 (CSB)

3 “Write to the angel of the church in Sardis: Thus says the one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: I know your works; you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead. 2 Be alert and strengthen what remains, which is about to die, for I have not found your works complete before my God. 3 Remember, then, what you have received and heard; keep it, and repent. If you are not alert, I will come like a thief, and you have no idea at what hour I will come upon you. 4 But you have a few people in Sardis who have not defiled their clothes, and they will walk with me in white, because they are worthy.

5 “In the same way, the one who conquers will be dressed in white clothes, and I will never erase his name from the book of life but will acknowledge his name before my Father and before his angels.

6 “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.

Intro (2)

Case Studies

Today we’re going to talk through Case Studies of churches

Case Studies are controversial in scholarly circles, especially in the hard sciences

The scientific method demands that you form theories based on evidence

evidence>theories>laws that definitively predict behavior (drop a ball and it falls, then bounces)

Case studies work in the reverse (I wonder why things bounce?).

behavior (experiences)>form theories>find evidence to support

Case studies are stories, in essence

details of the experience>

suggestions of motives (theory, maybe it’s because of…)

search for evidence for behavior

The 7 addresses in Revelation 2-3 serve as case studies in that they allow us an experience of the 7 churches that then will move us to theorize how it is that we should live as a church in light of their experience. — that’s in fact what Jesus would have us to do based on ch. 1.

Today we’re going to look at 2 case studies of the church in Ephesus and the church in Sardis. These churches are partial churches—they’re only serving half of their purpose. From this we can discern what a full church looks like.

Body

Partial Church 1: Ephesus (12)

Case Study 1

What are they doing right?

They are intolerant of evil people/false teachers.

Revelation 2:2 (CSB)

I know your works…that you cannot tolerate evil people. You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you have found them to be liars.

Evil people: Those who call themselves apostles (more like missionaries, not necessarily the 12) but have not been sent from another biblical church.

Instead, these are monopolizing on the idea of Christianity for financial gain.

They have persevered in their commitment to the truth.

Revelation 2:3 (CSB)

I know that you have persevered and endured hardships for the sake of my name, and you have not grown weary.

The Ephesian Church was not willing to compromise doctrine even in the face of hardships and persecution.

Specifically, they stood against the false teachings of the Nicolaitans.

Revelation 2:6 (CSB)

Yet you do have this: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

It seems that they had a strong teaching and discipleship ministry.

They knew what was unacceptable teaching and they hated it (Nicolaitans).

In Numbers 31:16, the Israelites suffered from a plague because they followed the teaching of the pagan prophet Balaam by offering sacrifices to idols and sexual immorality.

In the letter to Pergamum, we find out that they were tolerating Nicolaitans in their church and Jesus tells them that he’s coming to fight against them with the sword of his mouth.

The Nicolaitans are not merely a subgroup in the church who were more lenient toward pagan religion and society (or liberal). They had their own prophets and prophetesses and their own teaching that superceded the teaching of the scriptures and the apostles. They were against the church even though they were often in the church because they wanted to convert the churches to their way of thinking.

We don’t have very many Nicolaitans today. But we have our own teachings that come from the culture and infect the church. (remember pro tip)

What dangerous teachings (not apathy) are pervasive in the church today that lead people to dangerous practices of idolotry (your health, wealth, prosperity over your eternal wellbeing) or lead people into sin (sexual sin, particularly—sex before marriage, consequence sex/abortion, no-fault divorce, homosexuality, and the normalization of gender dysphoria).

What aren’t they doing?

They aren’t loving Jesus or by extension doing the works of Jesus.

Revelation 2:4–5a (CSB)

But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. ..

Ephesus lost their first love; they persevered in the work, but for the wrong reasons.

They were still doing works, but their works no longer reflected the love they had for Jesus.

Instead they became absorbed in tradition (stogy church with no love)—doing lots of things but nothing with eternal value.

Jesus exhorts them to return to their first love—devotion to Christ—and to do the works that the church was doing in the beginning.

Loving each other as Christ loved us.

Caring for each others need.

Bearing one another’s burdens.

Making disciples of the nations.

What happens if they don’t get on track?

The lampstand will be removed (2.5b)—i.e. the church will die.

Revelation 2:5b (CSB)

Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

What causes churches to live or die?

If we, as a church, do not pay attention to what Jesus has said to the churches, we will lose our identity and cease to exist.

Partial Church 2: Sardis (10)

Case Study 2

What are they doing right?

Demonstrating to the world around them that they are spiritually alive or vibrant.

Revelation 3:1 (CSB)

…Thus says the one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: I know your works; you have a reputation for being alive…

Sardis is the opposite of Ephesus; they were known for being alive in Christ and yet, under the surface, they were dead. On the other hand, Ephesus was kind of stogy, introverted and lifeless on the outside, but focussed on the truth of the scriptures, being alive on the inside.

cf. James 2 — they were doing this!

They had a spiritual vibrancy that led others to believe that they were a spiritually flourishing church—by implication, other churches and probably others outside the church,

What aren’t they doing?

They are hiding that they are in fact spiritually dead. There is a show on the outside that is not a true reflection of a rotten core.

Revelation 3:1b (CSB)

…I know your works; you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead.

It seems that they had a vibrant public ministry

probably their teaching

corporate prayer

likely their arts (music and poetry)

were very attractive to the community around them and drew crowds of some kind.

(Different from today—the arts of the church cannot compete with the world around us, but in their day, some could.)

The issue might be that the teaching was a) shallow or b) that the teaching was worldly in its focus—all about here and now; no eternity.

One teacher put it this way:

It is likely that the problem at Sardis was a strong tendency to compromise Christian faith for the sake of conformity to social and cultural standards set by Asian society and the Roman Empire.

J. Ramsey Michaels

It’s strange how often cultural values can cross over with Christian values—caring for the poor, freedom for those in bondage of various kinds.

But, when the values become the purpose of the church, the church loses, at its core, its very purpose in existence.

Sardis, like many churches today, compromised essentials of the Christian faith in order to attract the broader culture with the parts of Christianity that were attractive, sweeping the offence of the Gospel under the rug.

That’s why Jesus explores them:

Revelation 3:3 (CSB)

Remember, then, what you have received and heard; keep it, and repent. If you are not alert, I will come like a thief, and you have no idea at what hour I will come upon you.

‘What you have recieved and heard,’ is a NT euphemism for the Message about Jesus. It was lost, causing the church to become dead inside.

What happens if they don’t get on track?

So Jesus continues:

Revelation 3:4 (CSB)

But you have a few people in Sardis who have not defiled their clothes, and they will walk with me in white, because they are worthy.

They must repent, believe the Gospel of Jesus and follow in the pattern of the few who are there who still know the way of truth.

Or else it will mean the end of this church.

What happens if they do get on track?

Eternal life with Christ (3.4-5).

Revelation 3:5 (CSB)

“In the same way, the one who conquers will be dressed in white clothes, and I will never erase his name from the book of life but will acknowledge his name before my Father and before his angels.

A Full Church (8)

The early church (the ancient world) didn’t separate philosophy from practice. The problem with the Nicolaitans was more than just what was being taught; it was the way the teaching was being practiced. They tried to meld the doctrines of grace in the Bible with the beliefs of the pagan culture around them—that the gods still had power and needed to be acknowledge, appeased, and even worshipped alongside Jesus. This led them into practices that are forbidden by the scriptures, namely sexual immorality and the worship of idols.

Belief leads to practice. False teaching leads to false practices.

Ephesus was a heavy teaching church, a doctrine church. But, they lacked a spirit of love for Christ and as a result love for people.

Sardis, on the other hand, had an apparent outward love for Christ that extended to a love for people, They had an apparent spiritual quality about them that others could see, but they were lacking the scaffolding of the truth.

VEN DIAGRAM: The church that Jesus will persevere until the end is the church that will focus on both truth and a vibrant spiritual presence in the community.

There are two front doors to the church. One is the people. The other is the internet (website, search engines, Google maps, social media). Rarely does someone enter a church through its physical front door.

If we want people to come to know Jesus in our church, we need to continue to bolster a strong theological and biblical faith in our members. We need to continue to grow in our knowledge of the truth.

But, if we want to open the doors of the church to our community—not the wooden doors, but through the internet and the people—we need to also have a vibrant and apparent spiritual presence in our community. We need to look and sound like we love Jesus and we need that to overflow into each others lives and into the community so that they know how great and how vibrant and how life giving our love for Jesus is. And I think that is the way that they will come to experience Jesus’ love for them.

Churches die all the time. Some for lack of love—love for each other or love for the community. Others die for lack of commitment to the truth—they become liberal or apathetic.

Pray that our church would remain commited to the truth, but that we also would grow in our ability to express our love for Jesus to others.

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