You may have seen a sickly church that still boasts of its great history. It is an ungainly sight. Jesus was not interested in what the professing Christians in Sardis had done, but who they were today. There were so few true Christians left in that poor assembly. Yet, God knew who they were and He was not going to let them go.

As churches begin to re-open across Ontario, we have great reason to rejoice and give thanks. But this doesn’t mean we can afford to become idle in our walk in Christ. As our circumstances change, there are things we should always remember, always pray for, and always do for the good of the church and the glory of God.

Is there a Jezebel in our church? Can Christians really get taken up with the “Deep things of Satan?” There is more than one way to fail at this race. And when Jesus looks at the church in Thyatira, He finds so much good in them. Really, He does! And then He spots a glaring fault. We too easily miss the fact that tolerating sin will almost inevitably relax our grip on our Saviour. And that is not good. He wants our church to be hanging on tight to Him.

Nobody wants to be labelled a sell-out; a person who violates their convictions just to save their neck. But compromisers like this do exist. The problem becomes, what to do with them when they are in the church. Do we just pray for them? Should we ignore them? Should we scold them? Jesus looks at the church in Pergamum and sees compromisers in the membership. His response to this might shock you!

There are many things every church should seek to be, but perhaps none as daunting as setting their mind to be willing to die if that is what it takes to follow Jesus in their day. The church at Smyrna got that news from Jesus Himself. Would they be willing?

The Revelation of Jesus Christ is not just a piece of exciting and colourful apocalyptic literature, it is a letter to real churches. It is letter in which Jesus addresses those churches directly and spells out ways in which they are doing well and ways in which they need to immediately change. Each church is unique in her situation, but taken together, Christ’s instructions to these Christians gives a very good idea of the church we ought to try and be.

The gospel makes a radical difference in the life of a Christian. It severs their bond to the old order and establishes a new bond to the heavenly order of Jesus Christ. With this new resurrection life comes a new purpose, a new reality, and a new hope. Therefore Christians are called to be upward-looking people.

Love changes everything, especially what we think of our own privileges. In this last sermon on Christian unity, we see that more mature believers bear a special burden to ensure that this loving unity is maintained. Since they are strong, they can powerfully deny their freedoms for the greater good of the church. The solution is not legalism or fundamentalism, but a harmonious group of people covenanted together around the truth and doing all they can to neither condemn not cut off each other. This kind of harmony brings glory to God.

By the grace of God, the Colossians are doing spiritually well and standing firm in their faith in Christ, but that doesn’t mean they’re immune to the dangers of legalism that is threatening the church. The apostle Paul, therefore, warns the Colossians to continue trusting in the gospel of Jesus Christ, not the gospel of works. In this section (Col 2:16-19), we take a closer look at what exactly these false teachers were imposing on the believers in Colossae.

Paul spends almost 10% of his letter to the Romans talking about conscience matters in the church. And yet, so few Christians spend any time thinking about this or even have a grasp of what their conscience is and how it should function. A careful look at Romans 14:1-12 reveals several commands and the reasons for them as we pursue the unity of our church. To miss this is to miss a key Gospel issue.