Today, we are going to look at probably the most angry that Jesus ever got. In fact, he not only expressed his anger verbally; he expressed it physically. Probably the most shocking picture of Jesus in the New Testament is when he cleaned house literally. He cleansed the temple. In fact, he did it twice. We are going to be looking at two passages of scripture – the second chapter of John and the twenty-first chapter of Matthew. In John, he cleansed the temple at the beginning of his ministry and in Matthew he did it at the end of his ministry. This story answers the two questions, “What made him angry?” and “Who was his anger directed toward?”

I love what President Franklin Roosevelt said: “We may not be able to prepare the future for our children, but we can at least prepare our children for the future.” In the book of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul gives fathers the best advice and wisdom on how to be the father your children need you to be. In a simple but sublime sentence, Paul shares with us four things we need to give our children to be the parents we ought to be. 

The church in Laodicea and the Christians in it were stuck in a spiritual no man’s land. They weren’t hot and they weren’t cold; they were just lukewarm. I believe remaining lukewarm is one of the greatest sins that goes unconfessed, unnoticed, and unrealized in the church today. The average lukewarm Christian is either too proud to admit they are lukewarm or too ignorant to realize they are. My prayer is that you will listen to this message with an open heart and sensitive ears to what God has to say in order to avoid getting stuck in no man’s land. The sermon in a sentence is this – in the Christian life, sitting on the fence is the wrong side of the fence.

Of all the letters that Jesus wrote, I believe this is the one he enjoyed the most. Of all the seven churches, I could have joined back in that day I could have easily moved to Philadelphia and joined this church. They probably heard of some of the other letters that Jesus had written and they were probably nervous when they opened up their envelope, but they had no reason to be. Jesus had absolutely nothing negative to say about this church. It wasn’t a perfect church, but it was a blameless church. So as we take a closer look at the church in Philadelphia, we are going to learn this lesson: when you stand true to God, God will come through for you. When we stand true to God, three things happen. Let’s look at those three things together.

The church at Sardis was not a weak church that needed restoration. It was not a sick church that need rejuvenation. It was a dead church that needed resurrection. It was in a sense the church of the walking dead. I can tell you as a pastor my greatest fear is both pastoring a dead church and being a dead Christian. I want all of us today to perform our own self-examination and let’s see what steps we must take first of all to determine just how alive our Christian faith is and what we must do to be resurrected. Death may be fatal, but it is never final if we turn back to Jesus. As we examine ourselves, notice the fourfold prescription Jesus gives to get a church (or your faith) off the machine and alive again.

So far in this series, we have talked to husbands, wives, and fathers. Today, we are going to talk to and about mothers. I know from both having one and being married to one that the dad may be the head of the home, but the mother is the heart of the home. I read one time where someone said, “A mother is she who can take the place of all others, but whose place no one else can take.” That being said, it’s a tough task to be a mom, but thankfully Scripture gives us a great picture of what it looks like to be a model mom. In this message, we’re going to look at this example and learn from this model mom how to navigate through the tough times of life in such a way that the peace of God will comfort you, the joy of God will bless you, and the power of God will strengthen you.

In today’s message, we are going to look at the church in Thyatira, or as I like to call them, the church that failed the tolerance test. The way you fail the tolerance test is by tolerating what should not be tolerated. This church was tolerating something that it should not tolerate. It was putting up with something that it should have put out and put down. They thought they were broadening their thinking, but what they were really doing was stretching their conscience. They were choosing compromise over conviction. They were choosing comfort over confrontation. They were choosing peace over principle. In light of this, we are going to learn that when you tolerate what is wrong, you will always contaminate what is right. So in order to help us not fail the tolerance test, the Lord does three things that we need to know how to respond to correctly.

The church of Pergamum was located right in the middle of Hell’s headquarters. Living in the shadow of Satan himself, the smell of satanic influence was everywhere. Satan may have visited other towns, but he made his home in Pergamum and this was his neighborhood. Just like Pergamum, the Church today is always going to be dealing with the devil. The lesson we need to learn from this church today is how to deal with the devil and not succumb to his tactics and schemes. So as we dive into this section of Scripture, we’ll learn that lesson by looking at three specific things Jesus addressed in His letter to the church in Pergamum. 

In Revelation chapter 2, there was a church in a place called “Smyrna” that was under tremendous pressure. This church was under pressure to deny Christ, compromise their faith, bow down to Caesar, and join the cult of conformity. But they showed grace under pressure. Like the men in the fiery furnace, they didn’t bend, bow, or budge, all because of one thing this church was taught and this church remembered. It is this sermon in a sentence - Whatever you are going through, remember who you are coming to. I don’t know what you are going through right now, but whatever it is, I want to give you four things to remember and to live by in the midst of whatever pressure you’re currently facing. 

The church in Ephesus was a great church, an awesome church, a tremendous church, but it had one humongous problem that dealt with loving Jesus. What we are going to learn from this church is this – the only way to love Jesus right is to love Jesus best. We need to hear what Jesus says to this first church, to our church, and to us if we want to learn from the mistakes of the church in Ephesus.