Two Journeys

Please turn in your Bibles to Revelation 3:7-13 as we look at the sixth of the seven timeless letters that Jesus gave to the first-century churches.

Since the beginning of human history people have marked the passage of time in various ways. God Himself set the celestial beings — the sun, the moon, and the stars — in the heavens as the first time pieces. Their celestial motions still keep time for all of creation. It says in Genesis 1:14, “And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years.’” This rhythm of the passage of time was established right from the start: “There was evening and there was morning… the first day…; there was evening and there was morning, the second day…”

At some point human ingenuity and technology took over. Increasingly sophisticated and elaborate means of marking the passage of time were developed: water clocks, candles with gradations, sundials, pendulum clocks with escapements, Swiss watches with exquisite internal gears and mechanisms and springs, quartz watches, digital timepieces, up to the latest technologies that use electronic and even atomic mechanisms to keep time with precision and accuracy. With our smartphone apps and other technology, we have no excuses to be late: it has become more and more possible to keep perfectly synchronized time throughout the day. I say to all preachers, “Teach us to number our minutes that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

What is time, really? Physicists call it the fourth dimension; science fiction writers fantasize about time travel; philosophers meditate on the significance of time in human culture; various cultures mark time in different ways; aged people in nursing homes wonder where all the time went and marvel at how quickly it passed.

In J.R.R. Tolkien’s book The Hobbit, the creature Gollum engaged with Bilbo Baggins in a duel of riddles. Gollum tried to stump Bilbo with this riddle: “This thing all things devours: Birds, beasts, trees, flowers. Gnaws iron, bites steel, grinds hard stones to meal. Slays kings, ruins town and beats high mountain down.” The answer to the riddle, of course is time: Time devours all things. Time kills birds and beasts and trees and flowers; all living things eventually die; they pass away as though they never lived at all. Time gnaws iron until all that is left is a pile of rusty powder. Time grinds the hardest stones down along the ocean side; the relentless pounding of waves over centuries erodes the rocks until they are erased entirely. Time slays both kings and commoners alike; their glory fades like the flowers of the fields — here today and gone from all memory tomorrow in a blink of an eye. Time ruins towns and cities alike; they rise up, up, up from the dust of the earth through human technology and ingenuity and energy and drive, but then they eventually reach their peak and they sink back down into the dust from which they came, covered over with layers of silt and sand and clay, some to be discovered centuries later by archeologists. Time even wears ancient mountains down; wind and rain efface the hardest rock until it is gone.

Obviously Gollum had a very dreary view of the effects of time. However, though everything under the sun eventually does wear down, grinds down, dies or comes to an end, yet in and through Christ, time itself has been redeemed. The days of our lives have been redeemed to an eternal purpose.

The biblical way for us to understand time is to equate it with opportunity. Opportunity, otherwise known as time, is a specific set of providential circumstances orchestrated by God that will never happen in that exact way again. Today, this day, this Sunday is unique, and with this particular day comes a unique set of opportunities. These opportunities worldwide are for the church of Jesus Christ to do eternally significant things. These things will be eternal because there is something in the universe that is not wearing down by time, not aging, not past its prime — actually has not even reached its prime yet. Every day makes it more and more glorious, more and more lofty and grand, more and more intricate and detailed, more and more beautiful and massive.

I am speaking of the church of Jesus Christ. Jesus said in Matthew 16:18, “On this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not overcome it.” Death cannot stop this glorious worldwide building project of the church. It is growing bigger and more glorious and more elaborate and more intricate all the time. Every day, by the sacrificial loving works of the children of God, it rises. We know from Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” At the end of that same chapter, Ephesians 2, Paul sets before us this vision of the rising church of Jesus Christ built by those same good works. Ephesians 2:21-22 says, “In Him the whole building [the spiritual structure] is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.” This is an incredible, eternal building project.

At the end of the book of Revelation, we have a picture of the final product of all of those centuries of labor. In Revelation 21:9-11, the angel said to John the Apostle, “‘Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.’ And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a Jasper, clear as crystal.”

Thus, every day that we live is special, unique. It is specially crafted, prepared in eternity past by the mind of God, who is sovereign in wisdom and who has a perfect plan and all power to effect His plan. You are a part of it; so am I. He gives us works to do every day that will shape some specific aspect of the beautiful, magnificent Church of Jesus Christ by our Spirit-filled labor. That is the work we have to do. Time, then, is daily unique opportunity to do something eternally significant to build the Church of Christ with our life of faith and our knowledge of the Word of God. Today is opportunity.

In Revelation 3:8, Jesus speaks these amazing words to the church at Philadelphia: “Behold, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.”

I hope to show you that, as with the other letters we have studied, we should read this statement made to a church almost 2000 years ago as a timeless, living, active Word to us today as a church. This letter urges us to walk through the open door of opportunity to serve the Living God, to build the Church of Jesus Christ through evangelism and missions, spiritual gift ministry, acts of service, discipleship, prayer, the ministry of the word. Today is one of a limited number of days, each one unique as an open door of opportunity for us to walk through.

Let’s review to get our bearings. We are looking today at the sixth of seven letters that the resurrected, glorified Jesus Christ, the Lord of heaven and earth, the Lord of the Church has given as timeless instruction to all of his churches. The Apostle John was in exile on the isle of Patmos. He was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day when he heard a voice behind him. Turning, he saw a vision of the resurrected, glorified Christ moving among and ministering to seven golden lampstands, which we are told represent seven churches (the number seven being a number of perfection and fulfillment) for which He had individual messages. In His right hand He held the stars of these churches, which were the messengers, or pastors, of the churches. Some scholars believe that there were actually seven messengers from these churches in exile with John but that they would be set free to go back to their churches. Others hold that the letters were going to be sent. Regardless, these were literal churches in space and time and history, but they also represent what Christ has to say universally to every local church in every generation. At the end of each of the seven letters, he says, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

What Makes these Seven Letters So Precious

Jesus is speaking to us today through this letter that he spoke to this actual church of Philadelphia so many centuries ago. Each of these seven letters begins with, “These are the words of…” followed by some amazing description of Jesus Christ, the Lord, the king of the church walking among them and ministering to them. Usually they begin with words like, “I know you, I know your deeds, I know your circumstances, I know your challenges, I know your successes, I know your failures.”

That is what makes these letters so precious. They give us a glimpse into the mind of Christ as he cares for us as a local church and show us the glory of the One who wrote them. The specificity of His knowledge of us, the fact that He knows us completely reminds us that we cannot hide from Him. He knows and searches us with His eyes of blazing fire. Nothing is hidden from Him, and He speaks words of wisdom and timeless commands to us. I believe each church should read all seven of the letters as though they were a powerful message to us. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Jesus is speaking through the Holy Spirit to us today by means of this letter.

Christ’s Unique Self-Description

In this particular case, the sixth letter to Philadelphia, the circumstance of Christ’s self-description is unique. Typically, He takes some aspect of the vision that John had in Revelation 1 and cites that as a descriptor of Himself. However this time he does not do that. He goes instead back to the pages of the Old Testament.

Verse 7 says, “These are the words of him who is holy, who is true, who holds the key of David, who opens and no one can shut, and who shuts and no one can open.” He begins by declaring Himself to be the One who is holy. “Holiness” means separation. God alone can make this assertion, because God’s holiness is different than the holiness of any of the created beings. God certainly has a perfect separation from all evil and wickedness. He is holy in that regard, just as the holy angels or the holy saints are separated from evil. That is true. But beyond that, God is also infinitely separated above all created things. He is infinitely above all of creation, and so He is the Holy One.

His holiness is so powerful, such an awesome attribute, that it seems to be the focal point of much of heavenly worship. Like the Seraphim in Isaiah 6:3 who cannot stop singing, calling out with loud voices about the holiness of God: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty… the whole earth is full of His glory.” They are holy in themselves, separated from all evil — there is no evil in them; they have never done anything evil. But they are celebrating in triplicate the holiness of God their Creator, the Lord. The living creatures before the throne cry the same thing in the next chapter in Revelation 4:8, “Day and night they never stop saying, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.’”

Jesus’ identification of  Himself as the Holy One is a claim to deity. Jesus possesses undiminished holiness. He has not only perfect separation from evil in and of himself, but also perfect separation from all creatures as King and Lord over all creation.

He also calls Himself “the one who is true.”  Jesus claims to be the one who is true. If something is true, it lines up accurately with reality — either spiritual reality or physical reality or both. It is authentic, genuine, real in the heavens and on earth.

Satan, by contrast, has crafted his evil empire with lies. He lied to himself about his own power and his own capability when he thought he would ascend to Heaven in Isaiah 14 and take over the throne of God. In addition, he lied to the angels who fell with him, who joined with him in his rebellion in Heaven. Revelation 12 tells us that they were cast down and are now called demons. He lied to Adam and Eve at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, saying, “You will not surely die.” Since then, he has lied to every sinner who ever lived; he has built a worldwide empire of sin, all of it based on lies. Jesus said in John 8:44, speaking of Satan, “[The devil] was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

But everything Jesus has ever said is perfectly true, and it flows from the source of all truth. Jesus is Truth and speaks truth. He appears to be powerful because he is powerful. He appears to be glorious because he is glorious. He appears to be sovereign and in charge because he is sovereign and in charge. He appears to be alive after being crucified because he is alive. It is all true. Jesus is holy and true. He himself is the Truth.

He HAS the Key of David

He also says that He has the key of David. The word “key” designates authority. He has the right to open and shut. He has the right to unlock and swing a barred door wide open; and he has the right to slam a door shut and lock it. He said in Revelation 1:18, “I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” He holds the keys of death and the grave.

Specifically here the “key of David” means he has the right to sit on David’s throne. He is the son of David, predicted to come and reign over all human beings. He is the Son of Man, the son of David, the Anointed One, the Messiah, the Savior of the world. All of that was predicted to be the son of David — David was the focus of the promises God made to place a human king over all humanity. The very first thing that the New Testament teaches us about Jesus is found in Matthew 1:1, a very brief “… record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham.” This is included to show that Jesus is the heir to David’s throne, has the right to David’s throne. But Christ’s throne, unlike David’s, which was real but temporary and symbolic of future glories, is eternal and glorious in the Heavens. For all eternity he will sit on that throne. He has the Key of David.

Furthermore, He has the right to open and close doors. Look at verse 7:“What He opens, no one can shut, and what He shuts, no one can open.” This is a statement of absolute, infinite power and authority. He controls the doors of Heaven and earth. If Jesus wanted a door open, and Satan and all of his demons and all of the wicked men and women on earth joined together to close that door, it could not be closed. If he opens the door, it stays open. Conversely if Jesus wanted a door shut, none of those combined powers could do anything to wedge it open even an inch — it would be shut with immeasurable power and authority. If He shuts a door, it stays shut. “What he opens, no one can shut, and what he shuts, no one can open.” In this way, Jesus has controlled the flow of human history as well as entrance into Heaven itself. “The king’s heart is like a water course in the hands of the Lord. He directs it whichever way he pleases.” He opens doors and their wickedness flows in a specific direction and not in other directions to achieve His purposes. This is the way He is sovereign over wicked people who do not even acknowledge him. He is opening doors and water flows. Their nature is evil, but it will flow in a specific direction. This is how he has controlled human history.

Beyond this, He has the right also to determine who will and who will not enter the kingdom of heaven. That is the most important door. He is the doorkeeper of the Kingdom of Heaven. He says in Matthew 5:20, “I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” You may think, “What right does He have to make that statement?” He has all rights. He has the right to open and the right to shut. And he said the righteousness of the Pharisees and Scribes is not enough for heaven. Even further, He said to His own disciples in Matthew 18:3, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” He said to Nicodemus, “Unless you are born again, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” He has the right to make these assertions.

If Jesus shuts the door of heaven, no one can open it, like Noah’s ark in the days of the flood: when the door was shut, everyone on the outside perished. The hand of God alone had the right to shut that door and say, “No more can enter the ark.” Similarly, the Five Foolish Virgins in Jesus’ parable were not ready when the bridegroom came. They ran off to get oil for their lamps, arrived back too late and found the door closed. They banged on the door and cried, “Let us in, let us in,” but they were not permitted. “I never knew you. Go away,” they were told, and the bridegroom would not let them enter.

He has the right to determine who has access to the throne of Almighty God, the right to draw near to God and address Him. As I got up here to pray, I was struck again with the privilege of prayer. It is a great privilege for sinners like us to have access into the throne room of God. Jesus controls that access. It is by him alone that we have access to God. It says in Hebrews 10:20 that we enter into the throne of grace “by a new and living way… that is his body”, only by the death of Jesus. It says also in Ephesians 2:18, “For through [Christ], we both [Jews and Gentile believers] have access to the Father by one Spirit.” He is the door by which we enter into the presence of God.

As we have seen, then, Jesus describes Himself as holy and true and having the key of David, and he has the authority to shut and no one can open and he has the authority to open and no one can shut — He is the one who is talking to us today by the Spirit. Don’t you want to hear what he has to say to this church? I do.

Christ’s Unmixed Commendation

What does he say to the church of Philadelphia? He begins in verses 8-10 with this word: “I know your deeds. Behold, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars — I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you. Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth.”

“I know your deeds…” He always begins with this. He starts with the fruit of the tree, with the works — by our fruit, He will know us. Make a tree good and its fruit will be good; make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad. A tree is known by its fruits. Jesus starts with the deeds, the works. In this case, He actually says nothing about their deeds, good or bad. We do not know anything about what the did; instead, he speaks of the challenges they are facing, specifically from unbelieving Jews, which I will address in a moment.

He says, “I know you have little strength…” This is an accurate evaluation of the church, not a criticism in any way. “Oh, church, you have little strength; you are weak.” But they know it, and that is their spiritual strength to some degree. They are not boastful about what a great church they are; they are not a dominant part of the city of Philadelphia; they do not have a massive footprint in the life of that pagan place. But they are a faithful outpost, a colony of heaven, a refuge for those seeking true salvation, right there in Philadelphia.

The Church seems to have been small in number, not very influential, probably comprised of lower classes of society. It reminds me of what Paul said to the Corinthian church (1 Corinthians 1:27-28): “Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential, not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things… the weak things… the lowly things… the despised things of this world… — and the things that are not —[to exalt His own power and glory,] to nullify the things that are.” They were a church of small strength. When you know and acknowledge the simple truth that you have little strength, you can tap into true power, the infinitely greater strength of Almighty God working through you.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:10, “… for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” To clarify and expand this verse to its full meaning, I would add, and I think Paul would agree, that when I know I am weak and feel myself to be weak and confess my weakness to God in prayer, that is when I am truly strong. Thus, Jesus says, “I know you have little strength…” A church that knows that apart from Christ they can do nothing is a strong church — perhaps the most powerful it can be in this world.

He says, “You have kept my word, and have not denied my name.” That gives a sense of the persecution and the opposition that all these churches were going through. There has been a constant pressure. Maybe they were not facing the same level of persecution as Smyrna, nor perhaps even maybe like Ephesus, but they were under opposition and they persevered, did not give up, did not forsake the name of Christ. They refused to cave in.

He says, “You have kept my command to endure patiently…” We are in a race which we are called to run to the end with great endurance. We are to be bold in our witness, to persevere in a hostile environment. Jesus said in Matthew 10:22, “All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.” The author of Hebrews tell us in Hebrews 12:1 that we are to “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and… run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” This faithful little church refused to drop out of the race, refused to quit; they kept his word, his command of endurance.

The Open Door

Now we come to verse 8: “Behold, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.” We have already discussed Jesus’ sovereign power over the doors of Heaven and earth. He holds the key of David, and what he opens, no one can shut. He says, “Behold,” which gives the idea that He is unveiling something that we have not heard before: “I will show you something you did not realize: I have set before you an open door. I am giving you an opportunity, and no one can shut it. No demon, nor Satan himself, can shut it. No human ruler can shut it.”

What is this open door He is referring to? It could be just the door of salvation — the right to enter Heaven through Christ, who is the door. In Matthew 7:13-14, He said, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many, enter through it, [enter hell]. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” We could see it as the open door to Heaven.

But I think here in Revelation, this “open door” goes beyond salvation. It is a door of opportunity, of work, to serve Christ, to do specific good works that will build His kingdom. Paul uses this kind of expression in 1 Corinthian 16:8-9: “I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.” We should think of the open door first and foremost as opportunities for the external journey of evangelism and missions, to share Christ. This door is open into dark places to shine the light of the Gospel where it has not been shining before.

Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 16 gives us amazing insight into the nature of the open door. Paul was excited and motivated to stay on in Ephesus, because, number one, God had opened a great door of effective work for him. And number two, “I am excited to stay here because” “there are many who oppose me.” Many enemies translates to staying where he is…? Wait a minute… that does not sound like an open door… But yes, it is; apparently, the open door and opposition are not mutually exclusive.

So we must ask again, what is the open door? We should think of it first and foremost in terms of human hearts, the hearts of the elect. One of those in Philippi who listened to the apostle Paul preach the gospel was a woman named Lydia. She was a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira. Acts 16:14 tells us, “The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.” There is your open door. It is elect people who are hearing the gospel and coming to faith. Paul requested similar prayer in Colossians 4:3-4: “And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.” The open door is about the Gospel message and opportunity and people responding to it. Paul’s prayer also reflects the need to ask for the boldness to step up and move through that open door.

The open door represents God’s sovereignty over circumstances and providential indicators that the church should move in that direction for evangelism and missions so that the word of God may flourish there. When Paul and Silas did not know where to go next and were prevented by the Holy Spirit from going up into Asia Minor, they had a vision of a man of Macedonia saying, “Come over and help us.” That sounds like an open door to me. All the other doors were shut. They could not go anywhere else, so they had to go to Macedonia.

Let me give you some examples from church history. In 1949, Douglas MacArthur was ruling over the rebuilding of war-devastated Japan. He urgently called for 1,000 missionaries to come and preach Christ there — this is a matter of recorded history. He said, “Japan is a spiritual vacuum and if we do not fill it with Christ it will be filled with communism.” You might think that was an wild and speculative prognosis, but look at what happened in Korea. Just across a short strait of ocean from Japan, that country went almost 100% communist before the Korean War. Now, it is half Communist. So it was a big threat. What was the remedy? According to Douglas MacArthur, the preaching of the gospel of Christ was the solution. Many Christian workers from many different denominations looked on that as an open door: “If the potentate of Japan says we need missionaries, I am getting on a boat.” Many Southern Baptist missionaries went there to rebuild churches and preach the Gospel and do all kinds of works in Japan.

The Japanese pastor whom Christi and I worked with in a church planting effort in Japan was an 82-year-old godly Christian man named Kubo-sensei. This man, Mr. Kubo, had been in the Imperial Japanese Army and fought against the Americans and the British in the islands and in the Philippines. He contracted malaria, which saved his life and his soul. He went back to Japan to be healed and convalesce and was there when the war ended. It saved his soul because his unit was involved in a battle and the Japanese units generally fought until there were no survivors. So he would have fought until he was dead and would not have known Christ. But in 1950, Southern Baptist missionaries came to Takamatsu and led him to Christ. It was an open door for him, for them to come do work. He walked with the Lord from 1950 on. (He never spoke a word of English to me. I had breakfast with him every Wednesday morning, and we sat there in silence for the first few weeks until I thought to myself, “I’d better get going on my Japanese.”) What a great open door that was.

Throughout the history of missions, Christians have walked through similar open doors of opportunity to advance the Church of Christ. Again, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 16, “There is a great door of openness for the Gospel in Ephesus and also great opposition.” Since the open door by definition means people are coming to Christ, Satan responds generally to that event by mobilizing forces to persecute and shut that church down, if it were possible. We can see the rhythm of much fruit leading to much persecution leading to much fruit. Paul calls that an open door.

After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the Eastern Bloc countries were open for the first time in more than a generation to missionaries. Christian workers flooded into that area, and the Gospel spread rapidly. Many came to faith in Christ. The backlash is now coming: recently, especially in Russia, there has been more of a crackdown; it is becoming more difficult for evangelicals to share the gospel in Eastern Europe. We see openness and we see persecution.

We are also seeing the backlash from the activities of Islamic extremist groups like Al-Qaeda and ISIS create an open door. A tremendous disaffection is building in the hearts of many nominal Muslims who express that if that is what orthodox Islam is, what being a “good Muslim” looks like, they do not want any part of it. There is a book about this theme called Leaving Islam. Those who are leaving are not necessarily going to Christianity, but they are considering options, and missionaries are frequently there to share the Gospel.

There are open doors in refugee crises where missionaries and others are serving in tent communities to people who are disconnected from their home culture, separated from their home religion and society, desperate and open to hearing a message of hope like never before. Pray for open doors for the spread of the gospel.

The Opposition

In verse 9, Jesus speaks about the opposition that the church of Philadelphia was facing. He says, “I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars — I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge I have loved you.” This is the second time in these seven letters that Jesus has spoken of the synagogue of Satan, meaning people who claim to be Jews but are not, first to the church at Smyrna, and now to this church at Philadelphia.

According to Jesus, particularly in the Gospel of John, that physical descendants of Abraham who call themselves Jews but reject Jesus as Messiah are not truly Jews. That is Jesus’ attitude. John 8:39-44 tells of a conversation between Jesus and His enemies. “‘Abraham is our Father,’ they answered. ‘If you were Abraham’s children,’ said Jesus, ‘then you would do the things Abraham did. As it is, you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God.’ They protested, ‘The only Father we have is God Himself.’ Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father you would love me, for I came from God… You belong to your father the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire.’” That is a very strong statement, but it is Jesus’ assessment of Jews by physical descent who do not accept Him as Messiah.

Paul said the same thing at the end of Romans 2:28-29, “A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.”

Jesus says it straight out in Revelation: “They are not really Jews. They claim to be Jews, but they are a synagogue of Satan. But I will cause them to come to you, oh Gentile converts to Christ, to fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you.” This image would have been very familiar to any careful, zealous, Bible-reading Jew. They had in mind that that was what would happen with the Messianic reign over all the Gentile kingdoms. Messiah would spread the kingdom of David and of Solomon as far the ends of the earth, and their enemies would come lick the dust of their feet — a picture of conquest, of the total humiliation of enemies. It says in Isaiah 49:23, “They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground; they will lick the dust at your feet.” Isaiah 60:14 says, “The sons of your oppressors will come bowing before you; all who despise you will bow down at your feet and will call you the City of the Lord, Zion of the Holy One of Israel.”

Jesus is using the same image. He is saying, “Actually, the shoe is on the other foot. The unbelieving Jews will come to you Gentile believers in Christ, and will fall at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you.” It is a picture of vindication from the persecution that they were suffering.

Protection Through the Hour of Testing

Verse 10 is a promise of protection from suffering: “Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth.” Jesus is promising to protect this faithful church in or from the hour of testing that was in the future, that would come on the whole earth. This is a fascinating and challenging promise. Let me start with a simple approach, then I will add a little more complexity. Jesus will protect his church: they will not fail, whatever test this is; they will endure through it and make it to the other side because of his sovereign protection. That is His simple promise.

What is the hour of trial that will come on the whole world to test those who live on the earth? The Book of Revelation depicts “the Great Tribulation”, a terrible seven-year period of suffering that will come right before the Second Coming of Christ. The words “keep you from” have been carefully analyzed. Some scholars believe that there will be a secret rapture in which the Lord will come like a thief in the night to rescue His Church out of the world before the Great Tribulation. That may well be. Others see it more as a promise to protect his people in the midst of, not out of or out from, the Great Tribulation — somewhat like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who had a bubble around them when they were thrown into the fiery furnace. The Church will be in the trial, but it will not harm them, at least to a degree. These scholars see Christ as saying, “I will keep you through it; I will make a refuge for you in the midst of it.” The exact translation for this interpretation hinges on the Greek, which I will not burden you with. Suffice it to say that they will be protected from something.

It is possible He is talking about death as the trial: “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.” Isaiah 26:19-21 gives a beautiful picture of this: “But your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead.” [That is all about the resurrection of believers.] Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until His wrath has passed by. [That is interesting — perhaps this indicates that the church will go through the suffering but not be harmed by it in any way. God has always been doing that.] See, the Lord is coming out of His dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The earth will disclose the blood shed upon her; she will conceal her slain no longer.” That harmonizes well with what is depicted in the Book of Revelation. I cannot say whether or not Revelation 3:10 is teaching the secret rapture, but it would be an interesting discussion. But we do know that Christ makes sweet promises to His faithful church in Philadelphia: an open door, fruitful ministry, vindication from their bitter enemies, and protection from the overwhelming trial that will sweep the whole earth.

The Promise of the Second Coming: I AM COMING SOON

In verse 11, He commands them, “I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have [or hold fast], so that no one will take your crown.” First, we have the promise of the Second Coming. “I am coming soon.” That word “soon” has been standing over every generation of Christians for 2,000 years. This should not trouble us, because “with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” (2 Peter 3:8) And according to Psalm 90, a man’s life is like a mist that appears but is gone by the evening, or like an evening watch that it is quickly finished. Either way, He is coming soon. At the very end of this book, in Revelation 22:20, John says, “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.” John wrote that around 90 AD, saying, “Amen. You are coming soon. Come, Lord Jesus.” Every generation of Christians has had a sense of the imminent return of Jesus Christ, as well we should.

Christ’s Command: HOLD FAST

Next, He says, “Hold on to what you have until I come.” This is clearly a call to courageous perseverance in the face of mighty struggle. What is it we have? To begin with, we have doctrine. We must hold on to Christian doctrine, to the Gospel. Jude writes to urge his fellow Christians “to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.” 2 Thessalonians 2:15 says, “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.” “Hold on to this brothers and sisters, hold on to what you have. Scripture, the truth of the gospel, faith, doctrine — hold on.”

Further, let us hold on to Christ. Hebrews 4:14 says, “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.”

Perhaps He is also saying, “Hold on to your crown.” The crown may possibly mean the crown of eternal life. James 1:12 says, “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.” At the end of a hard life of fighting the good fight, of running a marathon race, finish the race and keep to the faith until the end: “Hold fast and I will give you the crown of life.” Or the crown may refer to specific rewards for serving Christ faithfully. Paul said to his converts in Thessalonica, “For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when He comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy.” — “You are our crown.” Whether the crown of eternal life or specific rewards, we are to hold fast.

Christ promises a crown, a pillar and a name. Look at verses 12-13: “Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name. He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” As with each of these seven letters, the conquerors are rewarded. The ones who overcome, who fight and win, who stand firm to the end, do so by the power of the Spirit and by the blood of the Lamb.

Rewards

What rewards were theirs? Besides the crown implied in verse 11, he also says, “I will make [him] a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it.” Remember that I said there is one work that grows more glorious, bigger, grander, more radiant every day, with every generation,. That is the Church of Jesus Christ. Here he is promising the conquerors, the overcomers: “You will be a pillar in that temple.” A pillar is a symbol of stability and permanence and security; it bears glory and honor in the intricate, beautiful decorations on its crown. This pillar that Christ speaks of is strong and beautiful in its privileged place in the eternal spiritual heavenly temple of God, and the overcomers will never leave it.

In Isaiah 56:3-5, God speaks to the Gentiles, the foreigners, the people from other nations who would eventually come to Christ: “Let no foreigner who has bound himself to the Lord say ‘The Lord will surely exclude me from His people.’ And let not any eunuch complain, ‘I am only a dry tree.’ For this is what the Lord says: ‘To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant — to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.’” There is the marvelous consistency of the word of God! Isaiah 56:5 speaks to the exact thing Jesus is promising. He will make the Jew and Gentile believers in Christ who overcome and run this race with endurance a pillars in His eternal temple, and they will never be cut off.

Also, He imparts a sense of His total ownership: “I will write the name of my God on you. He will be your God and you will be his people. I will write the name of the New Jerusalem, the Bride of Christ on you, and also my new name” — the name of Jesus Christ himself. Revelation 22:3-4 says, “No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the lamb will be in the city, and His servants will serve Him. They will see His face and His name will be on their foreheads.” Complete, indisputable ownership.

Understand the Significance of TIME

First, understand the significance of time. I am not talking about the mindless tick-tock tick-tock of a timepiece marking the passage of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years. I am talking about opportunity, about redeeming the time. What makes today special? You should ask that every day. This is the day the Lord has made. Ask Him, “What good works have You crafted for me personally? What open door have You set before me that I should walk through it? What opportunity does today bring for me to serve You?”

If you are not a Christian, there is only one work for you on this day: to believe in Jesus. God gave you the opportunity to come here today to hear the Gospel. Let me say it clearly: God, who made Heaven and earth, is ruler over all nations. He put just laws in place by which we are to live our lives: the Ten Commandments, the two great commandments — to love God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself. All humans have violated those laws. We have sinned against Almighty God. The wages of sin is death, not only physical death, but also for eternity in hell. It is no more than we deserve.

But God, in His mercy and love for us, sent Jesus, born of a virgin, who lived a sinless life and did signs, wonders, and miracles that established him as the Son of God. Most important, He died a substitutionary death on the cross in our place. Our guilt was put on Him and He died. His righteousness is given to us as a gift, and we live even on Judgment Day.

If you will only repent and trust in Christ, you will have eternal life. That is the Gospel. Today is an opportunity for you to walk through the door of Christ into salvation. Jesus said in John 5:24, “…whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” Today you have the opportunity to cross over. In 2 Corinthians 6:2, God is saying this to you: “‘In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.’ I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” Also He says in Isaiah 55:6, “Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.”

For You Christians… SEEK THE OPEN DOOR!!

For you Christians, I say this: Seek an open door. Ask God, “Where have You placed me that I can I be a witness for Christ? What unique opportunity do I have to reach the particular people that I will encounter today? What door have you set before me that I'm supposed to walk through?” Wherever you are in your vocation, you have a mission field with your co-workers, many of whom are unchurched. We have opportunities every day.

Ask the same for our church. We live in one of the best places in the world, the Triangle, for an evangelical church. People are pouring in from all over the country. They come to live here because of mild temperatures, economic opportunities, myriad reasons. We are among the few Bible-believing, Bible-preaching, evangelistic, fervently active churches in this area. And we, with our sister churches, are called to reach the people who are pouring into this area.

Pray for more open doors. Pray for doors to open in these new expensive apartments and condominiums that are rising around us in downtown Durham. Those who will move into these will be people who generally make more money than we do and who will generally not have the same world view that we have. Pray for an open door, for a chance to meet some of those people.

Think about the underserved parts of the community: African Americans, Latin Americans, refugees, undocumented aliens. That is a door of opportunity for us to share the Gospel. Think about unreached people groups like the Gujarati in Morrisville. Think about people flooding into this area from all over the world — perhaps you cannot reach them in their country, but they are here now. We can reach them with the Gospel. Ask God, “Set before this church an open door of opportunity and let us walk through it.”

Ask the same thing with missions. Let us continue to be a missions-minded church. You sent me to Cameroon last week — thank you. We will be sending short-term mission teams to East Asia and other places. Support those teams financially, pray for them, get to know those who are going. Give financially to the Great Commission Fund. Spiritually adopt unreached people groups and pray for them — for people in North Africa, in the Middle East, in Muslim countries — that the door of the Gospel would be opened for them.

Closing Prayer

Close with me if you would in prayer. Father, we thank You for the chance we have had to look at this incredible letter to the church at Philadelphia. Help us to take to heart its encouraging message and to be strengthened in the good works You have for us to do. Thank You for the Gospel, for our Lord Jesus who, at infinite cost to Yourself, by His blood, by His body, opened a door, a new and living way for us into Heaven. Father I pray for those who are lost, who have come here outside of Christ, that they would hear and take to heart the Gospel. Help us as a church to be fervently active in spreading the Gospel, both in evangelism and in cross-cultural missions for your glory. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

I'd like to invite you to turn in your Bibles to Revelation Chapter 3. We are looking this morning at verses 1-6, Jesus’ warning to the church at Sardis.

John MacArthur, in his exposition of these verses, used an illustration that has stuck with me. I would like to begin with it. He talked about the phenomenon of distant starlight. Physicists tell us that light travels at a constant rate: 186,000 miles per second. Because this universe is so vast, cosmologists have invented a unit of measurement called the light year, which is the distance that light travels in a year; the math works out to 5.88 trillion miles a year. Because stars are so distant from the Earth, it takes that distant starlight many years to travel to the Earth. The light of every star that we see twinkling in the night sky was actually sent toward the Earth many, many, years ago, maybe even centuries ago. For example, the stars that make up the Big Dipper, which is the most famous constellation, range from 78 to 123 light years away from the Earth. That means that the next time you stand and look up at the night sky, at the Big Dipper, you are looking back in time. You are looking, for the most part, at starlight that began its journey earthward over a century ago. It is possible that some or many of the stars in the Big Dipper no longer exist — perhaps one or two of the stars in the handle or in the drinking gourd part are already gone. We do not know, nor will we know with certainty until that star goes dark. Though a star may not exist anymore, the light has been traveling all this time and has not reached us yet.

MacArthur used that as an illustration for the church at Sardis. In Revelation 3:1, Jesus said to this church at Sardis, “I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” They were living on past glories, past starlight. They were walking around with the appearance and reputation of life, but they were in reality dead. They were a dead church. We can liken it to taking a tour of an archaeological site in Europe or in the Near East. For example, we can see the Parthenon or the Acropolis in Athens, or the Colosseum of ancient Rome that is still there today. Those structures provide of vigorous, wealthy, powerful empires, still, to some degree, living off the reputation of past deeds. The faded glory of a dead empire.

We say appearances can be deceiving, but nowhere is that more true than in the spiritual realm of churches, in dealing with the genuine spiritual state of both individuals and churches — appearances can be deceiving. It is possible for an individual person or a church to appear to be alive spiritually, but actually be dead. The Puritans called such an individual a “Gospel hypocrite.” The word “hypocrite” actually is related to the Greek word for “actor,” referring to someone who puts on a mask. When it comes to the Christian Gospel, it refers to a person who goes through the forms, the outward motions of Christianity, but inside is spiritually dead.

Jesus spoke to the Scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23:27-28, saying, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside, are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous, but inside, you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” The same thing can happen to a church as a whole. It can be living on past reputation of spiritual vitality, but inside, there nothing going on spiritually; there is no vitality. The church is dead.

Christ’s words to this dead church stand as a timeless warning to all churches, in all locations, throughout all time. Any church can turn at some point in its history from a vibrant witness, healthy doctrine, and a loving community of saints that is reaching out in its world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, courageously embolded. They can turn and begin a decline towards spiritual deadness, toward death as a congregation. That church might still have a reputation as being a “great church”, but like Samson shorn of his hair, who did not realize that God had left him and taken away his power, so also, this church at Sardis, did not know that their reputation had far outlasted their actual spiritual life.

This is a practical problem all over America. Previously vibrant churches are dying or have died. I drive by churches like that every time I drive here, even churches that First Baptist Church planted decades ago. Some of them have a name and a reputation, but they are dead. Their time has passed.

One poll shows that between 8,000 and 10,000 local churches die every year, while only about 1,000 new churches are planted every year. You have heard this morning about the Annie Armstrong Offering for North American Mission Board. They work to plant churches. Among other entities, those are included in the 1,000 new church plants, a fraction of the number dying every year. Why? Why do so many previously flourishing local churches die? That is a question that today’s passage will lead us to consider.

Thom Rainer wrote a book a couple of years ago called Autopsy of a Dead Church. That is a potent image, isn't it? This book stands as a warning to living churches, as Jesus said to the small remnant within this dead church at Sardis in Revelation 3:2, to, “Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God.” Using this image, then, this morning we will do the sad work of visiting a cold morgue to see the coroner pull out the corpse of a local church, the church at Sardis, and hear the description of how that corpse died. We will look into the face of such a church so that we can be warned, we can be revived, we can be revitalized ourselves as a church, renewed in our zeal for Christ.

We will ask the Lord to search us and know our hearts and show us if any spiritual necrosis is creeping its way through our soul. We will be moved, I hope, with a healthy fear of this happening to First Baptist Durham, and, by God’s grace, will seek to avoid the same fate as the church at Sardis. This is the implication in the final statement in all these letters: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” It is unwise for any church, no matter how healthy and vibrant, to read this letter to Sardis, and say, “Well, thank God that is not us. There is nothing we need to hear concerning this. There is no warning for us. We are fine.” That would be the worst way you could listen to these six verses.

The most powerful tool in the hands of Almighty God for the building of the church of Jesus Christ is a healthy local church, led biblically by godly elders, passionate for the glory of God, preaching the Gospel, proclaiming the Gospel with courage in its community, discipling one another toward holiness and Christ-likeness. That is a fearsome weapon in the hand of God against the spiritual forces of evil; Satan knows this, so he is fighting the battle all around the world at the local church level. Thus, this issue of spiritual deadness is something that we must face. We must study why churches die, and even more, how they live, how they are fruitful, so that FBC can continue to be a weapon for the glory of God in the salvation of lost sinners.

Let’s begin with Christ’s description of Himself. For review, in Revelation 1, the Apostle John, in exile on Patmos, had a vision of the resurrected, glorified Christ moving among seven golden lampstands, which is a symbol, interpreted for us in that chapter, of Jesus’ active ministry to local churches around the world. These seven represent the number of fullness or perfection. Jesus is similarly engaged and active in every genuine local church around the world. He is conducting a priestly ministry. In Revelation 2 and 3, he writes letters to each of these seven churches and addresses their conditions. These were real churches that were active in John’s day, but the lessons in each of these letters are timeless. Each of us is warned and encouraged comes to listen to all seven letters, to take to heart these things.

These Are the Words

He begins, as he always does, with verse 1: “These are the words of Him who…” referring to the words of Christ by which He seeks to remedy what is wrong. The link between Christ's words and spiritual life is obvious throughout the New Testament: In John 5:24, Jesus said this: “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my Word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life, and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” In the very next verse, John 5:25, Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.” Do you see the link between Jesus speaking and dead people coming to life? He has that kind of power. It says in John 6:63, “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” And Moses said in Deuteronomy, “These are not idle words for you; these are your life.” That is the link between Jesus’ words and life; Revelation 3:1 is referring to these words.

In the same way, Jesus yearns to speak life into the deadness of the church at Sardis. It reminds me of the powerful image in Ezekiel of the dry bones: The Lord commanded the prophet Ezekiel, “Speak, prophesy to the dry bones and tell them to live.” There is a process, which you can read it in Ezekiel 37, but boils down to this: “As the Word is proclaimed, and as the Spirit moves like a wind, these dead bones come to life.” There is a link between the proclamation of the prophetic Word of God and the activity of the Spirit in bringing individuals from death to life. It is only by the words of Christ that the spiritually dead come to life.

Him Who Holds the Seven Spirits and the Seven Stars

How does Christ identify Himself? Look at verse 1: “These are the words of Him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.” As I have pointed out before, in every one of these seven letters, Jesus identifies Himself by some aspect of the vision that He gave to the Apostle John in chapter 1. Christ, the resurrected, glorified Son of man, is moving through the seven golden lampstands, representing seven local churches, but also the totality of all of the local churches around the world, ministering actively. And it's a clear picture of His constant, vigilant, active ministry to every local church around the world. He actively knows about and cares about all of His churches.

To the church at Sardis, He describes himself as, “Him who holds the seven spirits of God.” How do we understand “the seven spirits of God”? It must refer to the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. We know this, because in Revelation 1, Jesus uses the same expression in a clear Trinitarian formula. Revelation 1:4-5: “Grace and peace to you from Him who is, and who was, and who is to come, [that is God] and from the seven spirits before the throne, [that indicates the Holy Spirit] and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the Earth.” There, He gives us a Trinitarian formula, so the seven spirits must in this case as well refer to the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.

We have it again in Revelation 4: “Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God.” And in Revelation Five: “Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the Earth.” These verses make it very clear that “the seven spirits” refers to the Holy Spirit of God.

Why would the person of the Spirit, who is usually referred to in singular form, be referred to as “the seven spirits”? I do not know for a fact. As we go through Revelation, I will say again and again, “I don't know.” You can come to me later if you disagree with my studied guesses and possibilities for interpretation, and I will say, “I don't know. What do you think?” There is so much symbolic imagery here, interpretations for which we cannot look to the back of the book in an appendix for the answers — this is the back of the book. And the back of the book asks and creates more questions sometimes than giving answers. There are so many unanswered questions. It is a difficult book to interpret.

For this expression, I see good evidence to suggest that we should look at it as the seven-fold Spirit of God, rather than seven individual spirits. Some scholars link it to Isaiah 11, which gives seven designations of the Spirit. First, talking about the anointing of the Messiah, Jesus: “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him…” This is followed by three couplets of two each; three times two is six, plus the Spirit of the Lord, adds up to seven. Isaiah 11 says: “The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, and the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.” In other words, these are seven effects of the activity of the Spirit on Jesus. The number seven is the number of perfection, so we would look on the Spirit’s perfect and powerful effectiveness in bringing about God’s plan. Thinking in terms of the Spirit of God in that way makes sense in our passage in Revelation.

The church at Sardis is dead. The evidence of that deadness is a lack of obvious activity of the Spirit of God there. The problem is made manifest by the fact that there was no encounter with the Spirit of God in the life of the church. The Spirit gives life: a Spirit-filled church is alive, crackling with energy. Spiritual energy is defined by the Word of God: the Word of God is powerfully proclaimed. The worship of God is energetically flowing; the people are passionate about it. The fruit of the Spirit is obvious in the people: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness. The power of the Spirit is on them for bold, risky proclamation of the Gospel in their community and to the ends of the earth. All of these things are produced by the Holy Spirit. Thus, it is the Spirit of God alone who can revive a dead church. It is because the Spirit of God was grieved through sin and quenched in some way that the church has grown dead.

How does Jesus hold the seven spirits of God? This does not indicate ownership. Rather, there is an intimate connection between Jesus and the Spirit of God, in terms of His messianic ministry. He was Messiah (Hebrew) or Christ (Greek), same idea, meaning “anointed.” His anointing, it is clear, was with the Holy Spirit — in other words, the Spirit came upon Jesus. It says in Isaiah 61:1, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.” There is a strong connection between Jesus and the Spirit.

Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert and was tempted by the devil. He returned out of the desert filled with the Spirit. This is a great picture for those of us who face temptation: Enter the temptation filled with the Spirit; leave the temptation filled with the Spirit. It says in Luke 4:14, “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through the whole countryside.” Peter, to Cornelius, said in Acts 10:38, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with Him.”

At the end of Jesus’ ministry, He promised His disciples that He would pour forth the Holy Spirit of God from the Father — the Father and the Son together pour out the Spirit. John the Baptist said in Luke 3:16, “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” And Jesus Himself said, “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, He will testify about me.” The Spirit comes from the Father, through the Son, to the churches. Jesus holds the seven-fold spirit of God because it is in His power to pour out His Spirit on the church.

He also holds the seven stars. The seven stars represent seven messengers of the churches — some interpretations say they are perhaps pastors or preachers. A godly proclamation ministry sets the tone for the entire life of the church. I believe the most significant thing that happens in the life of any church is the preaching of the Word. It does not matter who does it; what matters is what is preached. You can measure the health of the church, first and foremost, by the preaching ministry, and then all the things that flow from it. He holds the seven stars in His right hand; He owns them and He protects them.

Who Was the Church at Sardis?

We do not know much about the church at Sardis. It was probably part of the church planting movement that started out of Ephesus. This movement is mentioned in Acts 19:10, where it says that the whole region heard about the Word of the Lord because Paul was there for two years. He and those with him were sending out teams of people throughout Asia Minor, and we can assume that all seven of these churches were planted in that way. Sardis the city has a long history that you can look it up.

Christ diagnoses the church at Sardis and He says, “You are dead.” “I know your deeds. You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” It just, even now, that brings chills to me, goose bumps. Imagine Jesus saying that to a church.

How Does He Know?

Jesus knows this by looking at their deeds. He can read their hearts, but even on the surface, He sees the deeds, the fruits — dead. There is always a link between the heart — the nature — and the fruit. “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good.” All Jesus has to do is look at the deeds. Revelation 3:2: “I know your deeds; you are dead.” “I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God.”

Some years ago, as many of you know, I built a tree house. That is where I write my sermons and practice them. It is a place of prayer for me. I had big plans for this tree house. It was going to be a big tree house — someone who knew my plans once called it the Taj Mahal of tree houses. It has a baseboard heater and a picture window, and all kinds of cool things in it. But when I put the first board in it, a 2x10, I secured it to a tree with a lag screw that was 5/8 of an inch in diameter and 5 inches long. That thing was not going to move. It had a sheer strength of something like 150,000 pounds, and I drove that screw right into the heart of the tree. Apparently, the tree didn't like it. In the following months and years, the tree did not flourish. Finally, in spring a few years ago, I was anxiously looking at this tree, which was holding up one quarter of the tree house, and there were no leaves at all, nothing. I had killed the tree. I knew by looking for evidence of life. Over the next two years, the tree gradually rotted, until soon after, I realized the tree was dead. I put in two 4x4s to support the tree house, and I think it will be fine, but that tree is gone, literally gone. It rotted straight down and is entirely removed. The way I knew, is just by looking for evidence of life.

The same principle is going on here: there is no life, no evidence. It says in John 15:2, “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit,” and those branches are collected and thrown into the fire and burned. That is a picture of hell. There are works that show life, and the works that mark a healthy, living church are obvious, as we have already mentioned: clear and powerful proclamation of the Word of God from the pulpit; vigorous, spirit-filled worship; committed, sacrificial, loving community among the members of the church; bold, consistent proclamation of the Gospel in that community and, when possible, to the ends of the Earth; sacrificial ministry to the poor and needy.

In addition, each individual Christian has his own unique special set of good works “which God has prepared in advance, that [they] should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10.) Healthy churches prepare the members individually to be fruitful themselves in good works that they all are doing. That is a sign of an alive church, isn't it? Do you not want to be part of a church like that? A living church produces fruit corporately and in individual members.

They Had a NAME of Being Alive, But Were Actually Dead

The church at Sardis had a name — a reputation — of being alive, of containing life, but they were actually dead. Perhaps all the works that gained them that name and reputation had been done many years before. Past heroes who had planted that church in Sardis and led it early on were perhaps gone. Instead of the remaining members filling their places with vibrant works, the absence of those heroes has left deadness.

I love church history. I have visited the churches of many of my heroes of the faith. This is a sad exercise. I have been to Geneva to the St. Pierre Cathedral where John Calvin preached; it is effectively a museum. Worship services may happen and there may even be an evangelical congregation there, but there is an old feeling there, and the culture in the surrounding area does not seem to take notice of or know anything about about John Calvin.

I have been to Wittenberg, where Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the door; I do not know the health of that church. One church I do know the health of is Jonathan Edwards’ church in Northampton, Massachusetts. Many years ago, that church went theologically, aggressively liberal, and they wrestled with the heritage of Jonathan Edwards, whose doctrines they do not hold at all. When we were there on sabbatical a few years ago, that church had a Buddhist monk coming on Wednesday night to talk to the people about meditation. It is sad. Churches can be on fire for Christ, and then things cool off, and then within a generation, or two, or three, there is nothing there, nothing going on at all.

Why Were They Dead?

The question is, why? Why does this happen? Why was the church at Sardis dead? The cause of death is always the same — it is not a shock to you — it is sin. Romans 6:23: “… the wages of sin is death.” James 1:14-15 said, “Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” That is how death happens.

The specifics of how and why are not as important as the state of death; we know because the specifics are not mentioned. Perhaps there was false doctrine there. Perhaps there was some immorality. It does not say anything about Balaam, or the Nicolaitans, or Jezebel. However, there is a mark in Verse 4: “…you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes.” This gives a sense, perhaps, of immorality, but it could be referring to false doctrine as well. Perhaps it was a matter of persecution, except, as one commentator said, “Why would Satan persecute a dead church?” (I can answer that — he does not; there is no need. They are not doing anything; they are no threat to his dark kingdom.) Perhaps it was some combination of the same problems. But what we do know is that they were dead.

Little by little, spiritual vigor can drain out of a local church. Godly leaders can get old and die. The next generation comes along, and they do not share the same passion, the same vision, and it fades away. The world starts to encroach with its relentless appeal to the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life. The church can stop preaching the clear Gospel of Christ to the surrounding community, or it can alter certain aspects of the message to tailor them to popular tastes, so that they can be more amenable to the surrounding community. The witnesses can increasingly fear persecution and pull back on the vigor and the frequency of their witness.

Thom Rainer’s “Autopsy of a Deceased Church”

Thom Rainer, in his book Autopsy of a Deceased Church, listed his own post-mortem analysis. I meditated on this list and mixed it together with some of my own thoughts to compile an autopsy report for a dead church: The church lost its zeal for local outreach. They had become insular. They cared more about what made them happy and peaceful than what Christ wanted them to do. The church turned its back on solid and careful teaching of the Word and chose to tickle the ears of its members with skillful public speakers that were little more than entertainers, rather than those who exegete the Word. The church ceased disciplining sin but tolerated more and more worldliness on the part of its members. The church ceased praying together. (Please, those who are in home fellowships, do not underestimate the prayer time you have together.)

The church stopped developing godly men as future leaders. The church spent more of its resources — its time, energy, money — on itself, making itself comfortable and apparently prosperous, than on the spreading of the Gospel. The church became more and more worldly in appearance, and fit in with the surrounding culture, especially in key moral issues. In the 21st century, we are not pressed to burn a pinch of incense to Caesar, but we are pressed on other issues, like sexual issues, marriage issues, things like that, where we are being forced to conform to the love of “diversity” according to the world’s definition. We are being pressed into a worldly mold, and if we yield, then we, as a church, will be heading toward death.

The church became increasingly listless, lifeless, cold, and weak. Little was happening in corporate worship. Passion and zeal were lacking. They clung to traditionalism, celebrating the bygone era of past heroes, putting plaques up on walls to celebrate achievements. They held on to old patterns of ministry long after they were not fruitful anymore. Finally, they shrank in number, growing smaller and smaller in number; the median age, decade by decade, inched slowly upward. There were fewer and fewer children — they were missing out, among other things, on the joy of listening to children sing in worship. (Dead churches may have grandchildren visiting occasionally but generally do not have many children regularly attending.) There were no youth, no young families. The church became old. (An aging church is not necessarily an indication of a dying church but it does depend on the zeal of all generations for growth and vibrancy; if you have very zealous older people with the younger generations being spiritually lifeless, then the church will not survive.)

Christ commands the remnant in verses 2-3, “Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it and repent.” He calls on them to wake up. Jesus has the power to give life to the dead. In Revelation 1:18, He says, “I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”

All Christians, individually, were dead at one point, were we not? Ephesians 2:1-5 says, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But God, because of His great mercy with which He loved us, made us alive in Christ Jesus even when we were dead in transgressions and sins. It is by grace you have been saved…” God has the power, Jesus has the power to bring the dead to life, and He calls on this church to wake up.

I love the mental images of Jesus raising the dead during His earthly ministry. In Mark 5, He comes in where the little girl who died had been placed; and He kneels by her bed and takes her hand so tenderly, and He says to her, “Talitha koum!” which means, “Little girl, get up,” and she opened her eyes, and woke up. That is the kind of power that Jesus has to raise the dead, as though they are sleeping. He says, “Wake up!” and they obey His command.

It is not clear at all that He will give that kind of power to this church, however. When He said to Lazarus, “Lazarus, come forth,” He gave a resurrecting power to him. But here, it seems that they have chosen a tomb for themselves. They have willfully walked into deadness. He was calling on them to repent and walk out of their tomb, to wake up out of that spiritual deadness, and strengthen what remained and was about to die.

Strengthen What Remains and is About to Die

Verse 4 indicates that there was a remnant of people “who had not soiled their clothes.” He says, “They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.” They were not blameless. They were part of the slide into deadness, but they managed to keep themselves from defilement of doctrine and lifestyle. They were worthy, meaning they were genuinely born again. They were made worthy or qualified through Christ and would walk with Christ dressed in white, meaning they would be seen to be righteous in the sight of God. However, they were in great danger. He was warning them to strengthen what remained and was about to die. I picture a car accident, a person lying in the road, with wounds that are not immediately life threatening, bleeding rather significantly. There was a window of opportunity for this small remnant to wake up and take seriously what was happening. By the Word and the Spirit, “strengthen what remains and is about to die.”

Remember and Repent

He says in verse 3, “Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it and repent.” What had they received and heard that they needed to obey? Go back to the Gospel; saturate yourself again in God-Man-Christ response: Remember that there is a Holy God who created heaven and earth. Remember that He created you in His image, to have a relationship with Him — you are fearfully and wonderfully made; you are unique and special as a human being, but you have sinned. You have violated God’s laws, broken His Ten Commandments, broken His two Great Commandments to love God and love your neighbor. Remember that you have sinned, and therefore you deserve death. Remember that God sent His Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, who lived under the law and perfectly obeyed every command of God His whole life, who never sinned; who did great signs and wonders to show His deity and power and compassion; and most of all, who died a substitutionary atoning death on the cross, in our place. Remember Isaiah 53:5: “He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds, we are healed.” This is the Gospel, and if you simply repent of your sins, acknowledge that you are a sinner, and turn to Christ, all of your sins will be forgiven. Remember and repent; start being the Church again.

I am saying this to all of you: they had received and heard and needed to obey this same Gospel that we have received and heard and need to obey. You may have been a Christian for decades, a genuine Christian, but you still need to hear that message again and again, to drink it in and hear it in your heart. Remember what you heard and repent of ongoing sin in your life. If you are here and you are still “dead in your transgressions and sins,” — i.e., you are not a Christian — you now know what the Gospel is; I just gave it to you. I am calling on you to come out of darkness into light; come from death to life by believing in Jesus.

Warning:

Verse 3: “But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.” In Matthew 24, Jesus warns, “My coming is like a thief in the night who comes to steal; the owner of the house does not know at what time of night the thief is coming. You had better be ready at all times.” Revelation 3:2 is not talking about the Second Coming in which Jesus will come as a thief in the night. This is more individual, coming as a judge to that local church. This is similar to the warning He gave to the church at Ephesus that had forsaken their first love: “If you do no repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” Or to the church at Pergamum: “I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.” Or like Jezebel: “I will strike you and your children dead.” He has that power to come at the time of His choosing. He says, “You had better wake up and repent and do it quickly, or I will come to you; and you do not know when I am coming.”

As with all of these letters, Christ promises rewards to the overcomers. Look at verse 5: “He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the Book of Life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and His angels.” The overcomers, those who by faith in Jesus are more than conquerors, will receive the same cleansing from sin and will be covered in white robes of righteousness.

A Name that will Never Be Blotted Out

Jesus says, “I will never blot out his name from the Book of Life.” The Book of Life, which we will see again in Revelation 20, is where He writes the names of all of the elect who have repented and trusted in Christ and who will spend eternity with God in Heaven. He is saying, “I will never blot out your name; you have eternal life and you will most certainly live forever.”

Some, inferring the opposite based on what He says, twist this to say, “Yes, but He does sometimes blot out some people’s names.” There is no verse in Scripture that teaches that those who are genuinely born again, have crossed over from death to life, and have been justified and forgiven by Almighty God can later cross back over from life to death, be unjustified, and consequently condemned. That cannot happen. He is actually promising the opposite: “I will never blot out your name from the Book of Life, but you will live forever.”

Furthermore: “I will give you a name, and I will speak that name to my Father, and to the angels.” Think about that. Isn’t that awesome? “I will give you a name that will never be blotted out. Do not care about your reputation in the community. Do to care what other people think. That does not matter. What matters is what I will say about you. I will give you a name and a reputation that will live forever. I will speak your name to my Father. I will not be ashamed of you. I will pronounce your name to the Father and I will tell the angels what you did. I will tell the angels and my Father your history and your works.” What an honor. That is the reward to those who overcome.

Be Fearful, Fight Deadness! Understand Deadness Can Happen to Us

First, be fearful and flee deadness, oh, church. It is vital for us to hear and tremble at God’s Word. Do not ever say, “That could never happen to this church.” Oh, it could happen. We must be on our guard constantly. Step by step, we can slide into apostasy. We can give up our personal prayer time. We can start to cut corners in the prayer closet and taking in the Word of God. We can start playing bit by bit, more and more with sins, little sins, and then, bolder and bolder. Last week, I talked about secret sexual sin. That will do it — that will kill a church. We can lose our taste for genuine Christian fellowship. We start to pick holes in the garments of other Christians, to find flaws in them, and make excuses for not going to church. And that happens a little at a time. We slide into apostasy and it can happen. Instead, we must keep before us the marks of a healthy church. I will not review them again today, but you can look them up.

Rely on the Holy Spirit

Second, pray. Pray that the pulpit ministry here would be vigorous and not shrink back from proclaiming the whole counsel of God’s Word, all of it. Pray that we would be vigorous in sharing the Gospel in this community, sacrificially bold in sharing with lost people right around here. Pray that we would continue caring about unreached people groups and missions. Pray that we would have a heart for the poor and needy, that we would be sacrificial toward those who are struggling and suffering, not just in our part of the world, but even, for example, in East Africa with the famine happening right now, that we would sacrificially give to care for them. Pray that we would care about holiness and be fighting sin by the power of the Spirit, vigorously active in each other’s lives. Pray that we would be vibrant in prayer; and that when we come together for corporate worship, it is an electric time of celebrating — not just Easter, but every week — the resurrection power of Jesus Christ.

Closing Prayer

Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the time that we have had to look at this warning of a church that was alive and had a reputation for being alive, but became dead. God, I pray, protect us from that. I pray for the elders of this church, myself and the other elders, that you would help us to be vigilant over ourselves and over the flock which the Lord has entrusted to our care. I pray that we would not be arrogant. I pray that we would be humbled, that we would be on our knees and our faces, saying, “Oh, God, we could die. If you don't strengthen us, we will.” Please, you are the vine, Lord Jesus; we are merely the branches. Help us to abide in you and bear much fruit. God, I pray for more evangelistic fruit. I pray for more baptisms. I pray that the church, the people in this church, would be courageous and share the Gospel with lost people. And, oh, Lord, lead us to people who are ready to hear. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Please turn in your Bibles to Revelation 2:18-29. Today we will be working through this letter to the Church at Thyatira.

We are blessed to have some very talented medical people in our church. We had a great day at the health fair yesterday. I am so grateful for all those of you who gave your time, and for the ability to use the knowledge that God has given us to bless the community. About seven or eight years ago, at the church picnic, this medical knowledge was specifically focused on my wife, Christi. She had been having some neurological symptoms, and had had an x-ray and an MRI of her neck. Some of the medical experts among our church members looked at the results and noticed what looked like a degenerative disc disease and a necking-down of her spinal column, such that it looked like an hour glass. It led us to take very seriously what was going on in her body. The neurosurgeon gave us this diagnosis, this prediction of the future: “100% chance of total paralysis without surgery.” That is the kind of prognosis that you listen to — 100% chance of total paralysis if she does not have corrective surgery. Obviously, we got corrective surgery, and then another one after that, and the Lord protected her ability to walk.

I am thinking this morning about the gift that we have here in Durham, frequently called the City of Medicine, of the technology that we have to make such predictions and prognoses, and then provide therapies to treat what is discovered. Here in the City of Medicine, right next to the Research Triangle Park, we have all manner of noninvasive diagnostic tests — x-rays, MRIs, ultrasounds, heart catheterizations, EEGs, EKGs — methods of diagnosis that eliminate the need for more invasive measures to tell us what is going inside of us. It could be something very serious, life-threatening, such as a brain tumor that could result in death if not treated; or it could be a blockage in a major artery that needs to be addressed by a cardiologist; or it could be something a little less serious, perhaps pain or other symptoms; and through these noninvasive techniques and machines, it is possible to make a diagnosis and a treatment plan.

Psalm 139 begins with these amazing words, “O Lord, You have searched me and You know me. You know when I sit and when I rise. You perceive my thoughts from afar.” The Lord has a comprehensive knowledge of each of us. Everything. He knows when we sit and when we rise. He knows our actions, what we are doing all the time. Not only that, He knows our minds and our hearts behind those actions. Everything. At the end of the Psalm, the psalmist invites the very process that God is doing already, saying, “I want You to do this.” “Search me, O God, and know my heart. And try me and see if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

This letter to the Church at Thyatira brings us to face a very serious topic, that of secret sin, sin that is in the heart of individuals in the church. Secret sin is not obvious, not open or easy to see. We are confronted in this text with a Lord and Savior, the same one whom David was talking about in Psalm 139, who searched him and knew him so many centuries ago. He says the exact same thing to the Church at Thyatira: “I am He who searches hearts and minds, and I will give to each of you according to what you have done.” He has eyes of blazing fire and feet of burnished bronze; He is looking at us, searching us, and He knows us.

The issue of secret sexual sin is a very troubling one. It is not the kind of thing I would choose, if I were a topical preacher, to say “I think that's what I want to preach on,” but I can tell you from pastoral experience, it is very much what I need to preach on, among other things. Secret sexual sin is a serious problem in the life of the church today. It is not a minor problem. Many of you are trying to run your Christian race with weights dragging behind you, as though you are running a marathon with cinder block weights tied to a belt around your waist; you are making very little progress, and you are exhausted and discouraged, and you are assassinating your assurance of salvation. It may cause you to wonder to some degree if you are even a Christian. Maybe some of you are in that category because of what you are doing in secret.

I yearn and I have prayed over the last several weeks, especially the last number of hours, that this would be a day of being set free. As Hebrews 12 says “Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,”  and especially one witness in particular, this holy Jesus, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burning bronze — since you are living your life in front of Him — “lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily entangles and run with endurance the race that is marked out before you.” That is what I long to see happen for you today.

More than that, to the whole church, though not every one of you is in this category, there is still a message for you in this passage. It says, “Now to the rest of you who are not involved in this sin…” In our church covenant, we promise to watch over one another in brotherly love, to care about what is happening in each other's lives. Therefore, this is a call to get involved — men with men and women with women in discipleship, parents with their children at deeper levels than you may be going currently — to protect one another from sexual sin. This is a serious message.

My desire is to fill you as best as I can with a proper mixture of fear and hope. I do not know what you individually need the most right now. Some of you really need fear and this Scripture will give it to you, or should give it to you if you will heed its warning. There is a holy fear that leads to holy living. We should fear sin. We should fear Jesus’ reaction to sin. But we should not fear as those who have no hope. There are promises — if we listen, if we repent, if we overcome, we will be richly blessed. I want to mediate these things to you — fear of sin, blessings for repentance. Although we are talking about secret sins, which by definition are not obvious by your faces — I do not know what is going on, what you need — my desire is that the Word of God will be unleashed in your life to set you free.

Jesus begins this letter to the church at Thyatira in verse 18 with a self-description. Look what He says: “To the angel of the church of Thyatira write: ‘These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.’” 

Awesome Description

This is an awesome description. As with all of these seven letters, it is incredible that Jesus is speaking to the church. He is describing Himself. He begins here by emphasizing His deity: “These are the words of the Son of God.” His open appeal to deity emphasizes His right to judge and speak these words to us. He has the right to do this. He knit you together in your mother’s womb. He is your creator and He will be your judge. He has the right to talk to you like this.

Usually in these seven letters, Jesus identifies Himself to the church by some aspect of the vision that John had in Revelation 1, but here it is a little different. He uses a term here, “the Son of God,” that you do not find in Revelation 1. There He is described as one “like a son of man.” But here we see Jesus who is God the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, and He has a message of purifying power and judgment to give to this secretly sinning church.

He describes His own eyes, “eyes like blazing fire,” which gives a sense of the perfect holiness of Jesus by which He pierces through their secrecy to know everything they are doing. The eyes are His source of information, knowing who you are, what you're doing. The fire reminds us that our God is a consuming fire. It points to His holiness. Habakkuk 1:13 says, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; You cannot tolerate wrong.” Hebrews 4:13 says, “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”

The secret sinners, the ones who are learning Satan’s so-called deep secrets in Thyatira, are thinking, “No one sees me, no one knows what I am doing,” but Jesus has eyes of blazing fire. Jeremiah 23:24 says, “‘Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?’ declares the Lord, ‘Do I not fill heaven and earth?’ declares the Lord.” At the end of Revelation when Jesus comes to destroy His enemies, He uses this exact same description. Revelation 19:11-13: “I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice He judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire and on His head are many crowns.” That is the way he deals with His enemies.

He also describes His feet as glowing like burnished bronze, as though heated in a furnace. This brings the image to mind in Revelation 19:15: “He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty,” a terrifying picture of Jesus with perfectly pure feet trampling out wickedness.

First, Jesus speaks words of commendation to this church at Thyatira. He says in verse 19, “I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.” This is really a very impressive list.

He commends their hard work, their deeds flowing from love and faith. Unlike the church at Ephesus, it seems this church has not forsaken their first love. He commends their love: They love Him, and they love one another. He commends their genuine faith in Christ, at least those He addresses toward the end of the letter. As a whole He speaks to believers, the ones who are living out their faith. By their vision — their sight of the invisible spiritual world (that is what faith is, the eyesight of the soul) by which they see Jesus as Savior, the future, the coming judgment — they have a genuine faith. They are not dead in their transgressions and sins. He commends their service and their perseverance: They are working hard, serving one another with servant hearts. We do not know much about the persecutions they might have endured there in Thyatira, but we can guess they were of the same sort that were going on in the other six of the cities. But they were persevering through those trials. He commends, very strikingly, their growth and development: They are doing more now than they did at first. 2 Peter 1 says, “… these qualities are yours in increasing measure.” Living things grow, and these believers were growing, this church was growing.

It is hard to imagine that a church with such a comprehensive statement of commendation from Jesus Christ could have a fatal flaw at its heart. On the surface, everything looks good. That is what makes all of this so scary. It is vital for us as 21st century churchgoers in America to hear this and look beyond the surface. A toleration of sexual sin, and the secret pattern of illicit sexual activities effectively nullifies all of these good things. That is the problem here, the issue of toleration. That is what He presses in; that is how He judges the church.

Look at verse 20: “Nevertheless, I have this against you.” Reading those words gives me pause. Do you not feel the weight of that? How serious it is that Jesus would have something against you. Let that press into your heart — “I do not want Jesus to have anything against me.” I am not claiming that we can be sinless and perfect in this life, but I yearn for it, don’t you? Don’t you hunger and thirst that Jesus would have nothing against you? Start with an hour: “O Lord, let me live my life for one hour that You would have nothing against me. My heart and my actions. Let me live that kind of life for the next hour by the Spirit.”

The Danger is from Within, Not from Without

But He says this in verse 20: “I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.” There is a deadly danger from within. It is not like Smyrna, where there is external persecution coming from the authorities, with the threat of imprisonment. Here, it is coming from within. There is an outward, worldly influence, certainly, but Christ is speaking of a heart wound, a cancer within.

The problem is that the church was tolerating it. The letter is addressed to Christians, so it could be that there were individuals dabbling in the sin who were tolerating that within themselves, thinking it was okay — but it was not. Beyond that, even those who were not involved were tolerating those who were; they were not performing church discipline, what they should have done to keep the church pure. This is hard for many in 21st century America to hear: We love and celebrate tolerance. We get excited about the unbelievable levels of evil and wickedness that we can tolerate and be fine with that do no seem to move the needle, that we are kind of chill and cool about. That is not God’s plan for the church. We are called on to be the light of the world. We are called on to be salt in a corrupted world. If the salt loses its saltiness, it is worthless. We must care, not tolerate.

The Threat: Sexual Immorality Taught by a Woman Prophetess

The threat in the church of Thyatira was sexual immorality, secret and hidden, being taught by a woman prophetess. She was alluring and enticing some of Jesus’ blood bought children into immorality; they were being led astray by her. This sexual immorality was undoubtedly linked to the old patterns of pagan religion. It was something that would have been familiar to them, part of the way that pagan worship was conducted back then. But this woman had added some twist to it with Satan’s so-called deep secrets, creating a concoction of pseudo-Christian, pseudo-pagan mess that she was teaching to these servants. It was similar the Balaam/Nicolaitan heresies plaguing the church in Pergamum that we looked at last week. It was a likely a combination of Christian doctrine (that the grace of God covered all sins) and Greek dualism (that body and soul are separate and unrelated and it did not matter what one did with the body) leading to license. They were turning the grace of God into license for immorality.

Christianity cuts across all this. It matters what you do with your body, and it matters what is going on in your mind, in your heart — everything matters. 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 says, “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God.” It is very clear. Galatians 6:7-8 says, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will repeat eternal life.”

“Jezebel” the Prophetess

Who is “that woman Jezebel”? The text implies that she was a real woman in Thyatira, though the name Jezebel was symbolic, like a prophetic name. She “calls herself a prophetess.” She was not a true prophetess, called by God, bestowed through the Holy Spirit; she took that honor and office on herself. It is clear that in those days, there were godly prophets and there were godly prophetesses. This woman was not a godly prophetess but a false prophetess. Beyond that, she was teaching both men and women this false doctrine; she was arrogating to herself a teaching role that Paul forbids. In 1 Timothy 2:12, Paul says, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.” God has not given to women the role to teach men in an official way in the life of the church. But this woman took that on herself. Even worse, she was espousing false teaching, leading them astray.

Why does Jesus call her Jezebel? This name hearkens back to a well-known account in the Old Testament. In the days of God’s prophet Elijah, King Ahab of Israel married a wicked woman named Jezebel, the daughter of a pagan king. King Ahab was a weak-willed and ultimately wicked man. Jezebel specifically and purposely led Israel into patterns of false religion to worship the Baals and the Ashtoreth, the fertility religions. That worship, similar to this church in Thyatira, involved sexual immorality and worshipping false gods and goddesses. Jezebel personally funded 850 prophets of Baal out of the coffers of the king while she hunted down and killed all of the true prophets. Remember that Elijah thought he was the only prophet left.

Jezebel manipulated Ahab to do all kinds of evil things. When Ahab wanted to take Naboth’s vineyard but was too weak to do anything about it and was crying and pouting in his bed, she took it into her own hands, conspiring to have Naboth murdered by orchestrating false witnesses and enabling Ahab to take possession of the vineyard. Elijah predicted that dogs would drink up Ahab’s blood in that very place. Later, he predicted that the same thing would happen to Jezebel, and it did. She was a thoroughly wicked woman, probably a witch by any definition, with a cultic side to her evil.

The Church’s Sin: Toleration

The deaths of Ahab and Jezebel paint a repulsive picture, and the revulsion that we feel as we hear it is actually completely appropriate. Jesus uses that title to talk about this woman in the church of Thyatira. She was leading them in secret rituals; we do not know the exact nature of those activities but we know they were not done openly. Look at verse 24: “Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets…” In secret, they did disgusting things with their bodies. In secret they ate meats sacrificed to detestable idols. In secret they learned deeper words of knowledge, perhaps early gnostic practices and such.

The Terror of Impending Judgment

And the church was tolerating it. Tolerating it. So Jesus had to bring a terror of impending judgement on them. We must heed warnings in Scripture. It is part of our faith to be convicted — not just filled with the assurance of things hoped for — but convicted, as in a court of law, in reference to our sins. Faith does that and so we heed warnings. Warnings are for us, the elect. The non-elect will not heed the warnings as we do. We heed warnings. So what does He say?

He has already identified Himself as the Son of God whose eyes are like blazing fire. Now He shows how terrifying He can be. In verses 21-23, He says, “I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know [that includes us] that I am He who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.”

Look at the beginning in verse 21: “I have given her time to repent of her immorality…” If you are trapped in a pattern of secrets then these could be some of the scariest words you could ever hear. You can almost hear the clock ticking, time running on, tick-tock, tick-tock. Jesus has allotted a certain time for you and that time is finite. Psalm 90:12 says, “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” This is the opportunity that Jesus is giving for you to repent. We never know how long we have; the door could be closed at any time. He does not owe this opportunity to anyone. Keep that in mind. This is all grace. He could strike us dead the moment we commit sin, immediately. Your next sin in this area could immediately, instantly be your last. And God would not be unjust. The wages of sin is death.

But He is gracious. He is compassionate. He is slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness. He gives time. He controls the clock; He can give you a day, a week, a month, a year, a decade — we do not know. But He controls it and He is waiting for you to repent.

For Jezebel, her time had run out. There was no chance for her now; she was finished. God promised that He would kill her by a severe disease, but she refused to repent. Remember that I said I yearn to give you a mingling of fear and hope. I have no hope to give to people who will not repent. Evangelical churches have no right to give hope to anybody who does not repent, whether in reference to the big picture of the gospel or individual sin. We have no hope to give people who do not repent.

People think that just because God has not acted on his warnings that He does not care, or that His standards have changed. That is not true. Just because nothing has happened yet does not mean that God has lowered His standards. In Isaiah 42:14 God says, “For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back.” And in Isaiah 57:11: “Is it not because I have long been silent that you do not fear me?” And again, in Psalm 50:21: “These things you have done and I kept silent; you thought I was altogether like you. But I will rebuke you and accuse you to your face.” Do not misunderstand the patience of God.

Romans 2:4-6 tells you what the patience of God is about: “Or do you show contempt for the riches of His kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when His righteous judgement will be revealed. God will give to each person according to what he has done.” Instead of using the time wisely, redeeming the time, all you are doing is storing up more and more wrath and judgment if you are truly in the end an unbeliever, if you refuse to repent.

This “Jezebel” in Thyatira was unwilling. Thus, this word of judgment comes in verse 22-23: “So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. I will strike her children dead, unless they repent of their ways.” He promised to cast her on a bed of suffering. This refers to some kind of dread disease. For the wicked King Herod in the New Testament, his bowels came out — it was just a terrible way to die. It is ironic for this woman: she was accustomed to being cast on a bed of pleasure. There is justice in casting her on a bed of suffering.

This judgment will not be limited to her, but also her “children.” This is likely her disciples, those who are following her, rather than her biological children. They had been following in this secret religion of sex and pleasure. Through this letter, God is giving them a little more time to repent, but if they do not, they will die.

Jesus Searches Hearts and Minds

In verse 23 He says, “Then all the churches will know that I am He who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.” Jesus knows our minds and our hearts. Again and again we see in the gospels that Jesus, even in His days on earth, would read people’s minds. In Luke 7:36-50, we read that Simon the Pharisee thought in his heart, “‘If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is — that she is a sinner.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Simon, I have something to tell you.’” That must have been unnerving. When He healed the paralytic by first forgiving his sins and the Pharisees thought in their hearts that He was blaspheming, He answered, “Why are you thinking these thoughts in your heart?”

In John 5:42, he said, “I know you, I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts.” John 2:25 says, “He knew all men. He did not need man’s testimony about man, for He knew what was in a man.” He knows our minds and our hearts; He searches them. That is actually a part of the sanctification process. That is where Psalm 139:23-24 comes in; we should say, “Do it Lord. Search me and show me who I am. Show me how much I need a Savior.” The person who is asking God to do that will not be struck dead. That person will be progressively delivered and saved and become fruitful. That person says, “Search me. I want to be holy, I want to be pure, I want to be delivered, I want to be set free. I am not refusing to repent.” Jesus is the only one who is able to do this.

Jesus Rewards or Punishes According to our Deeds

He says in verse 23, “I will repay each of you according to your deeds.” We are not justified by works, but we will be judged by works, or perhaps evaluated is a better word — assessed, identified by our works. All He needs to do is look at the fruit and He knows the tree: “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good.” (Matthew 12:33) He alone can make the evil tree good. He has that power to do that. He looks at the fruit; He knows whether you are a Christian or not based on the fruit. It is a consistent teaching. Romans 2:6-8 says, “God ‘will give to each person according to what he has done.’ To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality, He will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.” It is very plainly taught again and again. Sometimes that judgment comes early. In the case of Jezebel and her unrepentant followers, the death penalty came, no further warning, they died, under Christ’s just word.

Churches MUST NOT TOLERATE Sin

What does Christ command the church? First, hold fast to purity. Do not tolerate sin. Sin is not okay. It is deadly. It metastasizes. It is poisonous. We want all of it gone. We hate it. We know we are all Romans 7 sinners, struggling every day, doing the very thing we hate, and the very thing we want to do, we do not do. We understand that churches are for sinners. But if individual members are known to be committing these kinds of sins, and they are confronted and they will not repent, they must be excommunicated.

It is clear teaching. The church in Corinth also had a problem with sexual sin. There was a man who was sleeping with his father’s wife, probably his stepmother, and the church was proud and did not do anything about it. Very clearly, in 1 Corinthians 5, Paul says, “Expel them. Get rid of them. Sever the tie so that everyone in the community around may know that you do not tolerate this kind of wickedness.” He says in 1 Corinthians 5:9-13, “I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people — not at all meaning the people of this world,” but the one who calls himself a Christian and yet is immoral, among other sins listed. “With such a man, do not even eat. What business is it of mine, to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. ‘Expel the wicked man from among you.’”

Jesus Does Not Impose Extra Burdens but Calls on the Pure to Do Their Duty to HOLD FAST

Christ calls on the pure in Thyatira to do their duty. Verse 24-25: “Now to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets (I will not impose any other burden on you): Only hold fast to what you have until I come.” He says, “Hold on, do not get sucked in. Do not be drawn into this wickedness. Do not tolerate it.”

He does not impose extra burdens. I am not sure exactly what that means, but it may mean he does not in any way press them towards asceticism in opposite reaction to the license. Legalism is the opposite but equal mistake of license. He may be saying, “I am not saying forbid marriage, that man should not touch a woman at all, ever.” (A practice the Shakers upheld. That was a weird cult, no children except converted children, I suppose — I am not sure what child would want to become a Shaker. But that was a weird cult forbidding marriage.) Paul talks in Colossians about those who forbid marriage. That is an extreme burden. “I am not laying that burden on you. Enjoy sexual relationship within covenant marriage. I am not pushing you to something you cannot do.”

“Only hold fast to what you have until I come.” Fight the good fight of faith. Run this race with endurance until you cross that finish line. Hold on.

First Reward: Reigning with Christ

If they — we — hold fast, see what reward awaits, verses 26-27: “To him who overcomes and does My will to the end, I will give authority over the nations — ‘He will rule them with an iron scepter; He will dash them to pieces like pottery.’” This seems to indicate that we who overcome will participate in his Second Coming glory. It might relate to rulership in the millennium, but at least finally, ultimately, relates to positions of authority in the New Heaven and the New Earth, sharing in the authority of Jesus.

Second Reward: The Morning Star

In verse 28: “I will also give him the Morning Star,” which is the star that is the precursor to dawn. Balaam called Jesus “a star rising in Jacob.” Morning Star — that is Jesus. “If you will overcome this sin, if you will conquer, I will give you a sense of the coming glory of the full, bright day. You will have a sense of how glorious it will be when we are in the New Heaven and New Earth, and there will be no sin at all. I will give you a foretaste of heaven.”

This Letter PLEADS with sinners!!

This letter pleads with sinners to come to Christ. Do you not see it? Charlotte gave us a testimony of the gospel before her water baptism this morning, how God sent His son, died for sinners like you and me if you repent. You know yourself that you are not a Christian, but you came in here today to hear this message. Maybe you are trapped in some kind of sexual sin, but you have never known Christ. God sent Jesus, the Son of God, to die on the cross for sinners like you and me. He will set us free. He has the power to set sinners free and to forgive all of our sins, past, present, future. By simple faith, trust in Him. Say, “I know I am a sinner. I know you are the Son of God; you died for sinners. I am trusting in you to be my Savior.” And you will be set free.

FLEE SEXUAL IMMORALITY!!

To you Christians, I want to lay this out for those of you — I do not know who you are — who are struggling with secret sin, especially sexual sin. I am pleading with you to flee sexual immorality. That is the verb given here — Flee. Flee it. I am worried about how super-saturated our world is with sexual images these days. I am worried about internet pornography. I am worried about the development of this evil scheme of Satan, step by step, from the red-light district, to houses of ill repute, to the VCR, where you could rent porn and bring it right into your home, to streaming or satellite, to smartphones constant access through WiFi. The need for strength in this area has never been greater. The need to understand what Jesus means when He says, “Gouge out your right eye if it's causing you to sin, gouge it out. Cut off your right hand.” If you cannot use your smartphone without sinning, then get rid of it.

There are terrible statistics about internet pornography. I will not read all of them to you, but they are sad. I am especially worried about teenagers. Statistics show that 90% of children from ages 8-16 have viewed porn already in their life — 90%. The largest consumers of pornography are boys aged 12-17. 70% of men ages 18-34 visit a porn site in a typical month. $10-14 billion spent annually in this country on pornography. One in six women struggle with porn addiction. And the church is not immune. The statistics are terrible about how the church is doing in this area. Some of you are on a clock now. You did not know, perhaps, before you came in here, but Jesus is giving you time to repent. You do not know how much longer you will have to do so.

Follow True Repentance (Thomas Watson, Puritan pastor)

If you are ensnared in this pattern of sexual immorality, begin with repentance. If any individual comes and confesses this kind of sin to me, this is where I start. I want to commend a book I have mentioned many times: Thomas Watson's The Doctrine of Repentance gives us six aspects of repentance. You need all six: Sight of sin, sorrow for sin, confession of sin, shame for sin, hatred of sin, and turning from sin. That is what repentance is. That is what Christ is calling on this church in Thyatira to do. That is what He is calling on you to do if you are trapped in this sin.

First, sight of sin: See it with eyes of faith. See it as it will look on Judgement Day to you. See it as Jesus sees it now. See it.

Second, sorrow for sin: Grieve, mourn and wail. James 4, as I mentioned it last week, tells us to grieve over it. Maybe you are not the crying type, but maybe you should be. Let it break your heart. The Holy Spirit is grieved. If you are a child of God, indwelt by the Spirit, and you are involving yourself in this, the Spirit is weeping over you, in you. You need to weep with Him, and He will lead you back to sunshine and light and joy and fruitfulness. So grieve. Do not skip it — grieve.

Third, confession of sin: Tell God what you did, what you are doing. Tell Him the story. He already knows. Get down on your knees, get alone, close the door and tell Him what you are doing, what you have done. And as you do, be specific, give it its Biblical name, speak of its wickedness, “aggravate the thing,” as the Puritans would say. Talk about it a lot in your prayer to God of confession; do not minimize it — “Lord, I did a little thing.” Do not do that. Go deep. You want the whole tumor out. Confess it. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” You need to confess that sin.

Fourth, shame for sin: So many people think it is inappropriate for Christians ever to feel shame. I do not understand how anyone would think that that is true… “Jesus has set me free from all…” No. Shame for sin is similar to pain from physical fire. Do you think any of us will need pain from fire in Heaven? No, you will not feel any pain in Heaven, and — this is awesome — you will not feel any shame in Heaven either. Isn’t that amazing? Think about that. You will have no shame in Heaven, but you need it now, and you need pain now to keep you from playing with fire. You should feel a burn inside you. How could I do this to Jesus? How could I do this to my family? How could I do this to my church? You should feel that feeling, and if you do not want to call it shame — because Jesus has set you free from all shame — I understand that. Call it — make up your own word — but let it include a burning negative emotion about the recent history of what you have done. Whatever you want to call that; in English, we call it shame.

I had a painful discussion with a woman who had been sexually abused as a child; she could not accept this teaching from me. She said, “Jesus has set me free from shame. I put all my shame on Jesus. I do not have any shame.” My response was, “I do not know what you should feel for sins you are actually committing, other than shame.” Shame is helpful. It keeps us from doing that which we should not do anymore.

Fifth, hatred of sin: You should burn with hatred for this sin. Jesus hates it. Psalm 97:10 says, “Let him who is righteous hate evil.” Hate it. This is not a mild thing. We are to have a visceral reaction to this.

Sixth, turn from sin: Stop doing it. Make a U-turn. That's what repentance is, so stop doing it. You may say, “Well, pastor it is not just ‘Stop.’ This is a habit. This is an addiction. This is a pattern in my life.” I understand that, but instantaneous righteousness in habitual areas is possible for the genuine Christian. You do not have to coast to a stop here. You are not a slave to sin. You do not ever need to sin in this area again. Tell the next temptation, “I am dead to that sin, but alive in Christ Jesus. I do not need to give into that. I am going to kill it immediately. I do not need a coasting time. I can stop this sin immediately.”

I am not preaching perfectionism here. I know you will have to fight, the Bible knows you will have to fight — but you need to fight. And if you are not fighting, you are not a Christian, it is that simple. Romans 8:13-14 says, “… if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” And they are the only ones who are sons of God. So the Spirit leads you into battle.

John Owen: Mortification — DEATH BY STARVATION!!

John Owen’s Mortification gives us how to do it. I do not have time now to do all the personal counseling I would do, which I have done for years now, with men when I get together with them to talk about this. But my strategy can be summed up thus: Death by starvation. Surround the sin and starve it to death. Let it be a full day since you last violated your conscience in this area, and then let it be two, and then let it be a week, and then let it be a month, and then a year. And little by little the gravitational pull will become weaker, and weaker. It will never fully go away, you must be vigilant the rest of your life, but it will grow weaker and weaker. Death by starvation.

The last minute or so, I have been speaking directly to individuals struggling with secret sin. Now I want to speak to the whole church — to the help givers, the counselors, the disciples. If someone comes to you, or if you are seeking out, men with men, women with women, a discipleship relationship, and you wonder what to do, first of all ask about this area: “Are you struggling in this area? Is this a weak area for you?” If someone confesses this struggle, give them a battle plan; go with them to Watson’s Doctrine Of Repentance. You can download it for free — it is in the public domain online. Go through the six steps I just led you through. Provide the strategy of death by starvation. Set a tone of accountability with the internet; ask about the source of giving in to the temptations in their lives? Encourage them to rely on the Holy Spirit, not on themselves; remind them to lean on the Spirit, pray in the Spirit, grow closer to the Spirit than ever before. By the Spirit, they will put to death these things. Mingle fear and hope for them.

Read over this letter together with them. Say, “Do you understand that Jesus can kill you for this? Do you understand He has the power to do it? He has the right to do it, but He also can graciously give you time. Do not play with this anymore. Give them fear, but then give them hope: “If you confess your sins, He will forgive you and cleanse you, and He will be mighty in your life.” And pray for them.

My final word is to parents: Parents, especially teens. Please do not make any assumptions about what is going on with your kids’ smartphones or other sources of access. You need to get involved, likely more than you are now, with your kids’ use of technology. Pray for them, ask them questions, fight for them.

Closing Prayer

Close with me in prayer.

Father, we thank you for the time we have had to study this sobering letter to the church of Thyatira. We want to be faithful to the message, and God, I pray that you will set your children free. As Charles Wesley put it, “He breaks the power of cancelled sin; He sets the prisoner free.” Lord, you have already cancelled the sin, the debt has been paid, but now it has a certain strange power over us. Break that power and help us to live holy lives, help us to be discipling each other, men with men, and women with women. Help us to be as pure as you want us to be, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Please turn in your Bibles to Revelation 2. This morning we will be looking at Christ's letter to the church in Pergamum. I will begin by asking what you think of conspiracy theories. Some of you may actually be conspiracy theorists, though I do not know. If you do not know what that means, a conspiracy theorist is someone who believes that there is a dark conspiracy of intelligent, powerful individuals seeking to take over and dominate the world. These fearful speculations became popular during the Cold War when there was a concern over Communist infiltration and takeover of our structures. There was also speculation that the industrial military complex was responsible for John F. Kennedy’s assassination rather than a lone gunman. Some have even postulated that landing on the moon is all a hoax, a vast conspiracy. Some of the darker and broader ones go back even to the Middle Ages, to the Knights Templar and to the Illuminati. Even in our midst, some people that you may think are simply upstanding members of the community could be part of this secret society, with secret handshakes and such; things may not be as they appear.

You may wonder why I am starting the sermon this way. It is because I do believe there is a vast, dark conspiracy of powerful individuals that seek to dominate and rule the world for their own glory. You may know exactly who I am talking about. I am talking about Satan and his demonic forces. It is actually more vast than we can imagine. It is more powerful than we can imagine. If we were able to see the demons with our eyes —the powers and principalities, the rulers and authorities — I believe we would quail immediately and be terrified, and how much more if we saw their king Satan, who has been seeking to rule and to dominate the world since time began. The reason I mention it in light of this letter is because Jesus is speaking to a church in Pergamum about whom He says twice, “where Satan dwells” or “where Satan has his throne.”

As the book of Revelation unfolds, we will see all kinds of things revealed that have been hidden from our eyes. First and foremost, we will see the glory of Jesus Christ. In Revelation 1, we have this incredible vision of Christ moving among the seven golden lampstands, which represent local churches; but as He addresses these seven local churches in Revelations 2 and 3 with these seven letters, He is not limiting His audience to those local churches only. At the end of each of the seven letters, we have these words, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Thus, these seven letters in Revelation 2 and 3 comprise a timeless message to all Christians throughout all time. We will see revealed in the book of Revelation the invisible, hidden ministry of Jesus Christ to the local churches. I pray that that will be happening even here in our midst today by the Spirit. In addition to seeing the glory of Jesus Christ, we also have unfolded for us the invisible hidden spiritual realms and the future, where we are headed and what will happen. These things are hidden from our sight; things are not as they appear.

In Revelation 12 in particular, the history of Satan, this ancient dragon, the ancient serpent, the devil, will be revealed. It says there in Revelation 12 that it is he “who leads the whole world astray.” In that chapter, we learn that Satan, a created being, perhaps the most glorious and powerful of all the angels, tried to take over Heaven in some kind of insurrection. Isaiah 14 gives us a picture of his evil ambition to ascend and take over the throne from the Most High in order to supplant God and rule the universe in His place. Satan led a rebellion of other angels whom we now know as demons. The archangel Michael defeated Satan and his minions and they were cast down to the Earth. In other places in Scripture he is called “the god of this age” or “the god of this world.”

Isaiah 14 shows Satan to be the puppet master behind the king of Babylon. In reading Isaiah 14, it is difficult to know whether the Lord is prophesying an oracle against the king of Babylon or against some malevolent force behind the king of Babylon. I believe it is both. The Lord is addressing the evil king of Babylon, a physical literal king who is ruling an empire, but behind him, the language goes beyond a human evil ruler to pinpoint a puppet master who is able to make the rulers of the world dance to his tune on invisible hidden strings — that is Satan. In Revelation 13, we see a dragon standing by the shore, who calls out a beast, which is the antichrist. This fits with images from Daniel chapter 7 in which we see a series of beasts coming up one after the other. The implication in Revelation 13 that Satan is the one orchestrating all of these evil human empires for his own purposes.

As we begin reading the letter to this church in Pergamum we learn something else: Satan, though he has a global focus, is active in special ways in certain physical localities, certain geographical places, certain cities. I am not saying that Durham is a place where Satan has his throne, but this letter has the power to make the scales fall from our eyes to see a darker purpose behind the issues that we face today. The text tells us that there in Pergamum, Satan had his throne. All of this dark, malevolent intentionality of Satan in this world is woven together in a system of powerful evil allurements that seek to destroy the people of God and draw them into sin, called “the world.” 1 John 2:15-17 says, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world — the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does — comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” Satan had a throne of power in Pergamum, and the world system he had crafted there was a powerful magnetic force on the souls of the Christians there, drawing them to evil and to sin. This letter to the church, then, is a timeless warning for us here in the West and in America to be mindful of what Satan is doing to lure us into sin. The letter we will look at next week conveys a similar message.

In the context of Revelation 1, Jesus appeared in a white robe reaching down to His feet with a golden sash around His chest, with eyes of blazing fire and feet of burnished bronze. He held in His right hand seven stars and He is moving among seven golden lampstands. These represent His active, consistent ministry to the His universal Church, but also specifically to local churches in that area at that time.

This letter begins rather ominously. It has a different feel than the two letters we have already studied in Revelation. The letter to the church at Ephesus starts positively, with encouragement: “These are the words of Him who holds the seven stars in His right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.” That is comforting; it gives a sense of His power and His protection for and His active ministry to the churches. Then, to that little persecuted church in Smyrna that we looked at last week, He says this, “These are the words of Him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again.” Again, comforting words. This letter, however, begins ominously, in verse 12: “These are the words of Him who has a sharp double-edged sword.” This gives a powerful sense of the looming threat if this church will not heed the warning in reference to sin.

Christ’s Sharp, Double-Edged Sword

What is this sharp double-edged sword that comes out of Jesus’ mouth? This can be nothing less than the powerful, active Word of God. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing of soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” This double-edged sword is the penetrating, active ministry of the Word of God that comes from His mouth. Jesus has been speaking that Word throughout all generations of redemptive history up until the New Testament was completed. He spoke through prophets in the Old Testament, and He spoke through apostles in the New Testament, and thus we have the Word of God, the Bible.

Why is it called a sharp double-edged sword? Because of its penetrating ability. The double-edged sword, it seems, always has to do with Christ’s attack on sin; the expression is typically used in a negative sense. But He does it differently in His own people than He does concerning His enemies. The double-edged sword slaughters His enemies, unrepentant sinners, but toward His people, it becomes a surgical scalpel that cuts out the tumor of sin. In this letter, there is a sense of threat. In verse 16, He says, “Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.”

At the end of this Book of Revelation, the Second Coming of Christ is depicted; He will come in might and power. At that point, the antichrist will be aggressively reigning on Earth, and will have gathered a vast army to wipe out whatever is left of the people of God. There we see that Jesus comes down from Heaven with the armies of Heaven. Revelation 19:15 says, “Out of His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. ‘He will rule them with an iron scepter.’ He treads the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.” The double-edged sword is an instrument of wrath to destroy Christ's enemies. Revelation 19:21 says, “The rest of them, the army that was following the antichrist, were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.” This letter to the church of Pergamum carries the same ominous tone: “These are the words of Him who has the sharp double-edged sword coming out of His mouth.”

Satan’s Throne: Localized Evil

He talks about the localized evil in Revelation 2:13 “I know where you live — where Satan has his throne.” Satan has an invisible worldwide empire — it is hidden from our sight, but the Word of God tells us that it exists. We would not know any other way. 2 Corinthians 4:4 says, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Satan is called the “god of this age” though he has blinded unbelievers to seeing the spiritual realm. 1 John 5:19 says powerfully, “The whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”

Ephesians 6:12 says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the Heavenly realms.” There is a division of hierarchy of evil powers under Satan, hence the plural: “rulers… authorities… powers of this dark age… spiritual forces.” There are many demonic rulers under Satan’s overarching empire. Colossians 1 speaks of thrones and gives the comforting message that all of these thrones and dominions and powers were actually created by Christ, and, ultimately, for Christ. It says in Colossians 1:16, “For by him all things were created: things in Heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him.” That is comforting to us because He is the Creator, the Ruler, and He will be the Judge of all of these dominions and thrones and powers.

The book of Daniel implies territorially-focused demonic power in describing how the “king of Persia” withstood a Heavenly messenger for 21 days so that he couldn't get through to bring God’s message to the prophet Daniel. This gives a sense of the Heavenly realms and the Earthly realms mixing together. Persia is an Earthly empire, but the ruler indicated is behind the scenes, invisible but very powerful. That is the idea here concerning this “place where Satan has his throne”, where he dwells.

In his temptation of Jesus, Satan claims rulership over the entire Earth. In Luke 4 he says, “All the kingdoms of the world have been given to me, and I can give them to whoever I want.” Satan and his demons have been given leave to set up thrones of power in specific areas as an evil base of operation.

I want to share my personal testimony regarding this demonic base of operation. I have encountered this many times in my ministry. There is no material proof but there is a sense of a demonic presence and power, more vigorously active in certain localities than in other places. Much of it has to do with what is happening in those places. For example, I was a part of a Halloween ministry in Salem, Massachusetts near which I lived. There were 3,000 registered witches in that town, coming from all over the world to live there. They were serious about their occultic practices. It was a very dark place, especially Halloween, which was a high dark holy festival for them. They did a great deal of recruiting on Halloween. Laurie Cabot was the official witch of Salem, and ministering at her house, I always felt a Satanic presence. It was an evil place.

I felt it also at the abortion clinic where I used to go on Saturday mornings in Brookline, Massachusetts. Thousands and thousands of babies were killed there. I do not know if it is still open, but it was a very dark place. We would try to persuade women not to have abortions. We would try to communicate with them, but the pro-abortion forces who were there would yell and scream at us, it was very hot, and we would see the women walking into the clinic. Many difficult battles, a very challenging ministry. We were there for three hours every Saturday. When I drove home from there, I would feel as though I was being chased, definite feelings of paranoia. (Someone once said, “Just because you are paranoid does not mean someone is not actually out to get you.” Think about that one.) But though I was feeling paranoid, I believe there may have been evil beings following me. I would go home and sleep for three or four hours every Saturday afternoon, though I do not typically nap. I was exhausted by that ministry.

One time I was preaching in Pune, India. There, I experienced an overpowering feeling of demonic presence. I preached to 5,000 to 7,000 people. The city was spraying to kill mosquitoes because it was in the height of dengue fever season. The spraying machines droned with a continuous buzz and created a fog. As I was preparing to preach, this chemical cloud rose and hung about 15-20 feet over the assembly. This was also at the time of the Hindu festival of Diwali, which is the Festival of Lights, though it was anything but light —  there was a very dark, demonic feel. That was one of the hardest times I have ever had preaching in my life. I felt like invisible chains were around my chest and my throat. As I said to someone on the way over to the event, I felt as though I was being driven to my own execution. All these feelings were pressing in on me, and I am sure they were all demonic. As soon as I stood up and began to preach on the Book of Philippians, the entire burden lifted, just dissipated.

Sometimes Satan shows his activity more in one locality than in others, depending on what is going there, and that seems to be what was happening there in Pergamum.

The Setting: Pergamum

Pergamum was located about 100 miles north of Ephesus, with Smyrna located halfway between. Unlike Ephesus and Smyrna, Pergamum was not a port city right on the Aegean Sea but was located 15 miles inland. Yet it was probably the greatest, most significant city in the region. Roman writer, Pliny, called Pergamum “by far, the most distinguished city in Asia.” By the time John wrote the Book of Revelation, Pergamum had been the capital city of the province of Asia for almost 250 years.

Now, you could visit the ruins of Pergamum. They are near a city in modern day Turkey called Bergama, very similar to the word “Pergamum.” It was built on a large, roughly conical-shaped hill — most ancient cities were built on high places because they were easier to defend. This one was very striking for its height at about 1,000 feet above the valley, off the plain — it was a very imposing place. Pergamum boasted a massive library — 200,000 ancient books and scrolls, which incredible if you consider that all of them were hand-copied. It was a center of learning rivaling ancient Alexandria in scope, so it was very well-known. The ruler of Alexandria, at one point, forbade the export of papyrus, the writing paper, to Pergamum, because he was jealous for Alexandria’s position as a center of learning, so the people of Pergamum developed a kind of paper called vellum, made from animal skins stretched thin; we also know it as parchment, which was used for centuries after that.

Because of its library, Pergamum was a powerful center of pagan Greek and Roman culture. They were very proud of this culture. Near the summit of the acropolis, that high hill that I mentioned, stood an immense temple and altar to the Greek god Zeus, the king of the Greek gods. On it was depicted the victory of the citizens of Pergamum, together with the Roman soldiers, against the Barbarian Gauls who had invaded in 189 B.C. The people of Pergamum allied themselves with Rome to defeat the Gauls and then became fiercely loyal to Rome. Rome took notice.

The imperial cult was powerful there. As a result, the loyalty of the citizens to Rome and the emperor was established. In 29 B.C., the citizens of Pergamum were granted permission to build and dedicate a temple to Augustus, the first temple built to honor a living emperor and worship him as a god —a significant indication of the mindset at the time. The people of Pergamum worshiped the Roman emperors as gods, one after the other, so civil religion in Asia Minor had its center there in Pergamum. There was also a temple to the Greek god of healing, Asclepius; sick people from all over Asia made pilgrimages to Pergamum to be healed.

We can see, then, the battle lines of truth being drawn. Ancient classical education, paganism, worship of Greek and Roman gods, and the Emperor cult were all aligned against Christianity. Here in our passage, we have the Word of Christ, the truth, coming out of His mouth like a sharp, double-edged sword, and these Christians are being called on to stand for truth when Satan is attacking externally with false doctrines.

Battle Lines Drawn Clearly… Where Satan Has His Throne

The battle lines are clearly drawn where Satan has his throne. On trial before Pontius Pilate, Jesus said, “For this reason, I was born, and for this entered the world… to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”And very famously, Pilate answered with sarcasm, “What is truth?” That was a great question for Pilate to ask, if he had just stood and listened to Jesus, but he had no interest. He was basically saying, “There is no truth.” That is similar to the way many people feel in America today: “There is no absolute truth.”

But the answer was standing right in front of Pilate, right there. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life,” [said Jesus]. “No one comes to the Father, except through me.” (John 14:6) He is the truth that God has spoken into the world, but Satan is seeking to steal, and kill, and destroy by the lies he tells. From the Garden of Eden, that is how he sought to assassinate souls and ruin lives, by the lies that he tells. And so Jesus said in John 8:44, “Satan is a liar and the father of lies… a murderer, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. And when he lies, he speaks his native language.”

There at Pergamum, the battle lines are drawn between truth and lies.

Christ’s Self-Description Points to the Truth

In Verse 12, Jesus says, “These are the words of Him who has the sharp, double-edged sword.” Christ fights powerfully against Satan's lies by the inerrant Word of God, the Word which has poured from His mouth for centuries through His mouthpieces, the apostles and prophets. He also fights the lies in a specific locality through messengers, through witnesses that He sends. And He says, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth,” including the Pergamum. Revelation 14:5 says, “Of these witnesses, no lie was found in their mouths. They are blameless.” They spoke the truth to their surrounding culture.

Christ Commends the Church for their Stand for Truth

In verse 13 of our text, Christ commends the church for their stand for truth, “I know where you live, where Satan has his throne, yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city where Satan lives.” Christ gives them a powerful commendation, “You stood for the truth, even in the face of persecution. You did not turn your back on me. You did not renounce your faith in me. You did not deny that you knew me” “even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city where Satan lives.” We do not know anything about Antipas except for this one verse. We know that Jesus calls him “my faithful witness.” Wouldn't you love to have Jesus say that about you, to say your name, like Antipas, and call you “my faithful witness”?

We do not know anything about his martyrdom, though we can imagine the circumstances: Throughout Asia Minor, the citizens were required every year to burn a pinch of incense in worship of the emperor. Remember that Pergamum was the center of this imperial cult. It makes sense that this Antipas would have refused to burn the incense and say “Caesar is lord,” or “Caesar is god.” He would have said, “No, Jesus is Lord.” Antipas would have been baptized under the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and would have made that central confession, “Jesus is Lord.” Romans 10 says, “If you confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with the heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with the mouth that you confess and are saved… For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Antipas had made that confession with his mouth, because he believed it in his heart. The temptation to sever the heart conviction from the outward life pattern or behavior is ever-present: “Oh, just burn some incense. You know that Caesar is not god. Just say it and save your life,” all the while knowing the opposite is true. This severs the heart from the body, sever the convictions from the lifestyle. Antipas would not do it; he refused. He perhaps said, “I can never say, ‘Caesar is lord,’ even if I have to die. Jesus is Lord.” Jesus was putting Antipas up on a pedestal as a light shining in a dark place.

He was put to death there in that city where Satan dwells, “where Satan has his throne.” His death put pressure on the whole church: they knew that the situation was serious, that their earthly lives were at stake and they had to decide whether they would renounce their faith in Christ or stand firm and testify that Jesus is Lord. Christ commends them: “You did not renounce your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas.” The pressure of Satan’s lies was powerful. The church was being threatened and they chose to stand for truth.

But there were still hidden problems with this church. There was a corruption in the doctrine of the life of the church that threatened their very survival. It is not enough to begin the Christian life; we must persevere to the end. Matthew 24:13 says,“He who stands firm to the end will be saved.” We must run a race, a race of holiness, of integrity. Integrity means being the same person all the time, the same person in secret that you are in public. Integrity is similar to “integer,” indicating oneness: a oneness between mind, and heart, and lifestyle. In this church there was a tumor of false doctrine leading to worldliness and sin that had to be excised, or they would die.

True Christianity: Right Doctrine Must Result in Holy Living

The church is called, then, to stand for holiness when Satan attacks internally — that is, in the minds and hearts of believers. True Christianity, right doctrine, must result in holy living. We cannot sever what we say we believe about Christ from how we live our physical lives in this world. Satan will try to pull the church toward the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life. Personal holiness may be the greatest mark of regeneration. If you ask, “How can I know am I a Christian? How can I know if I'm born again?”, the answer lies in how you are living your life. Are you fighting for holiness by the power of the Spirit of God? First John 1:5-6 says, “This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light, and in Him, there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Christ, and yet walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.”

Galatians 6:7 says, “Do not be deceived; God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his flesh, from his flesh will reap destruction. The one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 says plainly, “…the wicked will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexual offenders, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers will inherit the Kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of the Lord.” In other words, Christ saves us out of darkness into light and begins transforming us from the inside out.

Christ’s Criticism of Pergamum

We are all fighting this battle, but it is even worse when false teachers stand up and teach false doctrine about the life of the body. In some places, they are called libertines. Here in Pergamum, they are called Nicolaitans, mystically connected to Balaam of the Old Testament. Revelation 2:14-15 says, “Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality. Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.”

Christ “holds some things against” this church — He is not completely pleased with the church at Pergamum. They are tolerating, and some of them, perhaps, even delighting in the teachings of Balaam, or the Balaamites, or the Nicolaitans. It seems the majority of the church were faithful to Christ, but an influential minority were being led astray into sexual immorality and the eating of meat sacrificed to idols at pagan temples. That was the old sensual lifestyle that they had been called out of: the sexual immorality of the temple prostitutes, the orgies, the indulgent feasts, all of them done in the name of sensual pleasure and false gods and goddesses. I do not know if the teaching of Balaam and the Nicolaitans are two different heresies or two names for the same thing, but that is not a significant point. Most likely, they were two different but closely related heresies.

Balaam was a prophet in the Old Testament, a visionary, whom we meet in Numbers 22-25. He was a mystical seer with the ability to predict the future. Perhaps the true living God had somehow used him as a mouthpiece prior to the events in the Numbers account. He was a prophet for hire — or, as I once heard, “A prophet for profit.” He was in it for the money. He had no real interest, it seems, in truth or the living God.

He was hired by Balak, King of Moab, after Balak heard what Israel had done in destroying the Amorites. Balak went to Balaam to hire him to utter a prophetic curse on Israel. Almighty God severely warned Balaam again and again to say only those things God told him to say. The final warning came, very memorably, when his donkey pinned him against a rock wall and would go no further. He began to beat the donkey, and the donkey spoke to him: “Why are you beating me?” That would be quite a moment, don’t you think? “Have I been in the habit of doing this before?” “No, actually, you have not. You have been a good donkey for me.” What a conversation that must have been.

In truth, this is even more a testimony on Balaam — if God can use a donkey, He can use anybody to speak for Him. “There is no honor in the fact that I am speaking through you. Do not behave like an animal.” There is a warning, because the angel of God had his sword unsheathed — like Jesus with His sword coming out of His mouth — threatening him with death. The donkey saved his life, at least temporarily.

We do not know from the Old Testament account, but Jesus tells us what happens after the oracles in which he lavishly predicted glory for the future of Israel: he secretly taught Balak what to do. In essence, Balaam told Balak, “I know how to hurt Israel; we can turn the holiness of God, the wrath of God, against His own people, if we lead them to sin.” It is the very thing that Satan's trying to do: he is trying to put a sword in the hand of God to motivate God’s own holiness and His own justice against His own people. Balaam orchestrated some Moabite girls, prostitutes and others, to go down and infiltrate the Israelite camp to lead them into worshiping the Baal of Peor. The wrath of God broke out, and 24,000 of the Israelites died in that day.

In Pergamum, there were false teachers having the same effect as Balaam and the Moabite women on the nation of Israel. They were luring church members into the same type of ritual sex and idolatry, in the pattern of the pagans of Pergamum. Peter spoke of the same false teachers, these libertines, these Balaamites, in 2 Peter 2:13-19, “Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures, while they feast with you. With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning. They seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed — an a cursed brood! They have left the straight way and have wandered off to follow the way of Balaam, son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness. But he was rebuked for his wrong doing by a donkey, a beast without speech, who spoke with a man’s voice and restrained the prophet's madness. These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.  For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error.  They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity-- for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.”

It seems that the Nicolaitans were doing the exact same thing, probably the same people Jesus was referring to in Revelation 2. He begins by saying “Likewise” — or in the same way, or thus — meaning the Nicolaitans were contemporary versions of Balaamites. In truth, Satan has a limited number of goals. He wants to kill your soul by a limited menu of three items — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life — but he has a variety of ways to get you there. These could be two different patterns of false teaching or just two different names for the same. This is the essence of the world attack, the license, the severing of how you are living from what you say you believe.

The Church’s Responsibility to Purity Itself

Again the majority of the members of the church at Pergamum did not hold to these false teachings, but they were still at fault some degree. The church is responsible for its own purity. If there is any kind of sexual immorality taking place and the church becomes aware of and those engaged in sin are not repentant, it is the church’s responsibility to expel those people from their midst. 1 Corinthians 5 makes this very plain: “Expel the evil man from among you. Do not even eat with him.” Paul says at the end of 1 Corinthians 5, “What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. Expel the wicked man from among you.” That was what the Pergamum church should have done, but they did not do it.

And so Christ gave them a warning: Repent or die. Look at verse 16, “Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.” For the Balaamites and the Nicolaitans themselves, if God would grant it to them, there is a still a way open of repentance. “If they would say, ‘I have been living an immoral life. I have not lived up to my calling as a Christian’ and they genuinely repent, then they will be forgiven.” He called on them to repent, to think differently, to make a U-turn, to live an entirely different kind of life, to come to different convictions based on the word of God, to see that the Holy Spirit is telling them to start living a holy life, one that truly honored and glorified God, and to “bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance.”

Christ’s Open Threat: Death to the Wicked

“But if you do not,” Jesus said, “I will soon come to you and fight against them with the sword of my mouth.” What a terrifying prospect, to have Jesus be your enemy as in a military encounter. Recently I have noticed local billboards and other media waging a campaign to educate the public about the danger of trains. This is necessary because some people try to get ahead of oncoming trains by running or driving across at the last minute. The message of the public service campaign is that the battle between you and train is unequal and you will lose. An average train engine weighs 150 tons; with cars, a train of average length around here would be about 4,000 tons. Even a heavier personal vehicle like pickup truck — weighing around 4 tons, depending on its load — is outweighed by about 1000:1. Now take into account the momentum of those 4,000 tons — it is almost unbelievable. (I will be geeky for a moment:) Momentum equals ½ mass x velocity squared. Big mass, velocity, and you get crushed if you try to compete with the train.

The battle between Jesus Christ and any created being is an infinitely greater mismatch than that. You do not want Christ to fight against you in any way. It is a terrifying thing. Think what happened to Ananias and Sapphira when they sinned. They simply dropped dead. When Jesus says, “Die,” you die. When He fights against you with the sword of His mouth, when He takes your life from you, you die. He can take anything from you that you value. That is His discipline. He can bring judgement. As Paul says, “Should we fight against Him? Are we stronger than He?”

Christ threatened this church with death. The heretics and their followers were directly threatened, but the warning was spoken to the entire church. The contagion of sin is so deadly, can spread so easily, that if we are not careful, we will get sucked into it too. The passage in 1 Corinthians 5 on church discipline tells us that “a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” It will spread if the church is not committed to holiness. Paul also says in Galatians 6:1, “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.”

Jesus Cannot Tolerate Any Evil Whatsoever!

Jesus will not tolerate any evil whatsoever. The whole witness of this church was threatened by sin, and if the church were enticed to evil, it would become worldly and corrupt and could no longer be Christ’s representatives in Pergamum. He would rather have fought against that church with the sword of His mouth than allow them to continue bearing His name in that community corrupted with evil and sin in their hearts.

Christ’s Call to Listen

Christ promises a reward to those who overcome: hidden manna and a secret stone. In every letter, to each church, as in verse 17, He said this, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Now faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word. I have said many times before that faith is the eyesight of the soul. What do we see with this eyesight? We see the holiness of Christ, but we also see ourselves in a true light. Hebrews 11:1 says “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, [but it is also] the conviction of things not seen.” The word, “conviction” in that verse gives the sense of being convicted in a court of law or seriously, deeply convicted by something in a sermon. Faith convicts us of the sin that is at work in our lives and in our hearts. We see sin in light of Christ’s holiness. Listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. We have the same dangers facing us today that the church had in Pergamum — perhaps in a different form or pattern — but it is, in truth, no different.

Christ’s Promise to the Overcomers

What has Christ promised? The promise is to those who overcome — to the conquerors, the ones who rise up, wage war, fight and overcome. That is the essence of holiness, the battle that Christ has given us. Paul says in Romans 8:13-14, “For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” If you are a child of God, the Holy Spirit will get you up every day, call you to put on your own spiritual armor, and lead you into battle against sin, the battle for holiness.

Now if you overcome: Verse 17 says, “To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.” The word “manna” hearkens back to the Exodus, referring to the bread that came down from Heaven which provided daily food and nourishment for the Israelites as they wandered in the desert. The manna in Revelation 2 is “hidden manna” — a secret, spiritual manna. Regarding this spiritual manna, we must believe what Jesus said in John Chapter 6: “I am the bread that came down from Heaven. If anyone feeds on me, he will live forever.” When we recognize that Jesus is all we need and we feed on him, feed on His death and His resurrection, we gain nourishment and strength. It is a hidden manna. We feed on Christ for the internal spiritual nature. If we will overcome, we will have a deeper, wider, more fulfilling relationship with Christ. Sin doesn't satisfy. For instance, viewing internet pornography is like drinking very salty water when one is very thirsty. As soon as the water is gone, he is immediately thirsty again, but worse than before. It does not satisfy. The beauty of our walk with Christ, the hidden manna, is that we eat and are completely satisfied. We gain a sense of joy and fulfillment. Not only that, but we also gain the sense that this is only the beginning, that Christ has so much more joy, so much feasting in Heaven, and these things are merely a foretaste. If we overcome, we will feed on the hidden manna and will be assured that we will be feasting in Heaven.

He says, “I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.” Some commentators liken it to the Urim and Thummim of the Old Testament. The priests had two polished stones, one white and one black. They would ask a yes/no question and roll out one of the stones. White meant “Yes”, and black meant “No”. These commentators see this white stone as representing Jesus as the fulfillment, the yes and the “Amen,” of all our hearts’ desires. Others see it as a diamond or other precious stone. Whatever it is remains to be seen, but it points to a new identity that Christ will give us as priests in His name — priests on Earth and the new universe that is coming. The hidden manna and the white stone and the new name all point to an eternity of a deep, richly satisfying relationship with Christ, enjoyed eternally in Heaven. But even now, we can have foretastes, if we will overcome.

I have been giving you applications throughout this sermon, so I will sum up a few here.

Come to Christ, Lest He Fight You with His Terrible Sword

First, the Gospel: I am pledged week after week to preach the Gospel to any who sit in these pews before me. I do not assume that you have experienced anything I have been talking about. But perhaps you were invited here today by someone you know, and you do not know Christ as your Lord and Savior. One motivation for seriously considering what I have been saying is fear: Jesus will come fight against all His enemies with the sword of His mouth. Judgement is coming: “It is appointed for each one of us to die, and after that, to face judgement.” But God sent Jesus to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins, and if you trust in Christ, believe in Him for the forgiveness of your sins, you will be cleansed and made a new creature. You can live a new life, you can walk in holiness of life, as I have been talking about. So come to Christ. Trust in Him.

Recognize the Terrible Danger of Worldliness

To the church, I say: Recognize the terrible dangers of worldliness. We cannot see Satan’s throne. I am not saying that Durham is a place where Satan himself dwells or where he has his throne. He is not omnipresent — fast, but not omnipresent. Only God is omnipresent. But there are dangers. The idea behind the expression “where Satan has his throne” is to look at your community and the world; see what is happening, what allurements to sin are popular and widely used here in Durham. What kind of wrong-headed persuasions are going out in our community? What kinds of things are being used to lure people to commit sin; how are they drawing people to sin? That is the Satanic persuasion going on in our culture.

Next week we will talk more about sexual sin, so I will not say much about it now. But begin thinking and praying. If you are addicted to pornography in any form, the advice is plain and clear. Go to James 4:4-10, which we will talk more about next week. The idea there is that friendship with the world is hatred toward God. Submit to God. Confess your sins to Him. Plead with Him for forgiveness. Ask Him to break the invisible chains of this sin that are have a hold on your heart.

Be Active in Each Other’s Lives

Finally, I urge you to be active in each others’ lives. I don't know whether these Balaamites, these Nicolaitans, were overtly sinning or whether there was a hidden clique in the group, but the fact is that we must be a church for one another. We must hold each other accountable. Ask good accountability questions, men with men, women with women, pairing up. Let us be people who hold each other accountable, who help each other to grow, who pray for one other and seek protection from this hidden conspiracy that is seeking to draw all of us into darkness.

Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for these seven churches. We thank you for their messages. We thank you for how they teach us the truth and guide us into all truth. Lord I pray that you would break the power of canceled sin and set the prisoners free. Father I pray, if there are any here struggling with hidden, secret patterns of sin, that they would find forgiveness and power to break those hidden chains through the word of God. Lord, I pray that you would give us a healthy fear of that sword that comes out of your mouth and that we would be willing to repent and walk in light of your holiness. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

For almost all of my Christian life, I've been drawn like a moth to a flame to accounts of the persecuted church. Very early in my Christian life, when I was still a student at MIT, I began to read accounts of the trail of blood that has led from Jerusalem through Judea and Samaria, and now for 20 centuries to the ends of the earth to advance the Kingdom of Christ. I have been transfixed by accounts of courageous brothers and sisters who faced the rage and might of one Roman emperor after another and who, with unflinching courage, testified to their faith in Jesus as Lord of heaven and earth, crucified and resurrected, who holds the keys of death and the grave. I have delighted in stories of these persecuted brothers and sisters. I have shared many of them from this pulpit.

I remember sharing some years ago the story of the Roman noble woman, Felicitas, who stood on trial for her life before a hostile Roman judge and she said, “While I live I shall defeat you and if you kill me, in my death I shall defeat you even more.” To think that she is my sister in Christ, that I actually get to be part of the same family of God with a woman like that. I have heard of 40 shivering Roman soldiers who, in the year 320, were members of the famed 12th Legion, called the Legion of Thunder, who were stripped naked and left to die in a frozen lake in Sebastia, in the modern day Turkey, because of their profession of faith in Christ. I have heard, as most of us have of Tertullian’s famous statement, “The blood of martyrs is seed for the church.” That is his version of “While we live we shall defeat you and if you kill us, in our death we shall defeat you even more.” I have yearned for these stories, to read about these martyrs and to drink in their faith, and their boldness, and their powerful testimony to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They have utter disregard, it seems, for personal safety and unconcern for their own suffering and death.

One story in particular that moved me came from the Romanian church from the era of Communist oppression under Ceaușescu. A Romanian pastor was arrested and dragged into a filthy, dark prison to be tortured until he should renounce his faith in Christ and surrender the names of all the Christians in their city, which he refused to do. Despite the savage beatings they gave him day and night, he would not surrender his brothers and sisters in Christ, and he certainly would not surrender his faith in Christ. When they saw that he would never yield, they sadistically took a different tactic, arresting and bringing his teenage son into the torture chamber with him. When the pastor saw his son, he became terrified in a way that he had not been in all the weeks that they had been beating him. They screamed that they would beat his son before his eyes until he renounce Christ and betrayed his fellow Christians.

When they began their savage beating, the pastor began to waver. He begged them to stop, but like wolves seeing blood on the snow, they became more motivated and more enraged and more vicious. The son was clearly being beaten to his death. The man could bear it no longer and cried out for them to stop, saying he would give them whatever they wanted. Upon hearing this, the son begged him with the little strength he still had left, “I’m ready to die and be with Jesus. Please don't make me the son of a traitor.” This gave the father strength to endure; though the son was beaten to death, the father did not renounce his faith in Christ or surrender his brothers and sisters in Christ.

These stories sparkle like diamonds scattered along the trail of redemptive history. They give us hope, they give us power, they give us conviction and shame for sin. It is hard, I think, for us as healthy Christians to read these and compare it with our own levels of boldness and willingness to suffer, and not to feel a sense of conviction and shame. But in a healthy way, they make us want to be more bold, more faithful, with the short time that we have left. They make us want to suffer for Jesus more than we have ever done before, if He would grant us the privilege. These stories have flowed right down to the present day and they are going on right now in the world around us; we know more and more about the persecuted church.

Knowing that I was going to preach on this small persecuted church of Smyrna, I have been saturating myself in these accounts over the last number of weeks. I have been reading books like Extreme Devotion, which is the sequel to an earlier book called Jesus Freaks which was put out as a very powerful account of martyrs dating back to the beginning of the church. I have read portions of a book called By their Blood, which is account of 20th century martyrs for Christ organized geographically around the world. Last night, at about 11:30, I finished watching Nik Ripken's documentary called “The Insanity of God”.

Nik Ripken is an amazing man. After he and his wife lost their son to disease while on a mission field — it was not a case of persecution but definitely they would have had better medical care if they hadn't gone on the mission field — and he died. Ripken reached a certain crisis of his own faith and began asking the question, “Is it all real?” He asked not from a doctrinal but experiential standpoint — is Christianity real? Is Christ risen from the dead with transforming powers, that are at work now in lives around the world. In his quest, he was drawn to the persecuted church; he felt a right instinct that he would get the answer there and his quest has led him all over the world. It began with an opportunity to go with the Red Cross to Somalia for a month.

The bloody streets of anarchy in that dark country, country, he said, was the closest place to hell he had ever been on earth or probably ever would be. The terror was real as aggressive Muslim warlords unleashed young men, teenage warriors, with vehicles that had machine guns welded to the roofs, and they just scattered terror everywhere they went. Everyone was terrified of these people but especially Christians, whom they specifically targeted for death. Ripken met a group of significant Somalian evangelical church leaders, and they befriended each other. They opened themselves up to him — they prayed together and shared communion. He said that they were partaking in communion as if it were their last supper, which turned out to be the case, since over the next year all of them were dead.

Ripken moved on in his search to Russia, where he began interviewing church leaders who had suffered bitter persecution in prison by the KGB during the era of the Soviet Union. One man had been arrested for pastoring a secret church, which got a little too large — in persecuted countries you're not looking for a mega church. They stay small, because once it gets to a certain level it will attract the attention of the state apparatus, and that is what happened to him. He was arrested, thrown in prison — a very severe prison, the kind reserved for the worst criminal elements in Russia. He was beaten again and again by the guards. But every morning when he woke up, he would stand and sing in his cell — what Ripken called his heart song, a Russian hymn that was his favorite. He would sing the same one every morning, in a loud voice, bringing jeers and derision from these hardened criminals. They would try to throw things at them and yell at him — they were rejecting him — but he would sing this song every morning.

One day, the prison guards found a significant portion of scripture in his cell, and they dragged him out, clearly intending to beat him to his death at a post in the courtyard, where these kinds of things happen all the time. At that point something amazing happened. All of these male prisoners, 1500 of them, stood up in their cells and began singing the song he had been singing for months, in a united voice. The guards let go of this pastor and looked at him wondering and asking, “Who are you? What kind of man are you?” like he had electric shock on him. And he said, “I am a Christian, I am a son of the living God.”

Ripken's travels took him to China, where he was led into the secret assembly of house church leaders — the church in China knows all about vicious persecution at the hands of Communist government leaders. 40% of the leaders of the house churches in China have been imprisoned at least three years. They call it their seminary. That is where they go to learn to be pastors. The church in China, though, has thrived in persecution. The Communists took over in 1948 and expelled western missionaries, and estimates put the size of the Protestant in church in China at somewhere between 400,000 to 700,000 people. In 1983, when China began to open again to the west, Christian leaders in the west wondered if there would be any Christians at all in China. Imagine the stunned surprise of the evangelical world to find out estimates at that point were well over 10 million believers in Christ. Now, the number stands at 10 times that — maybe over a hundred million evangelical believers in China — so the church has flourished in persecution.

Ripken interviewed these house church leaders, and they peppered him with questions about the rest of the world. They honestly wanted to know if the story of Jesus had made it to any other country, or was it it just in China? That was the level of their ignorance of what was going on around the world. They were delighted to find out that there were Christians in other countries, delighted to find out that it extended to places all over the earth, but they asked, are any of them being persecuted as we are? So Ripken started telling the stories that he had already been developing, especially in Somalia, and they sat there for two hours, listening to his stories about Somalia and other places, like they were statues carved from stone; they didn't move, like they were hardly breathing.

The next morning, he was awakened to the sound of people crying out, and he thought the police had found them and were dragging them out, but discovered that they were all praying, with their hands lifted up, praying fervently. He couldn't understand any of the Mandarin that they were speaking, but he heard this one word over and over: “Somalia, Somalia, Somalia.” He found out from his translator that they were so moved by the stories of persecution in Somalia that they had committed to get up one hour earlier than they are already were getting up to pray for the persecuted church in Somalia and around the world for the rest of their lives. They began that morning.

The final story that Ripken zeroed in on was a man that he called the “toughest man I have ever met.” He would not say where this man was from. But they showed a map of central Asia and right in the center was Afghanistan more lit up than the other countries around. He said that this man had fought with other Muslim warriors in his country against an invading army that had come in. It was not hard to figure out that he was talking about the Russians who had invaded. This man was a Mujahideen leader who would led a cadre of fighters in the mountains of Afghanistan in the name of Allah. He stopped counting the number of soldiers he'd killed with his own hands, bloody deaths, at 150, probably many more than that.

In the years that followed that war, he had recurring nightmares of his hands soaked in blood. In his nightmare, he was trying to wash his hands and he could never get the blood off no matter what he did. He tried scrubbing his hands with sand. Nothing would change. And then it got even worse. He started having visions during the day of his hands bloody, all the time. Then one night he had a different dream. And it was a dream of a man radiant in white, radiant in light with nail marks in His hands, in His feet, and wound in His side and scars on His forehead. And He said, “I am Isa,” which is Arabic for Jesus. “I am the Messiah and if you search for me, you will find me. I am the only one who can remove the blood from your hands.” There were no missionaries and no Christians in that country, nowhere to turn, but scraps of the gospel message got to him sufficiently. He did come to Christ, and then he felt strongly led by Christ to start reaching out to the former warriors, who were now fighting a different war.

He went into the mountains and found some of the soldiers that used to fight with him. But when they emptied his backpack and found Bibles in there, they immediately started to beat him and were ready to kill him right there on the spot. What he didn't know was one of them had come to a secret faith in Christ like Nicodemus, and he spoke up for this man and saved his life. He got him out of there on the pretext of saying, “We can trace his contacts, who is getting him the Arabic Bibles. Then we can get them all.”  When they considered that, they let him go. This man is now continuing his evangelistic ministry in the mountains of his country.

Ripken’s final and main point in his documentary, “The Insanity of God”, is this: the gospel continues to be authenticated, proven to be true by what people are willing to suffer for Christ.

As we come to Revelation 2:8-11, we come to an account of a suffering church, the church of Smyrna. I think to some degree, Jesus’ letter to that church stands in front of all Christians for all time. Effectively, Jesus is asking, “What am I worth to you? What are you willing to suffer to take my gospel message to people who are not yet converted?” What are we willing to suffer to witness to this resurrecting power?

Jesus said very plainly in John 12:24, “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it [brings forth much fruit].” Godly men and women, boys and girls from the beginning of the church have been willing to pay the price to advance the gospel from the era of the Roman persecution right on to our present day. This church in Smyrna was one of the earliest example of a church crushed by Rome — crushed by the devil, crushed by false Jews who claimed to be Jews, but really weren't because they were rejecting Christ and were of the “Synagogue of Satan.”

One of the sweetest fragrances in the ancient world was myrrh. Of course you have heard of it — it was used for burials and was stunningly costly. It was present at both Jesus’ birth —  one of the gifts of the Magi — and at His death, when He was wrapped up in those grave clothes.

The word “smyrna” is used in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, to refer to the Hebrew word “myrrh.” Myrrh is a resinous substance, a natural gum that bleeds from the myrrh tree when it's sliced, wounded. People harvesting myrrh slice wounds in the branches, and allow the sap to bleed out. After it bleeds out, then it immediately becomes hard and glossy and forms itself in these sticky balls. Then those gummy balls of myrrh are crushed or burned to release the fragrant aroma.

This is an apt picture of a small faithful church in Smyrna: a beautiful living parable of the suffering church throughout history. The church is wounded, it bleeds, it is crushed, it is burned, and it gives off this beautiful fragrance for the glory of God. God uses these sufferings and this incredible fragrance to purify His church and to advance it, to make progress in the internal journey of holiness and the external journey of gospel advance. He does it by suffering. It seems a paradox but the more the church is persecuted in this world the purer and stronger it becomes. It is a lesson that we who are so used to a comfortable relationship with the surrounding world in 21st century America would do well to take to heart.

In this brief letter from Jesus Christ to Smyrna there is not a single word of criticism of the church. There is only a command to be faithful unto death and many encouragements from Christ. None of this was an accident. To some degree Christ is always putting His churches on display. Remember the image from Revelation 1 when Jesus is moving through the seven golden lamp stands: He is in His priestly robe, ministering to these seven churches, which are on lamp stands on a platform. In Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in Heaven.”

Jesus set the church at Smyrna up on a pedestal and put it on display. He wants everyone to see them, not just their surrounding neighbors, and not even just their own generation. The Holy Spirit authored this letter and gave it to us, and we are told “He who has an ear, let him hear” what the Spirit says to the churches. Their testimonies echo through 20 centuries of church history and encourage us today. The suffering of that local church or any local church is never an accident. It does not mean that Christ has lost His power or that He does not love that church anymore. It does not mean that Satan has outwitted Him or outflanked Him on the battlefield. Not at all. Christ was intentionally setting Smyrna up on a pedestal to shine in that region.

What was then the city of Smyrna is now called Izmir. I have a good friend who ministered in Izmir. He will be preaching to you on Easter Sunday when I will be in Cameroon. He has been faithful there in Izmir, and many other are witnessing in that area as well. It is five miles up the coast and due north from Ephesus. It is an ancient city, established perhaps as early as 3000 BC. Smyrna had long been a staunch, loyal ally of Rome. They even won a contest in that area to build a temple to the Emperor Tiberius in the year AD 25, so their loyalty to Caesar was a matter of both civic pride and prosperity. They were very loyal to the cult of Rome there in Smyrna. It was a beautiful place located right on the coast; a great port. We have no idea how the church in Smyrna was planted, no record of it in the book of Acts, but in Acts 19 it says, “The entire region of Asia Minor heard the word of God,” from Paul’s ministry in Ephesus. That is probably where it came from.

Now look at versus 8-9. It says, “To the angel of the church in Smyrna, write: These are the words of Him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again: ‘I know your afflictions and your poverty — yet you are rich!’” The word for “afflictions” here in the original language means “pressure,” literally crushed. Jesus begins his letter here to them by speaking of their afflictions. This is their time of testing, and it will get worse. What are the reasons for these afflictions? First and foremost, their commitment to Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords; second, their refusal to submit to the fanatic cult of Rome and to burn incense to Caesar; third, the presence of this “Synagogue of Satan” which we will talk about in a moment — Jews there were slandering Him and persecuting Him and that is why they were having trouble.

Here we see a major theme which will carry throughout the book of Revelation, not just here in the letters to the seven churches — Christ and Caesar, the battle between Christ and Rome. The battle is joined vigorously at this point. Things had gotten much worse when the Emperor Domitian had declared it to be a capital offense in Asia Minor to refuse to offer the annual sacrifice of incense to the Emperor. This burning of incense to the Emperor was a declaration of open loyalty to Rome. He demanded it of all the citizens of that region in the world. They went to a specific temple to be observed burning a small pinch of incense while saying, “Caesar is Lord,” and then received a certificate. If they did not have that certificate they were liable to punishments, even to the point of death. Obviously, this was the essence of the affliction that Smyrna faced, for their loyalty to King Jesus would not allow them to worship Caesar as a God or say the slogan, “Caesar is Lord.” They said instead, “No Jesus is Lord.” So it came down to a simple choice, Christ or Caesar, and they would not yield.

Caesar threatened physical death, but Jesus (ultimately God) threatens eternal death and hell. We are told in several places in the Gospels, “Do not fear those who kill the body and after that have nothing more they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who has the power to destroy both soul and body in hell. Yes I tell you fear him.” To burn the incense, all that was required was to say, “Caesar is Lord”, but Christians could never do that, they could not violate their faith. They would only say, “Jesus is Lord.” This brought them into great affliction. The surrounding citizens would see this as a disgraceful lack of patriotism which, if it went unchecked, could threaten the city's special relationship with Rome.

Along with this, as I've mentioned, is Jewish opposition to the gospel. There was, as Jesus said, here “a synagogue of Satan.” In verse 9, He says, “I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not but are a synagogue of Satan.” The Jews as a group had been given an exemption from needing to burn the incense to Caesar. The Jews exploited their privilege and used it against this hated sect of the “Nazarenes,” as they called Christians. They curried favor with the Gentile overlords by luring the Christians into the temptation to deny their faith in Christ, whereupon they would have them in one sense. But if they refused to burn then they would turn them in to the authorities. They would speak about it, hence the word “slander.”

Jewish hostility to the Gospel happened in Jesus’ lifetime. The Gospel of John in particular makes it plain that Jesus dealt with Jewish leaders who rejected his claim to be the Messiah, the Son of God. They would not believe in Him and so He was rejected by His own people. “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.” We see it also in Paul’s life and ministry, in the book of Acts — everywhere, it seemed, Paul went, he faced this. He went first to the Jews, to the synagogue, then there would be division. The Jews would start kicking up trouble for Paul and eventually would get him expelled from the city; if not, they were trying to get him killed. Some Jews even took a vow of starving themselves until they could murder Paul — that was the level of commitment they had. This Jewish opposition to the Gospel spread way into the second century AD and even beyond in terms of Smyrna, for when their godly leader Polycarp was burned at the stake, it was the Jews who were the most eager to gather the wood for the burning.

Poverty

Jesus mentions four specific trials for the church at Smyrna: poverty, slander, prison and death. First, he mentions poverty. Look at verse 9: “I know your poverty,” He says. Undoubtedly this refers to economic poverty that came on them because they were Christians. Even during Jesus’ lifetime, the Jewish authorities had said that if anyone said that Jesus was the Messiah he would be put out of the synagogue. What that meant was disconnection from society. They probably then could not buy or sell or make a living and so it became immediately difficult to live in that situation. The same mentality, then, must have gone on in the Gentile world. Those who did not play ball or do the pagan thing the way that their other Gentile neighbors did would be ostracized. They would not be able to make a living. Beyond this, the persecution would impoverish them — being arrested and put in prison, they could not make money and became a drain at that point. As it says in Hebrews chapter 10 about some other persecuted Christians,“You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.” So that's the nature of their poverty because they were Christians they were poor.

Slander

Second, slander: Jesus said, “I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a Synagogue of Satan.” The word “slander” has to do with a false accusation. The Jews were turning the Christians in, providing their names to the authorities and that is how they knew whom to arrest. They were doing the work of the devil. The word “satan” means, in Hebrew, accuser; the Jews were doing that accusing work. Also, Satan is a liar and the father of lies.

Prison

Third, we have prison. He says in verse 10, “I tell you the devil will put some of you in prison to test you and you will suffer affliction for 10 days.” They lost their freedom as a result of these slanders. They were put in Roman prisons, which were horrible places — they were dark, they stank, there was no food, no water, no medical treatment, nothing. It was horrible. There was no habeas corpus — the authorities did not need to give any probable cause for incarcerating them. There was no requirement for a speedy trial, There was no possibility of a bond that would let them out until a trial happened. In many cases they were thrown in jail; in effect the jailers threw away the key and forgot about their prisoners. They may not have executed them but effectively their lives were over.

Death

Finally death: He says in verse 10, “Be faithful even to death and I will give you the crown of life.” Often throughout the history of the early church, death at the hands of legal authorities was common. “The blood of martyrs is seed for the church.” Christians died so that others might spring up from their bloody witness. We will see this later in Revelation 12:11. The Christians — courageous bold Christians — overcame Satan “by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.”

Probably the most famous story of a martyr in the ancient world was that of Polycarp. Polycarp was the bishop (or overseer or elder) of the church there in Smyrna. Church tradition says that he had been discipled by the Apostle John. By the year 156 AD, he was a very old man. He was arrested. He had fled the city at the begging of his church. They did not want him to be arrested, though he was perfectly willing. But he complied and went out of the city. However, his pursuers tracked him down and found him, and he made no effort to flee at that point. In fact, he invited his captors in for a meal — showed them hospitality, fed them, gave them drink — and asked if he might have some time to pray. They granted it to him and he prayed for two hours. Those were some patient guards. As a matter of fact they were very favorably disposed toward him. The entire time that they drove him to the amphitheater they were pleading with him to recant. They wanted to save his life — he had a great reputation in that community.

He was pulled up in front of the proconsul in the amphitheater, who said, “Respect your years, swear by Caesar, burn the incense, revile Christ and I'll set you free.” Polycarp said very famously, “For 86 years I have served Him and he has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my king who saved me?” It is one of the most famous statements ever made by a martyr. The proconsul said, “I have wild beasts.” Polycarp said, “Bring them. You get to choose how I die, I'm going to die today.” The proconsul replied, “If you disdain the beasts I will burn you with fire.” Polycarp said, “You threaten a fire that burns for a little while then it is extinguished, but God threatens a fire that burns forever. But what are you waiting for?”

So immediately the trial was over, and the proconsul ordered him to be burned. He refused to be fastened to the stake but instead prayed, “Oh Lord Almighty God, the Father of your beloved Son Jesus Christ, through whom we have come to know you, I thank you for counting me worthy this day an hour of sharing in the cup of Christ among the number of your martyrs.” The fire was lit but a gust of wind blew the flame away from him, greatly increasing his torture, whereupon a sympathetic guard ran him through with a sword and ended his life.

A Timeless Call from Christ to Suffer for Him

This is the kind of witness that Christ was calling on Christians to make there in Smyrna, and indeed, around the world. This is really a timeless call from Christ to suffer for Him. Look at verse 10: “Be faithful, be faithful to me. Keep your promise to me.” “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you crown of life.” Suffering is foundational to our Christian faith. We talk about the internal journey of holiness and the external journey of gospel advance. Neither one happens without suffering. It is impossible to make any progress in holiness and any progress in spreading the gospel without suffering. “Unless a kernel of wheat falls in the ground and dies it remains a single seed. If it dies it brings forth much fruit.”

A Mark of a True Church

This is the mark, therefore, of a true church. The more faithful a church is, the more likely it will be to suffer persecution. In the parable of the seed in the soils, the rocky soil hears the word, receives it with joy — has a happy initial reaction to the gospel — but when trouble or persecution because of the word comes they quickly fall away. A church made up of cowards is no church at all.

Our Temptation to Compromise

Here in America, we are overwhelmingly tempted to compromise. What about us? How is the church in America? How is the church in Durham? How is this church, First Baptist Church in Durham, on this? Christianity is becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States. I am sure you have noticed. Our views on the exclusivity of Christ being the only way of salvation seems to be incredibly arrogant to people. Our views on gay marriage and transgenderism are seen ironically to be sick, mentally ill, and hateful. Our views on the inerrancy of scripture is laughable in the light of science’s advances. Our views on sexual purity, the unlawfulness of all sex outside marriage is seen to be prudish, and outmoded, and ridiculous. Our commitment to life contrary to abortion and euthanasia seems to make us hateful to the freedom of women to make choices and the freedom of others to die with dignity. The list goes on and on. We are under constant assault towards sin and compromise. The biggest question is, will we be faithful to share Christ with lost people? All these other issues are small compared to that. Are we willing to speak up to a lost person and say something about Jesus this week? We seem to be ashamed of Christ. In Mark 8:38, Jesus said, “If anyone is ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, will the Son of man be ashamed when he comes in His Father's glory with the angels?”

Christ’s Clear Command to Smyrna

Christ gives comfort to his suffering church. Look what he says in verse 10. He gives them a clear command, “Do not be afraid of what you're about to suffer. I tell you the devil will put some of you in prison to test you and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful even to the point of death and I will give you the crown of life.” Jesus is saying, in effect, “Be willing to die for me. Be faithful even if they're killing you.” This is the hardest command, I think, Jesus could ever give. “Greater love has no one than this: that he lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus is saying, “I’m asking greatest love of you, that you lay down your life for me if called to do it.” I believe this command is timeless, not just for this church at Smyrna, but for all of us.

He says, “Do not be afraid of what you're about to suffer.” Faith and fear are frequently juxtaposed as opposites in the New Testament. Faith drives out fear. Do not fear and think about this, what you are about to suffer but have not been begun yet. And think about that. A suffering that has not come yet but is coming — that is fearful, is it not? It is the kind of thing we fear. “Sometime this week you will suffer greatly. Don't know when.” How would you go on? But don't be afraid of what you're about to suffer.

Faith Drives Out Fear…the Stronger Our Faith, the Bolder We Become

You know that the devil wants to harm you. Others have already been thrown in prison. The devil is coming after you. Your fears of the unknown rise and take your imagination to high levels. You start to have trouble breathing, and you break out and sweat, and you start being anxious. Do not do that, do not be afraid. Psalm 56:3-4 says, “When I am afraid, I will trust in you, I will trust in you. In God whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me?”

The strongest words in the Bible on this are found in Isaiah 8, which tells us to fear God more than we fear anything man can do. Isaiah 8:12-14 says, “Do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it. The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, He is the one you are to fear, He is the one you are to dread, and he will be a sanctuary for you.” So the more we see the invisible, eternal, majestic enthroned God, the less we will be afraid of people. Ultimately we need to focus on Christ above all. Look what he says about himself at verse 80: “These are the words of him who is the first and the last.” It is a claim to deity.

Christ is the Eternal God

Jesus is saying, “I am the point of history. I am the beginning of history, I'll be the last of history.” It is the very thing God the Father had claimed in Revelation 1:8, when he said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega.” Jesus is claiming deity. He is the first and the last and nothing can stop his purposes from happening. The flow of history will go on and nothing will stop it. And also as the first and the last, he's the same, as it says in Hebrews 13:8, “The same yesterday and today and forever.” Focus on the timeless unchanging Jesus.

 Christ is the Death Conqueror

Verse 8 says, “These are the words of him who is the First and the Last who died and came to life again.” He is the death conqueror. “I hold the keys of death and Hades.” I love that. He said, “I died and behold, I'm alive.” Isn't that beautiful? “Behold. Just look at me I'm alive. What are you afraid of?” “I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me will live even though he dies. And whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” Hebrews 2 says, “He died, so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death — that is the devil — and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” We are set free from fear of death, or should be. So what are we afraid of?

Some years ago I preached an Easter message from Hebrews 2. I gave a series of quotes of saints about death and how we need to fear nothing at all. Spurgeon said this, “For these saints, to die has been so different a thing from what they expected it to be, so lightsome, so joyous; they have been so unloaded of all care, have felt so relieved instead of burden, that they have wondered whether this could be the monster that they had been afraid of all their days. They find it a pin's prick, when they feared it would be a sword thrust; it is the shutting of the eye on earth, and the opening of it in heaven.” Thomas Goodwin, Puritan pastor said, “Ah! Is this dying? This? How have I dreaded as an enemy this smiling friend?” William Preston said, “Blessed be God! Though I shall change my place, I shall not change my company.” Charles Wesley said, “I shall be satisfied with thy likeness… satisfied, satisfied!” He said that over and over — that is a good way to die. Adoniram Judson, who suffered more than we can possibly imagine in the spread of the gospel, was sick with the illness that would take him out of this world. He said, “I am not tired of my work, neither am I tired of the world; yet when Christ calls me home, I shall go with the gladness of a boy bounding away from school.” William Everett simply said, “Glory… Glory… Glory…” for 25 minutes, until he was finally out of this world. Christ has the power to free us from the fear of death.

Christ Knows Our Suffering in Detail

He knows our suffering in detail. He says to the church in Smyrna, “I know.” “I know your afflictions, your poverty. I know the slander of the Jews.” “[I am] close to the broken hearted and I save those who are crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18). “I am acutely aware of how many tears you have wept in prison or for those in prison.” Psalm 56:8 says, “You have kept count of my tossing. You put my tears in your bottle. Are they not written in your book?” “I am very aware of what you're going through.

Christ is Sovereign Over Our Sufferings

Not only is Christ aware of our sufferings, he orchestrated them. He is not saying, “Oh, you're suffering. Well, let's make the best of it.” He orchestrates the afflictions of his people to put them on display, and he controls them. Look at verse 10: “Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you … for 10 days.” It is measured, who gets put in prison and how long they will suffer. “Some of you will go in prison, not all of you, and it will be a narrow time, ten days.” Not literally 10, I don't think but just a very short amount of time. 1 Corinthians 10:13 “God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”

Christ is Purposeful in Our Sufferings

Christ will not allow the devil to do more than God in Christ wills, and He is purposeful in our sufferings. “He [Satan] will put you in prison, it says to test you.” In Luke 22, Jesus says, “Simon Simon, Satan has asked to sift you [all of them] as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” And so these trials, 1 Peter 1, “have come so that your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes, though refined by fire — may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” Praise, glory, and honor for yourself, yes (Romans 2), but also praise, glory and honor for Jesus for saving you; and also for other people who are saved when they watch how you suffer.

Temporarily Poor, Yet Eternally Rich

Christ has rewards for the suffering church. He says in verse 9, “I know your afflictions and your poverty — yet you are rich!” Isn't that beautiful? You appear poor, but you are actually rich. Later he will say to the church at Laodicea, “You appear rich. You are actually destitute.” To this suffering church, Jesus is clearly referring to the inestimable treasure waiting for these martyrs when they get to heaven. Heavenly treasure. What is the essence of that treasure? Rewards from God, which I believe is praise from God. Meditate on that — praise from God! He will praise you. He will honor you. He will say, “Well, done you good and faithful servant, you are faithful unto death.” He will praise you.

And he talked about this crown: “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.” It is an emblem of achievement and of honor. “You will not be hurt at all by the second death, which is hell. You are not going to go to hell; you will be freed from that. You will go to heaven, and I will give you emblems of honor, and you will take those crowns and put them at my feet, and you will give me full credit for all of your honor and glory, but it will be yours to give because I will give it to you. I will give you a crown of life.”

I do not believe all Christians will be equally honored in heaven. Not at all. If I keep on living the kind of life that I am living right now, I will not receive these kinds of honors. Church history is filled with people who have suffered far more than me or most of you. Remember John and James said, “Grant that we may sit at your right and your left in your kingdom.” That is a bold thing to ask: "I want to sit right next to you in your kingdom.” And Jesus replied, “You do not know what you're asking. Can you drink from the cup I am going to drink?” We see how it is linked to suffering: the more we suffer, the more honor. The brothers and sisters who suffer the most will be honored the most — but we will all be perfectly happy in heaven. Perfectly happy, but not equally honored. Thus Jesus said, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Trust in Christ for the Forgiveness of Your Sins

Here are some applications beyond the ones I have already given. The first and greatest has to be to make an appeal directly to any of you who are outside of Christ, non-Christians who are here today. These letters to the seven churches were written from Jesus to Christians, and so as I said last week, and I will continue saying, if you are not a Christian you are listening into somebody else's mail. But it could be yours if you will just repent and trust Christ. God sent his son into the world to live a sinless life and to die an atoning death on the cross that you and me, sinners like us can be forgiven. Remember that man, that had that blood on his hands, he couldn't get it off. Jesus can cleanse us and purify us of all our sins, so trust in Christ.

Understand the Main Message Here: In this World You Will Be Hated

Second, understand the main message here: In this world you will have trouble, but take heart and overcome the world through faith in Christ. The more courageously and boldly we testify to Christ, the more the gospel advances. James Merritt, a pastor in Georgia and president of the southern Baptist convention, said this a number of years ago: “90% of evangelical Christians in America, who are effectively born in the church, raised in the church, married in the church, living in the church, raise their family in the church, get old in the church and die in the church. 90% of them never open their mouths and say anything to a lost person about Jesus.” 90%. The Chinese Christians, when asked in Ripken's documentary about remaining silent in the face of persecution, said they believe that when you are being persecuted and opposed and you remain silent and choose not to say anything about Jesus, you have identified with the persecutors. It is light and darkness, good and evil, life and death. You have associated with the enemies. If you are silent, you need to speak.

Learn About and Pray for the Persecuted Church

Third, learn about and pray for the persecuted church. Remember the Chinese Christians, who added one hour a day praying for the persecuted church in Somalia. It says in Hebrews 13:3, “Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.” Study about the persecuted church. Read Extreme Devotion or Jesus Freaks; or get “The Insanity of God,” this DVD and watch it. Learn about Voice of the Martyrs and Persecution Project, and other groups that are putting the persecuted church more in focus to make people more and more aware. Learn about what is going on in the world. The worst persecuting nation on earth is North Korea, a communist country. However, 41 of the 50 worst nations for persecution on earth are dominated by Islam.

Understand the Unity of the Church

 Fourth, understand the unity of the church. We are one body. 1 Corinthians 12:26: “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.” We are not different churches; we are a part of the suffering of persecuted churches. We show by prayer and by concern and by learning that we are a part of it. “When one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” When those brothers and sisters get huge, amazing crowns in heaven and we don't get them for suffering in the same way, we will be so thrilled and happy with them in heaven. Why? Because there is no bad stuff in heaven — no discontent, no pride, no arrogance. We will celebrate the achievement of those brothers and sisters in Christ, but the more we do that now, the better. Let's honor those who are worthy of honor.

Delight in the Glory of a Church Advancing by Blood

Fifth, delight in the glory of a church that advances by the blood of its messengers. In Colossians 1:24, Paul says, “I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.” There is nothing lacking in the blood of Christ for atonement, but what is lacking is the application of the atonement to the elect who are as yet unconverted. And who does the persecuting in the world? Unconverted people. That makes sense, doesn't it? Unconverted people are in two categories: unconverted elect and unconverted non-elect. We will never know who the non-elect are in this world. Never. We always have good hopes that the persecuting people might some day come to Christ. So let's delight in the glory of that.

Give Money to the Persecuted Suffering Church

Sixth, let's give money to the persecuted suffering church. You have an opportunity to do that this very week. In your bulletins, there is a story about a famine in East Africa. The United Nations says this is the greatest humanitarian crisis since World War Two. There are certain criteria for labeling starvation in crisis, and what they are seeing is way beyond their markers. Five nations in particular, are starving to death. They are Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Nigeria, and Kenya.

The primary of cause of famine in four of the countries is Muslim extremism. The Muslims are trying to take over countries like Somalia and all that, and people cannot work. There is also a drought currently. This is a direct issue of the persecuted church suffering and unable to eat or even live. Baptist Global Relief — BGR — is there. You can give this afternoon to them to relieve our brothers and sisters who are starving to death in East Africa.

Be Ready to Suffer Yourselves

Finally, I urge you to be ready to suffer yourselves. The small persecution is not insignificant, Jesus said, “Blessed are you when people insult you and falsely say things against you.” That is not a minor thing. Be bold. Share Christ with someone this week. Get outside your comfort zone. Realize the comfort zone is not from Christ but from Satan. Get outside the comfort zone and share Christ.

Close with me in prayer. Father, thank you for the things that we've learned about the suffering church. Thank you for the examples, the stories of their courage, their boldness and faith. Thank you, oh, Lord, for the church at Smyrna and the way that they were exhorted by Christ to be faithful unto death. Help us to be willing to be faithful, to deny ourselves daily and take up the cross daily. Help us to fight the good fight of holiness, of private holiness, of purity, so that we can get stronger to fight the external battle of witnessing. Give us strength and courage, Lord. Thank you for our brothers and sisters in Christ. We pray that you'd strengthen those in Somalia and those in North Korea and those in China and other places that are being persecuted for their faith. Give them strength. Help their faith not to fail. And help us, oh Lord, to be more faithful in praying for them in Jesus' name.

If, at the end of Simon Peter’s life, we could have asked him to look back and identify the hardest moment of his life, he would surely have zeroed in on the night that Jesus was arrested, and specifically that moment when he denied Jesus three times. At the beginning of the night, when Jesus predicted that they would all fall away on account of him, Peter asserted, “Even if all fall away in account of you, I never will.” Clearly he was full of self-trust, self-confidence which carried over to Gethsemane with prayerlessness — he fell asleep, even though Jesus three times exhorted him to watch and pray, that he would not fall into temptation — “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak” — but, he did not listen.

Soon, he was drawn in through his own ego, his own pride, into a net that was far beyond anything he could handle; thus, three times he denied knowing Jesus, until finally, the rooster crowed. In Luke’s Gospel, we read that right at that moment, Jesus was passing by as he went from one place to another in his series of trials. He looked right at Simon Peter as the rooster was crowing. I cannot imagine what that must have felt like for Peter, seeing that look from Jesus, but I do know what he did. After that look, he ran away from that place of temptation and trial that was far beyond anything he could handle, and he went out and wept bitterly.

We do not know fully what was going on in Peter’s mind after he saw the physical evidence of the empty tomb, the resurrection on the third day, or after his encounter with Jesus in the upper room, but we can imagine. He must have been filled with joy at a certain level, but he also must have wondered, “How is it with me and Jesus? Am I still included? Am I forgiven? Is there a future for me? I see that there is great joy here in the resurrection but what about me? Am I out now, now that I have sinned?” Jesus had to do some work on Peter to restore him. In John 21, it says that three times, Jesus looked at Peter with those same eyes with which he looked at him that night and said, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?… Do you love me? … Do you love me?” Three times. It says that Peter was hurt because He asked; he replied, “Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you.”

As we come this morning to Revelation 2:1-7, the same thing could and should happen for many of us today. To some degree, as we sit under this text, we will sit under the searching gaze of Jesus, whose eyes are like blazing fire. “I am he who searches hearts and minds,” said Jesus. By this text, he will ask each one of us the same question that he asked Peter by the sea of Galilee: “Do you love me?” It is not enough for each one of us to say, “Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you.” We must ask a deeper question: “Do I love Christ more now than I did a year ago? What is the direction of my heart right now? What is the direction of my walk with Christ? Is my love for Christ growing and developing? Or is it stagnating or contracting? Is it shrinking under the constant onslaught of the world, the flesh, and the devil? And if my love for Christ is shrinking, if my love for Christ is dying, what can I do to be renewed to a healthy, vibrant, vigorous walk with Christ again? What can happen?” Beyond that, you might say, “How can I know what’s happening in my heart toward Christ?” In this probing text, we have seven verses from Revelation 2. I have prayed that Christ would search me and know me and know my heart, and see if there’s any wicked way in me; I think you ought to pray, each one of you for yourselves, this same thing. Ask this question, “Have I forsaken my first love or is my love for Christ growing and developing?”

Review: Revelation 1

First we must review to understand what is happening in Revelation 2. Last week we saw, in Revelation 1, the unveiling of Jesus Christ, of his majestic, glorious, powerful person, and his active vibrant ministry. We have these words spoken of Christ in Revelation 1:14-16: “His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. And his feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. And in his right hand, he held seven stars and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. And his face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.” That is John’s vision of the resurrected Christ. He is dressed like a priest with a robe down to his feet and a golden sash around his chest. He is walking in the midst of seven golden lampstands, holding seven stars in his right hand. These seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

We have a prophetic vision of the resurrected, glorified sovereign Christ actively ministering in the midst of seven churches — a priestly ministry of his constant vigilance over local churches and indeed, all over the world throughout all of human history, over all of redemptive history.

Historical Context

Let’s unfold some historical context: Revelation 2 and 3 are beginning this phase of the study of the Book of Revelation. These are Christ’s letters to the seven churches in the province of Asia Minor, which is modern-day Turkey. These were real local churches. Each had its own challenges and issues, strengths and weaknesses. These letters were specific messages for that time but they continue to be timeless lessons for all churches in all areas of church history. Each of the seven letters ends with the same exhortation, “He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches [plural].” That means we must carefully study each of these seven letters to draw in the meaning to understand what the Lord would say to us. The composite picture of these seven churches, the strengths and weaknesses and especially of what Christ thinks about them, His attitude toward them, is vital for us as a local church for our ongoing health. Here at First Baptist Church, Durham, North Carolina, in the second decade of the 21st century, what is Jesus saying to us? What do we need to hear in all of these seven letters?

The timelessness of these lessons comes from a number of aspects of Biblical truth. First is the timeless nature, the unchanging nature of Jesus Christ Himself. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8. It never changes. Second, their timelessness comes from the unchanging mission that He has given to every local church — the Great Commission of Matthew 28 where Jesus said, “Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” We discern there an internal journey of holiness resulting in an ongoing pattern of obedience to all of His commands — sanctification, discipleship — which flows out in an external journey of evangelism and missions in which we are making disciples in our own Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, even to the ends of the earth. That is timeless; it will not change. Those two tasks, those two journeys are still in front of us, and they are in front of every local church all over the world.

Third, the timelessness of these lessons comes from the unchanging nature of Satan’s attacks on local churches. He does the same things, attacking local churches, in every generation, physically, mentally and morally. Satan attacks the church physically through persecution at the hands of vicious, persecuting humans, especially evil governments like Caesar and Rome in John’s day and whatever the persecuting governments are in our day; and not only governments, but individuals can persecute as well. Satan attacks the church mentally, luring it toward false doctrine, false teaching, heresies, human philosophies, and world views. And Satan attacks the church morally by luring individuals into sin, into worldliness through lusts.

It is the same in every generation, and it is the same all over the world. Around the world, some brothers and sisters of ours are being viciously persecuted far more than we are, in which they are being incarcerated for their faith, or they are unable to hold down a job because they are Christians, or they are unable to buy and sell in that community, and so on. All over the world, churches must stand firm against false doctrine. That happens no matter where you are. There are always false teachers coming in. And all over the world we are drawn away from holiness to lust and this is going on all the time.

Thus, these are timeless lessons. The Book of Revelation, then, is a timeless call to Christians in every generation in every location to live openly and courageously for Jesus Christ. Bowing our knee to Christ as Lord and Savior, putting sin to death by the Spirit, testifying to the lost that Jesus is the only Savior that there is, standing courageously in the face of whatever reactions come to that testimony — that is what we are called to do.

The Apostle John who wrote these letters was in exile in Patmos at the end of the first century A.D. The Roman Empire was just approaching the zenith of its power. The Emperor Nero had begun overt persecutions of Christians but they were sporadic and limited to mostly to right around Rome. But his successor Domitian was extending this persecution as a worldwide policy throughout the Roman Empire. The battle between Christ and Caesar was joined by the time Revelation was written. Both Caesar and Christ are jealous kings who yearn for the full affection and loyalty of their subjects; there is no compromise between them. The whole Book of Revelation must be seen in light of that conflict — the escalating, organized persecution of the church. These letters to the seven churches make these very same issues plain to us. All seven of these letters are relevant for us and we need to listen to what the Spirit says to all seven of the churches. We will begin this morning by looking at the message to the church at Ephesus.

Christ’s Constant Vigilance is Absolutely Essential

Within this, we see Christ’s constant vigilance as a high priest. It is absolutely essential to us. We have the very powerful image of Jesus walking carefully and thoughtfully in the midst of these seven golden lampstands, reaching out his hand, working on trimming the wick or maybe pouring some more oil into the lamp, or doing something, making the fire burn brighter and hotter.

At the end of the Book of Revelation, we have a very clear image of the single universal church as the bride of Christ, the new Jerusalem. There is one Church in the end, the universal Church, the Body of Christ. But we have this plural word here, “churches.” “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” We do not interpret that to mean that Jesus has multiple brides. Rather, the churches are local assemblies of Christians that gather together, all the individual members of which, we assume, are part of the universal Church, the spiritual church through faith in Christ. The local churches feed the new Jerusalem. They feed the heavenly Zion, the heavenly Church, as they are healthy and doing the ministries God has called them to do. They are feeder systems. All local churches are temporary because there won’t be any local churches in heaven. But they are vital to the work of the building of the worldwide church of Jesus Christ.

Local churches get stronger or weaker depending on how they respond to the Satan’s three-pronged assault: assault on the body, assault on the mind, assault on the heart or the morals. We also learn from this first of the seven letters to the churches that local churches can be removed. The lampstand can be taken out as an act of judgment.

Christ ministers constantly to these lampstands and he is working to make them burn brighter and hotter in their locality. He tells us in the Sermon on the Mount, “You are the light of the world.” He lights a lamp and puts it up on its stand; He is yearning for these local churches to burn for the glory of God. Individual Christians who are genuinely born again who are justified by faith in Christ can never lose their salvation; that is absolutely, clearly taught. But local churches can be and are removed, and we must understand why that happens. We must be concerned about that and be zealous that it not happen to this church in our generation. I am personally jealous for First Baptist Durham, that we would be as healthy and vibrant and vital a church as we possibly can be.

Ephesus

Let’s dig in to try to understand this letter to the church of Ephesus. The city of Ephesus was the most prominent in Asia Minor; in effect, it was the capital of that province of Asia Minor since the governor resided there. Its population in New Testament times was between a quarter and a half million people. It was famous throughout the world for the Temple of Artemis of the Ephesians, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Because of its architectural grandeur and all the pagan worship, people came from all over that part of the world to Ephesus to worship Artemis of the Ephesians. John McArthur said this about Ephesus and the temple: “The temple was attended by numerous priests, eunuchs, and slaves. Thousands of priestesses, who were little more than ritual prostitutes, played a major role in the worship of Artemis. The temple grounds were a chaotic cacophony of priests, prostitutes, bankers, criminals, musicians, dancers, frenzied hysterical worshipers.” One ancient Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, was called the weeping philosopher because he declared that no one could live in Ephesus and not weep over its immorality. He was a pagan philosopher — that is how bad that city was.

What about the gospel there in Ephesus? Perhaps no Gentile city or Gentile church is as well known or has as much coverage in the pages of the New Testament as this church in Ephesus. Priscilla and Aquila, Jews who were expelled from Rome under an earlier persecution, came to Ephesus and began to share the gospel there. Soon, they were joined by a very zealous man named Apollos, who understood some aspects; but they brought him more in tune with what had happened through Jesus. Through these individuals, a foundation was beginning to be laid, which Paul then completed by his ministry. The apostle Paul had been thwarted in an earlier attempt to minister in that part of Asia Minor. Acts 16 tells us that on his second missionary journey, he could not go there because the Holy Spirit would not permit him to do so. The Spirit wanted him to cross to Philippi to minister in Macedonia, which he did. However, at the end of his second missionary journey, he went by very quickly and saw the strategic value of Ephesus. That was the first place he went on his third missionary journey, and he helped to build the church there.

It is quite possible that the other six churches were planted out of the ministry that Paul did for two and a half or more years. It says that everyone throughout the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord from that church in Ephesus.. Paul did amazing miracles there in Ephesus, driving back the power of Satan. One of my favorite stories about this is that of the seven sons of Sceva, Jews who went around trying to drive out evil spirits. They heard about what Paul was doing and they said to a demon-possessed man, “In the name of  Jesus, whom Paul preaches, [we] command you to come out.” … the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus, I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” Then the demon possessed man beat up those seven men and and they ran out naked and bleeding.

The name of Jesus was held in great honor and so also the Apostle Paul and his preaching. The effect of the preaching there was so powerful in driving back satanic darkness that people who owned some occultic scrolls that were very costly came and burned them. They were worth 50,000 laborers’ one-day wages — huge amount of money was burned. The gospel took solid root there in Ephesus. Many people came to faith in Christ. So many people were turning away from paganism that some makers of silver shrines, replicas of the temple, were losing business; they became angry and started making charges against Paul and against the Gospel. That started a great riot in Ephesus that went on for two hours. Most of the people did not even know why they were there — they were caught up in the mob mentality — and they chanted for two hours, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.”

In Acts 20, Paul gave a farewell address to the Ephesian elders in a great displays of pastoral ministry. If you are interested in vocational ministry, Acts 20 may be a home base for studying elements of a healthy pastoral ministry. He saw to it that they were thoroughly and well trained. After he left, he never returned there again, but he wrote the Epistle to the Ephesians, which is an incredible statement of Christian doctrine. Timothy, Paul’s protégé, his trainee, his son in the faith went to Ephesus and ministered. 1 and 2 Timothy were written into the context there in Ephesus.

As the years went on, the church in Ephesus continued to be the most influential church in that region of the world. According to church tradition, the Apostle John settled there after Timothy to pastor that church. Now, John is in exile in Patmos, off the coast of Asia Minor there for the ministry of the word of God.

We Begin with the Letter to the Church at Ephesus

The letter to the church at Ephesus begins in verse 1 with Christ’s self-identification. He says, “‘To the angel of the church in Ephesus write, ‘These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.’” We do not know exactly what “To the angel of the church in Ephesus” means. The word “angel” means messenger. It seems unlikely that Jesus would tell John, a human, to write a letter to an angel — that business would be handled in house between God and the angels. Typically, messages go from God to angel to Apostle or prophet to churches. Rather, the messengers are likely the pastors in those churches. Some commentators have said it may be the dominating spirit of the churches that seeks to be a witness to that community — that is difficult to understand — but we could at least say the elders or pastors of those churches. So we could read: “Write to these pastors, write to this pastor of the church in Ephesus.”

Christ’s Self-Identification

Christ identifies himself as the One who holds in His right hand the seven stars, who is walking among the seven golden lampstands. Holding the stars in His right hand represents His ownership of and authority over those seven churches and His protection of them. No one can snatch them out of His hand. His movement among the lampstands shows his active, intelligent, consistent, priestly ministry to the local churches. He says, “These are the words of…” This is how He is ministering to them, by speaking words. It is by the Word of God that Christ continues through the spirit to minister the local churches.

Then he commends the church of Ephesus. Look at verse 2-3; it says, “I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name and have not grown weary.” In these letters, Christ always begins with these words “I know,” or “I know you”, or most commonly, “I know your deeds.” “By their fruit, you will know them.” He begins with this comprehensive, perfectly detailed knowledge of each of these seven churches. He does not use a different Greek word that means “I am getting to know you” or “I am learning you.” No: “I know you. I know everything about you and I know your deeds, but also... [this will be relevant to this particular letter] I know the heart behind your deeds as well. I know everything about you completely.” That is very comforting to us, isn’t it? But it is also unsettling. For us who are Romans 7 Christians, i.e., with sin nature in us, it is hard to be searched by someone whose eyes are like blazing fire. He says “I know you, I know your deeds.”

Christ’s Commendation of the Church at Ephesus

Christ first commends the church at Ephesus. He names three categories, three virtues:  their deeds, their endurance and their commitment to orthodox, right doctrine. The first commendation is for their deeds; the Greek word indicates labor. They are hard workers. They do not dabble at Christian labor. They are energetic, not lazy — a beehive of activity. We know from the book of James that faith without works is dead. This was the church that was energetically doing good works. We do not know what deeds He is commending, but you can imagine the kinds of deeds that happen in a healthy Church life. The spiritual gift ministries were flowing — preaching and teaching, administration, help and service, evangelism; women making meals for those who were unable to do so for themselves, or articles of clothing for the poor.

Second, he commends their endurance, the fact that they didn’t grow weary or give up. Christian life is like a marathon race and they were not becoming tired or growing weary of it. They did not give up in the face of what is implied here, which is persecution. We do not know what kinds of persecutions they endured in Ephesus. We saw the two-hour riot. If Paul had gone into the melee, he likely would have been killed — that is the level of hatred Demetrius and the silver workers and the shrine makers had for Christianity. The Ephesian Christians continued to live in this atmosphere in that community after Paul left. We can imagine the persecution — perhaps socio-economic, maybe they could not buy or sell or hold down jobs. But they did not give up their profession of faith in Christ. They persevered, they endured.

Third, Christ commends their orthodox doctrine. This was the Church that received the Book of Ephesians. The depth of doctrine that Paul laid on them and the way he trained them in the doctrines of the faith was powerful. They had some excellent elders whom Paul had trained, as we saw in Acts 20. In Acts 20:29-31, he said this to the Ephesian elders: “I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. [Listen to this!] Even from your own number, men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard.” You see how that fits the very commendation he gives here. They were vigilant. “Even from your own number…” They had the mindset of the Bereans in response to false teaching such as is described here: “Just because you are one of us does not mean will accept what you are saying at face value. We will listen and then search the Scriptures to be sure that what you are saying is Biblical and true.” They were able to test those who claimed to be apostles but were not; they were able to find them false. That takes a great deal of doctrinal knowledge and precision and discernment. They were discerning church, and they were committed to it.

In summary, this was a hard-working church. They persevered, and they were committed to solid doctrine. We see later in the letter that they the teaching of the Nicolaitans, who were like Libertarians: they taught, for example, that people could do whatever immoral activity they wanted, that Christ would forgive them. They hated the works of the Nicolaitans. They were hard working, they were persevering, they loved right doctrine and they stood up against false teaching, so what is wrong?

What is wrong? He tells us in verse four what is wrong: “Yet I hold this against you. You have forsaken your first love.” Stop and think of the weightiness of Jesus saying something like that to us. Stop and listen, and imagine what it would be like to hear Jesus say to us as a church or even to us as individuals, “I have this against you.” Feel the weight of that. That should matter to us. “I have this against you. You have forsaken your first love.”

They had WILLFULLY and probably GRADUALLY forsaken their first love

What does that mean? It means they had willfully — not accidentally — and probably gradually turned away from their first love. We do not know exactly what that means. True Christianity results in heartfelt, Spirit-led obedience to the two great commandments: vertically, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind; and horizontally, to love your neighbor as yourself. Genuine Christianity builds obedience to these two great commandments in us.

First and Foremost: Love for Christ

I will focus on the vertical aspect, specifically, love for Christ. This is referring to the love they had when they were first converted, their beginning love, rather than to their first priority. “Remember how it was when you were first converted? Remember how excited you were at being a Christian? Remember what that was like at the start? You have forsaken that. You have turned away.” Where there is no love, there is no life. Little by little, through willful choices they had made, they had allowed their hearts to grow hard. They had allowed their love to grow cold. We are not told what caused it to happen. It is  reasonable to assume that love for the world, at a certain level, stepped in front of love for Christ. The world is very alluring, singing its siren song all the time to come off the path of fervency in Christ. Perhaps it had to do with persecutions and they were weary in their attitudes.

If it were overt immorality, Christ would have called them on that as He does with later churches. Given His commendations, they were carrying out their Christian business but had perhaps become cold and grimly ascetic, determined to do the right things, but not receiving any joy from it, as though little by little their hearts had grown cold. Paul asked the Galatians: “What has happened to all your joy? What happened to that joy you had in Christ?” and perhaps the Ephesian also did not have any heart or joy behind them. We will be seeking something to make us happy. We don’t think, “I am going to be a grim ascetic, miserable and unhappy all the time.” We do not tend to do that.  Perhaps they were focusing on amoral pleasures: food, entertainments, worldly things rather than corrupt or perverted or immoral things.

In the Old Testament, God again and again used this image of marriage between Him and his people. We have the image of God and His bride Israel. God speaks of His affection, like that of a spouse, for his people. Jeremiah 2:2-3 says something very similar to Israel: “I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you followed me in the desert.” Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruit of his harvest. “I remember…” God is saying, “I remember what you were like back then.” “I remember the devotion of your youth.” Many of the prophets in The Old Testament picked up on this image of God’s love relationship with His bride Israel and her wandering ways going after other lovers, going after false gods, idols. In the New Testament, that image is brought over to the image of Christ and His bride, the Church. Christ desires to have the sincere and pure, wholehearted devotion of His bride. Paul says to the church at Corinth, “I am afraid that like the serpent tempted Eve, your hearts might be drawn away from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” He is calling His bride, the Church, into a love relationship with Him. He desires his bride to delight in him, to love him with all her heart, soul, mind, and strength. But over the years, it seemed that the Ephesians' original ardor for Christ had cooled; their hearts had grown cold and distant. It was not an accident. They had made willful choices. They had forsaken their first love.

All the Work and Doctrine Becomes Drudgery Without Love for Christ

All the work and the doctrine become drudgery without love for Christ. Remember the story about Jacob and Rachel? Jacob was, in a sense, in the market for a wife — it was time for him to marry. It appears to be a Biblical example of love at first sight. Rachel’s father, Laban, turned out to be quite a scoundrel. He contracted with Jacob for seven years of labour in exchange for his daughter’s hand in marriage. Jacob had to work for him for seven years. But, it says in Genesis 29:20, “So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.” We can guess that the church at Ephesus was not feeling that way about their service to Christ anymore. They don’t seem to be of the mind, “It seems like no time at all. I love Jesus so much, I want only to serve him.” Instead it became a burden; it was difficult. Their attitude and mindset was more in tune with drudgery: “We have to do that again? Another outreach? Another offering? Another prayer meeting?” It felt like a burden because the love was not there any more. Even the worship was stale. Jesus quoted Isaiah in Matthew 15: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain…’” Cold and distant — they were there in body, singing the songs, but not in spirit.

Jesus is speaking to us through this. God directed the prophet Hosea to marry a prostitute named Gomer to symbolize Israel’s wandering ways. Hosea 2:14-16 says, “‘Therefore, I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her… There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt. In that day,’ declares the Lord, ‘you will call me “my husband”… I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord.’” That is what Jesus wants to say to his Bride, the Church: “I want bring you out just like it was when I first brought you up out of bondage to sin, and I will make you sing again like you used to.”

Insights from Church History

Augustine said in his Confessions, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and the heart of man is restless until it finds its rest in you.” The saddest part about our Christian lives is we do not stop being restless. Have you noticed that? We just sang Come Thou Fount, which contains these words: “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.” It is so true, isn’t it? Do you not feel that proneness that you have to wander? Do you not find yourself asking, “What is wrong with me? Why would it be that I love Jesus less now than I did a year ago? I should love him more since I have learned more about Him.”

Jonathan Edwards, in his Treatise on Religious Affections said, “True religion consists very much in the affections… The heart is able to analyze and understand something, plus be attracted to or repulsed from that thing to a greater or less degree.” That is what the heart does. First, we know and understand, then we love or like or dislike or hate. We are made that way. First and foremost, we are made to love God above anything else — to have a heart attracted after God. Love is a heart attraction.

We use the simple four-letter word “love” to describe or name a wide range of experiences. We may love a beautiful sunset,  snow in March, the Durham Bulls, chocolate ice cream. We men will certainly say “I love my wife.” We all will certainly say “I love Jesus.” The same word is used for all those instances. What is the commonality in using the same word? It is heart attraction. Like a magnet, I am pulled toward those things. “To a greater or less degree,” said Edwards. Maximum attraction must be to God. The point of our faith is to give us a heart of love that we did not have before. We loved God now, whereas we did not before. We used to hate Him. However, it is not static but dynamic. Sometimes we love more, sometimes we love less.

Next Christ gives this command to the Ephesian church. He will not leave any local church wandering aimlessly in a desert of lovelessness, churning out works and right doctrine from a cold heart. This is appalling to Him, and He will not allow it to continue. He presses in, like a good physician, and gives this threefold prescription, this threefold command. “Remember, repent and resume.” Look at Verse 5: “Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.” “Start with this: Remember the height or the place from which you have fallen.” This is the image of backsliding. Our growth in love for Christ is pictured almost like climbing a mountain, going higher and higher.

Remember the height (or place) from which you have fallen

In my sermons on the book of Ephesians, I preached eagerly on that beautiful section, Ephesians 3:17-19, in which the apostle Paul prayed for the Ephesian Christians: “I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and that you would know that love that surpasses knowledge — that you would be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Those words, written to this same church at Ephesus, indicate that they must have had some elevating experiences, maybe not caught up to the Third Heaven as John was, but above the cloud cover, the fog level, to see how much Jesus loved them, to see the infinite dimensions of Jesus’ love for them at the cross and the empty tomb. They had seen it, and their hearts were moved by that.

Now Christ “Remember? Remember how that was? Now, look at you. You slid back, you are back down below the fog cover now, and you do not seem to know how wide and long and high and deep anymore. You are certainly not filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. So remember.” Remember climbing higher and higher in our knowledge, in our sense and feeling of the love of Christ for us.

“Remember the height from which you have fallen. See how it used to be. Remember what it was like when Jesus’ love first pierced through your heart. Remember that. Remember the first time you surveyed the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, and you saw the attributes of God there. You saw the love of God displayed in the cross. It was not an ugly, disgusting picture of a bloody man tortured to death. It was now a picture of God’s love for you. Remember what that was like. Remember when you first felt yourself to be the prodigal son: when your Father embraced you and welcomed you back and forgave all your sins; when He put a ring on your finger and shoes on your feet and a robe around you; when He welcomed you into a feast. Remember what that felt like to have your Father love you like that. That is the height from which you’ve fallen. Remember what that was like.”

Repent

Second, repent. Feel the pain of the fall. Cry out against yourself. Turn in your mind on your own situation. Turn and become alarmed and become awakened and become zealous about this. The coldness of affections for Christ is a great sin, not a small sin. To become bored with Jesus is a big deal, not a small thing. To become cold and lifeless toward the Bible, to have very little attraction toward the reading of Scripture is a big deal. To be distant from God and from Christ in corporate worship and not really enjoy singing any of the songs is a big deal. Prod yourself with God’s word, provoke your heart, charge yourself with sin, turn from your present course, do a U-turn — that is repentance. Renew your mind by God’s word and see your present spiritual state the way Christ does. Repent; take responsibility for where you are in your walk with Christ.

Resume: Do the things you did at first!

You do not need to wait. You can do it right away — that is the beauty of sanctification. If at any moment you are convicted of sin, repent and immediately do the right things. You do not have to wait or have a warm-up period. You can go right into the third command, which is renew or resume the things you did at first. There is no waiting. This is a most urgent matter. The Ephesian Christians were a busy, hardworking church. He is not talking about hard work and accounting for their time. Rather, there were some works of love that they used to do, works of affection, works of heart attraction to Christ.

What did you do when you wanted to tell Jesus that you loved him early on? How did you express it? I liked to be out in nature, to go for long walks in the woods or other natural settings looking at scenery. At those times I found myself praying, thanking God for the things He has done. Perhaps you liked to go to the ocean. Or maybe you just stayed at home, spending a long evening studying God’s word with like three or four different colored markers, writing notes feverishly, discovering new things in God’s word back then. Or perhaps you would sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs where no one could hear you.

Three or four years into my Christian walk, I went to a Christian bookstore and bought my first hymnal. (I held it in my hand this morning in my study. I was going to bring it into the pulpit, but I am not big on show and tell.) By then, I knew many of the hymns in there, and I loved to sing them. One day, I was at a picnic table out in the park; I was alone in the park when I started, but when people started coming, I was tested at that moment. Would I keep singing? But I did not care about them, I was simply enjoying singing.

Or, when I was single, I would go out on Sunday afternoons — we did not have any evening service at that small church in Topsfield — and find a tree to sit under and I would eat a sandwich and read Christian books, or the Bible, or memorize Scripture. I would sit for hours. I loved doing that. That is what I used to do; what did you used to do? What are the works you used to do when you wanted to express your love for Christ? Well, resume those actions again, whatever it is.

Christless Pleasure Has Such a Deadening Effect on the Soul

Remember, repent and resume. The world has a deadening effect on us. You go after some habit, you think it will make you happy, you get increasingly addicted to it, and little by little, you do not want to do anything but that; it dims your joy and delight in everything else, including Jesus. That is what the world does. Ecclesiastes 1:8 says, “All things are wearisome, more than one can say.” That is life apart from Jesus; that is what happens — we get bored. Remember, repent and resume.

But what if we do not? If not, what then? Look at Verse 5 again. “If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” This is a grave threat. Christ will not accept a loveless, hardworking orthodoxy. He will not have a religious machine running to no purpose. We must realize as a local church that He does not need us at all — we need Him. He does not need us to build the universal Church. All local churches are temporary. He can and does remove lampstands. If a church has forsaken its first love and is called on in this text to repent but they does not, the lampstand will be removed. Alexander Strauch wrote a book about this; it is one of the most striking titles I have ever read. It is about these verses, Revelation 2:1-7, called Repent or Die. These verses are speaking to a church: “If you don’t, I’m going to take you out and the church will be dead; it will be gone.”

I am not talking about individual Christians losing their salvation — that is a different matter. Warnings are given to individual Christians, and we should heed those warnings: if you’re genuinely born again, you will repent and turn and do the things you did at first. But Christ is talking to whole churches in these verses. We have seen, even in this community, churches that used to be flourishing, shut down. They do not exist anymore. Or others that are in that process. They are heading toward extinction. It does happen.

But to the overcomers — verse 7 says, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” Each of these letters ends with the same words:“To him who overcomes…” Sweet promises. “If you listen to what the Spirit says to the churches, if you repent and do what He is telling you to do, if you overcome…” I love that word. We are to be more than conquerors. We have severe challenges. We must overcome. “If you do overcome by faith in Christ, by the Spirit, if you remember, repent, and resume, if you have an ear and you listen to what the Spirit says to the church,” “I will give you the right to eat from the tree of life in the paradise of God.”

Remember, there were two trees in the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. When Adam and Eve fell at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the way was blocked or closed to the tree of life. There was a cherub with a flaming sword put in the way, flashing back and forth saying, “You cannot go there. You cannot eat from that tree.” But now, Jesus is saying, “If you remember, repent, resume, if you overcome, I will give you the privilege of eating from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” It is a metaphor for salvation: “You will live forever in heaven.”

Revelation 22:2, at the end of this book, says, “On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing 12 crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.” Isn’t that beautiful? Feed on that — you can get the benefits right now. You can feel spiritual nourishment flowing through your soul now if you will remember, repent and resume the works you did at first. You will start getting stronger. But that is not all. In the end, you get to be in the paradise of God, eating. Revelation 22:14 says, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.”

Come to Christ

I have been weaving applications all through this sermon, but I have a couple of things to add. First, to non-Christians and then to Christians. To non-Christians, I will say this: You have been overhearing a conversation between Jesus and his Church. We are so glad you’re here. God brought you here to listen to this conversation, but if you are not yet a Christian, He wants you to know you are on the outside. But He is inviting you to come in, saying, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Open the door, and I will come in, and I’ll eat with you, and you with me.” He is inviting you to come to Him. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” If you accept His invitation, you will immediately come into a love relationship with Christ that will last for all eternity. Trust in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and know the salvation only He can give.

Christians: How is Your Love Relationship with Christ?

To you who are Christians, we have been looking in the mirror today in Revelation 2:1-7. How is your love relationship with Christ? Do you love Jesus more now than you did a year ago? Is it growing? Is it expanding? Is it developing? Is it warmer? Stronger? Hotter? If not, why? What is going on? Are you in sin? Is there some kind of pattern of sin that is drawing your spiritual strength away? Is there some habit of worldliness, maybe not overt sin, but things you are addicted to in the world that are sapping your strength and causing you not to give as much time to prayer or Bible reading or other things? What is your worship life like? Do you like to pray and sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs anew? Do you like to tell Jesus, “Thank you for dying for me”? Do you have a sense of the ministry of the Spirit poured into your heart, the love of God poured into your heart? If not, then these three steps have been very helpful for me: Remember, repent, resume.

Closing Prayer

Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the things that we’ve learned today in your word. My desire, O Lord, is that each one of us would love Christ more fervently a year from now than we do now. I pray that those things that are sucking strength out of us, that you would prune them from our lives, O Lord, that we would cut off the right hand, gouge out the right eye, whatever it takes so that we can have a more sincere and pure devotion, a more fervent devotion to Christ. I pray, O Lord, give us power by the spirit to put to death the deeds of the flesh. Help us to love you more and serve you better. Help us to be willing to obey your commands. You said, “ If you love Me, you’ll obey what I command.” Help us to be more obedient by the Spirit, and if we are, you’ll reveal more and more of yourself to us. Lord, we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.

This morning we are going to begin, as I just prayed a moment ago, an incredible journey through what I believe is the hardest book in the Bible to interpret properly with a high level of certainty. But I also think it is a book that will reward careful study, and as you heard D’Arcey read, there is a promise of blessing to anyone who reads aloud and studies and takes to heart the messages of the book of Revelation. So, it is with some excitement and trepidation that we begin this study. Someone asked me this morning how many weeks, or months, or years that we would be in this. I have absolutely no idea, nor do I have any idea what I will do with this or that or the other specific passage in Revelation. I am counting on God to give me time and insight, but I do not have to worry about that this morning, just Revelation chapter 1.

A few weeks ago, in our study in the book of Isaiah, we came across an incredible passage, in Isaiah 64:1. In verse 1 of Isaiah 64, Isaiah the prophet cries aloud and says, “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!” And I remember when I preached that passage to you, that word “rend” is very powerful to me; it gives a sense of some kind of a veil or a curtain or something around us all the time.

And there is some kind of reality on the other side of that. Different people deal with that idea in different ways. Buddhists, for example, who are seeking enlightenment, believe that this physical world is not even real; it is an illusion, and all that really matters is the world of enlightenment and moving on. We Christians do not say that. We believe that this physical world is real and really matters. Yet, we believe that there is a world beyond this veil, beyond the curtain. Atheistic scientists, philosophical materialists, people like Carl Sagan, would say something like this: “The Cosmos is all there ever has been, is now, or ever will be.” We Christians do not believe that. We believe that there is an invisible spiritual world. We are instructed in the book of Hebrews: “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command so that what is seen is not made out of what was visible.” So the invisible realm preceded the visible realm, but we know that only by faith. Science will not tell us that. We are not like the occult, looking to mediums and spiritists who are seeking contact with the spirit world, the world of the dead in an unhealthy and sick way. We are not that either.

But we believe, instructed by Scripture, that there is a universe, a world of reality, beyond what we can see with our eyes. Isaiah said, “Oh, that you rend the heavens…”: “that You would create a kind of tear.” When I preached that text, I talked about, in the New Testament, indications of that which we saw in the life of Jesus. It says in Mark’s Gospel, when Jesus was baptized, the heavens were “torn open” — that is the actual verb used — and the Holy Spirit descended like a dove. Or again, when Jesus ascended and went higher and higher and a cloud hid Him from their sight, and He passed over — in the book of Hebrews, it says He “passed through the heavens” — and sits at the right hand of Almighty God, far above all heavenly realms. Or again, when Stephen was being martyred at the end of Acts 7, just before they threw stones at him, he said, “Look, I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” All of these give us an indication; so also this book of Revelation.

We are going to have a revelation of an invisible world as we study this. It is a vision of the present, surrounding spiritual world, and it is a vision of the coming future world, as planned by the sovereign power of God, that will certainly come. It is a vision that we would not have in this way in any other book of the Bible or by any other means. It is up to us to walk wisely by this unveiled light. In 2 Peter 3:10-11, Peter tells us that the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire: the elements will melt in the heat, and everything will be laid bare. He says, “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?” There is an ethical side to this. This is what it means to walk wisely based on this unveiled light.

“…what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.” “You ought to live holy and godly [and upright] lives” — that is the internal journey — “as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming” by evangelism and missions — that is the external journey. That is the kind of life we should live as a result of the study we are about to do.

We come, then, to the beginning, Revelation 1, chapter 1. And right from the start, we have this word "Revelation," and it fits into the comments that I've making from the beginning of this message.

The word "revelation," is very closely related in the English to the Greek word “apocalupsis”, which means unveiling. It is the sense of pulling back a veil or curtain to show something that would not have been seen any other way. Fundamental to our Christian faith is the idea that secrets — invisible, spiritual things — are revealed to us by Almighty God and that we would not know them any other way. Christianity is not something we make up; its origin is not in the will of man, but is revealed through men who spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. We would not know anything about the spiritual realm if God hadn't revealed them. Moreover, we can know nothing for certain, nothing about the future, except that God reveals it. Nothing. But God is a God who does in fact reveal the future. He does tell us things to come.

This unveiling — this pulling back, this apokalupsis — shows us two things. First and foremost, it  shows us Christ. Look at Revelation 1:1, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ…” In other words, we can never fully know Christ as God wants us to know Him apart from this Book of Revelation. There are some aspects to Him, to His person, to His ministry, and to His future that we would never know except through this Book of Revelation.

Second, what is revealed is the future. “He gave him this revelation to show His servants what must soon take place.” The word “must” means this absolutely, certainly will happen. Nothing can change the plans of God. “And it must soon take place.”

What does the word “soon” mean in this context? Jesus says, in Revelation 3:11,“I am coming soon. Hold fast to what you have…” He uses the word three times in the final chapter: Revelation 22:7, “Behold I am coming soon. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”; Revelation 22:12, “Behold I am coming soon. My reward is with me and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.”; Revelation 22:20, “He who testifies to these things says, 'Yes I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.”

Four times Jesus says he is coming soon, and yet we all know it has been 2000 years since Christ ascended from Earth. It has been 20 centuries, approximately, since this Book of Revelation was written. We must know that God’s time and our time are different. 2 Peter 3:8-9 says, “With the Lord, a day is like a thousand years and thousand years is like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.” If we look at it in light of eternity, the “soon” will make perfect sense to us. But relative to us living in space and time now, it does not make sense. It seems like the days go by so slowly, but they really don't.

Who does the revealing of Christ and of the future? Look again at verse one, it says, “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him, to show his servants what must soon take place.” Thus, God, meaning God the Father, gave the book of Revelation — He gave it to Jesus, and He gave it about Jesus. Jesus, by the will of the Father, is revealing Himself to us. God the Father reveals God the Son to us. Jesus said this was true. In Matthew 11:27, He says, “No one knows the Son except the Father.” In John 12:49, Jesus said, “I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it.” Everything Jesus said on earth, everything that He communicated through the apostles, He has communicated under the authority of his Father. It was His father who told Him what to say and how to say it.

A heavenly chain of command is represented here. Look at verses 1-2 with me: “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him, to show His servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to His servant John, who testifies to everything he saw — that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.” God gave this Book of Revelation, the contents of these 22 chapters, to Jesus. Jesus committed it, it seems, to an angel. The angel carried it in some way to John, and then John wrote it down for God's servants to read. That is us. That is the relay race of Revelation.

Now the Book of Revelation, as I have said, unveils an invisible spiritual world. The present invisible spiritual world contains spiritual beings that we would know nothing about except that the Bible tells us about them. Angels — spiritual beings — will play a huge role in the Book of Revelation. Angels are mentioned 81 times in the book of Revelation. The book of Hebrews tells us what their role is to us. Hebrews 1:14: “Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?” The angels are here to serve us, the redeemed who are going to inherit salvation.

And angels carry prophetic messages to the human messengers, the mouthpieces, who will tell them to the world. A fact that we would not know except that the New Testament teaches it to us is that the laws of Moses were entrusted to Moses by angelic messengers. It is taught twice in the New Testament: in Acts 7:53 Stephen said, “The law was put into effect through angels.”; and in Galatians 3:19, Paul says, “The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator.” Angels, in some mysterious way, carry messages down from heaven to earth. We see this openly acted out in the Book of Daniel. The angels carry messages to the prophets and to the apostles.

In the Book of Revelation, angels will take a very active role in bringing the decrees of heaven down to planet earth: Angels will sound trumpets that initiate judgments on earth, pour out bowls that result in judgments on earth, swing sickles that harvest the earth, hand John a scroll that he will eat, observe and celebrate the unfolding events on earth, saying, "Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" — they are intensely interested in what is unfolding in this drama of redemptive history — and sometimes be John's tour guide through these prophetic visions. We see in Revelation 17 that an angel carried John away in the spirit to show him the great whore of Babylon; and later, in Revelation 21, that an angel carried him away in the spirit to show him the beautiful bride of Christ, “the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven.” Angels are actively involved in events on earth.

We should stand in awe and marvel at this invisible spiritual world that surrounds us, which we would not know existed. If we were scientific, atheistic, materialistic people, we would deny the reality of this invisible spiritual world. But as believers in Christ, we know it is real.

We also John’s humility right from the beginning of the book. He calls himself a bond slave of Christ, and he calls all the people of God, who are the intended recipients of this Book of Revelation, bond slaves or servants of Christ. It is a very humbling thing. If you read the Book of Revelation rightly, it will humble you; you will be put in your place. You will realize that at best, you are part of a multitude greater than anyone can count from every tribe, language, people and nation, redeemed by the blood of Christ.

You will, in a very healthy way, shrink in your own estimation. You will realize you are part of a vast work of salvation that God is doing. That is a very good thing, isn't it? And you will see the incredible powers of the demonic world, the satanic world, and realize, as Luther said, “Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing.” There is no way we could fight Satan, no way we are strong enough to fight the beast, the anti-Christ. If we were left to our own devices, we would be destroyed. And even more, we will have a sense of the greatness of the majesty of God, of His infinite power, of the majesty and glory of His throne through this Book of Revelation. It is very humbling.

There are blessings on the Book of Revelation. Look again at verse 3: “Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy.” D’Arcy, I don't know where you are, but you have a blessing because you read aloud the words of this prophecy. If anyone wants a blessing from God today, go home and read aloud the words of Revelation 1.

God promises a blessing on his servants if they will read the words of this prophecy, but even more, “…blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it because, the time is near.” We are not to know the words of the Book of Revelation only to read them, but we are to take to heart what is written; we are to be obedient. “All scripture is God-breathed and useful,” 2 Timothy 3:16, but not all scripture has the same powerful impact on the human soul.

This Book of Revelation is a special, unique book among all the books of the Bible. God has assigned to it a role that He has given to no other book. It gives us insights into the glories of Christ and into the present, invisible, spiritual realms of angels and demons and departed saints who are worshiping God in heaven. And of course, it gives us insights into the future — the coming wrath and the coming glory of the new Jerusalem and the new universe — like no other book does. God calls on us His servants to read the words of this book and take to heart and obey its message. And if we do, He will bless us even today.

And notice again that he says, “the time is near.” The time is near. We are deceived into thinking that we will be in this state forever, that life will go on as it always has. It will not. The time is near; the time for the end is coming. It says in James 4:14, “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for little while and then vanishes.”

Now let us consider verses 4-8, the greeting and the doxology. I have already laid out the origin of this Book of Revelation, coming from God the Father, through God the Son, through the angel, through John to us. We have the blessing of this majestic and mysterious Book of Revelation, and now he gives us a greeting and gives God a doxology — the word of greeting is to us and the word of praise is going back up to God.

First, the greetings from John and from the Trinity, the Triune God. Verse 4: “John, to the seven churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you.” I believe this is the Apostle John, one of the 12. Others disagree, but I think this is the best way to read this. According to Church history and tradition, all the other apostles were martyred, died an untimely, early death: Peter was crucified upside down in Rome. James was the first martyr in the Book of Acts, beheaded by Herod. Andrew preached in modern day Russia and Turkey, and ended up being crucified in Greece. Thomas died in India, pierced through with several spears of soldiers who attacked him. Philip converted the wife of a Roman proconsul in Asia minor and in retaliation, the Roman had him slowly tortured to death. According to church history, The Apostle John is the only one of the 12 not to die a martyr's death.

However, John was exiled to the island of Patmos. Verse 9 says, “I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” He wrote at the end of the first century, probably in the mid ‘90s. At that point, the emperor was Domitian, who had initiated a level of persecution that would become characteristic of the Roman emperors until Constantine — a rhythm and cycle of persecution and then relaxation. But persecution is very much the backdrop of the whole Book of Revelation: the attack of Satan and his henchmen, his marionettes, his ruling elite, who do not know Satan’s authority over them, but are used by Satan to attack the church.

John was exiled to this tiny island of Patmos. It is a little rocky, deserted island off the coast of modern day Turkey. It is about 17 square miles in size — that is about one eighth the size of the county of Durham — a very small place, and deserted. John says in verse 9 he was exiled there “because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” A regular theme, as the external journey goes on, as the gospel is being preached and proclaimed, is the backlash of persecution. He is there on the island because of that. John says that persecution and “suffering and… patient endurance” are our lot in Christ; that belongs to us in Jesus — but also a kingdom and a priestly ministry belong to us! He calls himself a “brother and companion” in this: this suffering is ours in Christ; this kingdom is ours in Christ; this patient endurance is ours in Christ.

Twice in the Book of Revelation, John says the phrase, “I, John.” I think that is amazing. He does it here in verse 9, and then at the end of the book, in Revelation 22:8: “I John, I'm the one who heard and saw these things.” It sounds as though he cannot believe it, saying, “I’m just John, it's just me, I'm just an ordinary individual and God showed me this. I'm just like you, I'm a man just like you, I have a nature just like you do. And yet, God poured out all of these things to me.”

Verse 4 tells us that this letter was addressed first to these seven churches in the province of Asia: “…to the seven churches in the province of Asia” which is modern-day Turkey. These are listed in verses 10-11: “On the Lord's Day, I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said: ‘Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.’” Archaeologists have settled with  great certainty where these were located. They were on what John Stott calls a circular postal route, shaped a bit like a fish hook, starting at the coastline of Turkey in Asia Minor and going inland and curving around, in geographical order as John listed them. These were seven real communities, seven real cities or towns, where there were real local churches. They really existed in space and time.

John says he was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, which, I would think, would have been Sunday, the first day of the week — called the Lord's Day because on that day, we honor Jesus, who was raised from the dead on the first day of the week. This points toward the new covenant pattern of worship, where we no longer worship on the Sabbath, the seventh day, but have transitioned over to worship on the first day.

John was probably alone — we do not know that for sure but assume it to be so — and wanted to join in spirit at least with his brothers and sisters throughout the world who were celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. He was in the Spirit, meaning controlled by the Spirit or in the power of the Spirit, on the Lord's day. He was filled with the Spirit and had the fruit of the Spirit, but he also would have had spiritual visions because he is an apostle.

He was commanded by a loud voice behind him to write what he had seen and send it to the churches. Therefore, this entire Book of Revelation comes because of his obedience to that command to write. “Write down on a scroll what you have seen, and send it.” He begins this epistle, this incredible letter, in the usual way: “Grace and peace to you.” Paul starts his letters the same way. I love that idea: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”; we get the same sense with John’s greeting. We need a river of grace because our salvation is not finished yet. We need God to give us more grace; as James says: “He gives us more grace.” Reading this Book of Revelation, as with all of Paul's epistles, will give us more grace for this salvation race that we are running. “Grace and peace to you” — peace comes as a result.

Next we have a greeting from the Trinity. The promise of grace and peace is not from John but from Almighty God, the Triune God, the Father, the Son and the Spirit, though here, the order is the Father and the Spirit and the Son. He says in verses 4-5, “Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits, [or perhaps the seven-fold Spirit] before his throne; [verse 5] and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.”

God the Father is listed first, described as “him who is and who was and who is to come.” This speaks of the eternality of God. It speaks of the immutability, the unchanging nature of God. He is the same yesterday, today and forever, as is said of Jesus. He never changes. He is the one who was, who is, who is to come. He is the eternal being.

God the spirit is mentioned next. Interestingly, He is called “the seven spirits before the throne,” or perhaps it could be translated as “seven-fold spirit.” Now this image will come back in Revelation 4. There is a throne depicted with Almighty God seated on it, and there is this “seven spirits before the throne.” The only way we can know for certain this is the Holy Spirit is because of this Trinitarian greeting. I cannot imagine that some inanimate object would be mentioned in this pattern here. A greeting from the Father, and from Jesus, and in between the seven spirits. It is definitely referring to the Holy Spirit, giving us the Trinitarian picture in these verses. Why seven spirits? I don't really know, except that the number seven seems to be the number of completion or perfection, as many commentators have pointed out. Thus, we have the sense of the perfect seven fold spirit of God.

Finally, “from Jesus Christ.” He is described as “the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.” First, Jesus Christ is the faithful witness. He was faithful to God the Father who sent him. He was faithful to do everything the Father told him to do. He was faithful to witness to an unbelieving world who killed Him because of His witness. He was faithful to stand in front of the Jewish authorities, before Annas and Caiaphas, and when charged under oath by the living God to tell the truth, “Are you the Christ, the son of God?” he said, “I am.” He is the faithful witness; He told the truth.

Second, He is the firstborn from the dead. We think of firstborn in terms of first in pre-eminence: He has the top role in the household of God; He is the firstborn in rank or role. He is also called by Paul, “firstfruits,” implying that others will be raised from the dead. Also, we would think first in sequence. He is the first who was ever resurrected from the dead, in a resurrection body that would never die again. No one else has ever received that resurrection body before Jesus. He is the firstborn from the dead. This idea will be powerful for us as we go forward, as the church is suffering and being persecuted; it was key for  the church in Smyrna, who was told to be faithful unto death, and that the devil would put them in prison. We are reminded that He is firstborn from the dead because we have Him who is the victor over death.

Third, He is the ruler of the kings of the Earth. He is the King over all kings, and He is the Lord over all lords. We give Him the preeminence. He ruled over the Roman Empire. He rules over every potentate and dictator and prime minister and president, over all human governments. He is the ruler of the kings of the Earth.

And so the letter is from the Triune God, through John, to all the local churches in all history, in all places and all, for all time.

Then comes this beautiful doxology. In verse 5-6 John, in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, was celebrating his Savior, whom he loved more at that time than he loved when he first met Him. Next week, God willing, we will look at the church at Ephesus that forsook their first love. But John was not like that; he loved Jesus more now than he did the day before, the year before — there was an ever-growing love. We see it in what he says: “To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve His God and father — to Him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.” John wrote in his epistle, “We love [Jesus] because He first loved us.” He is ascribing this whole letter in dedication to Jesus — do you see it? — “To Him who loves us.”

Not only does He love us infinitely, but He has also, for all time, freed us from our sins by His blood. This is the centerpiece of the gospel. By His blood atonement, by shedding His blood on the cross, He has set us free from sin and death and hell and Satan’s kingdom. He has broken the chains. He has set us free from our sins by His blood.

All these many years later, John still melts in love for and worship of Jesus. He was there when Jesus died. In John 19:34-35, he tells us that after Jesus was dead, he (John) watched a Roman soldier who was part of His execution shove a spear up into Jesus’ side and pull it out, “bringing a sudden flow of blood and water,” which was absolute proof that His heart had failed and that He was dead. “The man who saw it has given testimony…” He shed His blood for us to death that we might be forgiven of our sins. John dedicates this book “[t]o Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood…”

Now that we are free, we are enabled to serve our God and Father. We are a kingdom and we are priests to serve Him. First, we are the kingdom of God. The kingdom is made up not of territories — Jesus is not seeking to conquer North Africa from the Muslims; He is not trying to conquer territory in China from the Communists; He is going after people. We are the kingdom, the elect. In every tribe, language, people, and nation and every generation, we are the kingdom. Second, not He has made us to be both a kingdom and priests to serve our God. We have a priestly ministry — not in the pattern of the Levitical priesthood in the Old Testament, offering up animal sacrifices and shedding blood — that time is finished, obsolete. We now offer sacrifices of praise and worship; we offer ourselves to God as a fragrant offering. We present our bodies as living sacrifices to Him. We are a kingdom and priests, or perhaps even a kingdom of priests, to serve our God and Father.

In verse 7, John transitions to begin telling us what will happen: “Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be! Amen.” I love the word “Behold.” You cannot behold it with your eyes, but by faith, with eyes of faith, you can picture Him coming with the clouds. “Behold He is coming with the clouds and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and [all the tribes], all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be! Amen.”

This is the Second Coming of Christ, which is essential to the whole book and it's going to come. The Second Coming of Christ is established again and again throughout the New Testament. My favorite reference to it is in Acts Chapter 1, to which I already alluded. Jesus took the disciples out of Jerusalem and they go to the Mount of Olives. In Acts 1:8, Jesus says His final words to His disciples, right before His ascension: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth.”

In Acts 1:9-11, it says, “After He said this, He was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid Him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee’, they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.’” That refers to the second coming of Christ.

John is referring here in Revelation to the same event. He is coming back with the clouds just as He left, and “every eye will see Him.” The same clouds that covered Him in His ascension will peel back and reveal Him in His coming, and “every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him.” That coming will not be secret. It will not be hidden: “as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” (Matthew 24:7) “Every eye will see Him.” There will be no faith needed, no faith required at that time. Right now faith is needed: to believe that what I am saying will happen, you need faith now, today. But you will not need faith on that day, because you will look up to the clouds and you will see it happening with your own eyes.

And it says, “…every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him.” That refers to His enemies who slaughtered Him. Those who would kill Him still, even in their hearts, will see Him. That means everybody living on the face of the earth at that time: every atheist who denies and does not believe in any spiritual thing — they will not have a choice, they will see Him in the clouds. They can definitely be scientists at that point and use their empirical evidence to see Jesus; no faith will be required. The Buddhists will cease their search for enlightenment — it will be finished at that moment. It will be finished for all of the secular humanists, for all of the materialistic businessmen whose God is their stomach. It will be finished for all the Muslims, both the domesticated western intellectual peace-loving type Muslims, and the fire-breathing Jihadists who are in caves in Afghanistan — they will all see Him with their own eyes.

All the peoples, the tribes of the earth, will mourn because of Him. Why is that? Because the end has come, the wrath has come, Judgement Day is here. We will see this again with the breaking open of the the sixth seal.

In Revelation 6:15-17, it says, “Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!’ For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” Every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. John adds these words: “So shall it be, Amen!” “I assent to it; I want it to happen; I am yearning for it because God wills that it happen.”

In verse 8, God the Father declares Himself: “‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, The Almighty.’” This is the Lord God, the Almighty One, God the Father. The Alpha and the Omega means history was His idea from beginning to end. He wrote it with His own mind and He initiated it on the Alpha day. He has controlled every letter of history, and He will do so until the Omega day, the final day. God the Father is history, and He is ruling over all things. He is the eternal, unchanging God, and He is omnipotent, ruling over all things.

The rest of the chapter depicts John’s encounter with the resurrected, glorified Christ in a very powerful vision. Look at verses 9-11; these are John's circumstances: “I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus. On the Lord’s Day, I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said: ‘Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.”

He is on Patmos in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and he hears a mighty voice behind him like a trumpet. A trumpet is loud and clear. In the Old Testament, it was used for calling warriors to battle. Paul says that “if the trumpet sounds an uncertain call, who will follow it in to battle?” It was used to assemble the nation of Israel together at the Feast of Trumpets; they would come together when they heard it. It came with the sound of Sinai — the first trumpet blast in the Bible is at Mount Sinai — when a very loud trumpet blast coming, it seemed, from the heavenly realms assembled the nation of Israel. And God descended in fire on Mount Sinai and the ground beneath their feet shook. The Second Coming will occur when Jesus descends in Second-Coming glory: “He will come with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.” It is a loud, terrifying voice like a trumpet that John hears.

Why was the voice behind him? I am not sure but I have an idea. John is facing one way and God is the other way. To some degree, John must in humility recognize, “I need to turn to where God is and what Christ is doing.” We are all off to some degree. The idea he is conveying seems to be, “I had to turn around to get a look at Jesus.” That is a picture of repentance. Let’s put it this way: all of us need to be adjusted in our perspective. The Book of Revelation will adjust everyone’s perspective, even the one who wrote it. That is how I interpret the need for John to turn around to see what was happening.

What did John see when he turned around? Verses 12-16: “I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.”

First, in this prophetic visionary image, he saw seven golden lampstands. These were most likely free-standing lampstands, perhaps the height of an average man. We assume they were standing independently, separated from each other rather than together like a menorah because it says that Jesus was “among the lampstands,” in the midst of them. These lampstands were made of gold, signifying incredible worth and value; the implication is that they are valuable to Jesus, to God. They were giving off light to the surrounding world; thus, they are a picture of the seven churches mentioned in the previous verses. This reminds me of what Jesus said to his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount: “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” We are to be, in Jesus, the light of the world.

Walking in the midst of these seven golden lampstands was “one like a son of man.” This is directly connected with the awesome vision of Daniel in Daniel 7. Daniel saw Almighty God with a head and hair white like wool, sitting on a throne, from which flowed a river of fire, and surrounded by 100 million angels. And suddenly into the presence of the Ancient of Days, which is God the Father, came “one like a son of man.” He was human — “one like a son of man” — but it says in Daniel 7:13-14, “He [this son of man] approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He [the son of man] was given authority, glory, and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” This is Jesus, this “son of man.” Daniel tells us that He received from his Father the world. All power and authority was given to him by God the Father, and all peoples, nations and men of every language will worship him.

Look how He was dressed in John’s vision: He was dressed as a priest. He was being depicted to John as fully human — “son of man” — and fully divine. He was walking through the seven golden lampstands wearing a robe reaching down to his feet and a golden sash around his chest. This is a picture of the priestly ministry of Jesus, moving through the local churches.

In addition, his appearance is amazing. We do not typically picture Jesus this way, but look at verse 14: “The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.” It is as though Daniel’s image of God the Father with white hair has been given over to Jesus, implying the wisdom of age coupled with the vigor and power of youth. He is the “Ancient of Days,” possessing infinite age and infinite wisdom, but He is also vigorous to act. All of those God-like attributes are ascribed to Jesus. He has perfect holiness and limitless energy; he is old, vastly older than you can possibly imagine, but he is also young in terms of vigor and energy — more energetic than you can possibly imagine.

Out of his mouth, John says, came a voice “like the sound of rushing waters.”  Think of Niagara Falls — if you have ever stood in its presence, you know you can barely hear yourself think. His voice presents with awesome power that is “like the sound of rushing waters.” Also out of his mouth comes “a sharp, double-edged sword.” Hebrews 4:12 says “The Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Jesus’ sharp, double-edged sword has a healing effect on the church and a slaughtering effect on his enemies. By His word, the church is purified of evil, like a scalpel cutting a tumor out of the heart of the church, out of the heart of the people. He is purifying. He is the great physician, and he is cleansing his churches of sin. But we will see at the end of the book that when He comes again, with the same sword coming out of His mouth, He will slaughter His enemies. This is the power of the Word of Christ.

John also saw Jesus holding seven stars in His right hand. The seven stars represent the angels or messengers of the seven churches. There are many different interpretations regarding the stars — that they are the preachers or pastors or elders, perhaps — but in some ways there is an intimate connection between the star and the lampstand. He is holding the stars in His right hand, which gives us a picture of His ownership, His authority. He has the right to hold them and to command them. They are his servants so he is holding onto them, but it is also a beautiful picture of power and protection. In John 10:28, Jesus says, “No one can snatch them out of my hand” — security, protection, ownership. Isaiah 49:16 says “Behold, I have engraved you on the palm of my hand.” The right hand also gives a sense of intimacy and access for the church as well; we can get close to Jesus.

Look at John’s reaction in verse 17: “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.” This is almost the same as Daniel's reaction every time one of these angels showed up and gave him some kind of revelation. He fell down as though he were dead. It was also John’s reaction when Jesus took him with Peter and James up on the Mount of Transfiguration — when Jesus became a little more glorious, a little more radiant and his face was shining like the sun, the three of them fell down as though they were dead.

But what happened next on the Mount of Transfiguration? Jesus came and touched the three of them with His right hand. He did the same thing here with John: “…he placed his right hand on me and said: ‘Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” We have the tenderness of Jesus’ touch. He often healed people by touching them — He touched the leper; He touched Peter's mother-in-law and the fever left her. Jesus touches people and they get healed.

He says “I am the first and the last.” This echoes God’s words: “I am the Alpha and Omega.” Just like the Father, Jesus is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega, First and Last. He is God; he controls history.

He says “I was dead.” The Father cannot say that, nor can the Spirit; that is unique to Jesus, the second person of the Trinity. “I was dead. John you saw that water and blood mingled, flowed out of my side, I was dead. But behold” —don’t you love that? — “I am alive and I am alive forever and ever, I can never die again.” Romans 6:9 says, “For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.” And Jesus said in John 14, “Because I live, you also will live.” There will come a day when we will be able to say, “I was dead and behold, I am alive forever and ever in Christ.”

He says, “I hold the keys of death and Hades.” “I hold the keys... I am in charge of death. I rule over death, death does not rule over me. I rule over death and Hades (the underworld, the grave), I am able to rule over those things.” Hold on to that as we see death running amok in this book. (One angel pours out his bowl on the fresh water and a third of humanity dies... Billions of people.) Jesus is in charge of death and Hades.

In verse 19 John was given his mission: “Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later.” One commentator likened this to a three-part outline for the whole Book of Revelation: What you have seen is the picture of Jesus; what is now are the seven churches (we will begin looking at them next week, God willing); and what is yet to come, the future, will be spelled out in the rest of the book.

In this vision of John, we have revealed to us by God the Father the greatness of Jesus Christ, in His resurrection glory walking among the local churches, ministering to each one, trimming the wicks, protecting and keeping the fire of each of these churches burning as they witness to their surrounding community, rebuking them, correcting them, speaking to them, ministering to them. Jesus, our great high priest, is caring directly for every local church in the world.

First, stand in awe at the greatness of God and of Christ. If you do not have a feeling of awe and wonder, even here at the beginning in Revelation 1, ask God to soften your heart. It is amazing how hard our hearts can get. We need to melt. We need to tremble at God’s Word. We need to be willing to fall down, as John did, reading these things. By this amazing book, we will see into an invisible spiritual world, and the light that illuminates it will be amazing for us to experience.

Second, realize the greatness of Christ’s triumph over death. Meditate on Jesus’ statement, “I hold the keys of death and Hades.” Do not fear death. Paul says, “For me, it's better by far to die and be with Christ.” We are still too afraid of what will happen to us in this world. Jesus holds the key of death; He has triumphed over it.

Third, tremble before Him in his power, in his holiness. He is radiant and shining and holy, and we should be trembling before Him and yearning to walk wisely in light of this.

Fourth, as I have already said, to any of you who are unregenerate, come to Christ. Jesus has freed us from our sins by his blood. This is the atoning sacrifice, the only hope that you or any of us have. Repent and trust in Christ while there is still time. Every eye will see Him in Second-Coming glory. See Him now by faith, and He will forgive you of all your sins.

As a church, we need to be more faithful in witnessing and taking this message; again and again he will call on us to witness and to share these things. We will see as we look at these seven churches that each one of them is called on to shine in its community for Christ. So we have to be willing to suffer for Christ. It is our lot to share in Christ's sufferings.

Finally increase your expectancy in the second coming of Christ. Jesus said, “Amen, come Lord Jesus.” Even so, come!

Closing Prayer

Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the things that we have learned in Revelation 1. What an incredible book this is, what an incredible vision it gives us of God and of Christ and of the Holy Spirit. Father I pray that you would please work in us a strong sense of the presence of God. I pray that we would realize that the future is bright, but we have a lot of sufferings still to go through as a planet and as individuals. Oh Lord, I pray that you give us courage for the facing of that hour. Help us to be willing even this week to speak up. I pray that tomorrow at workplaces when someone asks, “What did you do this weekend?” that some witnesses here would speak up and say, “Well I went to church yesterday and we heard a great message from the Book of Revelation. Have you ever heard about the Book of Revelation?” and that they would get into a conversation. I pray that it would lead toward someone hearing the gospel and having a chance to repent and believe. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Andy Davis preaches an overview of Book of Isaiah. He covers God's calls to repent, idol worship, and the promise of the coming Jesus Christ.

So this morning, just right before worship, I was talking to a young man and he looked at where I usually put the sermon outline, and he said, "Are you preaching about nothing today?" So, I'm not preaching about nothing, there's going to be a lot. I just couldn't give an outline for the Book of Isaiah.

About six years ago, I was invited by Danny Aikin and David Platt to do a commentary on the Book of Isaiah. And they said two things, they said you can have five years to do it and that it's not supposed to be a verse-by-verse commentary. Well, I knew right away I was going to take the whole five years, that was a given. But the thing that was an agony to me was that I wouldn't be able to go into every verse like I love and to celebrate the truth and wring the truth out of each verse. But sometimes I think it's valuable to do that. For us, the saying of an individual, you can't see the forest for the trees. They're so focused on details, they can't see the big picture. But the beauty of the word of God is that both the trees, the individual details and the whole glorious forest are radiant with truth and that the tiniest details can bear the closest scrutiny and investigation but so also the big overarching story is worth studying as well.

So this morning we're going to go through the whole Book of Isaiah, as Chris said, a kind of a flyover. Some years ago I was at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, and I saw an IMAX movie which was a kind of a flyover of the continental US, and it was really cool. They timed it so that the length of the movie, I think an hour. They began in New York Harbor looking at the Statue of Liberty and then went across, and you're just moving it at just the right pace to get across the entire span of the continental US, and you're seeing the hills of Pennsylvania, the farms of Pennsylvania and then the coal mining district of Western Pennsylvania, then on and you know, the cities like Cincinnati and then as you kept going across the corn fields of Indiana and then across the... You know, swung down to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the gateway to the west and then you're moving across all the wheat fields of Kansas, it was just beautiful, the deserts of Nevada and Utah. And then, Yosemite, the Half Dome and finally the sparkling sea, the Pacific and the Pacific Northwest, and how beautiful that was along that coast, and I'll never forget it. And I thought it might... It's just an amazing thing to be able to figure out how to do that, what height to fly at, how high, how low, and what you could see, when to go faster, when to slow down. And it was really cool.

So I want to try to do some of that with the Book of Isaiah today, the most visionary of all prophets. That's how Isaiah begins. The word of the Lord that Isaiah, son of Amoz, saw. So he's just a visionary prophet. Toward the beginning of my Christian life, I heard one of the best sermons I ever heard from John McArthur and he's been a role model and a mentor for me in terms of verse-by-verse exposition and sequential exposition which I believe in. But this sermon was entitled, A Jet Tour Through the Book of Revelation. And it was really cool because he went through the whole book of Revelation in one hour. It's ironic because that's where we're going, God willing, next. And I'm not doing any jet tour next week. We're going to begin to go through those chapters. But I love the way he gave a fascinating overview of the entire book in one hour.

Now if anything, the Book of Isaiah would repay even more that kind of handling and special handling as we study through the themes that are so rich and so full. And I have less than one hour with you today. Now there are lots of ways that I could do this, this overview of the whole Book of Isaiah but it seems best for me to focus on how the prophecy of Isaiah unfolds salvation, or foretells really, salvation in Christ. That's going to be the center piece of what I'm looking for. Now, I could go topically and logically through the book in a theologically and a logically organized manner, letting the topics dictate what verses I would bring out. But that would result in a confusing jump around through the book from this chapter up ahead to this one, and then back again to this and then zeroing on this and then... It's like, it'd be jumping all around. And I thought it might be better to go in consecutive order, honoring the way that the Holy Spirit has given us the book, beginning at chapter 1 through chapter 66. My goal is to present or see how the book presents the amazing grace of God in Christ as the savior of the world.

Now, what I'm going to do is I'm going to project on the screen these cross references so that you don't have to jump around. We're going to be going fast and I want you to be able to see it so that you're free from having to jump ahead in the book and just look and read or just listen as you do it. But I know that Mark is happy to try to stick with me. You're ready, brother?

But the first verse that I wanted to share is actually from Revelation 19:10, and it says there, "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. In other words, the essence, the spirit of prophecy is to give witness to Jesus. So the central purpose of the majestic sprawling complex vision of the Book of Isaiah is to give testimony of Jesus. Now, John says this incredible thing about Isaiah in the Gospel of John, in John 12:41, that Isaiah saw Jesus' glory and spoke about him. Now essential to that is the ability that God alone possesses to predict the future and this sets Christianity apart from every other world religion.

You heard Chris focus on this just a few minutes ago, but these are some amazing verses. God challenged the idols of Isaiah's day with this challenge. Isaiah 41:22-23, it says, "Bring in your idols to tell us what is going to happen. Tell us what the former things were so that we may consider them and know their final outcome or declare to us the things to come. Tell us what the future holds so that we may know that you are gods. Do something, whether good or bad, so that we will be dismayed and filled with fear." The idols can't do it. There's no way the idols can predict the future, only God can. And again, Isaiah 41:26-27, "Who told of this from the beginning, so that we could know or beforehand, so we could say, he was right. No one told of this. No one foretold it, no one heard any words from you. I was the first to tell Zion." And then skipping ahead to Isaiah 46:9-10, "Remember the former things those of long ago, 'I am God and there is no other, I am God and there is none like me, I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times what is still to come. I say my purpose will stand and I will do all that I please.'" So God in the Book of Isaiah makes plain that he is the only one that can predict the future. He's the only one that has that power. God alone can predict the future because he alone is sovereign over the unfolding events of human history. He decrees what comes to pass and then he makes it happen.

What makes Isaiah so amazing and so challenging is how God weaves together events from planet Earth, things that were current in that day and things that were unfolding in at that time, including the rise and fall of nations at that time, together with his spiritual plans for the redeemed of all nations, of all time, he weaves that together. So the coming of Christ was predicted and unfolded in great detail in the Book of Isaiah.

Now, when I first went through Isaiah in its entirety with the idea of doing this sermon, I zeroed in on 36 passages to highlight, and I just started to do the math, and I said, "Okay, that's less than a minute for each one." I'd barely have enough time to read them so I reduced it somewhat, but as I was going over this sermon this morning, I realized I barely have enough time to talk about each of them. So this is definitely a jet tour flyover. However, this is my 80th sermon in the Book of Isaiah, and I think all of them are online. So if you want to go back and dive into some of the more details I think they're available online.

We're going to begin in Isaiah 1:2-4 with the sinfulness of the human race and God's call to repent. The prophecy begins with these words, "Hear O heavens, listen O Earth, for the Lord has spoken. I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows his master, the donkey his owner's manger. But Israel does not know, my people do not understand. Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption. They have forsaken the Lord. They have spurned the Holy One of Israel, and turned their backs on him." God called a nation, the Jews, Israel to represent the entire human race. God gave them many blessings, but they refused to trust him, they refused to obey him, so God had to bring judgments on them.

Now, the depravity of the entire human race is taught with great clarity throughout the book. But the focus is first and foremost on the Jews on Israel, and their sinfulness. So God calls on the people to repent of their sins and to reason with him. Right there in that first chapter, Isaiah 1:16-20, there he calls on the people, "Wash and make yourselves clean, take your evil deeds out of my sight. Stop doing wrong, learn to do right. Seek justice, encourage the oppressed, defend the cause of the fatherless. Plead the case of the widow. Come now, let us reason together says the Lord, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow, though they are red as crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you'll eat the best from the land, but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken."

Now, this sets the stage of the whole book really. The people actually cannot obey those commands, they cannot. They cannot wash and make themselves clean. They cannot take their evil deeds out of God's sight, they cannot stop doing wrong, they cannot learn to do right. But Christ can do all of those things for us. Indeed, he has done all of those things for us. Christ can change our rebellious ways. Christ has the power to remove the heart of stone and give the heart of flesh. He has the power through his shed blood to atone for our sins, and to give us a new nature, and enable us to walk in God's ways.

Now, the next is the vision of the entire world streaming to God in Christ. In Isaiah 2:2-4, it says, "In the last days, the mountain of the Lord's temple will be established as chief among the mountains, will be raised above the hills and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, 'Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways so that we may walk in His paths. The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, He will judge between the nations and settle disputes for many peoples, they will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.'"

Now, this is one of many verses in Isaiah that speak of the gospel spreading to the ends of the Earth, beginning in Jerusalem. It's going to spread to all nations and in this text, it says they're going to stream up Mount Zion effectively. You have this incredible image of a supernatural streaming of the nations uphill, counter to all laws of physics and gravity. And they're going to stream to Mount Zion by faith in Christ. And they will both come and they will say, "Come." In other words the spiritual pilgrimage that we are on as we follow Christ who is the way and the truth and the life, and we come to the Father through Him, as we're streaming to the heavenly Jerusalem, we are also evangelists and missionaries, we're not only coming but we are saying, "Come," to the nations, and we have both of those roles to play.

Next, we have already the vision that's been read for us this morning by Jason. The vision of Isaiah's call and the pre-incarnate Christ on his throne. When the Apostle John said that Isaiah saw Jesus' glory and spoke about him, we can think first and foremost of Isaiah 6. In verse 1-4 it says, "In the year of the King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted. And the train of his robe filled the temple, and above him were seraphs, each with six wings. And with two wings, they covered their faces, and with two, they covered their feet, and with two, they were flying and they were calling to one another, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty, the whole Earth is full of his glory.' And at the sound of their voices, the doorposts and thresholds shook, and the temple was filled with smoke."

This is a vision of the pre-incarnate Christ, seated on his throne, worshiped by angels and by spiritual beings, holy angels and they're crying out. And this brings a tremendous sense of guilt in Isaiah himself, verses 5-7, he says, "'Woe is me, I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips. And I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the king, the Lord Almighty.' And then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar, and with it, he touched my mouth and said, 'See this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away. Your sin is atoned for.'"

Now, this is Isaiah's calling to be a prophet to the nations. But he's told right away that the people wouldn't listen to him. Verses 8-10, "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And he said, 'Here am I, send me.' And he said, 'Go and tell this people, be ever-hearing but never understanding, be ever-seeing but never perceiving. Make the heart of this people callous, make their ears dull, close their eyes, otherwise they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.'" Isaiah would take in and absorb the vision of the holiness of Christ, Almighty God and of the people's sinfulness, he that lived in a land of people of unclean lips, and he would take that message also of Christ's atonement how sin can be atoned for and removed. And he'd take it out to his own people, but they wouldn't accept it, they wouldn't believe it, they would reject it.

Next, in the very next chapter, we have the promise of the birth of the savior, of a son called Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14, "The Lord himself will give you a sign, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." This is the mystery of the virgin birth of Christ, how he had a human mother, but no human father that God, Almighty God was his father. Fully God, fully human. That foreshadowed here in this prophecy, not just the assertion, the virgin will be with child, but the very word Immanuel, which means God with us. That he came to Earth to live with us in a physical human body.

This is even more heightened by the next famous passage in Isaiah 9:1-7, there it says, "In the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan-- The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice when dividing the plunder. For as in the day of Midian's defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. Every warrior's boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this."

This is the prediction of a great light that's shining in a land, not just a land but a world of darkness. People walking in darkness who have no hope. Of a great victory won and of plunder of spoils from that victory, given to us. Why? Because to us a child is born. And so the birth of a child speaks to the humanist. But the titles, Wonderful Counselor, literally miracle counselor, Mighty God. A child that's born who is called Mighty God in a fiercely monotheistic setting, this is the incarnation of Christ, the God Man, the deity of Christ, established centuries before Jesus was even born. And it satisfies our yearning for a righteous government, a government that's perfect and upright that will last forever. And the increase of his government and peace there will be no end, it will go on for eternity.

Next, in Isaiah 11:1-9 we have a picture of Christ's kingdom and of that government, it says there, " A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him-- the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD-- and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears;but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wickd. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea."

This predicts the future, perfect righteousness of Christ's reign. The removal forever of the curse from nature. Animals will no longer be red in tooth and claw, ripping and shredding each other, living for death. And there will be a perfect peace, a peaceful Earth on which he will reign.

Now, in that same chapter, we have the prediction of missions, which is a theme again and again in the Book of Isaiah. This message has to be taken to the ends of the Earth. And Isaiah predicts it again and again. Isaiah 11:10-12, "In that day, the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious. In that day, the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the sea. He will raise a banner for the nations and he will gather the exiles of Israel, and he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the Earth."

Now, next comes a regular theme in Isaiah, and that is the wrath and judgment of God on all the nations. There is continually woven together God's saving purpose for his people, and his wrath and judgment on his enemies. And we see this again and again. Isaiah 13:9-13 focuses on this wrath, his judgment. In those chapters, Isaiah focuses on Babylon first and Assyria next, but the implication is all the godless nations of the Earth will come under God's judgement. Isaiah 13:9-13 says, "Behold, the day of the LORD is coming--a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger-- to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it. The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless. I will make man scarcer than pure gold, more rare than the gold of Ophir. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the LORD Almighty, in the day of his burning anger."

It is because of this terrifying wrath to come that we must flee to Christ. There is no other refuge, there's no other place.

So, we see how God unfolds and controls his unfolding plan of human history. Again, Chris quoted this in his prayer, Isaiah 14:26-27. "This is the plan determined for the whole world; this is the hand stretched out over all nations. For the Lord Almighty has purposed and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out and who can turn it back?" This is the plan, this is the hand. The plan is God's sovereign plan crafted before the creation of the world for all nations, all people established before the foundation of the world. And then his hand is his sovereign power, the right hand of omnipotence, moving out over the nations, moving out over human history. He is the Alpha, he is the Omega, he will make it happen. This is the plan, this is the hand. Isaiah 14:26 and 27.

Now, in Isaiah 13-26 there are many oracles of nations, and these nations were these small nations that lived around Israel and Judah at that time, but it becomes representative of God's sovereign control over all the nations, over all the surface of the Earth throughout all of human history. And it culminates in this vision in Isaiah 24:1-6, it says, "Behold, the LORD is going to lay waste the earth and devastate it; he will ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants-- it will be the same for priest as for people, for master as for servant, for mistress as for maid, for seller as for buyer, for borrower as for lender, for debtor as for creditor. The earth will be completely laid waste and totally plundered. The LORD has spoken this word. The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the exalted of the earth languish. The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth's inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left.

So, God is going to destroy all his enemies and the enemies of his chosen people. But the last enemy to be destroyed is death. Death itself. And that is clearly predicted in Isaiah 25:6-9, one of my favorite oracles, it's also not well-known. Isaiah 25:6-9, it says there, "On this mountain, the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine, the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain, he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the Earth. The Lord has spoken. In that day, they will say, 'Surely this is our God, we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.'" Isn't that marvelous? There'll come a day in which death will be swallowed up forever, and that began to be revealed at Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, the destruction of death in the death of Christ.

And by simple faith in Jesus, we have access to that banquet, that feast that's spread for all nations. By just simple faith in Christ, we trusted in him, it says, and he delivered us. And so, Jesus' resurrection is our great hope that someday death itself will die. So Isaiah 26:19, it says, this is speaking of the general resurrection, "Your dead will live, their bodies will rise, you who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the Earth will give birth to her dead."

Now, one theme we see again and again in Isaiah is how often the Jewish people resorted to religious machinery to try to save themselves. We see it right in the first chapter when they're bringing this trampling of God's courts and this bringing of animals and bulls and sheep and all that, and God was sick of it. But then in Isaiah 29:13, he talks about what God, what his problem was with it. And Jesus quotes this concerning the Jews of his own time, Isaiah 29:13, the Lord says, "These people come near me with their mouth, and they honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is only made up of rules taught by men." This is a great danger for religious people around the world, even for us who have heard the gospel of Jesus, for us churchgoing Christians as well, to trust in the religious machinery rather than trusting in Christ, to trust in our own religious works and to have no genuine heart after Christ.

Instead, God tells us what true salvation is, Isaiah 30:15, This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: 'In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.'" That's justification by faith alone apart from works, that's what that is. In repentance and rest and trust and quietness, that's salvation in Jesus. But the people didn't want it, they weren't interested in it, they rejected it.

Now, of all the predictions of wrath that's going to come on the Earth, perhaps none is more graphic and terrifying than Isaiah 34:1-10. It's hard to read these words and not tremble inwardly if we believe they're really going to happen. Isaiah 34 says, "Come near, you nations, and listen; pay attention, you peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, the world, and all that comes out of it! The LORD is angry with all nations; his wrath is upon all their armies. He will totally destroy them, he will give them over to slaughter. Their slain will be thrown out, their dead bodies will send up a stench; the mountains will be soaked with their blood. All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved and the sky rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree. My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; see, it descends in judgment on Edom, the people I have totally destroyed. The sword of the LORD is bathed in blood, it is covered with fat-- the blood of lambs and goats, fat from the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah and a great slaughter in Edom. And the wild oxen will fall with them, the bull calves and the great bulls. Their land will be drenched with blood, and the dust will be soaked with fat. For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of retribution, to uphold Zion's cause. Edom's streams will be turned into pitch, her dust into burning sulfur; her land will become blazing pitch! It will not be quenched night and day; its smoke will rise forever."

Now, God is fully able to carry out this wrath, but he gives us dress rehearsals throughout history to see what it might look like. I think about what Europe look like in May of 1945, what Germany looked like, Berlin. I think about what Tokyo looked like in August of 1945. Just completely leveled, totally destroyed. We get images of this again and again throughout history. One of the clearest indications of God's power to do this is when the Assyrian surrounded Jerusalem and threatened to wipe out the Jews from the face of the Earth and extinguish the lineage of David that would trace down to Jesus. And God will that it would not take place, it would not happen, and he dispatched the angel of the Lord, who many commentators, including me, believe it was pre-incarnate Christ, and Jesus went out and killed 185,000 troops. Look at Isaiah 37:36, " Then the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning-- there were all the dead bodies!" When the people got up the next morning there were all the dead bodies, this was not difficult for Jesus to do, it was easy to do, it did not cause him any physical difficulty. He can put to death people without any effort at all, by speaking with the sword that comes from his mouth, we'll talk about it, God willing, next week.

Now, Isaiah 40 marks kind of a turning in the Book of Isaiah, I believe Isaiah 40 is along with Isaiah 53, the two greatest chapters in the Book of Isaiah, maybe two of the greatest chapters in the entire Bible. And Isaiah 40 begins with a message of comfort to sinners, look at Isaiah 40:1-2, "'Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins." A word of comfort to broken-hearted sinners like us, that atonement, full atonement is possible in Jesus. And it speaks of the coming messenger of the Lord, fulfilled by John the Baptist. In verses 3 through 5, "A voice of one calling in the desert, Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low, the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places, a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken."

And speaks of the transient nature of all humanity. Kind of like the central message of Scripture to us as human beings. Verse 6-8, "A voice says, 'Cry out.' And I said, 'What shall I cry?' 'All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.'"

It speaks of the proclamation of the glory of the Lord. And what's so beautiful about Isaiah 40 is you get infinite majesty in that chapter, and infinite condescension and humility and meekness.

Look at verses 9-11, "You who bring good tidings to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout. Lift it up. Do not be afraid, say to the towns of Judah, 'Here is your God.' See the sovereign Lord comes with power, and his arm rules for him. See his reward is with him and his recompense accompanies him."

I love verse 11, "He tends his flock like a shepherd, he gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart. He gently leads those that have young." Do you not feel as a Christian the tenderness and the gentleness of Jesus in caring for you? He is your good shepherd. He holds you close to his heart.

But this is the same one that it said in that same chapter, in verse 12-15, is infinite in majesty. "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? Who has understood the mind of the LORD, or instructed him as his counselor? Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding? Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust." This infinitely majestic God who marks the heavens with the span of his hand.

Verses 22-24, " He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff." This is the immense, infinitely wise, infinitely powerful, omniscient God, God the creator, God the ruler, God the judge who has come to Earth in the person of his Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

In the chapters that follow Isaiah 40, we have multiple visions of the coming Christ, they're called the suffering servant passages, and they begin in Isaiah 42:1-4, "Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his law the islands will put their hope." Don't you love that picture of Jesus? A bruised reed, fragile, he doesn't break it, he binds it back up and it gets healthy again. A smoldering wick, he doesn't snuff it out, he ignites it until it's a blazing bonfire of righteousness, that's Jesus. He's gentle with broken sinners like you and me, and he builds an empire not by crying out in the streets, but by gentleness, the proclamation of peace and forgiveness through faith in his name.

And then Isaiah 49:5-6, this servant of the Lord will not merely be the Savior of Israel, but of all the Earth. Look at verse 5 and 6, "And now the Lord says, he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring back Jacob to him and to gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has been my strength. He says, 'It is too small a thing for you to be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the Earth.'" It's too small a thing for Jesus just to save the Jews, too small a thing. Now he is the Savior of the ends of the Earth. He's the Savior of Gentiles like you and me. He is the light of the Gentiles, he is the light of our lives and it was predicted long before he was born. But the price tag for that salvation would be high for Jesus, infinitely high.

And so in Isaiah 50:4-10, this is Jesus speaking, I think, through the prophet; predicting what it would be like for him to suffer and die for us. Think of this as Jesus speaking, "The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught. The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious; I have not drawn back. I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting. Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near. Who then will bring charges against me? Let us face each other! Who is my accuser? Let him confront me! It is the Sovereign LORD who helps me. Who is he that will condemn me? They will all wear out like a garment; the moths will eat them up. 10 Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the word of his servant? Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God." Again and again justification by faith, trust in this Jesus who offered his back to those who beat him; trust in this Jesus who didn't hide his face from mocking and spitting and from his beard being plucked out, who willingly laid down his life.

Now the greatest single chapter in Isaiah generally called Isaiah 53 actually begins in Isaiah 52 and it portrays, I think it really is the theological center of the whole Bible, actually. Not just of Isaiah, the whole Bible. Begins Isaiah 52:13-15, "Behold my servant will act wisely. He'll be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled at him. His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness, so will he sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him, for what they were not told they will see and what they have not heard they will understand." Jesus's form was disfigured beyond any human likeness on the cross. As he suffered and died on the cross it would be hard to imagine that there was depicted the wisdom and the love and the mercy of God, but there it was. And by his death, he, it says, "will sprinkle many nations." That Levitical sprinkling of the blood brought cleansing, and even more infinitely more the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus brings cleansing to the nations.

Then Isaiah 53:1-6. Now, I think this is the greatest single chapter on the topic of substitutionary atonement. It's the idea of a substitute who is sinless, who is innocent, who died in the place of sinners to remove judgment from them. It's taught again and again in these verses, and I would say it's taught no more clearly anywhere else in the whole Bible than here in Isaiah 53:1-6. Listen to this. "Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all."

This is the clear prediction of substitutionary atonement, of a Savior who was sinless in and of himself, but took on our iniquities and died under the wrath of God. We have no other hope than this. What other hope is there that sinners like us that can stand before an infinitely wise, holy God and survive Judgment Day. This is our only hope. And it's a sure and certain hope because God sent him for this very purpose. This is the clear prediction seven centuries before Jesus was born of his death on the cross and of the transfer of guilt from sinners to a substitute, and there's no hope apart from that. This is how we are forgiven and healed by his bloody death.

Isaiah 53:7-12, "He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors."

This is the gospel, this is the centerpiece of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We sinners have no other hope, but this is a sure and certain hope, isn't it? This is a message and it begins in 53:1, "Lord, who has believed our message?" And so, just by believing this message is our forgiveness.

So you have an invitation, an invitation, but it's right from Isaiah 55:1-3, "Come all you who are thirsty, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come buy and eat, come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend your money on what is not bread and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me and eat what is good and your soul will delight in the richest of fair. Give ear and come to me, hear me that your soul may live." That is a gospel invitation right in Isaiah 55, pleading with us to stop living our lives for things that don't satisfy, that will leave us empty and will condemn us on judgment day. Come to Christ, feed on Christ, drink and eat of Christ.

But God also tells us this opportunity will not last forever. We have an opportunity now, today. Isaiah 55:6-7 says, "Seek the Lord while he may be found, call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God and he will freely pardon him." This is the gospel that's been going out, beginning at Jerusalem through Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the Earth and God promises that his word will most certainly succeed. It's going to bring in a great multitude from every tribe, language, people, and nation. Isaiah 55:10-11 says, "As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return without watering the Earth, making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth, it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."

So the missionaries that bring the message of Christ to the ends of the Earth will most certainly succeed, verses 12-13 of Isaiah 55, "You will go out in joy and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands, instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree, instead of briers the myrtle will grow, this will be for the Lord's renown for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed."

This week I'm going to Richmond, I'm a trustee at the International Mission Board and I wanna just go and talk to the missionary candidates that we're going to appoint and give them verses 12-13 for hope. You're going to go out with joy, and be led forth with peace, and you will go in the name of the Lord whose word never comes back empty and you will lead people to Christ, Amen, hallelujah.

Now, this gospel comes as an invitation from the high and holy God, Isaiah 57:15. This is what the high and lofty one says, "He who lives forever, whose name is Holy. I live in a high and holy place but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite, isn't that a great verse? It's like if you can memorize this one verse, I don't think this would be it, but it would be a great verse to memorize. It's a marvelous verse. The high and holy God of Isaiah 6, the one that the seraphim are covering their face, he's inviting you to his high and holy place to live with him forever if you'll just be humble and broken and ask for his salvation in Christ.

And this is going to happen, people from around the Earth are going to stream like we saw in Isaiah 2, they're going to stream into Zion, and Zion's going to become more and more and more and more glorious; bigger and bigger, more and more glorious. Isaiah 60:1-7, "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. "Lift up your eyes and look about you: All assemble and come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the arm. Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy; the wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come. Herds of camels will cover your land, young camels of Midian and Ephah. And all from Sheba will come, bearing gold and incense and proclaiming the praise of the LORD. All Kedar's flocks will be gathered to you, the rams of Nebaioth will serve you; they will be accepted as offerings on my altar, and I will adorn my glorious temple."

Some of those missionaries go out to the Arab-speaking world. Isaiah 60 tells them that they're going to be successful, there's going to be some elected that are going to come from those tribes and languages and peoples and nations and they will bring offerings forever in the heavenly Zion.

Jesus was anointed to bring this message. He is our Messiah, he is the Savior and he said so in Isaiah 61:1-3, this is how he began his preaching ministry, "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, he has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn and provide for those who grieve in Zion." And he rolled up the scroll of Isaiah and he sat down and he opened his mouth in his hometown and said, "Today, in your hearing, this Scripture is fulfilled." This Jesus will never stop speaking until his bride, the heavenly Zion, is finished, beautiful, radiant. Isaiah 62:1-3, "For Zion's sake... " think of Jesus saying this, "For Zion's sake, I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem's sake, I will not remain quiet till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch. The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory, and you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow. You'll be a crown of spender in the Lord's hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God." That's the bride of Christ, that's the new Jerusalem. That's the heavenly glory that Jesus is going to keep on speaking until it's done.

So the Book of Isaiah ends with a clear depiction of the new heavens and the new Earth and of hell, that's how the book ends. First, the new heavens and the new Earth, Isaiah 65:17-19, "Behold I will create new heavens and a new Earth. The former things will not be remembered nor will they come to mind, but be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people. The sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more." No more death, mourning, crying or pain, gone forever. The new heavens and the new Earth, that's where you in Christ are going, rejoice and be glad forever. Isaiah 65:25, you've heard this before, "The wolf and the lamb will feed together, the lion will eat straw like the ox, the dust will be the serpent's food, they will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain."

Now, this beautiful new Jerusalem is not going to get built by human skill, human architects, human construction companies, human efforts will not build this. Isaiah 66:1-2, this is what the Lord said, "Heaven is my throne, the Earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? Or where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things and so they came into being?" We can't build the new Jerusalem, we can't build the new universe that's coming, only God can do that. Then he says in verse 2, "This is the one I esteem, he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and who trembles at my word." Again, justification by faith alone in Christ. Only humble believers in Christ will enter it and so the gospel will spread to the ends of the Earth to claim them, to bring them in. Isaiah 66:19-20, "I will set a sign among them, I will send some of those who survive to the nations, to Tarshish, to the Libyans and Lydians, famous as archers, to Tubal and Greece and to the distant islands, who have not heard of my fame or seen my glory and they will bring your brothers from all the nations to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the Lord."

The elect from every nation will spend eternity in God's presence, worshipping Him. 66:22-23 says, "As the new heavens, and the new Earth that I make will endure before me declares the Lord, so will your name and descendants endure from one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me," says the Lord. But the rebels will be destroyed forever. Verse 24: "And they will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me, their worm will not die nor will their fire be quenched and they will be loathsome to all mankind." Close with me in prayer.

Andy Davis preaches a verse by verse expository sermon on Isaiah 66:1-24. The main subject of the sermon is the difference between true and false worshipers.

Alright, so we come this morning to the second last sermon, I'm going to preach in the Book of Isaiah, but the last chapter of the book of Isaiah, next week, God willing I'm going to give an overview of the whole Book of Isaiah I could go through this book all over again. I love the Book of Isaiah, I've loved this journey. But next week what I'm going to do is I'm going to trace out specifically Christ in the Book of Isaiah, and the Gospel, and we're going to go from Isaiah 1 to 66 one more time. But this is the last chapter, the final chapter in the book of Isaiah what a fitting conclusion it is Isaiah is the most visionary of all the Old Testament prophets and take an average section of the Book of Isaiah, close your eyes and images come in vision right from the beginning, Isaiah 1:2 the word of the Lord that Isaiah son of Amos, saw it's a vision, And so this most visionary of prophets comes to an incredible and fitting end to his incredible book, and that is a revelation of the eternal state of both the righteous and the wicked, the final chapter of Isaiah divides the human race as we've seen again and again into two categories.

I'm going to unify it around this one idea of true and false worship we're going to follow the idea of worship. There's different ways we could look at this chapter, but we're going to look at true worshipers versus false worshippers. And the outcome. It describes very plainly the heart and behavior of both the true worshippers, and the false worshippers, as well as their eternal destinies, heaven and hell, the Book of Isaiah, ends with the vision of the new heavens and the new earth with Zion the New Jerusalem eternally populated by true worshippers from every nation on earth who are going to be continually falling down before God and worshiping him.

But Isaiah also ends literally ends with the last verse that you heard Joel just read, verse 24 it ends with a clear depiction of hell. The state of eternal death, in which rebellious human beings will suffer in plain view, of the redeemed for all eternity. And I think it's appropriate that this theme of worship, both true worship and false worship unifies this final chapter. Because the human race, we were created to worship. Our hearts our souls were made to find worth and value. And to esteem it and have it flow out in our words, we're made to worship. In Romans chapter 1, talks about how we have given over that heart to idols. We exchange the truth of God for a lie, and worship and serve created things rather than the Creator, who is forever praised amen Romans 1:25, the clearest the best definition of idolatry in the Bible. Idolatry has been front and center throughout the Book of Isaiah. We've seen it again and again. As has God's work of redemption his plan of redemption in reclaiming ex-idolaters healing us of our idolatry and bringing us over to worship God in spirit and in truth.

And so we come to this final book and we begin in an amazing way verses 1-4, we're going to see true worshipers delightful and false worshippers detestable.

True Worshipers Tremble Before the Throne and Word of God

Let's begin at 66:1-2. "This is what the LORD says: 'Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?' declares the LORD. 'This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.'"

So God declares right at the beginning of this chapter, once again he is ineffable he is immeasurable. He is infinite majesty, this immense God has been the center of the whole Book of Isaiah, and here He declares the impossibility of finite man, making anything suitable, any place suitable for him to dwell any suitable place for us to worship Him, and the impossibility really of making a finite container for this infinite God. The Jews were continually tempted to be overly impressed with their temple, their own structure, that they built for worship and with the religion that flowed from it. Before the exile, the Babylon after the time of Isaiah, but right before the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple, in the book, of a book of Jeremiah, the Jeremiah the prophet had to stand at the gates of the temple and say to the Jewish people "Do not say in your hearts, we have the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord."

Three times they said it, why? Because they were clinging to it, "God would never allow this city to be destroyed, he would never allow the temple to be destroyed." Religious people are always tempted to trust in their religion. To trust in their habits, the habits of piety and the beauty of their sanctuaries, that they made with their own hands, and they think that those actions make them righteous. But Solomon himself when he dedicated his beautiful temple, and he stood and he spread out his hands to pray. It came to a certain point I think, through the Spirit working on his heart, a point of humility First Kings 8:27 "But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!"

Well, that's just a beautiful humility that King Solomon had saying, "What is this structure?" And I love what he says "heaven, even the highest heavens cannot contain you" there's no container for God. There's no barrier, no boundary line to which God goes up and reaches and that barrier says, "This far, you may go God and no further." There's no such thing. God fills heaven and earth with his complete presence. This is the doctrine of God's omnipresence. We could also say the doctrine of God's immensity. They're really probably the same thing in the end. God is 100% present everywhere in the universe with all of his being. "Do I not fill heaven and earth?" He says. And so he declares his sovereign dominion over heaven and earth. "Heaven is my throne," he says, "It's the place where I sit to dwell." "The earth is my footstool." The Heavens, the physical heavens that we can see with telescopes are in-comprehensively immense. The astronomers tell us that the observable universe is 46 billion light years across.

That's something that we have no conception of. They tell us that light year's the distance that light can travel in one year. Physicists tell us that light is the fastest thing there is in the physical universe. So 46 billion years, it would take light to go from one side to the other, but they don't really know. They don't really understand what they're talking about and neither do I, but the creator of the universe fills all that space with all of his being all the time. So any earthly temple, any soaring stone cathedral built over two centuries with European limestone or marble or anything like that with beautiful, majestic, stained glass windows or any modern steel and glass worship center, state of the art technology doesn't really matter. Any man-made place of worship anywhere on the face of the earth is as nothing to God. He asked in effect in this in this verse, "Where in the world could there be anything that you could make that would possibly house me?" He really does mean to put us in our place here.

The Hebrew is emphatic. It puts us in our place. We desire to glorify God by building soaring edifices, mighty cathedrals, flying buttresses, all of that. And you go to some of those cathedrals in Europe and they'll just take your breath away. We are impressed, but God is not impressed. There's nothing about them that impresses him. He actually to some degree, says, "I have a hard time finding them. I'm not able to see them. That's not where I'm looking. Heaven is my throne. The earth is my footstool. If you were to decorate the place that where my feet rest and you were to find gold and silver and costly stones and pearls and all that kind of thing, it would still not catch my eye at all. It wouldn't captivate my gaze." Actually, all of the building materials you would use are already God's before you even started. They belonged to him.

Look at verse two, "Has not my hand made all these things. And so they came into being." They all belong to me, God is saying. Every atom in the universe is already God's, including every atom in your brain and every item in your hands. So the brain by which you would come up with the blueprint for the dwelling place for God, and the hands by which you would build that dwelling place for God and the building materials that you would use. All of it already belong to God already. All of it, for from him and through him and to him are all things, to him be the glory forever. So what captivates God's attention? What holds his gaze? What is he looking for? Well, he tells us here. This is the one to whom I will look. This is what radiant beauty looks like to me. You want to be beautiful. You want to capture God's gaze? He who is humble and contrite in spirit, and who trembles at my word. Humble and contrite and spirit means you're deeply aware, first of your creatureliness, you're created. He's the creator. And you're humble about that. There's an infinite gap between you and the creator, even if you have never sinned, but you have sinned.

So secondly, that you're deeply aware of your sinfulness and God's holiness. You're deeply aware that your righteous acts cannot save you. And so Jesus began the Sermon on the Mount with this statement, "Blessed are poor in spirit [the spiritual beggars] for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." You are destitute spiritually and you know it, and you tremble at his word. God's resting place is here. It's among his humble, brokenhearted people who have been saved from their sins by his grace in Christ. God is searching out such a resting place. He is seeking such a place where he will settle down finally and worship and live with his people. So what he really wants from us is humility here in this text, brokenness. And he says, those who tremble at my word. What does this mean to tremble at God's word? Trembling is a physical physiological reaction, can be caused by a lot of things, could be caused by disease. Physiologically, your nervous system could be sending signals to your muscles and you're trembling. But this seems to be a trembling that comes because of thoughts, ideas, something that you're thinking about. Well, in that case you could be trembling because you're a thief about to get caught.

You're surrounded and you're trembling with fear of getting caught or you could tremble because the best thing in your life that you never thought could happen is about to happen. Maybe your wedding day, or maybe your husband was a POW and he's been released and you can't wait for him to come down the gangway. And you see him and your trembling and you run and embrace after years of being apart. There's a lot of different reasons that we tremble. I think the thing here is that we're trembling concerning our own sinfulness and God's holiness. We're trembling concerning the just wrath of God that we deserve. But we're also trembling with expectation and how great and majestic and beautiful this God is. And we want to see him. And so there's this trembling at all of these deep themes of God's word. But either way, no matter how you look at it, what it means is by faith, you're taking this word seriously. You know this isn't merely the word of man, but it is the word of God as it actually is at work in you who believe. So you tremble at it and you take it seriously and you're humbled. That's the one that God looks to.

Does this Characterize You?

Now, let me just stop and ask you a question, does this characterize you? This is my application right in the middle of the sermon. Does this honestly characterize you? Are you humble and contrite in spirit, and do you tremble at God's Word? Are you deeply humbled by your sin and God's holiness? Do you understand that if you are to be saved, it will only be by the grace of God in Christ, His shed blood on the cross, is the only way you're going to survive Judgment Day. Are you aware of that? Do you seek also dynamically humility more and more? Do you seek to be more humble, a year from now than you are now? Do you see actually pride as a big problem in your life. It's an ongoing issue. Do you see that actually its corrupting your relationships? If you're married, it's corrupting your marriage. The biggest problem you have in your marriage, is your pride. It's corrupting your friendships, it's corrupting everything you touch. The pride is there, it's like, "Oh God, would you humble me?"

It's like you cling to the promise, no longer a threat but a promise. At the end of the Book of Daniel that Nebuchadnezzar learn when God changed his mind to the mind of an animal, then turned it back after seven years. Those who walk in pride, He is able to humble. Then do it, Oh God, humble me. I want to be genuinely broken and contrite in spirit, and I want to tremble at your word. Begin every day, say, "Oh God I want to capture your gaze, I want you to like looking at me, I want you to enjoy looking at me, I want to be beautiful to you. Would you please make me humble and contrite in spirit? Would you give me a heart of trembling after your word?"

False Worshipers Make Detestable Sacrifices

Now conversely, in verse 3, we have false worshippers. Who are making detestable sacrifices. And if I can just stop, the dynamic as we've seen again in Isaiah, it's going to go back and forth from the righteous to the wicked and back again. It weaves all the way through the chapter as it does all the way through our experience. This is a world of wheat and weeds, of good fish and bad fish, all gathered by the same dragnet.

We are mixed together in this world, and so this chapter is mixed together as well. Look at verse 3, "But whoever sacrifices a bull, is like one who kills a man, whoever offers a lamb, like one who breaks a dog's neck. Whoever makes a grain offering is like one who presents pig's blood and whoever burns Memorial incense is like one who worships an idol." Now here God is condemning the false worship of Israel. Now, there's two possibilities in my mind as I look at that, either he's condemning the Pharisee, type person, who outwardly is following the laws of Moses, through these right sacrifices but inwardly is totally corrupt.

He's a white washed tomb that looks good on the outside, but inside full of dead men's bones and everything impure and unclean. Full of pride and lust, and covetousness and murder and idolatry. But outwardly, he's doing what the law requires. "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." Or he's talking about a syncretism, it was a big problem in Israel, where they mixed together, the pure religion that they got from Moses and the Canaanite religions that were there in the land, and they mixed them together. The Jews did this as well, syncretism, mixing together, the religion of the Bible with the religion of the world. Either way, it's a remarkable list, making lawful mosaic sacrifice is compared to the most vile things you could ever imagine to offer to God, to offer a bowl, if your heart is wrong, if you don't have that broken humble, contrite spirit, trembling at God's Word, and you're offering, a sacrifice that the law of Moses commanded, its corrupt to offer a bull, something as costly as a bull, that's an expensive animal, to offer a bull is as bad as killing a man to God.

To offer a lamb is as bizarre as breaking a dog's neck. To present a grain offering is as repulsive God, as presenting pigs blood. To burn sweet smelling incense is as repulsive as bowing down to an idol. It's an interesting mix there. So the religious pattern, the external pattern means nothing if the heart's not right behind it.

Now, this is a warning to us as Evangelical Christians. Again, I just want to stop and apply this right here. We have our own sacred list of biblically mandated duties, we have the Bible in the New Testament telling us to do certain things and we can become proud of them, and have corrupted lives and corrupted hearts, pray the sinner's prayer, realize that you're a sinner, water baptism follows, church membership, church involvement, attendance at worship, weekly attendance, daily quiet times. And then even some of the more advanced aspects of the Christian life, you could memorize scripture, you could be out doing street evangelism, you could be committed to missions, all of these things are good and right and beautiful but if they're done from a corrupted heart, they're not acceptable to God any more than these were back in the old covenant. So, it's a warning to us. None of these things can save us.

False Worshipers Judged for Not Heeding God’s Word

Now, the false worshippers. Are judged in verse 3 and 4 for not heeding God's word. "They have chosen their own ways and their souls delight in their abominations. And then further on, when I called, no one answered, when I spoke, no one listened. They did evil in my sight, and shows what displeases me." So the essence of false religion is independence from the Word of God. God told them what to do, He called, but they didn't listen. He made it very plain in His word, what He wants from us, but they crafted their own religion. This goes all the way back to Cain, remember where Cain offered up something God hadn't told him to offer. And he said, "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?" He did what was wrong in offering that, he made up his own religion. So their punishment is extreme. Verse 4, "So I also will choose harsh treatment for them and bring upon them, what they dread." They chose their path, they made up their own religion. But God is going to choose their end and it will be terrifying. Fundamentally, they did not tremble at His word, but they were deaf to his calls.

Now, for us in the new covenant era, the call is this: believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, repent and believe the good news. That's the call. And so God is now calling He's saying, "Call on me while I'm near. Seek the Lord while I may be found. This is the day of salvation. Now is the time." But, people hear that and they go their own way, they have their own answers to life's ultimate questions.

Now, in Verses 5-14, we see false worshippers persecute and true worshippers prosper. The rest of this chapter, God directly addresses His children. It's written to them, but He never stops talking about the wicked, the false worshippers are much in view but they're always referred to in the third person for the rest of the chapter. Their punishment is clear for His elected children to see. So true worshipper or false worshippers persecute the true, look at Verse 5, it says, "Hear the word of the Lord you who tremble at His word." So, He's talking to the believers, talking to the children of God, "Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at His word, your brothers who hate you and exclude you because of my name have said, 'let the Lord be glorified that we may see your joy, yet they will be put to shame.'" There is a deep-seated enmity between the children of God and the children of the devil, they're at war with each other in world view if not physically, even. We have radically different ways of looking at everything in the world, and we have to be in the same world. God addresses those who tremble at His word, the true followers of Christ.

And He speaks of brothers, your brothers who hate and exclude you. Now, obviously that happened from the very beginning with Cain when he killed his brother, Abel over matters of religion because Abel's offerings were offered by faith and Cains were not, and he hated him. Now in redemptive history, the first followers of Christ were all Jewish so also were the first persecutors of Christians. And so we could really just stop right there with this verse, but we could make it more universal just in terms of other human beings who do not believe in the Lord. But here, within in the issue of Jews, Jesus said it was going to be this way. In John 16:2 & 3, speaking of Jews who do not believe in Christ, to the true followers, he said, "They will put you out of the synagogue. In fact, your time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a sacrifice to God, they will do such things because they have not known the Father or me." So he's predicting Jewish persecution of followers of Jesus.

Now, here in Verse 5, these false brothers so to speak, hated them who trembled at God's Word and they cast them out and they excluded them because of God's name. For Christ's name sake, ultimately, they excluded them, they kicked them out and they mocked them. Now, what they say is interesting, "Let God be glorified that we may see your joy." I don't know what that means, it sounds good to me, but in the context it's clearly mockery. So they're using this kind of religious slogan to mock their faith but look at the outcome.

False Worshipers Destroyed by the Lord

The false worshippers will be destroyed by the Lord, verse 5 & 6, "Yet they will be put to shame." Verse 6, "Hear that uproar from the city, hear that noise from the temple, it is the sound of the Lord repaying his enemies all they deserve." So in the end, God brings judgment on these mocking adversaries. He did it in the time of Jeremiah by destroying the temple, He did it after the New Testament era in 70AD by destroying the temple again. And so it's a double fulfillment of this prophecy, hear the uproar from the city. Listen to the noise from the temple, what is the noise? What's the uproar? Destruction, wrath. So also is the final condemnation that comes at the end of the chapter. In the new universe, the eternal destination of the wicked, that also a clear display of the wrath of God.

True Worshipers Born Instantly by the Lord

Now we go back to the true worshipers verse 5:7-9 he says, by contrast, even while the markers are persecuting in the church, the church is exploding in size among the gentiles. There is a nation getting born in an instant, miraculously. Isaiah 7-9, "Before she goes into labor, she gives birth, before the pains come upon her, she delivers a son." Now all you women who are mothers or future mothers, you're like, "Amen, let it be, Lord, minimize my labor pains, oh please." Pray the prayer of Jabez concerning that, "Oh God, minimize my pain." But here we have this incredible image, "'Before she goes into labor she gives birth, before the pains come upon her, she delivers a son. Who has ever heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen such things? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet, no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children. Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery?' says the Lord, 'Do I close up the womb when I bring to delivery?' says your God."

Now for me, I just am doing all the work that we've done in the book of Isaiah to understand this properly. Jewish people could just say, "this is talking about the restoration, the Jew is back," I think this is so much bigger than that. We've seen this image before. Isaiah 54 talks about a woman Zion who's going to be in labor and give birth to more children than she can possibly imagine. She has to have a bigger tent. Enlarge the place of your tent, you're going to have more children than you can count. So this I think is the same image, this must be friends, the explosive spread of the Gospel from Jerusalem, through Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth, that's what we're talking about here, a nation born in an instant. And the effects of the curse are gone, the woman Zion gives birth instantly and seemingly with no labor pains, she gives birth to an entire nation in a single day.

So we got to go to the beginning of the church age, the day of Pentecost, remember that day began with 120 believers in the upper room ended with 3000, plus 120 believers. What a day. Perhaps the greatest single day in gathering, nothing ever like it of its kind. And who was it that came in? Their geographic spread was laid out for us in Acts 2, 9-11, "Parthians, Medes and Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus in Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs." All over the Mediterranean, they were there. They had Pentecost came to faith in Christ, a nation born in a single day with no labor. And so the Gospel started spreading like wildfire across that region, across Rome conquered Rome spiritually within three centuries, really short time and it's been spreading ever since.

And these Gentile converts that are in view here, being brought in, they become sons and daughters of Abraham. Galatians 3:7, even better. There's sons and daughters of the living God. It is written in John 1:12-13 that Jesus "came to that which was his own, but his own people did not receive him.. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, He gave the right to become children of God. Children who are born not natural descent, nor of human decision or of a husband’s will, but born of God." And so a nation gets born spiritually in an instant. And the sovereign power of God's on display here. Look at verse nine. "'Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery?' says the Lord. 'Do I close up the womb when I bring to delivery?'" There's no miscarriages here. No one... No stillborn. No one dies in labor. When God pours out His Spirit on the elect, they will come to faith in Christ. No one gets left behind. No one gets lost. Jesus said in John 6:37, "All that the Father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me, I will never drive them away… and I will raise them up at the last day." Isn't that beautiful? So he said, "I'm not going to bring to the point of birth and then they don't get delivered." They're going to get born again because God is powerful.

True Worshipers Prosper Richly in Zion

Now in verses 10-14, these true worshipers prosper richly in Zion. The river of converts are going to be flowing into Zion, the new Jerusalem. Making her amazingly wealthy. Again verse 10 through 14, "Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice greatly with her, all you who mourn over her. For you will nurse and be satisfied at her comforting breasts; you will drink deeply and delight in her overflowing abundance. For this is what the LORD says: 'I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream; you will nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees. 13 As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem. 14 When you see this, your heart will rejoice and you will flourish like grass; the hand of the LORD will be made known to his servants.'"

 So it's just a river of blessing flowing into Zion from the ends of the earth. These Gentile converts, these adopted sons and daughters of Abraham, adopted sons and daughters of God are going to become delighted in the new Jerusalem, ultimately. Paul says very plainly in Galatians 4 that it's not the Jerusalem that's below. She's in bondage with her children. But we're talking about the Jerusalem that's above. And we'll be delighted in it and we can't wait to see it. This radiant city that will last forever. And this river of converts coming from every tribe and language and people and nation are going to be deeply, richly, comforted by her and they will enrich her with all of their hearts, all of their souls, giving the treasures of their heart to Christ ultimately in worship.

And as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also the comforts of Christ flow over and we are comforted. And we know we're going to a world where there'll be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. We will be comforted by that and we will see the glory of God in all of those things. Verses 10 through 14, that's what's coming.

But halfway through verse 14, we switch again to the false worshippers that are condemned. The wicked continue to be in view in this chapter, but this is a world of both wheat and weeds. And so look at 14B, "The hand of the Lord will be made known to His servants, but as fury will be shown to his foes." Verse 15, "Behold, the Lord is coming with fire and his chariots are like a whirlwind and he will bring down his anger with fury and there's rebuke with flames of fire." Verse 16, "For with fire and with his sword, the Lord will execute judgment upon all men and many will be those slain by the Lord." God's mighty hand to save will be on display to his servants. They will see how He will save them but they will also see the judgment and wrath will bring to his enemies. So these verses speak with terrifying clarity of the future vengeance of the Lord on the wicked. God's going to pour out His fury on them. The Book of Revelation to which God willing, we're going to go next after next week's sermon on Isaiah one more. But then we're going to begin a journey through the Book of Revelation.

And it depicts more clearly than any book of the Bible what this verse is talking about. Like when the sixth trumpet blows in Revelation 9:18. It says "A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths." A third of mankind. Two or three billion people dying at one time. It staggers the mind. And then at the second coming of Christ, Christ comes back with the sword coming out of His mouth. Not literally, but metaphorically because that's the weapon. All he has to do this is to say to His enemies "Be dead and be damned" and that's it. He has that kind of power. And so Revelation 19:21, it says "The rest of them were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider on the horse and the birds came and gorge themselves on their flesh." This is terrifying. This is the terrifying wrath and vengeance of God and it's real and it's coming. And the elect are the only ones who take it seriously.

The elect are the only ones that take this seriously and this is part of what it means to tremble at his word. Pagan worship of the enemies is singled out here. Look at verse 17. "Those who consecrate and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following the one in the midst of those who eat the flesh of pigs and rats and other abominable things, they will meet their end together." I think this is just talking about the disgusting religions of the world. The religions of the world have led people to do bizarre disgusting things. And I think to some degree, you'll get Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, the animistic religion, the tribal religions, they lead people to do repulsive disgusting things. I think it's Satan's mockery of us who are created an image of God. He can deceive us and get us to think clever thoughts and do degrading, degrading things.

But the end will be judgment from the Lord. But then we turn back to true worshippers, in verse 18-21, these true worshippers are commissioned to bring in the nation. So here we have missions again, one last time in the book. There have been many examples of great commissions in the Book of Isaiah. Jesus said this after his resurrection, he rose from the dead, he goes to the upper room. Luke 24: He opened their minds, so that they could understand the scriptures, [including Isaiah] He told them, 'This is what is written: that Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. And repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem, you are witnesses of these things.'" it's written. So here we have this prediction plainly.

Look at verse 18: "And I, because of their actions and their imaginations, am about to come and gather all nations and tongues, and they will come and see my glory. I'm going to gather them and they're going to see my glory. Look at verse 19: "I will set a sign among them. And I will send some of those who survive to the nations, to Tarshish, to the Libyans and Lydians, famous as archers, to Tubal, and Greece, and to the distant islands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. And they will proclaim my glory to the nations."

Friends, that's missions. Do you see it in Verse 19? |I'm going to send a remnant out to the ends of the Earth, and they're going to proclaim my glory. I'm going to set a sign among them. Verse 20: "'And they will bring all your brothers, from all the nations to my holy mountain in Jerusalem, as an offering to the Lord, on horses and chariots, and wagons, and mules, and camels,' says the Lord. 'They will bring them, as the Israelites bring there grain offerings to the temple of the Lord in ceremonially clean vessels. And I will select some of them also to be priests and Levites,' says the Lord." So God, I think speaks plainly in these verses about the spread of the Gospel from Jerusalem through Judea and Samaria to the ends of the Earth. And God's going to assemble all the nations and tongues to come and see. But we learn from John 4, Jesus said to the Samarian woman, "Neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father." You don't need to go anywhere geographically. We don't have to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. We don't have to go anywhere physically.

The coming and seeing is done by faith alone. We come to God when we see the glory of God in Christ, when we hear the Gospel. That's how we come and see. And God's going to set a sign among the nations, and that sign, a sign is like a miracle, something like that, that sign is Jesus, the life of Jesus. From His miraculous conception, the virgin conception, virgin birth, through his sinless life, through the river of miracles that he did, all of the healings, the raising of Lazarus from the dead, the healing of a man born blind, the walking on water, the feeding of the 5,000, and the final capping greatest miracle all, his own bodily resurrection from the dead. I'm going to set a sign among the nations and they're going to believe, they're going to believe. And some of the survivors, the remnant, the Jews chosen by grace, they're going to be sent out. Salvation is from the Jews. So all the 12 apostles were Jews and the apostle Paul was a Jew. And they were sent out of this remnant as messengers. And they're going to be sent out to these distant lands. Look at the small sampling of those nations listed in Verse 19, Tarshish is distant Spain.

Put and Lud or Lydia is Northern Africa. Tubal is North in the caucuses, like maybe the Republic of Georgia or on up into Russia. And they're described as archers, they're really good archers. They're warlike and scary, but some of them are elect. I'm thinking you're going to have martyrs that will be necessary to die, but the elect will be brought. The gospel is going to spread. And these Gentiles, what they have not heard about them, they will see. And then what they were not told, they will hear. Isaiah 52:15: They're going to hear about Christ, and they're going to begin their spiritual pilgrimage. And how are they going to come? Well, I know it says on horses and chariots, and litters, mules, and camels. I didn't say that every word was easy to interpret. I've never been on a litter. I have been on a mule. I've never been on a camel. But again, there's that physical language. But we know based on the New Testament teaching, you don't need to go anywhere. And so, this just might talk in symbolic language of the different ways that people come to Christ.

They're just different stories, and we're going to hear them on testimony night, or day, or whatever in Heaven, that'll they'll be going on forever. I want to hear those stories. Tell me how you came to Christ. I want to hear those stories. Now, the ministry of the Apostle Paul, they're going to come as offerings, it says, like the Israelites used to bring grain offerings. The Apostle Paul said, "That's what my ministry is like, I'm Apostle to the Gentiles." Romans 15 and 16: With the priestly duty of proclaiming the Gospel to them, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. He's like, "I'm offering the Gentiles up to God." This is a direct fulfillment of the words here. Do you not see the harmony of the Bible? This is staggering. By the way, I knew when I practiced the sermon this morning, I would be laying on you something like 196 ideas. Just go back and listen and look at it carefully. This is a river of truth, this one chapter. It's incredible. And verse 21: "'I will select some of them, [the Gentiles] to be priests and Levites' says the Lord." What does that mean? The resources for the multiplication of the harvest, the harvesting is in the harvest.

The future laborers are present harvest field. And so you go and you share the gospel, and those people come to Christ, and then they multiply, and they go out to their own people. Some time ago, I was watching an incredible video called EETaow! It's one of my favorite missionary stories ever, magnificent. And it's a story about New Tribes' missionaries, Mark and Gloria Zook, who went from rural Papua New Guinea. And they led the Moke people to faith in Christ. A careful, patient explanation of redemptive history culminating in Christ, death on the cross, his resurrection. Finally, the Holy Spirit opens their eyes, they understand why the Zook's are there, and they believe in Christ. And they go crazy.

And for something like an hour, they start chanting, "Etah, etah. It's true, it's true." And they realize that they're freed from their dark pagan religion, they're free from animism and fear of the spirits, and they are just celebrating their forgiveness and they're going crazy. But that wasn't the end of the story. The sequel is in some ways even more beautiful. They sent some of their own people out to the neighboring villages and some of them went across some language barriers in Papua, New Guinea to reach the next villages. "I will select some of them to be priests and Levites." That's what it says, and they're going to do that priestly duty of proclaiming the Gospel.

And so we finish in verse 22-24 true worshippers eternally live, but false worshippers eternally die. This is the new Heavens and the new earth. Verse 22 and 23, "'As the new heavens and the new earth that I WILL make will endure before me,' declares the LORD, 'so will your name and descendants endure. From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me," says the LORD.'"

The New Heavens and New Earth Endure Eternally

So this text says two things will endure eternally. The new universe will endure eternally, and the people of God will endure eternally. "As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure, so will your name and your seed endure forever. Now this is the universe that God in some ways has yet to make. But I believe it's related to the present universe as our bodies are related to our future resurrection bodies. I think it's a direct analogy. We will be raised from the dead. So there's continuity but difference. This universe will be raised from bondage to decay into a glorious new universe. I believe that. Others think God's going to create a whole new universe. I get that too. Either way, we're going to get a new universe.

And unlike this present creation which has been groaning in bondage to decay, winding down, breaking down, constantly dying, always dying. No, those days are over. The living things will live forever and only become more robust and more glorious and more worthy of study as the display of the glory of God that they are.

And in the same way, so will His people endure forever before him. Your seed and your name will remain forever, the seed of the people. And their name will remember... Will endure forever. What does that mean? Name is reputation. This is what I think. We'll be discussing one another's name. And what does that mean? What you did, your works. The ones that survive Judgment Day. Your gold, silver, costly stones, not the wood hay straw. That's gone. But we're going to celebrate your crowns and your emblems of faithful service and I'm going to find out your stories, you're going to find out mine, we're going to talk to a multitude greater from anyone could count from every tribe, language, people, and nation and their name will endure forever, and we're going to learn their stories and see how God was glorified in their lives. I could go on about this forever. This is amazing, but we're going to say, "Not to us, to our name, but to Your name be the glory," Psalm 115:1. We're going to celebrate our name as a subset of God's glory and his name.

Conversely, and here we end. False worshippers will die eternally. Verse 24, "They will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me. Their worm will not die. Nor will their fire be quenched and they will be loathsome to all mankind." Now Jesus, our Savior, used these very words to describe the eternity of Hell, eternal, conscious torment in Hell. That's what He taught. Mark 9:43-48, "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into Hell where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you sin, then cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than have two feet and be thrown into Hell, and if your eye causes you to sin, then pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown in Hell, where their worm does not die and their fire is not quenched." Jesus is quoting the last verse of the Book of Isaiah. Eternal, conscious torment. That's what the Bible teaches is the future of the wicked. When it says the worm does not die, the worm gnaws on a corpse. It gnaws on the dead body and it keeps eating until there's nothing left to eat, and then the worm dies.

Jesus said the worm will never die. So God sustains existence and the fire, it never goes out. Some people teach annihilation, even some good teachers in the church have been deceived in this regard. It's hard to understand, but this is what the Bible teaches. It's what Jesus taught. And it says, "They will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me." Who's they? The worshippers, the redeemed. We will be well aware of them. And why is that? Well, we know in Revelation 14, it says in verses 10-11, "He too will drink of the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath and he will be tormented with burning sulfur." Listen to this, "In the presence of His holy angels and of the lamb, and the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever. There is no rest day or night." The holy angels see it happening. It goes up before them, they know what's going on and the Lamb, Jesus knows about it, and it goes up before Him. It doesn't say it openly, but it does here in verse 24, They will go out and look. We will be well aware of them. And there's no grieving, none. There'll be no mourning in Heaven. But this is what's taught, because it's a display, an eternal display of the justice of God. And for us, the redeemed, it's an eternal display of the mercy of God, isn't it? And forever we will realize that we were saved by grace.

We were saved by mercy. It teaches us in Romans Chapter 9. You might ask, "Why does God create people who end up in Hell? Why would he do that?" Romans 9 is the answer, the chapter that answers, especially verses 22-23. It says, "What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath-- prepared for destruction? 23 What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory." At least in part, they're there for our education, and we learn that we are saved by grace. And when you're in Heaven, seeing Heaven's version of Amazing Grace, you'll know exactly what you're talking about.

Alright, applications, we've already done some. I just want to do a few before we go to the Lord's Supper. The first is flee to Christ now. I don't know if I am speaking to any who is as yet un-redeemed, but I expect that I am. This is the time, a window of opportunity for you to drink of God's mercy and grace and favor through Christ. God sent Jesus Christ, his only begotten son, to live a sinless life and die on the cross for sinners like you and me. He shed his blood that we might be forgiven that the wrath of God might be pro-pitied, might be removed from us. All you need to do is trust in Him. Repent of your sins and trust in him.

Secondly, for you Christians, humble yourself before God and worship Him. I can't get enough of verses 1-2, "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my foot stool. What kind of house will you build for Me?" I love that, I love to be humbled. Where will my resting place be? Has not My hand made all these things. And so they came into being... This is the one I esteem. he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and who trembles in my word." Just say, "Oh God, make me beautiful, make me holy, make me humble, let me tremble at your word. I cast myself down before you. I think you should do it daily, in your quiet time. Work humility in me, Oh God.

Thirdly, despise nominal religion. It's danger for us as it was for them, the outward machinery of religion without any heart behind it. Despise it, it's dangerous, God hates it. He looks behind it and says, "Offering of a bull, it's like killing a man to me, if your heart's not in it."

Fourthly, tremble at the fate of the wicked. It's hard to read the final verse of Isaiah. It's hard. It should make us cry. Paul said, "I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart." This is the time to grieve over it, it won't be grieving in heaven, not at all. But now's the time to have sorrow and unceasing anguish, and be motivated in evangelism and missions. Fifthly, embrace missions. This is the story, this is what is happening in the world. He's going to send out messengers to people who have not heard of His fame or seeing His glory, and they will proclaim His glory, He will set a sign among the nations and they'll believe in that sign, Jesus, and have eternal life. We need to be a missions-church, we are, we need to be even more. Send more missionaries, more money, more prayer, more focus, more concern. And we need to be more passionate about evangelism here in the Triangle region as well. Let's share the Gospel.

And finally, as I've said many times before, let's yearn for the New Heavens in the earth. Let's set our hearts on things above and things to come. And we get to do that now with the Lord's Supper. For me, when I go to the Lord's supper, I eat it in a kind of an eschatological or end-time perspective. I look forward to feasting with Jesus with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. I look forward to that. And so we're about to partake of this, and as we do, we get to... We get to look upward to God and see his greatness, we get to look inward and see our sinfulness and confess it, we get to look back to Jesus who died on the cross for us.

We get to look around to brothers and sisters in Christ who are partaking with us. And we get to look ahead to the second coming and the new heavens, and new earth, and feasting. Now, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, and you've testified to that by water baptism, you're welcome to come. If not, we ask that you refrain, and we hope that you'll partake next time. Having come to faith in Christ, we would love to have you. But I like to ask the Deacons to come now, I'm going to close the sermon in prayer and we'll partake in the Lord's Supper.

Father, thank you for what we've learned through the journey of 66 chapters in Isaiah. It's been overwhelming and amazing and as we have one more chance next week to look at it, give us grace to take in the message. As we turn now to the Lord's Supper, we pray that you would send forth your sovereign Spirit to make this not a bare memorial, not an empty ritual, but something in a genuine experience of God's grace through Christ and His sacrifice in his name, we pray, Amen.

Andy Davis preaches a verse-by-verse expository sermon on Isaiah 65:17-25. The main subject of the sermon is the promise of the New Heaven and Earth and the time of Christ's coming.

Well, this morning, you've already heard the text that Chris read. We're going to look at one of the most provocative and powerful sections of Isaiah's prophecy, the vision he had concerning the future universe as recreated in Christ, the new Heavens and the new Earth that are coming. The aspects of it here seem like it might be discussing elements of what theologians call the Millennium or the Millennial kingdom. And so we're going to have to look at that as well and try to understand it. No matter what we end up believing this passage is the truth and tells us in some kind of language of a glorious future that should fill all of us with hope, and joy. And that's the outcome, the ultimate outcome. My desire is to create in each one of you who listen to me today a forward-looking perspective, that you're going to be looking forward to what is coming. Colossians Chapter 3, verse 1-4 says, "Since then, we have been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things for you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory." So, set your minds on things above, and clearly in that text, things to come. When Christ appears, the Second Coming.

Hebrews 11:10 says that Abraham was "looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God." Looking forward, that's a faith perspective. Again, 2 Peter 3:13, it says, "In keeping with his promise, we are looking forward to a new Heaven and a new Earth, the home of righteousness." So this looking forward, this forward-looking perspective, can only be done by faith, really can only be done in Christianity. We have a supernatural religion based on prophecies given to us by the eternal mind of God. And there's no other religion in the world that has this, predictive prophecy of what is yet to come. And so only by revelation, only by the unveiling that Scripture does, can we see both the invisible God and the invisible world that he is promising us.

Faith is the eyesight of the soul, and God is the revealer of the unseen. Faith comes from hearing the Word. So my desire is that your faith will rise from an exposition of Isaiah 60:5, and your eyesight will get clearer, and that you will see the unseen, the invisible, the invisible God and the invisible coming worlds.

Now we all have, I believe, within our hearts, dreams of a perfect world. Throughout recorded history, mankind has imagined perfect world, perfect societies. This is all over the world. People do this. Since the fall of Adam into sin, the world has been cursed. In Genesis 3, to Adam God said, "Because you listen to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, you must not eat of it, cursed is the ground because of you. Through painful toil, you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken. For dust you are, and to dust you will return."

So that's the curse. So both the Earth itself and human labor on the Earth was cursed there. And the struggle for survival was on, the bitter struggle for survival was on, and it is bitter. Life on Earth became an instant grief to the human race. Ecclesiastes 1:2-4, "Vanity of vanities... Vanity of vanities. All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation comes, and a generation goes, but the Earth remains forever." Sense of emptiness, of vanity to our labors in our life, doesn't mean anything. And creation itself has been groaning under this, the burden of this curse. Death has been rampant, constantly threatened, both for man and for beast. Ecclesiastes 3:19-20. It says, "Man's fate is like that of the animals. The same fate awaits them both. As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath. Man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless. All go back to the same place. All come from dust, and to dust, all return." Ecclesiastes 3.

Now, human hearts and therefore human society, was corrupted to the core by sin, by the sin of Adam. We are corrupted in our hearts. Adam and Eve, as soon as they ate from the tree, their eyes were open. They realized they were naked, and they hid from each other in shame and they made fig leaves to cover their shame. It wasn't long after that that Cain killed his brother Abel, the very next chapter. So we see an expansion of sin. And by the time of Noah, the contagion of sin had spread to epic levels. All over the world, all the thoughts of human hearts were only evil all the time. And the link between human sin and nature's groaning is clearest in the flood. All the air-breathing animals that were not on the ark were killed, swept away because of human sin.

Man sinned, animals died. So, this lamenting, this groaning pain-filled seemingly meaningless existence seems so wrong to us, doesn't it? Something's wrong here. We have a sense of a perfect world I believe, imprinted in our souls, like paradise in our souls. And mankind has always yearned for it and imagined it. Authors and poets, cult leaders and statesmen, conquerors and song writers, scientists and architects have all yearned for a paradise, have used their skills to kind of describe it if they can, some kind of a utopia that could be ushered in, a golden age free from this frustrating curse. Plato's Republic written around 370 BC, is one of the oldest efforts in human literature, to capture this desire for a golden age, a perfect society. About 150 years before Christ, a Greek merchant, Iambulus, wrote a book called Islands Of The Sun describing a perfect society in some distant island, in the Eastern sea.

In the year 421, after Christ, a Chinese writer named Tao Yuanming wrote a fable called the Peach Blossom Spring in which a fisherman accidentally sailed up a river into a forest made entirely of blossoming peach trees. The river, led to a grotto with a narrow passage way through which he was able to squeeze and there he found a village, with animals and people of all ages. The villagers were shocked to see him but they were friendly. It was an ideal society cut-off from the outside world. He left and marked his path with signs so he could find his way back, but he could never find it again. A yearning for a perfect world, a perfect society.

In 1516, Sir Thomas More in England, coined the term utopia by writing a book with that same name, the word, literally means no place. And it describes an island in the recently discovered new world, Columbus had discovered the new world just a few decades before that. And in that island there was a perfect society. Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels, HG Wells kind of expands it out to other planets.

So we're going to be moving through the cosmos finding a planet with a perfect society. The quest goes on and on. It's deeply rooted in our hearts. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, "God has set eternity in the hearts of men," but I think he's also set paradise there too, a sense of a perfect world, free from this curse. However, no vision is better than the Bible's, amen? We just heard it sung, we've read it again and again in Revelation 21, and 22, and when we come to Isaiah 65:17-25, we come to Isaiah's vision of that future perfect world. God alone has, if I could use this word, the imagination and the mental power to create a perfect world, in terms that we understand. God alone can work out all the details of that world in a way most glorifying to him and most perfectly satisfying to us. The Bible actually does describe a perfect ideal world, in which people live in harmony with nature and with each other. And it's coming. It's not just an idea, it's actually a prophecy, it's coming. Many passages in this book of Isaiah describe it so also does the book of Revelation.

The Power of Predictive Prophecy

So we come to Isaiah 65:17:25, and we come to an unveiling of God's perfect future world. "Behold," says God, " Behold," right at the beginning, "Behold me, and my perfect world." And then the questions that all Christians struggle with in understanding not just this perfect world, but we are so curious, "I want to know the details," and friends the details are going to probably just kill us as I walk through it in this text, but we'll do the best that we can. I was talking to somebody recently about this sermon, I have been working on this sermon for two months that's why it's, you know, an hour and a half long, it just keeps going on and on and on. It actually was going to be two sermons in one, we were going to do some Isaiah 65. We're going to spend a bunch of time in Revelation 20, and this morning I said, "Okay, we're not doing that." I think all of us, everyone, not just some of us, all of us are like, and please forgive this geeky illustration, but we're like circuit breakers. We can only take so much current flowing through and then we trip over.

And the amount of information that you all... That we all can handle is limited. And so I'm going to do my best to make it clear, to try to just walk through Isaiah 65 and explain these words, and to try to explain, especially verse 17, and verse 20 and how hard they are to harmonize and to describe the Millennium whatever that means, and to do it in a way that helps all of us. Now, as I said, what we're doing here as Christians is something that we're the only ones that can do, it's the only religion in the world they can do this. We're looking at predictive prophecy. We're looking at words written by God that tells us what's going to come, what's coming in the future. God again and again claims to be the only one that can do this. Isaiah 46:9-10, he says, "I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me, I make known [listen to this] the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say my purpose will stand and I will do all that I please." So God has pleased to think of the end and now he is sovereignly going to bring it about.

Questions of the Millennium!

So we come to this and the questions of the millennium. Isaiah 65 is going to bring us to ask some of the most exciting and debated questions there are in Christian eschatology, the study of the end of the world, that's what eschatology means. Age old debates about the possibility of a literal thousand-year reign of Christ on earth after his second coming, the possibility of a greatly enhanced life on earth, something that's free, essentially, for the most part, from the curses that we labor under, in which the effects of sin and death are greatly reduced though not totally removed. That's the essence of the Millennium verses the Eternal State. These questions will come up not naturally from Isaiah 65, but from the Bible as a whole, with Isaiah 65:17-25 as a key reference text. If there will be a literal thousand-year reign of Christ on earth before the Eternal State, the new heavens and the new earth, and if life in that Millennial kingdom, is described anywhere in the Bible, it is almost certainly described in this text here.

Now that's a lot of careful speaking, isn't it? If and if. But if there is going to be a Millennium it's described here. Either way, either whether there's going to be a Millennium or not, Isaiah 65:17-25 is legitimate prophecy for us as Christians. It's either going to come true in the Millennium or in the Eternal State, either way we get it and we're blessed and we should be happy and filled with hope.

Now, I have a certain level of uncertainty in this, I suppose you can already tell. It's not a good thing. No topic in theology that I've studied for decades has so eluded final resolution as this one for me. I stand before you today like a theological ping pong ball. And you might ask, "What side are you on today?" Well, today I'm essentially amillennial. I don't know if I will be at the end of this sermon. Something might happen in the middle, and some new aspect of 1 Corinthians 15 or Revelation 20 or something will hit me and I'll ping back again.

This is bad, this is not a good thing, this is a bad thing. Howard Hendricks said to all preachers, "A mist in the pulpit is a fog in the pew." Now, we have decided with our worship services to avoid smoke machines, we don't want the fog machine wafting from the front across the congregation, so, we walked out in a total fog. I don't want that, but I'm going to do the best that I can.

First let's get a little context in Isaiah 65, this is my second sermon in this chapter, I preached the first last week and we followed the keyword as you remember, behold, behold, that word of unveiling. And I gave you a four-part outline to the whole chapter. We did the first three parts last week, now the fourth. So it began with the word behold, that archaic word, that unveiling word. "Behold me," says God, God's humble self-revelation to Gentiles, remember we peered through the Book of Romans, the Apostle Paul said, "This is the Gentiles." Isaiah 65:1, "I said behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name." Those are the Gentiles. So God stands in the gospel before Gentile nations around the world and says, "Behold me, look at me," and that's through Christ, through the Gospel.

Secondly, "Behold my judgments," verses 2-7, God says, "Behold it is written before me, I will not keep silent, I will repay." And there the context Paul tells us is unbelieving Jews who've had the rich blessings of the Mosaic covenant, but who are Pagans, essentially pagans, living a Pagan life.

And then thirdly, we saw, behold my servant singing while the wicked are shamed and excluded. And so God speaks to the wicked as outsiders telling them the blessings that he's going to give to his servants.

Verses 13 and 14, "Behold my servants shall eat but you shall go hungry, behold my servants shall drink but you shall be thirsty, behold my servants shall rejoice but you shall be put to shame, behold my servants shall sing for gladness of heart, but you shall cry out for pain of heart and wail for breaking of spirit."

And he does this now in the text to warn outsiders to stop being outsiders, but to come in while there is time so that they can feast at the end of the world.

III. Walking Through the Text, Weighing Its Promises

But now, we look to verses 17 and following, "Behold, I will create a new heavens and a new earth." And then again in verse 18, "For behold, I create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy." So those are last two beholds. So there's this unveiling of the new heaven and the new earth, and an unveiling of the new Jerusalem. Let's just walk through the text and let's just weigh its promises. What is described here is an idyllic experience of rich blessing, never yet seen on this sin-cursed earth. This was not fulfilled after the exile to Babylon ended, nothing like this happened at all. So this is as yet unfulfilled, we are still waiting for this. This is a future prophecy.

Listen to the text again verse 17 and following, "'Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for behold, I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more.  Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed. They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands. They will not toil in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the LORD, they and their descendants with them. Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent's food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,' says the LORD."

Alright, let's look at key points, verse 17, God declares that he will create a new heavens and a new earth. The future creative work of God similar to Genesis 1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," but greater, better. It will be so radically different it will drive out all the thoughts of the old world so radically improved. Verse 17, "For behold I will create new heavens and a new Earth. The former things shall not be remembered neither shall they come to mind."

Notice that it begins with the words, "For behold." Verse 17, the word "for" which doesn't show up in some other translations but all of those that are precise have the word "for," it causes us to look back at least one verse, verse 16, alright, and verse 16, it says, "Whoever invokes a blessing in the land will do so by the God of truth. He who takes an oath in the land will swear by the God of truth, for the past troubles will be forgotten and hidden from my eyes, for behold, I will create a new Heavens and a new Earth and the former things will not be remembered."

So that's the whole thing. You're not going to remember the past things, all of the past sorrows and grief. Now, as we read this obviously Revelation 21:1-4, comes to mind. There it says, "Then I saw a new heavens and a new earth, for the first heavens and the first Earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, now the dwelling of God is with men and He will live with them, and they will be his people and God Himself will be with them and be their God, and He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there'll be no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain. For the old order of things has passed away." Do you not see the beautiful harmony there between Revelation 21 and Isaiah 65? They come together.

Now the new heavens and the new earth in Revelation 21 is what most people just simply call heaven. But I think we forget the new earth part. Can I just say this right now? If you vigorously believe, as you should, in a coming physical new earth and a spiritual new heaven that is harmonized in Christ, with the throne of God on that new earth, and you will walk on that new earth in a resurrection body and you are eager for that future world to come, it doesn't make a difference what you believe about the Millennium. It won't affect your missions at all, it won't affect your prayer life at all, it won't make any difference whatsoever in your marriage, in your parenting, in your church membership. None of it matters. The only reason we care is we're trying to be faithful to the text and understand it, "But what... Pastor, you're saying that this actually won't make a difference, your sermon will not be applicable at all." I'm not saying that. I want you to set your mind on eternity, the blessings that are described here could be begun in the Millennium and perfected in heaven. Set your heart on the new heavens and the new earth, that will affect how you live. That will affect your marriage, it will affect your parenting, it will affect your prayer life, it'll affect everything. But the precise difference between the two? It won't matter, if you vigorously believe in a new heavens and new earth, and they are coming. So now you can check out some of these like, "I don't need to wander through the Millennium," stick with me. There's good things yet to come. The new heavens and the new earth in Revelation 21, what most people simply call the Eternal State or heaven, there, clearly all death and misery are gone forever. They're gone. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.

Now, back to Isaiah 65 it says verse 18, it will be a place of eternal joy, where people will have cause to rejoice forever. The naming of the city of Jerusalem and her people is a source of eternal joy. "Behold I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy." So it's a place of delight, joy, satisfaction. Verse 19, God declares that he will rejoice over Jerusalem, eternally, and the sounds of weeping and mourning will never be heard in it again. Do you see that in verse 19?

Now we get to verse 20. Let tell you something about verse 20. Verse 20 is one of those amazing moments. You know those trendy expressions like this one, "Wait, what?" You ever heard that one? What is... What happens? What is, "Wait, what?" It's like we're going along and then something happens like, "Wait a second, what just happened?" Verse 20 is like that. It's maybe one of the greatest, "Wait, what," moments in the whole Book of Isaiah. Look what it says, "Never again will there be an infant... " Wait a minute, what? "An infant who lives but a few days or an old man," wait what was that? An old man? "Who does not live out his years. He who dies at 100 will be thought a mere youth and he who fails to reach 100 will be considered accursed." Like, okay, I thought we were in the new heavens and the new earth. That's what verse 17 said, right? Now we've got birth, aging, death and curse? What about Revelation 22:3 which says, "No longer will there be any curse"? What about Mark 12? It says, "When the dead rise, they neither marry nor given in marriage," there's no more procreation, no more infants.

So the seeming existence of birth and death in verse 20 are the very things that makes some people think this must be the Millennium. That's the difference between the Millennium and the Eternal State is the presence of birth, aging and death and sin. And the rest of the chapter tells us the rest of the aspect of the Millennium, a greatly enhanced experience in which your works are blessed and will not be frustrating. You'll build things and they will work out and you'll plant things and you'll get a full harvest. So that's the enriched experience of life. But still, there's birth, aging death and sin. That's the essence of what the Millennium is all about. Verse 21 through 23, it says, "They will build houses and dwell in them. They will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plants and others eat. For as in the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people. My chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands. They will not toil in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune, for they will be a people blessed by the Lord, they and their descendants with them."

This lavish language here, Old Covenant images I think, the blessing of the Earth, the rich harvest, the curse is either completely removed or at least greatly reduced. Verse 22, an unusually long life like the redwood trees, living just centuries old. "As the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people," but trees do die. Even redwoods die. So there's the sense of long life. The overall language as I've said if you're familiar with Old Covenant blessings and curses language, which is in the Book of Deuteronomy and then in the prophets, this is just like it. Agricultural rich blessings. Verse 23, "They will not toil in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune, they will be a people blessed by the Lord, they and their descendants with them."

Verse 24 promises amazing access and intimacy with God. "Before they call I will answer. While they're still speaking I will hear." There's that intimacy with God. And then verse 25, a repeat of earlier language on the amazing supernatural piece that comes on earth by the transformation of animals. So the animals have basically, essentially a different nature, different than what we've known. Look at verse 25, "The wolf and the lamb will feed together and the lion will eat straw like the Ox, the dust will be the serpent's food, they will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord." It reminds us distinctly of Isaiah 11:6-9, which says, this should sound very familiar, "The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together and the lion will eat straw like the ox, the infant will play near the hole of the cobra and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest, they will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea," that's Isaiah 11:6-9, very similar language.

This seems to be talking about an idyllic relationship with the animal kingdom. No more of an adversarial predator-prey type of relationship. Wolves will stop acting like predators against lambs. Leopards will be the same toward goats. Cows will stand side-by-side next to lions, with no fear, the carnivorous destructive nature of the animal kingdom will be changed. What Alfred, Lord Tennyson, called nature red in tooth and claw, all that mindless ripping and shredding that animals do with each other. That seems to be done, gone, even the serpent, the cobra and the viper is transformed from an enemy to a friend, or humbled in some amazing way, the infant has nothing to fear at least. And then in Isaiah 11, there's that universal knowledge. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. To sum up it seems that this section of scripture speaks of a stunning level of blessing on earth so great that it has never been seen in the history of the world.

It comes under a title in verse 17 of new heavens and new earth that God will create, it's centered in Jerusalem. It involves such amazing joy that the sounds of mourning will not be heard in it at all, it involves rich agricultural blessing, sowing and reaping, no crop failure at all, building houses, other structures, no destruction at all, work is lavishly therefore blessed and successful. There seemed to be no enemies, no danger, no sorrow but there is birth and death, there are infants there and people live unnaturally long lives. So the combination of the term, new heavens and new earth with the presence of birth and death is problematic for every Christian interpreter of this passage. No one knows what to do with those two things. There's not an interpreter on earth that's totally comfortable with 17 and 20. People try to harmonize as best they can. Now I heard a preacher say years ago, there's not a preacher, on earth that hasn't at least once been tempted to give God advice on how it would have been better for him to have written this text.

So Lord, if you don't mean a Millennium why did you give us verse 20? Can I just make a suggestion? But listen, who has ever given counsel to the Lord, that the Lord should listen to him. God knows exactly what he's doing and he wants us to wrestle and so we wrestle, and do the best we can.

A word about Premillennialism and Evangelicalism

We need a little bit of history about Millennialism, pre-millennialism, evangelicalism just to know where we're at in our context. First of all, what do I mean by the Millennium? The word literally means the 1000 years, 1000 years. Mille is the Latin for 1000, annus, mille, annus 1000 years. That idea comes only in one place, the literal 1000-year citation as such, but what we're talking about here is only found in one place in the whole Bible: Revelation 20, it's no where else. Ideas concerning it are debatably in other texts as we're looking at today, but the Millennium itself is only found in Revelation 20. Now, in the 20th century, biblical Christians fought a battle against modernism or theological liberalism, in which there were severe questions raised about the Bible.

Post-Darwinian evolution and all that, they were just questions raised about the inerrancy of the Bible, the truthfulness of the Bible and that battle was fought, frequently called "The Battle of The Bible" began with the fundamentalists at the beginning of the 20th century. And at that time, DL Moody, other evangelists kind of link themselves together with a certain eschatology involving prophecy. And they basically said, "If you're Evangelical, if you're a Bible believer you're going to believe in the literal 1000-year reign and the premillennial coming. Jesus is going to come back and then the 1000 years, and that's almost a litmus test of whether you believe the Bible or not. Unfortunately, it got linked with other completely vital and valid issues such as the virgin birth, the substitutionary torment of Christ, his bloody death on the cross, his atoning sacrifice for our sins, his bodily resurrection from the dead, his actual working of literal miracles in space and time all of those things were part of the fundamentalist movement, part of biblical conservativism, but premillennialism got woven in there as well, and I think it shouldn't have.

And so it came to the point where if you didn't believe there was going to be a literal 1000-year reign of Christ after the second coming, you didn't believe the Bible. And that is really just not true and it doesn't show much knowledge about history. Some of the most passionate inerrantists passionately committed to every word of the Bible, were amillennial, they didn't believe in a literal reign of Christ, physical reign of Christ on earth in this pattern. So I think we just separate them. People, pastors lose their jobs over this. I hope I'm not going to, I hope we don't have a growing premillennial, kind of faction in the church. I think it's possible to believe every word of the Bible is God's word. But recognize that prophetic literature and apocalyptic literature are hard to interpret. We just do the best we can to interpret them.

So, could this be the Millennium? Well, the word 1000 years comes from Revelation 20:1-6, which mentions the 1000-year period, seems after the second coming of Christ, if you take a consecutive order there in which the devil is bound with chains somehow, thrown in a pit and some, if not all, of the saints are resurrected to reign with Christ. After the 1000 years, the devil's set free. That's where it comes from, Revelation 20.

The idea of a period of rich blessing during that time is not found in Revelation 20. You don't get any of that there. It's just the binding of Satan so that he should not deceive the nations anymore and the raising up of souls that were beheaded during the reign of the Antichrist and they are resurrected and reign with Christ for a thousand years. At the end of the 1000 years, the devil is released and apparently he causes trouble again. So in Revelation 19, we have a clear description of the Second Coming of Christ in which Jesus comes back, destroys the beast, the Antichrist and his army, this huge army. Destroys the beast, throws the beast into hell, into the lake of fire. Huge carnage at that point.

Then you got Revelation 20, which is 1000 years. Satan is bound so he cannot deceive the nations. Martyrs slain by the beast are raised from the dead and sit on thrones and reign with Christ for a thousand years. At the end of the thousand years, Satan is released from his prison. He goes once again on the Earth and deceives people. Gathers them for one final battle. The evil army of rebels is massed and marches against the city of God's people, but God destroys them with fire from heaven. Then at last, the devil is cast into the lake of fire to be tormented forever. After that comes the Great White Throne Judgment in which all human beings that have ever lived are judged by the books of God. Everyone whose name is not found written in the Lamb's Book of Life is thrown into the lake of fire. Revelation 20.

Then Revelation 21, you heard sung so beautifully for us today. That's the New Heaven and the New Earth. I've already read it. Descends from heaven, you have the Eternal State. Revelation 21 and 22 seems to be heaven, the Eternal State. So the sequence is important for premillennialists. They think first the Second Coming in Revelation 19, big battle, Second Coming. Then the 1000 years, that's the premillennial. Then the eternal state. Alright.

The Case For Premillennialism

Why do premillennialists have a good case? What are arguments for it? Why do I act like a ping pong ball, back and forth? Alright. Well, the sequence of chapters in Revelation 19, 20, and 21 seems pretty weighty. And it was very weighty for a counselor of mine who is a teacher at Southern Seminary who I asked advice on this when I had to write this chapter or commentary. And he had switched from being premillennial to amillennial in the three years that I had talked to him. That was not helpful. I was very disappointed. I wanted some premillennial help and he said, "Sorry. I can't help you. I'm an amillennial now." Maybe he switched back in the last month. I don't know. But I had to write the chapter. So the sequence is determined if he told me that. And he said it's first, the Second Coming, Revelation 19, then the 1000 years, and then you've got the Eternal State. Secondly, the binding of Satan.

 So apparently, he has no ability to roam or to deceive the nations is troublesome for amillennialists. because we know that Satan is very active on planet Earth. It says in 1 Peter 5, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour." Seems like he is free to roam, free to deceive, free to tear people apart. So it seems like the vigorous binding that's described, that is the essence of the 1000 years there, is not happening now, so it must be in the future.

Also, the Millennium seems to be the best way to understand Isaiah 65:20. I don't know how else to... What do you do with this incredibly, richly blessed world in which there's birth, life and death? I don't know. If there's not going to be a Millennium, I don't know what to do exactly with those words.

And then one final argument for premillennialism is, it seems to make sense big picture. Redemptive history. What was it all about? You know what I think it was all about? At the garden, the human race through Adam and Eve wanted an education. Do you remember? It was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So we wanted an education in evil. Well, we've gotten one. And what's it been like? At every level of redemptive history, I'm not a dispensationalist, but at every unfolding of God's redemptive history, as more blessings have been poured out on His people, sin has stubbornly remained and made it difficult, including right now. Do you know what I mean? We have Pentecost blessings, we have the Indwelling Spirit, we're adopted as sons and daughters, and still we wrestle every day with sin. And it's like kind of like the final step of that drama is Jesus physically reigning on Earth, having already come and all that and still there's sin. It makes sense, doesn't mean it's true, but it does make sense.

The Case For Amillennialism

What about amillennialism? First of all, amillennialism is a misnomer. It means like there's no Millennium. Amillennials don't believe that there is no Millennium. It's just that it's a symbolic number in the Book of Revelation. 10 cubed. 10 times 10 times 10. There's a lot of this cubing thing. I'm about to preach through the Book of Revelation all the way through to the end. So I've got a long time to figure out what I believe about Revelation 20, so you can pray for me. Also, I want you to know this is the very topic I'll be discussing on Wednesday night at 6:30 up in the Upper Room in Acts. We're right here in our eschatology study, Millennium. So come and argue with me, debate with me, whatever you'd like to do. That's a good format for that.

Amillennialists don't believe there's no 1000-year binding of Satan. We just think the binding is going on now in a limited sense. It's specific. He's bound so that he cannot deceive the nations to the end that they would mass together and to attack the people of God wholesale and try to destroy them. That seems to be the way the binding is. Or you could say he's not able to deceive the elect of the nations concerning Christ. When Jesus came in Matthew 12, he's talking about driving out demons. Remember that? And they said it's by Beelzebub that he drives out demons. How can Satan drive out Satan?

You want to know what's really going on here? Matthew 12:29. He says, "How can anyone enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house." So that's a huge verse for amillennialists. They're saying the binding happened at the First Coming of Christ so that he cannot deceive the elect of the nations and believe in Jesus. It's not incredibly convincing when you read Revelation 20, but it's at least a possibility. Another reason for amillennialism. It's just the simplest answer for everything. Ever heard of Occam's rule? Just choose the simplest answer. Alright. The next thing that happens after escalating tribulation and the Antichrist is the Second Coming of Christ, all of Jesus' enemies are destroyed, all of his elect are resurrected, judgement happens then an Eternal State.

For me probably the weightiest reason why I believe that amillennialism is the way to go is because it says in 1 Corinthians 15, that at the second coming of Christ He will destroy all his enemies not some of them, and the last enemy to be destroyed is what? Death, death. So after his second coming, there can be no death. I think that's a very strong argument.

Sam Storms who's probably the most articulate advocate of this position said, that if you're a premillennialist there are several things with which you have to reckon. Number one, you must necessarily believe that physical death will continue after the second coming of Christ. Secondly, you must necessarily believe that the natural creation will continue beyond the time of Christ's second coming to be subjected to the curse in some measure of the fall of man. After the second coming that curse is going to continue, they'll mitigate it. Thirdly, you must necessarily believe that the new heavens and the new earth will not be introduced until 1000 years subsequent to the return of Christ. Fourthly, you must necessarily believe that unbelieving men and women will still have the opportunity to come to saving faith or reject Christ for at least 1000 years after his return in kingly glory. Fifth, you must necessarily believe that unbelievers will not be finally resurrected until at least 1000 years subsequent to the return of Christ. And sixth, you must necessarily believe that unbelievers will not finally be judged and cast out into eternal punishment until at least 1000 years after the return of Christ.

So what's wrong with this? Well, it seems the New Testament explicitly denies each of those six things. It just seems the second coming is when it happens friends. At the second coming all... Everything is settled. 1 Corinthians 15, 22 and following: "For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive but each in his own turn, Christ the first fruits then when he comes those who belong to him," do you hear that? That's the timing. When he comes, "Then the end will come when He hands over the Kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until He has put all His enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death." And then again, 1 Thessalonians 4, "We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him." Jesus is coming back, he's descending from heaven, in the clouds, he's going to bring with him those who have fallen asleep, those are the dead in Christ. So Jesus will descend, the voice of the archangel, the trumpet call of God, the second coming of Christ and the dead in Christ will rise in resurrection bodies and they'll go up and be caught up together with the Lord in the clouds.

And then those who are still alive and are left will also be caught up and in a flash, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet they will be resurrected and at that moment all of the believers in Christ will have resurrection bodies and then he descends, finishes his judgment on all his enemies and the Eternal State comes, that's the way the amillennialist sees the order.

So my evaluation? It really doesn't matter, what does matter is, do you believe in the new heavens and the new earth? And are you preparing yourself for it? That's the thing. 2 Peter 3, says, "The day of the Lord will come like a thief, the heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and Godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed it's coming. Be holy, be evangelistic, internal journey, external journey, be holy as you look forward to the day of God and speed it's coming." That's what Peter tells us to do in light of what's coming. I would add one other thing, Peter would not mind I don't think, be hope-filled, be filled with hope about all this.

This is a glorious chapter. Do you see the beauty of this? All difficulty between verse 17 and 20, set it aside for a moment, the radiant beauty of what's coming should fill you with hope. Let your hope shine to lost people around you, let them see the hope that you have, let them see how optimistic and joyful you are. You don't get dragged down into the current events, you are floating above that to some degree, very aware of what's happening but so filled with hope and let that joy give you a platform for explaining the Gospel to the lost.

My final word is to those of you who are lost and you know that you're outside of Christ, please don't leave this place lost. God our Heavenly Father, who set all of this up, sent his Son our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lived a sinless life, who died on the cross, a bloody death in your place as a sinner, you have violated God's laws, you have broken the 10 Commandments, you've broken the two great commandments, we all have, all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. God sent his son to save sinners like you and me, don't leave this place unconverted. Call on the name of the Lord, trust in him, just look to Christ, look to him and all of your sins will be forgiven and then this beautiful promise will be yours as it belongs already to all of us. Close with me in prayer.