back to indexWed Bible Study - Revelation Lesson 4
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Okay, we're looking at today in Revelations chapter 2. 00:00:07.200 |
I was kind of tempted to go through Revelations chapter 2 and 3 together because I wanted 00:00:11.640 |
to see the whole, all the seven churches in one cohesive study. 00:00:16.120 |
But in order to do that, we're going to have to just skim through a big chunk of what we're 00:00:23.800 |
We're going to do the first part today, chapter 2, the first four churches. 00:00:28.240 |
And then the second three churches we'll be dealing with in chapter 3. 00:00:31.760 |
So let me start and then let me pray, then we'll jump in. 00:00:34.040 |
Gracious Father, we thank you for the privilege that we have to be able to come and study. 00:00:43.620 |
We ask Lord God that you would guide and lead us, that this time would be fruitful. 00:00:48.520 |
Help us to understand the deep things, Lord God, that you've revealed to us, that we may 00:00:53.000 |
live soberly, that we may consider, Lord, that this life is ultimately fading, that 00:01:01.120 |
you will come to redeem your church, Lord, for eternity. 00:01:06.720 |
We pray not simply for knowledge, but illumination, Lord God, that only you can give through your 00:01:14.640 |
All right, so before we jump in, I think we kind of have to, I can give you a heads up 00:01:19.760 |
into how we're approaching this because we talked about before how the book of Revelation, 00:01:26.320 |
depending on which theological bent that you approach it in, it may cause you to see things 00:01:34.720 |
And I told you from the beginning that as we're going through it, I'm not going to have 00:01:40.760 |
We're going to look at the text and see if there's clear pointers that's going to point 00:01:47.040 |
And if it is, you may or may not agree, I'm going to point that out and I'm going to say 00:01:50.440 |
this seems to be the best way to understand it, or at least it seems reasonable textually, 00:01:55.400 |
and not to try to cram a meaning of the text based upon a larger theological picture that 00:02:02.720 |
And so we don't want to approach the book of Revelation that way and then try to milk 00:02:07.200 |
certain things because it fits better into our larger form of theology. 00:02:12.160 |
Well, beginning with these seven churches, if you have a dispensational bent and if you've 00:02:19.120 |
been taught the book of Revelation with, again, a dispensational bent, you may have been taught 00:02:24.840 |
that these seven churches are seven different stages of church history until he comes. 00:02:30.760 |
And then the last stage is the Laodicean church, which is the lukewarm church. 00:02:36.040 |
If you, again, if you read it like I did and studied it, even just this week, I don't think 00:02:42.000 |
you'll be able to get that message unless you read, unless you already came in with 00:02:47.280 |
Unless somebody already told you and said these are the seven different stages of the 00:02:51.720 |
I don't think just plain reading will cause you to think, oh, these are, this is the different 00:02:57.840 |
So I'm not going to be approaching it like that. 00:03:00.520 |
We're going to look at each of the letters and what it says and how the early church, 00:03:04.960 |
the recipients of the letters would have received it, what specific things are going on behind 00:03:10.280 |
the scene that he would mention certain things like that. 00:03:15.200 |
But at the same time, that does not mean it doesn't have application to us or even in 00:03:21.200 |
But we want to first and foremost read it in the way that they would have understood 00:03:27.280 |
So jumping into, all right, jumping into the text, the seven churches we mentioned last 00:03:39.160 |
time, you see these, we're going to start with Ephesus and we said that the order of 00:03:43.800 |
the seven churches are just in order of this circle. 00:03:47.960 |
And there was a road that kind of connected each one of them anywhere from 30 to 45 miles 00:03:55.880 |
And so the reason why these roads connected was because every single one of these cities 00:04:01.680 |
There was some kind of major trade going on or it has significance in the Roman empire. 00:04:07.120 |
And as a result of that, the population in these cities were probably larger than normal 00:04:13.960 |
And that's the reason why the seven cities or seven churches are targeted. 00:04:23.240 |
There's a whole bunch of other cities in this area, but these seven are mentioned because 00:04:28.040 |
of the largest and its significance and its connection. 00:04:37.640 |
The similarities in each of these letters, they all are addressed to the angel of the 00:04:45.400 |
How many of you have heard before that the angel of the churches, that this represents 00:05:00.520 |
So there is a discussion as to how do we understand these angels. 00:05:06.960 |
Some people will say yes, some people will say no. 00:05:09.660 |
But the predominant understanding of this text is not necessarily that there's an angel 00:05:15.720 |
So every time somebody plants a church, that God sends an angel to watch over them. 00:05:19.880 |
And that is not, I mean, I'm not saying that that can't happen, but that's probably not 00:05:26.720 |
The word angel, angelion, basically means a messenger. 00:05:32.360 |
And most commentators will interpret this as a representative of an elder or a bishop 00:05:39.740 |
So it's not necessarily writing a letter to a celestial being. 00:05:43.240 |
It's most likely being written to the elders or to an elder of this particular church, 00:05:50.800 |
Who in this case is called a messenger, somebody who's representative of this church. 00:05:57.480 |
Every single one of the letters, remember we studied that last week, that all the different 00:06:03.120 |
aspects of Jesus's qualities, whether he had a blazing eyes of fire, he had a tongue of 00:06:12.320 |
sword, he had a bronze feet burned, and he had all these different descriptions. 00:06:18.040 |
And we said that all of these things are going to take a role, play a role in how he is addressed 00:06:25.000 |
So we're going to be looking at four of them today. 00:06:27.960 |
And why does he mention himself as a blazing eyes or the double-edged sword? 00:06:32.920 |
And it has some significance to what he has to say to these churches. 00:06:36.800 |
So I'm not going to go over all seven of them, but each one of these churches begin by saying 00:06:41.520 |
the son of God, you know, with the double-edged sword, and he'll mention something. 00:06:46.280 |
And there's a reason for that, and you'll see it in the rest of the letter. 00:06:51.240 |
So let's start with the Church of Ephesus, and we have a little bit more to cover than 00:06:55.720 |
normal, so I'm going to go through it pretty quick. 00:07:00.080 |
Paul spent more time in this city than any other city in his missionary journey. 00:07:04.760 |
He spent over two years in this particular city. 00:07:08.760 |
And we also know that on his third missionary journey, when he was, there was a prophecy 00:07:14.280 |
that if he goes to Rome, he's going to be captured and bound, and he was ready to go 00:07:19.240 |
and basically give up his life to preach the gospel. 00:07:22.680 |
And the way he spent his last day before he got on this boat was to call the elders of 00:07:26.680 |
Ephesus, and they said they stayed up all night, right, talking. 00:07:30.840 |
Just like, you know, any human relationship, they weren't going to see each other. 00:07:34.560 |
So when they were leaving, they said they were in tears because they were afraid they 00:07:39.120 |
Well, the main content of the conversation they had that night, it records that Paul 00:07:44.720 |
was warning them about the false prophets that are going to come in and try to deceive 00:07:49.600 |
And so there's a reason why Timothy, Paul's right-hand man, was sent to this particular 00:07:58.320 |
church to help them to sort out this false doctrine. 00:08:02.000 |
Paul, again, one, because he had a particular heart for this city and this church, and so 00:08:09.960 |
he wanted to make sure that his most trusted servant or disciple was going to represent 00:08:17.480 |
So you can kind of see some of the things that he says, or his heart for the church 00:08:23.480 |
Again, obviously, Paul's not the one writing this letter, but just the significance of 00:08:33.120 |
It describes, on the third, that Jesus is described as the one who walks among the golden 00:08:37.920 |
Therefore, he has very intimate knowledge of their good and bad qualities. 00:08:41.780 |
So you can see on the surface, it begins by saying, you know, his commendation that they 00:08:49.320 |
toiled and endured suffering patiently, that they did not tolerate evil in the church, 00:08:54.880 |
they tested and rejected the claims of the apostles, and then they hated the works of 00:09:02.120 |
So on the surface, somebody who is observing this church from the outside will easily look 00:09:08.040 |
at this church and say, "What a model church. 00:09:10.180 |
Everything that a good church should have, this church has." 00:09:14.080 |
But Jesus isn't just somebody who's observing from the outside. 00:09:17.520 |
He's the one who's walking and standing in the midst of them. 00:09:20.160 |
In other words, he has very intimate knowledge of who they are. 00:09:23.740 |
He not only knows what's happening externally, he also knows what's happening intimately, 00:09:27.960 |
inwardly, privately, what's happening in their hearts. 00:09:32.400 |
And so when he sees that, he brings that to attention. 00:09:36.000 |
Again, so the significance of recognizing Jesus in the midst of that and be able to 00:09:43.840 |
Now the sins of the Nicolaitans or the false teaching of the Nicolaitans are going to be 00:09:48.440 |
mentioned throughout all of the seven letters or just kind of spread out. 00:09:53.720 |
And the Nicolaitan teaching, I mean, you know, you can fill in the blanks as I'm going over 00:09:59.680 |
it, but the Nicolaitan teaching is basically a hybrid of Christian and Gnostics. 00:10:06.360 |
The early church, one of the main doctrines that was penetrating into the early church 00:10:10.800 |
was from the pagan world was these Gnostics who were teaching that the flesh is evil and 00:10:18.680 |
So Jesus Christ came and he delivered us from our flesh. 00:10:23.220 |
And so when we die, we're going to be saved in our spirit. 00:10:30.840 |
And as a result of that, they basically were going around teaching that you can live licentiously, 00:10:36.640 |
you can do whatever you want in the flesh, but you're still saved. 00:10:41.480 |
So first John, the epistle of first John is written specifically to deal with this false 00:10:48.880 |
So if you remember, if you've ever studied through first John, John mentions that he 00:10:53.960 |
who denies that Jesus came in the flesh is not from God. 00:10:58.940 |
And that was a very specific teaching of the Nicolaitans. 00:11:02.400 |
Because the flesh is evil, the son of God could not have come in the flesh, that he 00:11:06.160 |
only came and he appeared to be in the flesh, but he was always in the spirit. 00:11:10.560 |
And so that's why John deals with that particular teaching. 00:11:12.800 |
And so in the Jewish world, what was the primary heresy that was penetrating into the Jewish 00:11:24.440 |
That you had to first become a Jew before you became a Christian. 00:11:27.480 |
In the Gentile world, the primary heresy were the Nicolaitans or the Gnostics, right? 00:11:38.060 |
We don't know this for sure, but early church tradition tells us that Nicolaitans, their 00:11:46.280 |
leader may have been Nicolnar, and he is mentioned as one of the leaders, you want to call them 00:11:52.720 |
deacons, or one of the seven people that was chosen in Acts 6-5. 00:11:58.760 |
This is where the Hellenist widows, right, they weren't being fed, and the apostles say, 00:12:03.520 |
"Well, pick seven of you who are full of the Spirit with good reputation." 00:12:07.280 |
And so seven deacons are mentioned in that particular passage, and Nicolnar was one of 00:12:12.840 |
So this is not for sure, but the early church tradition is that he was the one who led a 00:12:18.960 |
large group of people to begin to practice this, again, Gnostic form of Christianity, 00:12:25.240 |
which is obviously, it was the wrong gospel, right? 00:12:28.400 |
And the reason why this was so popular is because somebody who had influence, who were 00:12:32.120 |
inside the church, who was respected, was teaching these things, right? 00:12:36.760 |
Somebody from the outside, nobody knew, started saying strange things, it wouldn't affect 00:12:40.600 |
them, but it was because it was one of the leaders. 00:12:42.880 |
So if you look at the early church and the corruption and the different doctrines that 00:12:48.760 |
they really wrestled with, it didn't come from outside the church. 00:12:54.940 |
Some of them were prominent leaders in the very beginning of the movement, but later 00:13:02.000 |
So you know how influential the Judaizers were, because even James, Peter, and Barnabas 00:13:10.000 |
So Nicolnar, again, from the Gentile side, was an individual who had much influence in 00:13:15.080 |
the early church, and he began to lead people astray, and so his teaching is not limited 00:13:21.200 |
to this particular church, but you'll see that in all the other churches, or a lot of 00:13:32.040 |
Esther used to tease me because I used to preach on this so much early on when I used 00:13:41.080 |
He says, "You have abandoned their first love," and I want to just kind of highlight here, 00:13:47.280 |
he doesn't say you have lost your first love, he says you have abandoned it. 00:13:50.760 |
It was not something that they just kind of, it just happened. 00:13:54.280 |
If you're a Christian for a long time, you just happen to lose your first love. 00:13:57.760 |
He says, "No, you have direct responsibility over this. 00:14:01.040 |
You have forsaken or abandoned your first love." 00:14:04.520 |
The word for first in the Greek is "prodos," and it can also be, which means basically 00:14:13.120 |
foremost, not first as in second or third, but first as in priority, and so another way 00:14:20.120 |
to understand this is that they have lost the greatest, the most important love. 00:14:27.520 |
The word for love is "agapen," and I'm sure you know that word, which is a love that describes 00:14:33.560 |
God's willful affection for man, so it was a willful love. 00:14:37.680 |
It was not just, the emphasis is not on emotion, but on the will, right? 00:14:44.720 |
So this abandonment of the first love can be understood or commonly read as this is 00:14:52.800 |
your affection for God, yet you're not as passionate as you were before, which obviously 00:14:57.280 |
that's part of it, but the way that this was probably manifested was inside the church. 00:15:04.360 |
How was the passionate love for God manifested? 00:15:07.360 |
So some of the commentaries believe that the emphasis in this passage is talking about 00:15:10.960 |
love for one another, that they were on the surface serving God passionately, or at least 00:15:15.840 |
on the surface doing everything that they were supposed to do, but the evidence that 00:15:20.360 |
their love for God wasn't priority was in the way that they loved one another. 00:15:27.040 |
And I believe that most likely this is probably in reference to both. 00:15:30.320 |
He's not just talking about you forsaking your first love. 00:15:33.400 |
You're loving each other, you're doing great things for each other, but your passion for 00:15:43.920 |
Usually if you lessen in your passion for God, there tends to be a direct effect of 00:15:51.800 |
how you treat other people and how you relate to other people, and vice versa. 00:16:00.400 |
He says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and 00:16:07.300 |
You can't say that you love God and hate your brother because that would be a contradiction. 00:16:12.900 |
He said in John 13, 35, it says that they're going to know us by what? 00:16:31.260 |
But Jesus singles out the most important character that the world will be able to distinguish 00:16:42.740 |
And so he says, you're doing all of these things, but the most important part of what 00:16:46.900 |
it means to be a Christian, you've abandoned it. 00:16:54.500 |
So everything that you're supposed to do, you're doing, but you've abandoned your priority, 00:17:01.380 |
Now, I'm not going to linger here too long, but I think this is the beginning of the seven 00:17:10.680 |
letters and in the beginning of these seven letters kind of sets the groundwork for what 00:17:18.180 |
Because Christ, who stands in the midst of the seven lamps, he's not somebody on the 00:17:24.900 |
outside that you give a report and if on the report everything looks good, he says, "Okay, 00:17:35.140 |
And what Christ wants more than anything else is worship in spirit and in truth, inside 00:17:41.740 |
And that was the sin of this particular church. 00:17:45.140 |
They were doing everything right, but their priority, love for Christ, was no longer there. 00:17:52.300 |
And as a result of that, he says, that if you don't remember and repent and redo the 00:17:58.660 |
works you did at first, that the consequence of that is that they will no longer function 00:18:06.700 |
He says he's going to take away the lampstand. 00:18:10.000 |
At the end of chapter one, he says the lampstand is what? 00:18:14.780 |
So what does it mean to take away the lampstand? 00:18:24.340 |
Our whole identity to the world is to shed light and darkness. 00:18:27.860 |
So if he takes away the lampstand, what happens to the church? 00:18:33.160 |
Is he saying he's going to come and literally shut the door? 00:18:36.940 |
He's not going to allow us to worship anymore, that we can't gather? 00:18:40.480 |
If he takes away the lampstand, does the church dwindle? 00:18:51.340 |
As long as people gather together, as long as there's a pastor and there's a place to 00:18:55.820 |
meet and there's relationships in the church, the church will still function. 00:19:00.740 |
But when you take away the lampstand, he said the very purpose of why you exist will no 00:19:05.360 |
longer be the reason why you gather together. 00:19:12.740 |
So we can have all the things that a church should have externally, but internally, in 00:19:17.820 |
the kingdom of God, it's become nothing more than a community with a name of Christ, but 00:19:26.860 |
So think about the intensity of this consequence. 00:19:33.820 |
He's basically saying your church is going to be useless if you don't restore your first 00:19:38.560 |
He's talking to a church who's doing everything right, at least on the surface, but who just 00:19:54.040 |
The consequence of that is that the church loses its purpose, right? 00:20:03.980 |
I don't know about you, but it's very sobering to me that whenever I feel my heart or I see 00:20:10.720 |
my life or my attention drift off to something else, the consequence of I can preach and 00:20:16.880 |
I can do all these, you know, like do all the pastoral ministry, but in the end, if 00:20:21.080 |
the Holy Spirit isn't in our midst and doing its work, it's all just men kicking against 00:20:35.240 |
He doesn't say, "Hey, you guys are doing great things, but this one thing you guys should 00:20:40.400 |
He says, "You're doing all these things, but I have this against you." 00:20:43.320 |
If you don't remember the height from which you have fallen, if you don't repent of where 00:20:46.800 |
you are, and if you don't continue in that path that God brought you on in the beginning, 00:20:53.040 |
then your church is going to be useless, basically. 00:20:57.240 |
Just a warning to the church of Ephesus, church of Smyrna. 00:21:00.880 |
It is the only one of the seven churches that still exists today in a modern-day Izmir. 00:21:18.300 |
Jesus is described in the opening of first and the last, who died and came to life. 00:21:24.280 |
Smyrna is one of two churches where there is no rebuke. 00:21:35.480 |
What are the qualities of these two churches? 00:21:42.080 |
Both these churches were known for intense suffering. 00:21:48.000 |
So we're not going to do Philadelphia today, but the church of Smyrna. 00:21:52.840 |
He introduces himself as the first and the last. 00:21:56.120 |
Again, we talked about this last week, signifying the complete sovereignty of Christ, that even 00:22:04.160 |
if suffering leads to death, he has power even over death and life. 00:22:09.480 |
He says, "Though you may be poor physically," he encourages them, "you are rich spiritually." 00:22:17.400 |
You may not have all the riches of the church of Ephesus or Laodicea. 00:22:25.920 |
This was a church that was thriving on the surface. 00:22:31.320 |
So Laodicea was a very significant city at that time. 00:22:35.160 |
But he says exactly the opposite of what he says to this church in Laodicea. 00:22:39.480 |
This church had a reputation of being poor and down and out, but instead in Jesus' eyes, 00:22:52.120 |
The suffering in this church was intense, particularly intense. 00:22:56.560 |
And that term "synagogue of Satan," you're going to see that maybe about three or four 00:23:04.920 |
So when he says "synagogue of Satan," as the primary persecutor of the church, who is he 00:23:15.600 |
So the first persecutors of the church were the Jews who were offended. 00:23:20.200 |
And so Paul, every time he would go to missionary journeys, he would first go to the synagogues. 00:23:26.560 |
I think all the apostles, when they went to evangelize, they would target the synagogues 00:23:30.120 |
because the Jews would have been the first ones who should have understood the gospel 00:23:38.960 |
So the first persecutors, the first Christians were also Jews, but the first persecutors 00:23:45.580 |
And when the persecution was intense, like these cities, you'll see the term "synagogue 00:23:53.560 |
We talk about it from a Christian perspective because we know that they're persecuting. 00:24:19.320 |
So think about it that Christ himself is calling a gathering for the purpose of worshiping 00:24:31.560 |
That's no different than saying, you know, today's church, and we say, well, first Baptist 00:24:35.360 |
church, you know, we say Baptist organization of Satan. 00:24:42.880 |
And a name that would have been equivalent to this is where all the God fears, people 00:24:47.680 |
who come to worship God, people who wanted to honor God gathered together, and yet they 00:24:58.640 |
And Jesus said, "He who is not for me is against me." 00:25:03.960 |
If you miss Christ and you're not in the part of the work of reproducing and being a light, 00:25:13.760 |
And that's, again, that title he gives to not just this, but to many of the synagogues. 00:25:22.720 |
A great persecution, this area was known for intense persecution. 00:25:28.200 |
How many of you know about the martyrdom of Polycarp? 00:25:35.360 |
Polycarp's martyrdom is famous in the church because this was a very old man who lived 00:25:43.600 |
And again, this martyrdom, this burning at the stake happened in this particular city. 00:25:51.400 |
And at 75 years old, they basically told him that if he does not denounce Christ, that 00:26:00.360 |
they're going to burn him at the stake, and then basically the records show that the captain 00:26:04.760 |
of the Roman guard pleads with him, "Old man, all you have to do is say, just say it, say 00:26:12.200 |
And I remember reading his words back in college when I was reading about his, when he was 00:26:19.080 |
And basically he says, "For 75 years, my Lord has been faithful to me. 00:26:30.040 |
And after he says that, they were forced to burn him at the stake. 00:26:33.360 |
And even the Roman guards, you know, reluctantly had to carry out the sentence. 00:26:38.740 |
So that persecution, that particular martyrdom happened in this city. 00:26:44.640 |
It didn't happen at the time of the writing of this letter. 00:26:49.520 |
But again, it was, this city was known for heavy persecution. 00:26:55.960 |
And so that's why if you look at the letter, he says that even in death, right, he will 00:27:00.600 |
conquer, that you will not suffer the second death. 00:27:03.280 |
Even if you suffer the first death, you won't suffer the second death. 00:27:06.600 |
Second death he's referring to is judgment in hell, right? 00:27:10.240 |
Revelation 26, "Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection. 00:27:20.520 |
I'm going to go through these pretty quick because there's a lot in here. 00:27:25.440 |
Jesus is described as the one who has a sharp double-edged sword. 00:27:33.800 |
This city was given the right to carry out capital punishment on their own without having 00:27:39.560 |
This right was called the right of the sword. 00:27:42.040 |
So you can see why Jesus is introduced as sharp double-edged sword, because this city 00:27:51.240 |
was the only city in the area who, if they wanted to, can carry out capital punishment. 00:27:57.600 |
The reason why they were given this privilege and why, again, why persecution in this city 00:28:02.400 |
was intense is because this city was given permission to set up the worship, the temple 00:28:08.760 |
for the leader of Rome, Augustus, which was called the Divine Augustus and the Goddess 00:28:15.040 |
That's what they called this particular temple. 00:28:20.120 |
So of all the seven churches, the church that would have had the greatest conflict with 00:28:25.320 |
the Roman government was the Church of Pergamum. 00:28:29.720 |
So when Jesus is introduced to us as a sharp double-edged sword, again, when you think 00:28:35.080 |
about the sword, you're thinking about battle and fighting. 00:28:37.960 |
So because the conflict with the Romans were so great in this city, Jesus basically says 00:28:44.280 |
This sword is much sharper than the sword that the government, the authority has here. 00:28:50.960 |
He commends them that in the midst of intense persecution, that they remain faithful. 00:29:05.680 |
And he actually mentions a martyr in the early church. 00:29:10.160 |
His name is Antipas, that even in his martyr, that none of them yielded. 00:29:25.200 |
He says, "Yet I have this against you, that you hold the teaching of Balaam." 00:29:28.480 |
And again, he mentions teaching of Balaam and teaching of Nicolaitans later. 00:29:35.680 |
And teaching of Balaam, hopefully you guys had a chance to look it up. 00:29:39.240 |
In Numbers 22-24, Balaam's the one who basically seduces the Midianite woman to go and seduce 00:29:47.560 |
the Israelite men so that they would have sexual relationship to corrupt them and then 00:29:55.560 |
eventually get them to worship the Moabite idols. 00:29:58.720 |
And as a result of that, intense judgment comes upon the nation of Israel. 00:30:02.080 |
So basically what this letter is saying, the sin of this particular city was that they 00:30:08.680 |
were allowing the teaching of Balaam to penetrate into the church and many of them were being 00:30:23.160 |
Because twice in these letters, at least in these four letters, it's mentioned that the 00:30:28.720 |
teaching of Balaam and Jezebel and the false prophets and the prophecies and heresies were 00:30:35.280 |
leading them to eat food sacrificed to idols. 00:30:40.560 |
But what does Paul say about that in 1 Corinthians chapter 8? 00:30:58.680 |
Some of you guys may remember, some of you guys may not, but turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 00:31:03.600 |
Okay, I'm just going to read a portion of it just to get you to remember. 00:31:23.680 |
Now concerning food offered to idols, we know that all of us possess knowledge. 00:31:29.720 |
If anyone imagines that he knows something he does not yet know as he ought to know, 00:31:37.000 |
Therefore as to eating food offered to idols, we know that an idol has no real existence 00:31:43.320 |
For although there may be so-called gods in the heavens and earth. 00:31:45.960 |
So he goes on and on, basically he says they're idols, right? 00:31:50.620 |
So the food offered up to them that is being sold in the marketplace, some people are saying 00:31:55.080 |
that if you eat that, you're going to become unclean. 00:31:59.120 |
So there was this debate in the church that you shouldn't eat food offered up to idols. 00:32:05.000 |
Yet here it says the teaching of Balaam was leading people to eat food sacrificed to idols. 00:32:20.760 |
It's not a contradiction because 1 Corinthians chapter 8 is talking about meat that has been 00:32:26.320 |
sacrificed and then being sold in the marketplace like every other meat. 00:32:31.920 |
So they're saying because it was sacrificed it's unclean. 00:32:34.840 |
And what Paul is saying is that meat that was sacrificed at the temple and the other 00:32:44.600 |
So whether you eat, if you eat it with a clear conscience, it does nothing. 00:32:49.960 |
And then he says the problem is not the meat. 00:32:52.800 |
The problem is that it bothers people's conscience. 00:32:55.120 |
And if it bothers their conscience and you don't care about their conscience, then that's 00:32:58.240 |
a problem that you don't care about your brothers. 00:33:00.960 |
Where Paul says if it causes someone to stumble, I'll never eat meat again. 00:33:08.000 |
The issue is being sensitive to the brothers and sisters that the context that you're in, 00:33:15.480 |
We can apply that to various other gray areas in our life. 00:33:21.880 |
Here when he's talking about food sacrificed to idols, what is always mentioned with that? 00:33:31.360 |
What is the other sin that is mentioned with food sacrificed to idols? 00:33:56.080 |
The other sin that is always mentioned along with food sacrificed to idols in these churches 00:34:00.560 |
are that this heresy is leading people to eating food sacrificed to idols and sexual 00:34:09.240 |
When you put those things put together and you understand the teaching of Balaam and 00:34:14.440 |
the Nicolaitans is that basically they were teaching and leading people astray. 00:34:23.760 |
Basically to corrupt the men of Israel to cause them to worship idols, right? 00:34:30.360 |
That was the sin that's mentioned in the book of Numbers. 00:34:32.980 |
So if you look at the sin, the heresy of Balaam and the Nicolaitans, their goal is to get 00:34:42.080 |
So the issue that they're dealing with here and in 1 Corinthians 8 is completely different, 00:34:48.000 |
The issue that they're dealing with here is that this sin is leading them to false idol 00:34:53.760 |
He's talking about these pagan rituals that these so-called Jewish men, Christian 00:35:04.800 |
So they would go to these temples, they would accept Christ as their Lord and then when 00:35:09.960 |
one of their friends invites them to the temple worship because they grew up all their life 00:35:15.880 |
And somebody in the church with wrong teaching would say, "Well, that's okay." 00:35:20.880 |
So the Nicolaitans would say, "Well, that's okay because what you do in the flesh doesn't 00:35:29.120 |
And you have these cliche things and I'm sure that's not what they said back then, but you 00:35:34.120 |
have similar teachings, "Oh, we have Christian liberty." 00:35:40.160 |
And the Christian liberty that you see, the way Paul uses it is completely different than 00:35:44.600 |
the way we use it today to justify any behavior. 00:35:47.720 |
It doesn't matter what we do because we have Christian liberty. 00:35:50.880 |
So the Nicolaitans were teaching this similar kind of teaching. 00:35:55.860 |
So they were leading them to this temple worship. 00:36:07.480 |
I mean, think about how difficult it is with sexual temptation even in our generation. 00:36:14.080 |
I mean, now I know how difficult it is because of the internet and how easily accessible 00:36:19.280 |
Back then, all they had to do is walk into the temple. 00:36:23.320 |
And not only was this acceptable, it was expected of men because it was part of the worship. 00:36:32.920 |
If you were a good idol worshiper, you would go and engage in sexual relations with the 00:36:40.520 |
So imagine how difficult it would have been for Christians to come in and say, "This is 00:36:44.720 |
something that they've been enjoying all their life," and say, "If you want to be a follower 00:36:56.680 |
You can't unite your body with a prostitute or uniting the body of Christ with a prostitute. 00:37:04.740 |
So imagine how difficult it would have been, practically speaking, to get people to break 00:37:10.080 |
So the early church had these men or women who were teaching false doctrine. 00:37:15.720 |
They were trying to, you know, "Why can't we have it all? 00:37:19.200 |
Why can't we be a worshiper of Christ and still enjoy some of this stuff?" 00:37:24.160 |
And so they were embracing teaching that would allow them to do both, right? 00:37:38.500 |
If a certain teaching is uncomfortable in your life, our tendency is change the doctrine. 00:37:49.640 |
So you can kind of live any way you want and still worship God. 00:37:52.600 |
And again, so that's what was happening in this church, right? 00:37:56.300 |
You had the one extreme, the legalist, saying that you have to be a Jew. 00:37:59.720 |
And then you had the other extreme saying that you can pretty much do whatever you want 00:38:03.120 |
and still be a Christian as long as you believe in your heart, right? 00:38:11.880 |
The warning against them, it says, "Unless you repent." 00:38:15.520 |
And again, is he telling them to repent of that particular sin? 00:38:35.120 |
This letter is addressed to the faithful in the church who is looking the other way, who 00:38:44.540 |
So he's not talking to people who are already in sin and this letter is written to, "Hey, 00:38:48.560 |
those of you guys who are hanging around the temple, you need to get back here and repent." 00:38:53.400 |
He's talking to faithful who are persevering through suffering. 00:38:57.280 |
They were loving one another and they were doing all the right things, but I have this 00:39:01.040 |
thing against you that you allow this to happen in the church, right? 00:39:07.280 |
That you kind of, I mean, obviously the leaders are the most guilty because they're leaders, 00:39:13.420 |
but every other person in the church that sweeps sin under the rug, whether, you know, 00:39:17.220 |
I think the natural tendency in the church is, well, that's the church's responsibility, 00:39:22.260 |
Since I'm not a leader, I don't have to deal with that. 00:39:25.500 |
And every once in a while I hear somebody saying that. 00:39:28.100 |
When you have, you know, difficult things to deal with at church, it's like, "Oh, 00:39:32.460 |
Meaning, that's your responsibility, not mine. 00:39:37.300 |
Now, obviously we have different degrees of responsibility. 00:39:40.420 |
If you're a leader in the church, we have different degrees of responsibility, but every 00:39:44.540 |
Christian is responsible for their brothers and sisters in Christ, right? 00:39:50.300 |
Accountability can't happen with a few people watching the church, right? 00:39:54.820 |
Shepherding cannot happen with a few people shepherding the church. 00:39:58.300 |
That has to happen within the church with one another, right? 00:40:01.860 |
So, you know, one of the things, again, I want to highlight is he's not simply, he's 00:40:05.500 |
not talking to these pagans who are actively engaged in these things. 00:40:11.020 |
He's talking to faithful Christians who are just simply looking the other way, right? 00:40:15.580 |
And he said, because of that, he said, "If you don't rid the church of this," he says, 00:40:23.940 |
But to those who overcome, he said, "He will give hidden manna." 00:40:28.900 |
Not referring to physical food, but to spiritual care, right? 00:40:39.060 |
And then he says that he's going to give them a white tablet. 00:40:42.340 |
And this is very specific to this particular city. 00:40:47.380 |
Because of the relationship they had with Rome, it was a tradition of theirs to give 00:40:51.700 |
a tablet, sometimes made of wood, metal, or stone, depending on, you know, the importance 00:40:56.860 |
of the event, as sort of an invitation to a particular banquet. 00:41:02.220 |
So that would be equivalent to like a wedding, maybe, you know? 00:41:06.940 |
And if you get an invitation from, and it's a very important event, that probably the 00:41:12.380 |
invitation itself is going to be on nice paper, right? 00:41:21.740 |
You're not going to get an invitation to something really important scribbled on a piece of paper. 00:41:27.580 |
So in this particular city, because of the relationship with Rome, Rome had tradition 00:41:32.980 |
of inviting people to special events, if it was really important, made of stone as an 00:41:42.060 |
So what Jesus is saying is, "You may be shunned from society, and you may be afraid 00:41:47.600 |
that you may not be able to eat or have business." 00:41:51.100 |
And Jesus is saying, "No, I will give you the hidden manna that they don't understand. 00:41:55.100 |
I will give you the white tablet, invitation to my banquet that the world will not know." 00:41:59.100 |
In other words, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added 00:42:11.740 |
We know the least about this city out of the seven, and yet we have the longest letter 00:42:18.980 |
Jesus describes himself as a son of God, having blazing fire, right? 00:42:23.380 |
Typically, we think of a blazing fire, think about that Jesus is able to see with clear 00:42:29.380 |
vision and feet like burnished bronze, that it's steady and firm. 00:42:37.460 |
And I mentioned to you how the book of Revelation has direct connection to the book of Daniel. 00:42:43.220 |
In particular, chapter 10 and 12 describes the coming of the Son of Man, and he is described 00:42:48.300 |
in the exact same way, "Eyes of flaming fire and legs gleam of burnished bronze." 00:42:53.780 |
And this is the reason why Jesus uses the term "Son of Man" to identify himself more 00:42:58.540 |
than any other term, more than Son of God, more than Child of God. 00:43:03.020 |
All of these terms are used, but Jesus declares himself the Son of God more than any other 00:43:07.060 |
term because that particular term was a messianic term that was prophesied in the Old Testament. 00:43:13.460 |
So every good Jew who knew his Bible would have understood that Jesus was saying, "I'm 00:43:19.940 |
When we hear Son of Man, we hear a child of a man, right? 00:43:24.340 |
When the Jews heard the Son of Man, the way he was using it, he was basically saying the 00:43:33.660 |
So the term Son of Man is equivalent to Christ. 00:43:38.500 |
We don't know a whole lot about the city other than the fact that if you remember the 00:43:42.140 |
prominent lady in Philippi, Lydia, who was a dealer of purple cloth. 00:43:49.060 |
Purple cloth to us is just purple, happens to be cloth, it's not anything in particular, 00:43:55.020 |
but at this particular time, purple cloth would have been like silk or a trade of gold 00:44:02.300 |
So meaning that Lydia was probably a very wealthy businesswoman, very prominent businesswoman. 00:44:09.660 |
And so the only thing that we know about this particular city is that she comes from this 00:44:20.940 |
The commendation for this city is that they had love, faith, and they had patient endurance 00:44:30.060 |
But unlike the Church of Ephesus, their love now was even greater than it was in the beginning. 00:44:37.160 |
So again, this was a great church on the surface, but one of the descriptions of Jesus that 00:44:43.120 |
we mentioned is he is the Alpha and Omega, beginning and the end, right? 00:44:51.420 |
So he looks beyond the surface and he's able to see more clearly. 00:45:03.480 |
Jezebel is a term that is often used to describe a woman who is very, very, very wicked. 00:45:10.180 |
So if you were to choose one person in Israel's history who happens to be female, who represents 00:45:16.820 |
idolatry, evil, anything hatred toward God, it would have been this woman Jezebel. 00:45:23.420 |
So this is probably referring to a very influential woman in this city, a prominent woman in this 00:45:34.880 |
I didn't write it here, but some, because of the description and because we know that 00:45:40.060 |
Lydia happened to be a very prominent, well-known businesswoman who was very influential, some 00:45:45.820 |
speculated that maybe this Jezebel is referring to Lydia. 00:46:01.000 |
So don't go out of this room and say, "Oh, Lydia is Jezebel." 00:46:06.140 |
This is just one or two of the commentaries mentioned that maybe possibly, you know, her 00:46:11.460 |
name is mentioned in the New Testament because she was prominent, just like Nicolai, who 00:46:18.380 |
later on led the Nicolaitans out of the church, that maybe she was one of those people. 00:46:26.640 |
He says, as a judgment, he says it's going to cause her to be ill, tribulation is going 00:46:31.360 |
to come, and that their children are going to be put to death. 00:46:36.560 |
Most likely it's not referring to their physical children, but as the New Testament uses often, 00:46:41.480 |
it's referring to his followers, the disciples of Jezebel, who are rebelling against God 00:46:46.280 |
and bringing stumbling block and suffering to the church. 00:46:53.560 |
But to those who stood against her influence, Christ promises authority over the nations 00:47:01.720 |
And then three, he will also give them the bright and morning star. 00:47:08.120 |
You know, what's interesting is the bright and morning, the morning star in, I think 00:47:18.000 |
But in Revelation chapter 22, Jesus himself calls himself the morning star. 00:47:25.840 |
He says that he will make them a morning star, something shining and bright. 00:47:29.040 |
So Lucifer was called the morning star before the fall, that he was the most beautiful of 00:47:38.920 |
So here he says, you're going to be elevated and your beauty is going to far exceed whatever 00:47:46.740 |
So those are the four churches and I have to go through it pretty quick or else, you 00:47:53.280 |
But I want to take a few minutes before I release you to your discussion groups. 00:47:59.800 |
As I already mentioned that most of the descriptions here, and obviously, you know, some of these 00:48:07.320 |
There's some unique qualities of each particular church and some of them stand out, right? 00:48:11.840 |
Obviously, the Church of Ephesus will stand out. 00:48:15.800 |
Smyrna and Philadelphia stand out because of, you know, there's not being any rebuke. 00:48:22.120 |
But the primary rebuke to these five churches in particular is not toward those who are 00:48:32.300 |
The primary rebuke are the church members who are tolerating it and they're not speaking 00:48:39.560 |
And so the corruption in the church, obviously, the leaders are primarily responsible if they 00:48:48.200 |
But every single member in the church, right, who allows them to tolerate sin is also guilty. 00:48:56.000 |
So there's a balance between grace and righteousness, His mercy and holiness. 00:49:05.600 |
And the church, when we talk about the cross or being gospel-centered, gospel-centeredness 00:49:11.000 |
doesn't mean that no matter what people do, that we're gracious and we throw it under 00:49:15.800 |
the rug because the cross represents His righteousness, His wrath being appeased because of His grace, 00:49:25.000 |
So if you take holiness out of the cross, then you don't have the cross. 00:49:28.600 |
If you take mercy out of the cross, you don't have the cross. 00:49:35.440 |
It was a revelation of His holy, holy holiness and also His grace. 00:49:41.600 |
So the church has to be a place where holiness is taken seriously, right? 00:49:47.480 |
That it's not a gospel-centered church isn't a church that is okay that no matter what 00:49:51.840 |
we live in, we just kind of sweep it under the rug because we're gospel-centered. 00:49:55.880 |
Sin is just not that big of a deal anymore, right? 00:50:00.880 |
We need to be gracious with sinners who are repenting. 00:50:04.380 |
We need to be merciful with sinners who are struggling in sin and that they are welcome 00:50:12.560 |
But an unrepentant sin, right, a constant challenge to push the envelope so that the 00:50:17.680 |
church looks more and more like the world, that we have to fight, right? 00:50:24.480 |
Every member in the church has to participate in that fight. 00:50:27.040 |
And again, when I say fight, I'm not talking about standing up and pointing out everybody 00:50:32.640 |
Because like I said, we need to be as gracious as we can be to repentant sinners because 00:50:48.080 |
But if we allow unrepentant sin to begin to penetrate into the church because we're afraid 00:50:54.580 |
to deal with sin, then eventually the church becomes nothing different than the world. 00:51:03.300 |
If he takes away the lampstand, then all of this is just a show, right? 00:51:09.660 |
It's just a bunch of people getting together to hang out with their friends in the name 00:51:16.020 |
But if we want the Lord's blessing, we have to welcome the Lord the way he wants to be. 00:51:22.260 |
If he's going to be standing in the midst of us, we have to be gracious and holy at 00:51:30.260 |
All right, so let me release you guys to your discussion. 00:51:35.940 |
Do me a favor next week, if possible, when you come into the room, can you sit with your 00:51:42.860 |
Sit with your small group so that you guys can take the first 10 minutes that you're 00:51:48.460 |
here before we start worship, checking on your memory verses, okay? 00:51:52.440 |
So that you don't have to do that when you go into your small group. 00:51:54.580 |
So starting from next week when you come, try to sit with your small groups, okay? 00:51:58.460 |
Let me pray for us and then I'll release you to your group. 00:52:05.860 |
Gracious Father, we thank you for this evening. 00:52:09.780 |
I pray that your Holy Spirit would guide the small group discussions, that there would 00:52:13.980 |
be an honest and open discussion, that we may be able to share our weaknesses and our 00:52:18.660 |
struggle, but at the same time, Lord God, that we do not create an environment where 00:52:27.220 |
Help us, Lord God, to reflect who you are in all that we are, knowing that this is your 00:52:33.380 |
temple and that you are the head of the church. 00:52:36.820 |
So we ask, Lord, that you would help us to take to heart all the warnings and the encouragements 00:52:41.700 |
of these letters and that things that we need to glean personally and as a church, that