Okay, we're looking at today in Revelations chapter 2. I was kind of tempted to go through Revelations chapter 2 and 3 together because I wanted to see the whole, all the seven churches in one cohesive study. But in order to do that, we're going to have to just skim through a big chunk of what we're looking at.

So we broke it up in two parts. We're going to do the first part today, chapter 2, the first four churches. And then the second three churches we'll be dealing with in chapter 3. So let me start and then let me pray, then we'll jump in. Gracious Father, we thank you for the privilege that we have to be able to come and study.

We ask Lord God that you would guide and lead us, that this time would be fruitful. Help us to understand the deep things, Lord God, that you've revealed to us, that we may live soberly, that we may consider, Lord, that this life is ultimately fading, that you will come to redeem your church, Lord, for eternity.

And for that end, we pray for insight. We pray not simply for knowledge, but illumination, Lord God, that only you can give through your spirit. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, so before we jump in, I think we kind of have to, I can give you a heads up into how we're approaching this because we talked about before how the book of Revelation, depending on which theological bent that you approach it in, it may cause you to see things in a very different light.

And I told you from the beginning that as we're going through it, I'm not going to have a particular bent. We're going to look at the text and see if there's clear pointers that's going to point us to a certain direction. And if it is, you may or may not agree, I'm going to point that out and I'm going to say this seems to be the best way to understand it, or at least it seems reasonable textually, and not to try to cram a meaning of the text based upon a larger theological picture that we've already committed to.

And so we don't want to approach the book of Revelation that way and then try to milk certain things because it fits better into our larger form of theology. Well, beginning with these seven churches, if you have a dispensational bent and if you've been taught the book of Revelation with, again, a dispensational bent, you may have been taught that these seven churches are seven different stages of church history until he comes.

And then the last stage is the Laodicean church, which is the lukewarm church. If you, again, if you read it like I did and studied it, even just this week, I don't think you'll be able to get that message unless you read, unless you already came in with that meaning, right?

Unless somebody already told you and said these are the seven different stages of the church. I don't think just plain reading will cause you to think, oh, these are, this is the different stages of church history. So I'm not going to be approaching it like that. We're going to look at each of the letters and what it says and how the early church, the recipients of the letters would have received it, what specific things are going on behind the scene that he would mention certain things like that.

But at the same time, that does not mean it doesn't have application to us or even in the future. But we want to first and foremost read it in the way that they would have understood it. Okay. So jumping into, all right, jumping into the text, the seven churches we mentioned last time, you see these, we're going to start with Ephesus and we said that the order of the seven churches are just in order of this circle.

And there was a road that kind of connected each one of them anywhere from 30 to 45 miles apart from each other. And so the reason why these roads connected was because every single one of these cities are major cities. There was some kind of major trade going on or it has significance in the Roman empire.

And as a result of that, the population in these cities were probably larger than normal cities. And that's the reason why the seven cities or seven churches are targeted. So are these the only cities in this area? Absolutely not. There's a whole bunch of other cities in this area, but these seven are mentioned because of the largest and its significance and its connection.

So we're starting with Ephesus, right? The similarities in each of these letters, they all are addressed to the angel of the churches. How many of you have heard before that the angel of the churches, that this represents the guardian angel that each church has? Have you ever heard that before?

Okay. Two of you. All right. So there is a discussion as to how do we understand these angels. So do we have guardian angels? Some people will say yes, some people will say no. But the predominant understanding of this text is not necessarily that there's an angel over a particular church.

So every time somebody plants a church, that God sends an angel to watch over them. And that is not, I mean, I'm not saying that that can't happen, but that's probably not the best way to understand this. The word angel, angelion, basically means a messenger. And most commentators will interpret this as a representative of an elder or a bishop over the church.

So it's not necessarily writing a letter to a celestial being. It's most likely being written to the elders or to an elder of this particular church, right? Who in this case is called a messenger, somebody who's representative of this church. Every single one of the letters, remember we studied that last week, that all the different aspects of Jesus's qualities, whether he had a blazing eyes of fire, he had a tongue of sword, he had a bronze feet burned, and he had all these different descriptions.

And we said that all of these things are going to take a role, play a role in how he is addressed to each one of these churches. So we're going to be looking at four of them today. And why does he mention himself as a blazing eyes or the double-edged sword?

And it has some significance to what he has to say to these churches. So I'm not going to go over all seven of them, but each one of these churches begin by saying the son of God, you know, with the double-edged sword, and he'll mention something. And there's a reason for that, and you'll see it in the rest of the letter.

So let's start with the Church of Ephesus, and we have a little bit more to cover than normal, so I'm going to go through it pretty quick. Paul spent more time in this city than any other city in his missionary journey. He spent over two years in this particular city.

And we also know that on his third missionary journey, when he was, there was a prophecy that if he goes to Rome, he's going to be captured and bound, and he was ready to go and basically give up his life to preach the gospel. And the way he spent his last day before he got on this boat was to call the elders of Ephesus, and they said they stayed up all night, right, talking.

Just like, you know, any human relationship, they weren't going to see each other. So when they were leaving, they said they were in tears because they were afraid they weren't going to see each other. Well, the main content of the conversation they had that night, it records that Paul was warning them about the false prophets that are going to come in and try to deceive them.

And so there's a reason why Timothy, Paul's right-hand man, was sent to this particular church to help them to sort out this false doctrine. Paul, again, one, because he had a particular heart for this city and this church, and so he wanted to make sure that his most trusted servant or disciple was going to represent him to make sure to sort this out.

So you can kind of see some of the things that he says, or his heart for the church of Ephesus. Again, obviously, Paul's not the one writing this letter, but just the significance of this particular city. It describes, on the third, that Jesus is described as the one who walks among the golden lampstand.

Therefore, he has very intimate knowledge of their good and bad qualities. So you can see on the surface, it begins by saying, you know, his commendation that they toiled and endured suffering patiently, that they did not tolerate evil in the church, they tested and rejected the claims of the apostles, and then they hated the works of the Nicolaitans.

So on the surface, somebody who is observing this church from the outside will easily look at this church and say, "What a model church. Everything that a good church should have, this church has." But Jesus isn't just somebody who's observing from the outside. He's the one who's walking and standing in the midst of them.

In other words, he has very intimate knowledge of who they are. He not only knows what's happening externally, he also knows what's happening intimately, inwardly, privately, what's happening in their hearts. And so when he sees that, he brings that to attention. Again, so the significance of recognizing Jesus in the midst of that and be able to understand all of this.

Now the sins of the Nicolaitans or the false teaching of the Nicolaitans are going to be mentioned throughout all of the seven letters or just kind of spread out. And the Nicolaitan teaching, I mean, you know, you can fill in the blanks as I'm going over it, but the Nicolaitan teaching is basically a hybrid of Christian and Gnostics.

The early church, one of the main doctrines that was penetrating into the early church was from the pagan world was these Gnostics who were teaching that the flesh is evil and the spirit is good. So Jesus Christ came and he delivered us from our flesh. And so when we die, we're going to be saved in our spirit.

So what you did in the flesh didn't matter. And as a result of that, they basically were going around teaching that you can live licentiously, you can do whatever you want in the flesh, but you're still saved. One saved, always saved. So first John, the epistle of first John is written specifically to deal with this false doctrine.

So if you remember, if you've ever studied through first John, John mentions that he who denies that Jesus came in the flesh is not from God. And that was a very specific teaching of the Nicolaitans. Because the flesh is evil, the son of God could not have come in the flesh, that he only came and he appeared to be in the flesh, but he was always in the spirit.

And so that's why John deals with that particular teaching. And so in the Jewish world, what was the primary heresy that was penetrating into the Jewish Christian world? The Judaizers, right? That you had to first become a Jew before you became a Christian. In the Gentile world, the primary heresy were the Nicolaitans or the Gnostics, right?

Or some kind of form of Gnosticism. We don't know this for sure, but early church tradition tells us that Nicolaitans, their leader may have been Nicolnar, and he is mentioned as one of the leaders, you want to call them deacons, or one of the seven people that was chosen in Acts 6-5.

You remember that passage, Acts 6-5? This is where the Hellenist widows, right, they weren't being fed, and the apostles say, "Well, pick seven of you who are full of the Spirit with good reputation." And so seven deacons are mentioned in that particular passage, and Nicolnar was one of them.

So this is not for sure, but the early church tradition is that he was the one who led a large group of people to begin to practice this, again, Gnostic form of Christianity, which is obviously, it was the wrong gospel, right? And the reason why this was so popular is because somebody who had influence, who were inside the church, who was respected, was teaching these things, right?

Somebody from the outside, nobody knew, started saying strange things, it wouldn't affect them, but it was because it was one of the leaders. So if you look at the early church and the corruption and the different doctrines that they really wrestled with, it didn't come from outside the church.

It came from inside the church. Some of them were prominent leaders in the very beginning of the movement, but later on got influenced by the Judaizers, right? So you know how influential the Judaizers were, because even James, Peter, and Barnabas was affected by them. So Nicolnar, again, from the Gentile side, was an individual who had much influence in the early church, and he began to lead people astray, and so his teaching is not limited to this particular church, but you'll see that in all the other churches, or a lot of the other churches.

The warning that he gives them, right? Esther used to tease me because I used to preach on this so much early on when I used to preach, the three R's, right? He says, "You have abandoned their first love," and I want to just kind of highlight here, he doesn't say you have lost your first love, he says you have abandoned it.

It was not something that they just kind of, it just happened. If you're a Christian for a long time, you just happen to lose your first love. He says, "No, you have direct responsibility over this. You have forsaken or abandoned your first love." The word for first in the Greek is "prodos," and it can also be, which means basically foremost, not first as in second or third, but first as in priority, and so another way to understand this is that they have lost the greatest, the most important love.

The word for love is "agapen," and I'm sure you know that word, which is a love that describes God's willful affection for man, so it was a willful love. It was not just, the emphasis is not on emotion, but on the will, right? So this abandonment of the first love can be understood or commonly read as this is your affection for God, yet you're not as passionate as you were before, which obviously that's part of it, but the way that this was probably manifested was inside the church.

How was the passionate love for God manifested? So some of the commentaries believe that the emphasis in this passage is talking about love for one another, that they were on the surface serving God passionately, or at least on the surface doing everything that they were supposed to do, but the evidence that their love for God wasn't priority was in the way that they loved one another.

And I believe that most likely this is probably in reference to both. He's not just talking about you forsaking your first love. You're loving each other, you're doing great things for each other, but your passion for Christ has dwindled. Usually those two things go hand in hand. Usually if you lessen in your passion for God, there tends to be a direct effect of how you treat other people and how you relate to other people, and vice versa.

And that's exactly what God said too. He says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and second is like it." You can't say that you love God and hate your brother because that would be a contradiction. He said in John 13, 35, it says that they're going to know us by what?

How will they identify us? By right doctrine, of course. How we live, all of these things are true. But Jesus singles out the most important character that the world will be able to distinguish us from the rest of the world is love. Love for God and love for one another.

And so he says, you're doing all of these things, but the most important part of what it means to be a Christian, you've abandoned it. You have right doctrine. You don't tolerate false apostles. So everything that you're supposed to do, you're doing, but you've abandoned your priority, willful love.

Now, I'm not going to linger here too long, but I think this is the beginning of the seven letters and in the beginning of these seven letters kind of sets the groundwork for what he has to say for the rest of the letters. Because Christ, who stands in the midst of the seven lamps, he's not somebody on the outside that you give a report and if on the report everything looks good, he says, "Okay, pass." He knows us intimately.

He knows me intimately. He knows you intimately. And what Christ wants more than anything else is worship in spirit and in truth, inside and out. And that was the sin of this particular church. They were doing everything right, but their priority, love for Christ, was no longer there. And as a result of that, he says, that if you don't remember and repent and redo the works you did at first, that the consequence of that is that they will no longer function as the light to the world.

He says he's going to take away the lampstand. At the end of chapter one, he says the lampstand is what? The church. So what does it mean to take away the lampstand? We are the light of the world. Our whole identity to the world is to shed light and darkness.

So if he takes away the lampstand, what happens to the church? Is he saying he's going to come and literally shut the door? He's not going to allow us to worship anymore, that we can't gather? If he takes away the lampstand, does the church dwindle? Does the church shut down?

No, you can still function, right? As long as people gather together, as long as there's a pastor and there's a place to meet and there's relationships in the church, the church will still function. But when you take away the lampstand, he said the very purpose of why you exist will no longer be the reason why you gather together.

You're no longer the light. We're no longer shedding light and darkness. So we can have all the things that a church should have externally, but internally, in the kingdom of God, it's become nothing more than a community with a name of Christ, but has nothing to do with Christ.

So think about the intensity of this consequence. He's basically saying your church is going to be useless if you don't restore your first love. He's talking to a church who's doing everything right, at least on the surface, but who just kind of just coasting along. Their priority love is not there.

They're not passionate about it anymore. They're just doing their job. The consequence of that is that the church loses its purpose, right? So let that sink in. I don't know about you, but it's very sobering to me that whenever I feel my heart or I see my life or my attention drift off to something else, the consequence of I can preach and I can do all these, you know, like do all the pastoral ministry, but in the end, if the Holy Spirit isn't in our midst and doing its work, it's all just men kicking against a goat, right?

And that's what he says. He warns this Ephesus church. He doesn't say, "Hey, you guys are doing great things, but this one thing you guys should work on a little bit better." He doesn't say that. He says, "You're doing all these things, but I have this against you." If you don't remember the height from which you have fallen, if you don't repent of where you are, and if you don't continue in that path that God brought you on in the beginning, then your church is going to be useless, basically.

Just a warning to the church of Ephesus, church of Smyrna. It is the only one of the seven churches that still exists today in a modern-day Izmir. Anybody ever hear about this before today? Yeah, the first time me hearing it too. It's a small city. It still exists. Jesus is described in the opening of first and the last, who died and came to life.

Smyrna is one of two churches where there is no rebuke. Anybody know the other one? Philadelphia, right? What are the qualities of these two churches? Now obviously you know this one. Both these churches were known for intense suffering. They were known for intense persecution. So we're not going to do Philadelphia today, but the church of Smyrna.

He introduces himself as the first and the last. Again, we talked about this last week, signifying the complete sovereignty of Christ, that even if suffering leads to death, he has power even over death and life. He says, "Though you may be poor physically," he encourages them, "you are rich spiritually." You may not have all the riches of the church of Ephesus or Laodicea.

In fact, Laodicea was the exact opposite. This was a church that was thriving on the surface. People were making money. A lot of businessmen were coming. So Laodicea was a very significant city at that time. But he says exactly the opposite of what he says to this church in Laodicea.

This church had a reputation of being poor and down and out, but instead in Jesus' eyes, he says, "No, you're rich. Your faith is thriving." The suffering in this church was intense, particularly intense. And that term "synagogue of Satan," you're going to see that maybe about three or four different times in the various letters.

So when he says "synagogue of Satan," as the primary persecutor of the church, who is he referring to? The Jews, right? So the first persecutors of the church were the Jews who were offended. And so Paul, every time he would go to missionary journeys, he would first go to the synagogues.

And I don't think that was unique to Paul. I think all the apostles, when they went to evangelize, they would target the synagogues because the Jews would have been the first ones who should have understood the gospel because the gospel was in their law. So the first persecutors, the first Christians were also Jews, but the first persecutors were also Jews.

And when the persecution was intense, like these cities, you'll see the term "synagogue of Satan." So Abed, think about that. We talk about it from a Christian perspective because we know that they're persecuting. This synagogue, what was it dedicated for? For worship. Of who? Yahweh. And then they did Sunday school for what?

To obey the law. And what was the law all about? Prepare them for the coming Christ. So think about it that Christ himself is calling a gathering for the purpose of worshiping God as a synagogue of Satan. That's no different than saying, you know, today's church, and we say, well, first Baptist church, you know, we say Baptist organization of Satan.

You know what I'm saying? And a name that would have been equivalent to this is where all the God fears, people who come to worship God, people who wanted to honor God gathered together, and yet they were doing exactly the opposite. They were doing Satan's work. And Jesus said, "He who is not for me is against me." If you miss Christ and you're not in the part of the work of reproducing and being a light, you're part of this group.

And that's, again, that title he gives to not just this, but to many of the synagogues. A great persecution, this area was known for intense persecution. How many of you know about the martyrdom of Polycarp? I've mentioned them once or twice at church. Polycarp's martyrdom is famous in the church because this was a very old man who lived up to about 70 or 80 years old.

And again, this martyrdom, this burning at the stake happened in this particular city. And at 75 years old, they basically told him that if he does not denounce Christ, that they're going to burn him at the stake, and then basically the records show that the captain of the Roman guard pleads with him, "Old man, all you have to do is say, just say it, say the words." And to this end, he wouldn't do it.

And I remember reading his words back in college when I was reading about his, when he was being martyred. And basically he says, "For 75 years, my Lord has been faithful to me. What reason do I have now to denounce him?" And basically he said, "No." And after he says that, they were forced to burn him at the stake.

And even the Roman guards, you know, reluctantly had to carry out the sentence. So that persecution, that particular martyrdom happened in this city. It didn't happen at the time of the writing of this letter. It happened in 155 AD. But again, it was, this city was known for heavy persecution.

And so that's why if you look at the letter, he says that even in death, right, he will conquer, that you will not suffer the second death. Even if you suffer the first death, you won't suffer the second death. Second death he's referring to is judgment in hell, right?

Revelation 26, "Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection. Over such, the second death has no power." Third, the Church of Pergamum. I'm going to go through these pretty quick because there's a lot in here. Jesus is described as the one who has a sharp double-edged sword.

And we're going to get to that. There's a reason for this, right? This city was given the right to carry out capital punishment on their own without having to get permission from Rome. This right was called the right of the sword. So you can see why Jesus is introduced as sharp double-edged sword, because this city was the only city in the area who, if they wanted to, can carry out capital punishment.

The reason why they were given this privilege and why, again, why persecution in this city was intense is because this city was given permission to set up the worship, the temple for the leader of Rome, Augustus, which was called the Divine Augustus and the Goddess of Roma. That's what they called this particular temple.

So of all the seven churches, the church that would have had the greatest conflict with the Roman government was the Church of Pergamum. So when Jesus is introduced to us as a sharp double-edged sword, again, when you think about the sword, you're thinking about battle and fighting. So because the conflict with the Romans were so great in this city, Jesus basically says that he has a double-edged sword.

This sword is much sharper than the sword that the government, the authority has here. He commends them that in the midst of intense persecution, that they remain faithful. And he actually mentions a martyr in the early church. His name is Antipas, that even in his martyr, that none of them yielded.

They remained faithful to the end. He says, "Yet I have this against you, that you hold the teaching of Balaam." And again, he mentions teaching of Balaam and teaching of Nicolaitans later. And teaching of Balaam, hopefully you guys had a chance to look it up. In Numbers 22-24, Balaam's the one who basically seduces the Midianite woman to go and seduce the Israelite men so that they would have sexual relationship to corrupt them and then eventually get them to worship the Moabite idols.

And as a result of that, intense judgment comes upon the nation of Israel. So basically what this letter is saying, the sin of this particular city was that they were allowing the teaching of Balaam to penetrate into the church and many of them were being seduced into idol worship.

So let me stop right here. Because twice in these letters, at least in these four letters, it's mentioned that the teaching of Balaam and Jezebel and the false prophets and the prophecies and heresies were leading them to eat food sacrificed to idols. But what does Paul say about that in 1 Corinthians chapter 8?

About eating food sacrificed to idols? Turn your Bibles there to Romans chapter 8. Not Romans, 1 Corinthians chapter 8. Some of you guys may remember, some of you guys may not, but turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 8. Okay, I'm just going to read a portion of it just to get you to remember.

Now concerning food offered to idols, we know that all of us possess knowledge. This knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something he does not yet know as he ought to know, but if anyone loves God, he is known by God. Therefore as to eating food offered to idols, we know that an idol has no real existence and that there is no God but one.

For although there may be so-called gods in the heavens and earth. So he goes on and on, basically he says they're idols, right? They're not real. So the food offered up to them that is being sold in the marketplace, some people are saying that if you eat that, you're going to become unclean.

So there was this debate in the church that you shouldn't eat food offered up to idols. Yet here it says the teaching of Balaam was leading people to eat food sacrificed to idols. Is that a contradiction? You're saying no. Why is it not a contradiction? It's not a contradiction because 1 Corinthians chapter 8 is talking about meat that has been sacrificed and then being sold in the marketplace like every other meat.

So they're saying because it was sacrificed it's unclean. And what Paul is saying is that meat that was sacrificed at the temple and the other meat are no different. So whether you eat, if you eat it with a clear conscience, it does nothing. And then he says the problem is not the meat.

The problem is that it bothers people's conscience. And if it bothers their conscience and you don't care about their conscience, then that's a problem that you don't care about your brothers. Where Paul says if it causes someone to stumble, I'll never eat meat again. So the issue isn't even about the meat.

The issue is being sensitive to the brothers and sisters that the context that you're in, right? And we can apply that to drinking. We can apply that to various other gray areas in our life. But it's not even, it's not about that. Here when he's talking about food sacrificed to idols, what is always mentioned with that?

What is the other sin that is mentioned with food sacrificed to idols? Sexual immorality, right? The other sin that is always mentioned along with food sacrificed to idols in these churches are that this heresy is leading people to eating food sacrificed to idols and sexual immorality. When you put those things put together and you understand the teaching of Balaam and the Nicolaitans is that basically they were teaching and leading people astray.

And what was the sin of Balaam? Basically to corrupt the men of Israel to cause them to worship idols, right? That was the sin that's mentioned in the book of Numbers. So if you look at the sin, the heresy of Balaam and the Nicolaitans, their goal is to get you to worship these idols.

So the issue that they're dealing with here and in 1 Corinthians 8 is completely different, right? The issue that they're dealing with here is that this sin is leading them to false idol worship. He's talking about these pagan rituals that these so-called Jewish men, Christian men were being led to participate in, right?

So they would go to these temples, they would accept Christ as their Lord and then when one of their friends invites them to the temple worship because they grew up all their life doing this, they would go and join them. And somebody in the church with wrong teaching would say, "Well, that's okay." So the Nicolaitans would say, "Well, that's okay because what you do in the flesh doesn't matter.

One saved always saved. Christians aren't perfect. We're just forgiven." And you have these cliche things and I'm sure that's not what they said back then, but you have similar teachings, "Oh, we have Christian liberty." I'm sure you've heard that term before. And the Christian liberty that you see, the way Paul uses it is completely different than the way we use it today to justify any behavior.

It doesn't matter what we do because we have Christian liberty. So the Nicolaitans were teaching this similar kind of teaching. It doesn't matter what you do in the flesh. So they were leading them to this temple worship. So why would this have been so tempting? Because they had orgies.

Sexual immorality. I mean, think about how difficult it is with sexual temptation even in our generation. I mean, now I know how difficult it is because of the internet and how easily accessible it is. Back then, all they had to do is walk into the temple. And not only was this acceptable, it was expected of men because it was part of the worship.

If you were a good idol worshiper, you would go and engage in sexual relations with the prostitutes at the temple. So imagine how difficult it would have been for Christians to come in and say, "This is something that they've been enjoying all their life," and say, "If you want to be a follower of Christ, this is immoral.

You can't do that. You can only have one wife." You can't commit adultery. That's committing adultery. You can't unite your body with a prostitute or uniting the body of Christ with a prostitute. You can't do that. So imagine how difficult it would have been, practically speaking, to get people to break away from this.

So the early church had these men or women who were teaching false doctrine. They were trying to, you know, "Why can't we have it all? Why can't we be a worshiper of Christ and still enjoy some of this stuff?" And so they were embracing teaching that would allow them to do both, right?

Which wasn't the gospel at all. Does that happen today in our generation? Absolutely. If a certain teaching is uncomfortable in your life, our tendency is change the doctrine. Maybe that's not what it really says. That's not what it really says. So you can kind of live any way you want and still worship God.

And again, so that's what was happening in this church, right? You had the one extreme, the legalist, saying that you have to be a Jew. And then you had the other extreme saying that you can pretty much do whatever you want and still be a Christian as long as you believe in your heart, right?

In essence, that's what was going on, right? The warning against them, it says, "Unless you repent." And again, is he telling them to repent of that particular sin? He is, but who is this letter addressed to? To the faithful in the church, right? This letter is addressed to the faithful in the church who is looking the other way, who are allowing this to happen, right?

So he's not talking to people who are already in sin and this letter is written to, "Hey, those of you guys who are hanging around the temple, you need to get back here and repent." He's talking to faithful who are persevering through suffering. They were loving one another and they were doing all the right things, but I have this thing against you that you allow this to happen in the church, right?

That you kind of, I mean, obviously the leaders are the most guilty because they're leaders, but every other person in the church that sweeps sin under the rug, whether, you know, I think the natural tendency in the church is, well, that's the church's responsibility, the leaders, right? Since I'm not a leader, I don't have to deal with that.

And every once in a while I hear somebody saying that. When you have, you know, difficult things to deal with at church, it's like, "Oh, thank God I'm not a leader." Meaning, that's your responsibility, not mine. Now, obviously we have different degrees of responsibility. If you're a leader in the church, we have different degrees of responsibility, but every Christian is responsible for their brothers and sisters in Christ, right?

Accountability can't happen with a few people watching the church, right? Shepherding cannot happen with a few people shepherding the church. That has to happen within the church with one another, right? So, you know, one of the things, again, I want to highlight is he's not simply, he's not talking to these pagans who are actively engaged in these things.

He's talking to faithful Christians who are just simply looking the other way, right? And he said, because of that, he said, "If you don't rid the church of this," he says, "judgment is coming." But to those who overcome, he said, "He will give hidden manna." Not referring to physical food, but to spiritual care, right?

That God's going to take care of them. And then he says that he's going to give them a white tablet. And this is very specific to this particular city. Because of the relationship they had with Rome, it was a tradition of theirs to give a tablet, sometimes made of wood, metal, or stone, depending on, you know, the importance of the event, as sort of an invitation to a particular banquet.

So that would be equivalent to like a wedding, maybe, you know? And if you get an invitation from, and it's a very important event, that probably the invitation itself is going to be on nice paper, right? Calligraphy. It's not going to be on crayon, right? You know what I mean?

You're not going to get an invitation to something really important scribbled on a piece of paper. So in this particular city, because of the relationship with Rome, Rome had tradition of inviting people to special events, if it was really important, made of stone as an invitation. So what Jesus is saying is, "You may be shunned from society, and you may be afraid that you may not be able to eat or have business." And Jesus is saying, "No, I will give you the hidden manna that they don't understand.

I will give you the white tablet, invitation to my banquet that the world will not know." In other words, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you." Finally, the Church of Thyatira. We know the least about this city out of the seven, and yet we have the longest letter as to this city.

Jesus describes himself as a son of God, having blazing fire, right? Typically, we think of a blazing fire, think about that Jesus is able to see with clear vision and feet like burnished bronze, that it's steady and firm. And I mentioned to you how the book of Revelation has direct connection to the book of Daniel.

In particular, chapter 10 and 12 describes the coming of the Son of Man, and he is described in the exact same way, "Eyes of flaming fire and legs gleam of burnished bronze." And this is the reason why Jesus uses the term "Son of Man" to identify himself more than any other term, more than Son of God, more than Child of God.

All of these terms are used, but Jesus declares himself the Son of God more than any other term because that particular term was a messianic term that was prophesied in the Old Testament. So every good Jew who knew his Bible would have understood that Jesus was saying, "I'm the Son of Man, Son of Man." When we hear Son of Man, we hear a child of a man, right?

When the Jews heard the Son of Man, the way he was using it, he was basically saying the Messiah, the Chosen One, the Christ, right? So the term Son of Man is equivalent to Christ. We don't know a whole lot about the city other than the fact that if you remember the prominent lady in Philippi, Lydia, who was a dealer of purple cloth.

Purple cloth to us is just purple, happens to be cloth, it's not anything in particular, but at this particular time, purple cloth would have been like silk or a trade of gold or something very, very expensive. So meaning that Lydia was probably a very wealthy businesswoman, very prominent businesswoman.

And so the only thing that we know about this particular city is that she comes from this particular place, right? The commendation for this city is that they had love, faith, and they had patient endurance through all the different trials. But unlike the Church of Ephesus, their love now was even greater than it was in the beginning.

So again, this was a great church on the surface, but one of the descriptions of Jesus that we mentioned is he is the Alpha and Omega, beginning and the end, right? Who walks among the seven lampstands. So he looks beyond the surface and he's able to see more clearly.

He said, "I have this against you. You tolerate the woman Jezebel." Jezebel is a term that is often used to describe a woman who is very, very, very wicked. So if you were to choose one person in Israel's history who happens to be female, who represents idolatry, evil, anything hatred toward God, it would have been this woman Jezebel.

So this is probably referring to a very influential woman in this city, a prominent woman in this city. I didn't write it here, but some, because of the description and because we know that Lydia happened to be a very prominent, well-known businesswoman who was very influential, some speculated that maybe this Jezebel is referring to Lydia.

But that's complete speculation. They're just making a connection, right? We don't know that. So don't go out of this room and say, "Oh, Lydia is Jezebel." Don't say that. Okay? This is just one or two of the commentaries mentioned that maybe possibly, you know, her name is mentioned in the New Testament because she was prominent, just like Nicolai, who later on led the Nicolaitans out of the church, that maybe she was one of those people.

Don't know. He says, as a judgment, he says it's going to cause her to be ill, tribulation is going to come, and that their children are going to be put to death. Most likely it's not referring to their physical children, but as the New Testament uses often, it's referring to his followers, the disciples of Jezebel, who are rebelling against God and bringing stumbling block and suffering to the church.

That's the judgment that's coming. But to those who stood against her influence, Christ promises authority over the nations and they will rule with a rod of iron. And then three, he will also give them the bright and morning star. You know, what's interesting is the bright and morning, the morning star in, I think in Ezekiel is in reference to Lucifer.

But in Revelation chapter 22, Jesus himself calls himself the morning star. He says that he will make them a morning star, something shining and bright. So Lucifer was called the morning star before the fall, that he was the most beautiful of all the things that God created. So here he says, you're going to be elevated and your beauty is going to far exceed whatever you lose.

Okay. All right. So those are the four churches and I have to go through it pretty quick or else, you know, we're going to take too long. But I want to take a few minutes before I release you to your discussion groups. As I already mentioned that most of the descriptions here, and obviously, you know, some of these things blend with one another.

There's some unique qualities of each particular church and some of them stand out, right? Obviously, the Church of Ephesus will stand out. Laodicea stands out. Smyrna and Philadelphia stand out because of, you know, there's not being any rebuke. But the primary rebuke to these five churches in particular is not toward those who are rebelling against God.

The primary rebuke are the church members who are tolerating it and they're not speaking up. And so the corruption in the church, obviously, the leaders are primarily responsible if they refuse to deal with sin in the church. But every single member in the church, right, who allows them to tolerate sin is also guilty.

So there's a balance between grace and righteousness, His mercy and holiness. And the church, when we talk about the cross or being gospel-centered, gospel-centeredness doesn't mean that no matter what people do, that we're gracious and we throw it under the rug because the cross represents His righteousness, His wrath being appeased because of His grace, right?

So if you take holiness out of the cross, then you don't have the cross. If you take mercy out of the cross, you don't have the cross. You have to have a perfect balance of both. And that's what the cross was. It was a revelation of His holy, holy holiness and also His grace.

So the church has to be a place where holiness is taken seriously, right? That it's not a gospel-centered church isn't a church that is okay that no matter what we live in, we just kind of sweep it under the rug because we're gospel-centered. Sin is just not that big of a deal anymore, right?

That is not the case, right? We need to be gracious with sinners who are repenting. We need to be merciful with sinners who are struggling in sin and that they are welcome so that we can struggle together. But an unrepentant sin, right, a constant challenge to push the envelope so that the church looks more and more like the world, that we have to fight, right?

And not just the leaders. Every member in the church has to participate in that fight. And again, when I say fight, I'm not talking about standing up and pointing out everybody else's sin. I'm not talking about that, right? Because like I said, we need to be as gracious as we can be to repentant sinners because every single one of us are in the same boat.

We're all weak, right? We all need mercy. We all need grace. But if we allow unrepentant sin to begin to penetrate into the church because we're afraid to deal with sin, then eventually the church becomes nothing different than the world. And eventually, what does he say, right? If he takes away the lampstand, then all of this is just a show, right?

It's just a bunch of people getting together to hang out with their friends in the name of Jesus, right? But if we want the Lord's blessing, we have to welcome the Lord the way he wants to be. If he's going to be standing in the midst of us, we have to be gracious and holy at the same time, right?

All right, so let me release you guys to your discussion. Take a picture of this. Do me a favor next week, if possible, when you come into the room, can you sit with your small group? Sit with your small group so that you guys can take the first 10 minutes that you're here before we start worship, checking on your memory verses, okay?

So that you don't have to do that when you go into your small group. So starting from next week when you come, try to sit with your small groups, okay? Let me pray for us and then I'll release you to your group. Gracious Father, we thank you for this evening.

We thank you for your living word. I pray that your Holy Spirit would guide the small group discussions, that there would be an honest and open discussion, that we may be able to share our weaknesses and our struggle, but at the same time, Lord God, that we do not create an environment where pursuing holiness is odd.

Help us, Lord God, to reflect who you are in all that we are, knowing that this is your temple and that you are the head of the church. So we ask, Lord, that you would help us to take to heart all the warnings and the encouragements of these letters and that things that we need to glean personally and as a church, that we would apply it according to your purpose.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. (audience applauding)