Revelation: Jesus' Caring Correction

Well, good morning.

We're in our second week of studying through the book of Revelation.

What we said last week, if you weren't here, or if you were here, let me remind you, what we said is some people treat this book of Revelation this little strange last book of the Bible that a lot of us avoid.

Some people like overly focus on it and they love it.

They treat it like a secret code that they're gonna break and they're gonna solve the mystery of how the world ends and they know what date it's gonna happen, and they put all the numbers together and have an equation.

And in that way they overread Revelation.

And then what we said is like there's a whole nother group of people, and I'm in the other group of people, that react to that.

I don't like that.

Feels weird to me, and I react to that and I underread it.

Or we just all the symbolism, just massive amounts of symbolism, but then it flips back to being literal, and then it's symbolism, it's literal, and we go, ah, just can't do it.

So we underread it.

Here's what we know: Revelation's a letter.

It's written by John.

He was exiled to an island in the Aegean Seed, Patmos Island, and he's writing it to seven churches, seven churches he cares about.

And it is filled with symbolism, and then there's also literal language in it, also.

So there's both for us to work through.

In Revelation 1, last week we saw John just unveiling, that's what Revelation means, to unveil, unveiling how supreme and caring Jesus is.

Now we remember that when we go into chapters two and three.

There's a reason why John began with that.

Because we begin with the supremacy and the care and the love of Jesus.

And then we're going to go into two and three, and chapters two and three are words of a little bit of commending these churches, but then a whole lot of correcting these churches.

And so this morning we're going to look at four of these seven churches, and next week we'll look at the next three.

As a pastor, I have friends who minister in all different types of churches.

My friend Kurt, he's a priest in Trinity Parish in St.

Augustine.

Here's a picture of Trinity Parish in St.

Augustine.

So he's a priest here in this church.

That church is 201 years old.

Isn't that amazing?

201 years old.

Now, my brother-in-law Kevin, he's a pastor at a megachurch in Nashville called Cross Point.

Here's a picture of their church.

A little bit different.

Two churches are different.

Imagine that.

My friend Luise, he ministers in Guatemala.

Here's a picture of a church in Guatemala.

That's a very typical church in Guatemala.

Now, here's a picture of our church nine years ago.

This is what we look like.

That's us nine years ago.

Some of you had more hair.

You see yourself.

I know there's two of you.

I'm not going to say your names or we won't zoom in, but there are two of you that had more hair at that point.

You are there, near the front.

Now, what do all of the images, what do all these images have in common?

Well, it's not architecture, it's not style of worship.

It's people, right?

Like here's the church, here's the steeple, right?

Remember you remember that?

It's people.

So John's writing to churches, communities, but he's writing to groups of people.

And we just can't forget that.

And these are communities of people that have done some good stuff, but they've lost their way.

And so John's receiving these visions and these different situations, and this is sort of like a vision because he's writing Jesus' words to these churches.

And so, four churches.

The first church is Ephesus, the church of Ephesus.

And Brian read that.

I'll reread it just for it to be fresh in us.

We've a bit of reading in between the points this morning.

Revelation 2, 1 through 7.

Do the angel of the church in Ephesus write, the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.

I know your works, your toil, and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.

I know you are enduring, enduring patiently, and bearing up for my namesake, and you have not grown weary.

You're thinking, Oh, I'm I'm great.

I'm a great wow, we're a great church.

But I have this against you.

And you have abandoned, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.

Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first.

If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

Yet this you have.

Now, all right, so we have some symbolism going back from the garden.

We have some Old Testament symbolism language, and then we just have some really clear correcting language.

What we have coming right there at the beginning in verse one is our point number one, and that's Jesus' correcting words are from his heart of love for us.

Right there at the beginning, verse one, the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand.

Last week we talked about those seven stars, is just poetic language for saying the seven churches.

He could say, he holds the seven churches.

He holds his church.

So all of these correcting words, no matter how much they sting, they're within God's care for his church.

All of our correction is inside of Jesus' care for us.

So if you sense conviction in your heart about something, that's not that's not a guilt trip God's putting on you or like shaming you unto submission.

That's God's loving care for you, correcting you.

Point number two.

We are called to stand for truth while resting in our first love, Jesus.

About 10 years ago, I officiated a wedding for two recent college graduates, fresh out of college.

They've been dating through college, and I'm standing at the front of the church.

We're standing there, he's to my left.

It's a great, you see, y'all don't get a few of you have gotten this perspective before when you're standing there because you get to see the bride first, and then the most fun thing is to watch him, him react to his bride coming in.

And as soon as she comes in, he starts falling apart, right?

I mean, he's just like I can hear him.

Like he's he's just he's trying, and I'm rooting him like, hey bud, like gather, gather yourself, you know, like we got to get through this.

Like, we're in this together.

But he's falling apart, he's starting to fall apart.

She's walking down, he's falling apart more.

We get there, groom, dad, bride, and just as I'm starting, he starts to kind of just sort of fall out.

And I just sort of kind of reach out and I grab his grab his arm while I'm talking to the church.

Hey, we're glad you're here.

Kind of, hey, hey, buddy.

We're gonna get through, you know.

And he and he went drunk.

I know some of you, because you're horrible.

There's a few of you.

There's a few of you that thought that.

You're a horrible person that you thought that.

He wasn't.

Like, this is a good dude.

Like he was, he was sober as can be, but he was overwhelmed with her.

And he gathered himself and we did the vows and did the rings and they kissed and they got married.

Now, here's what I also know.

It's been 10 years.

It's been 10 years.

And I'm just assuming, it's probably a safe assumption, that when she walks in the door from work, I'm just assuming that he doesn't fall out, right?

I'm just assuming now when I walk in the door from work, I mean that's just that's kind of normal, Chris sees, you know, gushing with endearment, and Seinfeld's already on, a glass of Pinot is waiting for me.

It's just that's just normal coming in process, right?

Yeah, right.

Right.

See, we're we're not expected to live faith on like a retreat high.

That's not sustainable.

It's not even really stable if you think about it.

But it's also not okay to forget your first love.

And see, Ephesus, they had some really good stuff going for them.

Like, I mean, Jesus says that.

He gives a list.

Like they really stood for truth well.

But they lost their first love, that chief principle love, the core, the definition of who they were.

Yeah, they worked hard, they persevered, but they lost their heart.

Maybe you remember those early days of faith, or maybe it was in a season of suffering.

Sometimes that happens.

Where it's just like words are jumping out of Bible verses to you.

For me, I can remember Frost Chapel at Barrie College, freshman year.

And we would have these worship times.

There's no, it wasn't even there's no preaching.

You just walked in, the music started, and two hours later you walked out.

And it was like the time went by like that, and nothing was fancy.

It was an overhead projector.

And when the song changed, a new sheet went up on the overhead projector, there was no lighting changes, nothing, nothing.

And we were overwhelmed by this, by God's presence, by his love for us.

Right?

That first love.

And then over time, how easy for me, for you, for all of us, just to get busy, burdened by other stuff in life, for other things to begin to define us.

I didn't have any net worth when I was a freshman in college, and it didn't matter.

But man, is it easier to kind of rely on a little bit of that right now?

And Jesus says, it's not enough to be good.

It's not enough to be good.

Be in love with me.

And the warning here to the church, to any church, to us, verse 5, part B, when a church grows more in love with moralistic notions, social causes, as good as they may be, that church ceases to be a church.

You can be a civic organization, maybe become like a club or something.

But churches primarily love and adore Jesus.

That's what churches do.

Revelation 2, verse 8, second church.

Revelation 2:8

And to the angel of the church in Smyrna, just down the road, it's about 10 miles away.

The words of the last, the words of the first and the last who died and came to life.

I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you're rich, and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

Do not fear what you are about to suffer.

Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested.

And for ten days you will have tribulation.

Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.

Point number three is this we may walk through suffering, but we do not have to walk in fear.

We talked about that last week.

Jesus is saying to this church, like, you're about to go through it.

There's gonna be some persecution coming up, and even some of you are gonna die.

But you don't have to have a second death.

You can have life in him.

Jesus acknowledges suffering.

Isn't that good news?

Such good news.

And he acknowledges it to a church that he's commending, which means people of faith suffered.

Yet we have that verse 10.

Do not fear what you are about to suffer.

We may suffer, but we don't have to fear in our suffering.

There's this really, really cheesy joke about God's sovereignty.

Like it's one of those pastor jokes.

I'm gonna risk it, I'm gonna tell it to you.

Um, three of you will laugh, but it doesn't matter, it's gonna be okay.

A person falls down the stairs.

They don't believe in God's sovereignty.

They fall down the stairs, they get to the bottom of the stairs and they say, Oh, stupid me.

I can't believe I did that.

I need to be more careful.

I really need to be more careful.

I can't believe I did that.

Another person falls down the stairs.

They trust in God's sovereignty.

They get to the bottom of the stairs and they say, Well, at least that's over.

Okay, see, that that's the joke.

That's what I said.

Only pastors laugh at the joke.

I knew that would be the response.

But I have a point in it.

And the point is we don't have to be either person.

Right?

Like the first person becomes paranoid that everything they do could create pain in their life.

So you can live in paranoia.

The second person can live in just sort of like resignation.

Like, well, God is sovereign, everything is up to God.

At least that's over.

But we're actually participants in it within God's sovereignty.

Now, God's sovereignty doesn't give us answers, it's a bit of a mystery, but it does give us a relationship.

And what it gives us, and this text gives us, is it's saying, you're gonna suffer, though there's gonna be suffering, but you don't have to fear in the suffering.

That God is with you.

And there's more at play than what you see and what you're experiencing in this given season.

Verse 12, third church.

And to the angel of the church and Pergamum, write the words of him who has the sharp, two-edged sword.

I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.

But I have a few things against you.

You have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality.

So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

Therefore, repent.

If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

To the one who conquers, I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone with a new name written on the stone, that no one knows except the one who receives it.

So Pergamum was a city of philosophy and religion.

Yet they stood for truth.

The cost of saying something was right or true, or something else was wrong or untrue, that would have had a consequence.

And Jesus is saying, hey, y'all done that, y'all done that.

Y'all stood up well.

And yet, Jesus is saying, yet, you got some other stuff going on.

Like you're doing that well.

You're standing up for truth really well, but you're not really people of integrity.

Because you have, you're dealing, you're eating food sacrificed to idols, you got sexual immorality going on, you don't even care.

They love truth.

They love truth in a way, but they compromised.

Point number four is this our hearts wander toward other loves, yet God promises to nourish our souls.

Idols work like this, whether it's Old Testament, whether it's ancient times, whether it's uh today.

Idols work like this.

Life only has meaning, or I only have worth if.

Every time we talk about idols, this is the sentence we use.

Life only has meaning, or I only have worth if.

Now, as soon as we add in whatever that is, there we have either an idol or something that can become an idol.

It's something that we we love so much we're trying to use it for our identity.

Right?

I only have worth if I'm married, I only have worth if I have a certain net worth, I only have worth if I have a certain amount of power, I only have worth if I could solve Wordle in one try.

Some of you.

Anyone?

Just want to go ahead and you're you want to post it.

I know you do.

You want to post it so bad.

You're waiting every day just to get it in one try, because then, right?

Like then, if you do that, then you really are smart.

Like finally, the world has said you're smart.

And then you can tell everybody, and we'll not really care, but we'll act like it.

A contemplative question for application with this is what idol of the heart do I keep entertaining that will never bring me life?

Like, what is it?

What do I keep entertaining?

It just never never delivers, never has, doesn't, and it won't.

Yet, verse 17 brings us a promise for those who live in repentance of idols, whether it's the one mentioned here or something else.

And the promises is referring back to Old Testament manna, heavenly food, that we have a nourishment from God that can actually nourish our souls.

That's what we want.

That's what we've always wanted, it's for our souls to be nourished.

Then there's this bit of a mystery, this white stone.

It's one of the things you read in Revelation, you're like, What in the world?

Like, what's that?

It's a bit of a mystery.

Some people think perhaps it's a stone referring to the white stones that were used when people went into idle food banquets, and to get in, you you had a white stone.

It's like your ticket.

So maybe Jesus is saying, Hey, I have a banquet for you.

Like, I have a better, everlasting feast for your soul.

I read this in a commentary this week by Michael Wilcock.

Christ gives us a personal invitation to the true pleasures of the banquet of heaven, which are in fact himself.

For in him, every one of God's promises is a yes.

And he is the true manna, the heavenly bread.

Right?

To quote the Christian rock band from 1993, it's a big, big table.

Lots and lots of food, right?

Audio adrenaline knew.

They knew then.

It's a big table, it is a banquet feast for our souls.

Verse 18.

Last church.

And to the angel of the church in Thytira, write the words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.

I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.

So we're thinking again, oh, great, great people.

But I have this against you.

That you tolerate that woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual morality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.

I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.

Behold, I will throw her onto a sick bed, and those who commit adultery with her, I will throw into great tribulation unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead.

And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.

I mean, I at first I read this at verse 23.

I was like, whoa, okay.

All right, we're gonna kill those kids.

We're gonna take the kids out.

Like, what the kids, I mean, what if the kids were good?

You know, I mean, that's really my first response.

A little bit of reading, realize, oh, it's not like her kids, it's talking about the people who adopt her teaching, which is in opposition to God's grace.

And God is saying, hey, if you've set yourself on that path and that belief, like inhead of you is great ruin, great spiritual ruin.

Now, here's what we know about that church.

That's a that church is a people of love and faith and service and patient endurance.

But there's this lady and she's teaching, and nobody does anything about it.

And she's teaching trash, and it's hurting people's lives, and it's breaking shalom in the community and people's hearts.

And that's not a normal way for us to think about things that take over our hearts.

This feels incredibly ancient.

But if we think about it, you know, sex and comfort are still huge idols in our hearts.

And to those who never repent and use sex and comfort forever to try to find justification as a person or peace, there's only ruin ahead of you.

And you know that in part now.

Verse 24, a bit of relief comes, but to the rest of you in Thyterh, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden.

Only hold fast what you have until I come.

The one who conquers and keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces.

Even as I myself have received authority from my Father, and I will give him the morning star, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

I love that verse 25, that it's our calling to hold fast to Christ.

And yet I also love what we just sang, that He holds us fast.

And that we don't always hold Him fast.

Right?

So we even read this, we read any part of Scripture, any particular part of Scripture in light of what's around it.

If we isolated this, who knows where we had?

We'd become incredibly kind of moralistic, self-righteous, pull your boots up, climb the mountain to God type of people.

But we read this in light of Revelation 1, of how Christ is supreme for us and Christ cares for us.

And inside of his care and his love, he holds us, but we hold him.

And point number five is that we hold fast to God as we are held fast by Him.

Very easy today, you could feel a bit of sting, maybe a bit of resistance against passages like this.

Maybe you feel a bit of sting when we talk about first love.

Because you're like, I'm not there.

I remember when I was, I'm not there.

Or maybe feel a bit of sting when we talk about idols, because when you fill that sentence in, you know there's a whole bunch of stuff there other than God's grace to you and how much he loves you.

But we don't ever leave chapter one.

John wouldn't have intended that.

We read this inside of the fact that we just came out of chapter one, and we read Revelation inside of the New Testament, and we read all that inside of the meta-narrative of the gospel.

That all of God's anger or disappointment or condemnation, that's all gone.

It's inside of Jesus.

He has handled all that.

Our sin is put upon him on the cross, that his righteousness is given to us, so we are forever beloved in his sight.

We are secure, we are held fast.

John even repeats that guiding image for us in chapter two as it was just in chapter one.

Remember, we said at the beginning of the sermon, verse one, the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand.

There would be a reason he would repeat this.

It's because don't forget that image.

That's the image.

Yeah, he told us in verse 25, 225, to hold fast.

But we also have in 2.1 that he holds these seven churches, that he holds us.

So, yes, return to your first love.

We need to return to our first love, to that chief principle of love that is Jesus, the core identity of who we are.

And we need to hold fast, but we do that because he loved us first and he holds us fast.

It's because that he holds us that any of the growth that we have happens.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for your grace and your mercy to us.

Thank you for correction that is inside of care.

Thank you that we don't have to leave the immaculate, unbelievable grace that we have from you in Jesus, unending welcome, forgiveness that does not end, righteousness that is declared upon us.

We don't have to leave that when we read a passage like this.

But that we know that your correction of us is your care for us.

Would you help us to trust in you in greater ways?

Would you help us to repent inside your kindness, not out of guilt, not out of shame, but out of the fact that you are wooing us to yourself and your love.

And help us to repent, to be shame free and guilt free, to repent and to walk with you in greater freedom.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.