Faithfulness to the End: Lessons from Ephesus and Smyrna - Glorious Hope | Studies in Revelation

Well, last night at our young adults group, we were looking at

the character of Andrew the disciple, as we began our Bible study

series, looking at the disciples.

And we read together a passage from John 1.

And reading that passage, we were able to determine a little bit

about Andrew's character.

It was a helpful exercise so that we could get to know and understand

a bit about who he was as a man and who he was as a follower

of Jesus.

And I think there's words that we would want to use to describe

ourselves, just like we used certain words last night to describe

Andrew.

And I wonder if you were to come up with a list of how you would

like you to describe yourself, what you would come up with.

Maybe you would consider yourself to be loving, maybe you

would consider yourself to be patient.

Maybe you think you're loyal, maybe you think you're trustworthy.

And of course, there are many other words that we could use to

describe ourselves, but one word that we might choose to use,

and it came up last night, is the word faithful.

I think we like to think that others would consider us people on

whom they can rely and trust, that no matter what the situation,

we would be there, faithful to our families, faithful to our friends,

to support them in whatever they're going through.

I think we'd like to think that we are faithful people.

The term faithful has been used to describe so many people and

so many things.

Old Faithful was the name given to a geyser in Yellowstone

national park because it erupted on a regular basis.

In fact, since the year 2000, it has erupted every 44 minutes to

2 hours.

Without fate, it was dependable and could be counted on

to do what it was supposed to do.

And so it got the name Old Faithful.

But I also remember visiting Edinburgh as a child and seeing the

statue of Grey Friars, Bobby, the Skye terrier, who demonstrated

what faithfulness was.

Bobby was the dog of John Gray, who had come to Edinburgh to

work as a policeman.

Well, actually he was a gardener and he found work as a policeman

in Edinburgh.

Now, this was at a time whenever.

This was the time whenever Bobby found Gray.

Often people think Gray found Bobby, but no, it was the dog that

found the man.

And Bobby started following the Bobby, as in the policeman around

in his patrols.

Now, John Gray died of tuberculosis on the 15th of February,

1858, but he was always known as the policeman with the dog following

him.

And when he was buried in Grey Friars Kirkyard for 14 years, Bobby

the dog stared at his master's graveside, demonstrating not only

a faithfulness in life, but also in death.

And as we turn to the first 11 verses of Revelation chapter two,

this evening we come to the seven churches to which John had

important messages to communicate.

And before we get into the seven, we'll look at two tonight

and then we'll pick it up in a few weeks time.

The thing to remember this is not a Woolworths or a Tesco pick

and mix wall that well, you know, I'm going to identify most

with this church whenever you look at it.

He who has an ear to hear, let him hear.

We're going to come across that and bring that verse up a couple

of times this evening.

But these letters to the churches were to be read to all the

churches.

The two churches we look at tonight, Ephesus and Smyrna, were

not just for those churches.

They were going to be read by all seven and all the other churches

right through to churches today.

And so whenever we read them, we must understand they're not just

for whoever they're written to, they're for us all to learn from.

And so these first two churches that we look at this evening,

Ephesus and Smyrna, they're presented to us as different situations

and how they find themselves.

But what is key that we'll discover is will they remain faithful

to Christ to the end?

Remember, Jesus has said, I am coming soon.

And so here are churches who are now going to be challenged to

see if they will remain faithful to the end when Jesus returns.

In chapter one, we saw that the churches are described as lampstands.

And in the midst of them is the risen Jesus Christ.

Revelation 1:12 13 told us, Then I turned, this is John, to see

Revelation 1:12

the voice that was speaking to me.

And on turning I saw seven golden lampstands.

And in the midst of the lampstands, one like a son of man,

clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.

The concluding verse of chapter one interprets this scene

for us by saying that the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

So Jesus is in the midst of his church and it's important that

we know that he's not looking down on them, nor is he far away.

He is concerned about them and he is close to them.

The seven churches are located in what we now know what was known

then as the province of Asia and what we now know today as modern

day Turkey.

And these are churches that should be familiar to us as some

of them are mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles.

And the first church that we come to is Ephesus.

And if you look at the map there, you'll see in the middle of

the Aegean Sea, a little white box that says Patmos.

That's the island from which John is writing.

And if you look at the red writing down on that green area,

you will see the closest church to Patmos is Ephesus.

So I'm not saying that John could see it, but in terms of proximity,

he's writing to the first church that is the closest to him.

And this is a church that was planted by Paul during his third

missionary journey.

And Ephesus played an important role as a port city on

the west coast of the province of Asia.

The city was famous for its temple to Artemis, which we read

about in Acts 19 and was also enthusiastic about the imperial cult.

Now the imperial cult we'll come across again in different cities.

The different cities in these seven churches, that was where they

worshiped the emperor.

That's what the imperial cult was, emperor worship.

And so not only did they have a temple to Artemis, but they had

a temple in Ephesus for Julius Caesar, a temple for the emperor

Domitian, who lived or who reigned between 81 and 96 AD also

may have been built before John wrote Revelation, but was certainly

there into the 1000s AD.

So the Ephesian church, like every church, is to reflect the light

of God's holiness in a pagan society.

It is to show a love to the world of Jesus and to know that Jesus

walks among them as believers and he knows what is happening.

And so what's presented here, as with the rest of the churches,

is like a school report with how well they have done and warnings

that need to be given so they can stay the course to remain faithful

to the end.

And verse one opens with reflecting back to chapter one.

Jesus is identified as the one who's giving the message to the church

and commands the angel of the church in Ephesus to write down what

he says.

Now, the angels which perhaps guard and protect the churches or

represent them in heaven, are in the hand of the Son of Man, because

ultimately it is Jesus who protects the church.

And the church in Ephesus has been faithful to the Lord Jesus.

Look at what he says to them in verses 2 and 3.

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, found them to be false.

I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's

sake, and you have not grown weary.

The church in Ephesus is where Paul spent three years teaching the

word of God, Apollos and Timothy and John himself taught there.

Ephesus was an extremely well taught church from the time the church

was first planted.

And one of the things that Jesus knows, something that made

his heart glad, was that the church had real doctrinal discernment.

Look at it there in the verse.

They knew how to spot a fake peddler of God's Word and they had

persevered in working to make the true Gospel known.

They had worked hard in a difficult city where idol worship

was forced into the society and culture all about them.

They have not allowed themselves to be dragged down with

false gods and have continued to remain true and faithful to their

Savior and Lord Jesus.

But.

There is a but.

After such a good report, you can imagine their hearts sinking

by what they hear next.

In verses four and five, Jesus says, but I have this against you.

Now this will make them sit up after such a glowing report.

What is Jesus about to say?

I have this against you 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.

This is a bit of a shocking report.

They have abandoned their first love.

And whenever we think back to what Jesus has already said around

this topic, we go to Matthew 24:12, where Jesus wants the pressures

Matthew 24:12

of the evil age to not affect his people.

He doesn't want his disciples to grow cold by what is going on

in the world.

Because there in Matthew 24, he says, and because lawlessness

will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

Here's Jesus warning his disciples not to go after the things

of the world, because when they do well, they will grow cold.

So how can they here in Ephesus be said to have abandoned

their first love when verses two to three give such a glowing

report of faithfulness?

Well, these verses, this letter to the Church is not a timeline

because verses 2 and 3 are written in the present tense, not

the past tense.

These statements are all given so that we may know this is the current

position of the Church.

Abandoning your first love means that you have strayed from

both love of God and love of fellow believers, and the two are

inseparable.

The church at Ephesus was persistent and it was Orthodox, but

a hardness callousness had arisen in its ranks.

They needed a renewed fervency, a renewed tenderness for

the Lord and for one another.

True Orthodoxy is Always warm, it's always loving, and it's always

generous in spirit.

Because this is what John has already told us.

In First John 4, verse 20, he makes it clear that love of God means

1 John 4:20

that we love our brothers and sisters in the Lord.

He writes, if anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he

is a liar.

For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot

love God whom he has not seen.

Now, that's striking.

That's a strong warning.

These are words that warn us of how we are to love each other

in Christ.

This is to be the mark and the standard of the church.

To not love in this way, John says, is a demonstration that we

are not truly loving God.

So let me ask you this.

Are you truly loving the people of God in this place?

Are you speaking well of them?

Or are you ridiculing them, gossiping about them and speaking

bad about them?

And, you know, I need to search my own heart to answer this

question, and I think we need all to do that as well.

You see, as we will see with all the words given to the seven

churches, there is a challenge to hear.

This verse seven begins that challenge by saying, he who has an

ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

And so this issue isn't trivial.

It's not one that we can choose to ignore if we're seriously

living for Christ.

Because what's the consequence if they don't get their act together,

if they don't fall in love with Jesus again so that they can

love him and love each other and not speak ill of each other?

Well, in verse 5, Jesus threatens to come and remove their

lampstand if they do not repent.

Removing the lampstand means the church will lose its status as

a Christian church.

The light of Christ will no longer shine and the message of the

Gospel will no longer resound from a church that has lost its first

love.

What the church must do is to remember where they were previously.

And as in their earlier days, of love and devotion to Christ, they

must return to him.

They need to repent of their sin, and they need to be faithful

once again to their Savior and their Lord.

Because repentance is essential in our relationship with

Christ and must be something we practice as we know and see the

sin that so easily weighs us down.

Now, let me caution you here.

We've used the word church a lot, and all too often in our culture,

we think of church as the institution.

Well, it's those boys up there.

No, the church is the people of God, and always has been.

And so when the church is called to repent, when the church

is called to honestly inspect itself, it's not a charity commission

inquiry into an institution.

It's a deep searching of our own hearts.

It's not pointing the finger at someone over there, it's looking

in and seeing what is the truth of our own hearts.

But do you see the consequences?

Do you see the consequences that Jesus says?

Do you see the consequences that John warns us about in his Epistle?

This is something we must take seriously.

We must seek forgiveness, and we must do better to love each other

and to pray for that unity in the spirit of God.

So as much as this is a hard challenge for this church, who have

been accused of not keeping to their first love, of falling away,

there is another positive to speak about.

And Jesus wants to encourage the church in verse six, because

there we read his words.

Yet this you have.

You hate the works of the Nicoletians, which I also hate.

Now, we don't know much about these Nicolations, but they are brought

up again in, in the letter for jaime in verse 15.

Now, they probably tolerated such things as sexual immorality

and eating food offered to idols.

It may have been that they did this in the name of love and acceptance,

all things to all men, but without presenting Christ.

But what they're doing is.

It's not really love, it's falling for wrongful compromise.

And the Ephesian believers followed Christ's example and hated

what the Nicolaitians were doing.

The Nicoletians may have been wanting to compromise, but the church

in Ephesus was not.

And so the challenge for us in our culture today is that in our

apathy and in our boredom, we may hate nothing and confuse our

apathy and tolerance with love, falling into the errors of

relativism and pluralism.

We need to remain faithful to Christ and know him again as our

first love, so that as we hear and as we obey, we will not only

conquer evil through Christ, but we will, as Jesus says, eat of

the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

This is how serious this challenge is to the church in Ephesus

and to the church today.

Not living by the standard of God means we lose our first love.

And that has eternal significance.

This evening, as I plead with myself, I plead with you to be honest

with yourself and repent of sin, so that you can have a wonderful

assurance of enjoying the fruit of the tree of life in paradise.

And isn't that what we want?

That hope, that security, that when Christ comes again, we will

be taken to be with him.

But there is a second church to consider, and that is Smyrna.

Now, Smyrna isn't mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, and it

was most likely planted during Paul's third missionary journey.

Again, and like Ephesus, it was a harbor city.

And it was well known for its temple to the mother Goddess.

And the imperial cult was present in the city with a temple

built for Emperor Tiberius.

Now, the church faced opposition for its allegiance to

Jesus Christ from both the Jewish synagogue and the pagan culture.

But notice the wonderful introduction to this letter to the

church in Smyrna in verse eight.

Let's take three, and to the angel of the church in Smyrna write

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

These are words of great encouragement.

The church is being told that what is about to be said to them

is truly known.

And the Lord Jesus has endured suffering and glorious resurrection

for them.

Smyrna is one of two churches that doesn't face a rebuke.

And in verse nine we see why Jesus continues.

I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich.

And the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not,

but are a synagogue of Satan.

I think these are beautiful words that Jesus gives to this church,

which one of us, when facing hardship, doesn't want to know that

our situation is known by the Savior.

These are words of assurance.

This is a church that is suffering.

They are spiritually rich because they were joined to Christ,

but they were financially poor.

And this may be because their commitment to Christ prevented them

from fully participating in what was the economic structure of

the time, what was known as the guilds, the professional guilds

of tradesmen.

And to the wider business community in Smyrna, verse nine confirms

to us that they have been slandered by the Jews.

And so their reputation within the community was something that

others questioned.

But notice how the Jews are described here.

Jesus says that they are a synagogue of Satan.

These are people who should have known better through their knowledge

of the scripture and rather than turning to God and his promised

Messiah, Jesus Christ, they were working on the side of Satan.

And isn't it interesting that those who often set themselves up

as more spiritual than others do more harm to God's people than

good?

They become the judge of all.

They're unwilling to be honest with themselves, and they dishonor

the name of Christ through their opinions of other believers.

Rather than building up the church, there may not be a rebuke

for the church in Smyrna.

But there is certainly a challenge to us in how we live and

if we are truly faithful to Christ, as this church is commended

in verse 10.

But this church is not out of the woods.

This is not a reprieve of the suffering that they're facing, this

tribulation.

Rather, this is an encouragement to keep going because

it is worth it.

And now, for the second time in Revelation, we hear Jesus say

the comforting words, do not fear.

Do not fear what you're about to suffer.

Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that

you may be tested.

And for 10 days you will have tribulation.

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

Although comforting words to begin with, they are put into context

by what would be words that are sobering to hear.

Their suffering wasn't going to end or decrease.

In fact, it was going to increase.

It wasn't going to go away quickly.

It was going to last a while.

Now, the number 10 in 10 days of tribulation seems quite short.

If it's only going to be 10 days, surely why does Jesus need

to tell them this?

It'll be over and done within a week and a half, and then that's

it.

And so if that's not the case that it's going to be longer than

10, there must be another meaning to the 10.

And here it's telling us that it is God who knows the length of

time that the tribulation will last.

God knows the exact length of time, but there's a promise for the

church to trust in.

Yes, the church would continue to face tribulation as their present

reality, and they would face death.

But the one giving the message is the one in verse eight who said

that they had died and come alive again.

Jesus is assuring that the death is not the end of their story,

and they could be assured eternal life because of their faithfulness.

Him.

The words to Smyrna are the words of the Holy Spirit, addressed

to and applicable to all the churches.

As verse 11 tells us, 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.

The one who conquers, the one who overcomes, will not be injured

by the second death.

And John uses the phrase second death three other times in

Revelation, here and then in chapters 20 and 21, and he identifies

it as the lake of fire, and it clearly refers to punishment in hell.

And thus we have further evidence that the crown of Life in

verse 10 refers to eternal life.

And so the Ephesians are promised eternal life if they conquer.

Sorry, the Smyrna's are promised eternal life if they conquer.

They will enjoy the tree of life in paradise along with the Church

in Ephesus.

Now John communicates the same truth in another way.

Those who conquer won't suffer the second death.

Yes, they will die physically, but they will be spared the second

death.

Eternal death, separation from God forever.

And so these two letters to the churches warn us that we are

to be faithful to Christ.

In the first instance, this means that we must know him as Savior

and Lord.

We are to trust in him alone for our salvation and submit to his

ways as the standard by which we live.

This is the only way to be spared the second death and punishment

for all eternity in Hell.

The call is to come onto Jesus for salvation and him alone, because

he is the only one who saves us and who keeps us.

And this is what the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 7:25 assures us

Hebrews 7:25

of.

Consequently, he is able to save to the utmost those who draw

near to God through Him, since he always lives to make intercession

for them.

This then means we live faithful lives unto death.

And as those who do persevere, as those who are raised to life,

we will eat of the Tree of life and receive the crown of glory

in Paradise.

These words are true and should not be doubted, because they

are given to us by Jesus, and they're given to us by Jesus to warn

us, to keep with him and trust none other.

We've asked a few times, who is Jesus to you?

Is this the Jesus that you will live for?

Is this the Jesus that you will follow?

Will you have ears to hear and will you obey?

Because these are the letters to the churches, not just in the

first century, not just in the persecutions that they endured, not

just to the Reformation churches, but to the Church today,

that we will pay attention to the one who is amongst the lampstands,

not distant, not far off, but near and close.

And he knows us and assures us not to fear and that he knows our

ways.

I will not try to give a report card because that says as

much about me as it does anyone else.

But Jesus here clearly marks it out for us.

To be faithful to him is to have ears that are wide open to listen

and a response that means we obey.

Will you take this word seriously this evening?

And will you plant it deep within?

Live ever for Christ and be faithful to Him.

Let's pray.

Our Father God, we thank you for the glorious hope that revelation

points us to.

We thank you that it tells us who the Church are.

Thank you that as we read these seven letters to the churches,

they reflect your church in all of time.

And Father, we know that we are living in a generation, in a

world that is against you.

Laws are changed so that they're harder for us to obey.

In fact, we would have to break laws to preserve what we believe.

This is not the society any of us want.

It's not the society many of us were brought into.

And so, Father, that demonstrates we cannot trust what

is around us.

We can only trust Christ, our first love.

So kindle the fire afresh.

Warm our hearts to Christ and to him alone.

And Father, may we stand the tribulation.

May we endure whatever is ahead, knowing that Christ is the

one who was and is, who was dead and is now alive as we place

our confidence in him, our risen Saviour.

Give us ears to hear, give us hearts to obey.

And Father, may we be faithful unto death and onto eternal life.

We pray these things in Jesus name, Amen.