20260405 Revelation 2-3 The 7 Churches Sunday Sermon Mike Dickmann

Well, let's pray once more then. Father, as we

come to open your Word this morning, we pray

again for your help that you would enable us

to hear and to receive that which you have for

us this morning. Pray that your Word would be

powerful, effectual, accompanied by the Holy

Spirit, that we would be in submission to that

Word and Spirit, and that you would be glorified

and honored by what proceeds. here this morning

and by us, but when we go our separate ways and

attempt to put into practice that which you teach,

help us. Overcome me, enable me to speak clearly

in your word and your word alone. We ask again

for the loss that you'd have mercy on some here

and in other assemblies that are faithfully preaching

your word, but some might come to repentance

and faith this morning. And we ask it in Christ's

name. Okay, we're going to look at Revelation

once again this morning. Hopefully you got my

email and you had the opportunity to read these

two chapters. But you'll remember that we started

out here and we saw Christ last week in all of

his glory. All the symbolic descriptions of Jesus

Christ there as the head of the church. We saw

him that he's in the midst of his church, the

candlesticks and the stars. They're the candlesticks

of the church, and Christ is in the midst of

his church. And they're golden candlesticks.

They're not brass or wood, but they're golden.

This is how Christ views his church. Very precious.

It cost him his life. Talked about it. We've

sung about it this morning He died that we might

be his He is the king He's also made us kings

and priests It's not that we we're going to become

that we are that So we're gonna we're not the

king of kings he is but under him we're king

Satan has no more power over us. Our sin has

no more power over us. The same power that raised

Christ from the dead indwells us. Does anybody

really believe that? That's an incredible statement.

But it's true. It's Bible. That's the kind of

kings we are. That's the kind of power we have.

We should pray that we would experience that

power, that we would be willing to experience

that power. Okay, so Christ is in the midst of

his churches. You want to say, where can I find

Jesus? Well, you come to the meeting. You gather

with his people. You don't go off on some mountaintop

or you don't go into some woodsy valley. You

might meet him there, but you can for sure meet

him when you gather with his people. That's what

the Bible, we saw it last week. So this week

now, and I'm not going to exposit all of this,

all the details in these two chapters here. I

have one concern really, and that's what I'm

going to dwell on in these various churches.

So remember, the church is precious. He views

us as golden candlesticks. So if you read these

two chapters, Revelation 2 and 3, letters to

the seven churches, There's some recurring statements,

recurring themes, and every one of them is introduced

by a reference back to the vision of Christ that

we looked at last week. So there's no doubt that

these letters are directly from Jesus Christ.

They're His words to the churches. They're His

last words to the churches. So they're obviously

pretty important, as we said last week. Now,

the other recurring word here is repent. These

churches are called to repent. I think there's

only one that we can for sure say that that doesn't

apply to. But all the rest of these churches

are called to repent of something or another.

And then the next is overcomers. The church is

called to be overcomers. Now remember, that's

us, the church. We're talking about people. When

we say the church, we're talking about people,

obviously. And you remember last week that there's

a lot more churches in Asia than seven. So the

number seven is significant. It represents all

the churches, and it represents all churches

until eternity future when the world will end.

So these words are for us, in other words, and

they've been for every generation of churches.

They don't depict time zones or anything else.

All seven letters are for all the churches for

all time. Remember, they didn't send out separate

letters. This whole letter of Revelation went

in its entirety to the seven churches. They all

heard and read what Christ said to the other

seven. And they all knew that it wasn't just

those particular churches. They scattered the

letters throughout all the churches. So, the

other phrase here is, He that hath an ear, let

him hear. That's in the letters. What does that

tell us? He that hath an ear, let him hear. Well,

it tells us that you have to be regenerated.

You've got to belong to Christ. You've got to

be His person. You've got to be one of his kings.

You've got to be one of his priests. In order

to hear, you're not going to get this if you're

not his. You can't repent if you're not his.

You can repent and be saved, but you can't repent

of something that you're doing. So it's important

that we understand that he's talking to Christians

here. And then the last thing that's generally

speaking here is these golden candlesticks that

we saw last week, they got lots of problems.

They got lots of things to deal with. And that

doesn't affect their value in Christ's eyes whatsoever.

So remember that. Christ loves his church. It's

important. He's purifying his church. He won't

settle for half effort. He won't settle for marred

candlesticks. He wants them bright and shiny.

That's what these letters tell us. It's not okay.

It's not just a little thing that Jesus is just

gonna look over. He wants us pure, spotless.

He wants us... Believing and repenting, believing

and repenting. It's a lifelong activity. And

we have the power to do it. We have the power

to change the way we think and the way we act.

And when we deny that, we deny Christ. Simple

as that. Well, the first letter is to Ephesus.

And I'm going to read a few verses here in chapter

2. It identifies Ephesus as the receiver. And

in verse 2 it says, and for my name's sake has

labored and has not fainted." Well, that's quite

a list. That's quite a bunch of accomplishments

there. These people were all about the truth.

They were all about making sure that they understood

everything rightly. That they attempted to put

it into practice. This is all wonderful. But

he said there's a but. And he says in verse 4,

Nevertheless, I have something against thee,

because thou hast left thy first love. Well,

what was their first love? Well, it was Jesus,

wasn't it? That's who they loved. That's who

they were all about when they got saved. Jesus,

learning more, experiencing more, loving you

more perfectly, loving the brethren. Remember,

when our love for God subsides, our love for

the brethren subsides. These are inseparable.

You cannot claim to love Christ without loving

his people or vice versa. That's what he's saying

here. So it's very similar to 1 Corinthians 13.

All that you do if you don't have love, it's

nothing. Is that simple? The motive behind what

we do is where it all starts so don't lose that

first love you must be motivated by love to Christ

and love to his people and then you must do something

you can't remain still if you love God and you

love his people and he says then this is how

he wants them to repent In verse 5, remember

therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent

and do the first works or else I will come unto

thee quickly and remove thy candlestick out of

its place except you repent. So what does he

say there? He doesn't say remember your feelings.

Get those feelings back. Get those warm fuzzy

feelings back into you. He doesn't say anything

like that. He says, do the first works. Get back

to what you used to be doing. Maybe you were

faithful in reading your Bible. Maybe you were

faithful in prayer. Maybe you were faithful in

driving somebody that couldn't get around. Whatever

it was that you've lost. Whatever you used to

do in the name of Jesus Christ. Whatever you

used to do because you loved Him. And really

we all should be doing all of those things and

many more if we love Christ and his people. So

there's our first warning. There's our first

notice. We're put on notice. Now that's foundational.

That's why it's first. We could say the same

about, I think, almost all the rest of these

churches have lost their first love. But it manifests

itself in other ways, and He wants us to be clear.

He wants us to be on guard. He wants us to know

the truth that we're all susceptible to these

things. There are no exceptions. We can all fall

under these sins if we're not on guard. It reminds

me of some of Matt's messages. Be careful of

what you hear. Do you have ears to hear? well

use them properly hear only good things the good

word the truth okay so we're not going to lose

our first love we won't want to do that the next

is uh smirna this is the one that he only has

praise for smirna was a rich place it was one

of the richest towns or provinces or whatever

Roman Emperor. Except the church was the poorest.

The church couldn't participate. They were persecuted.

They didn't have any economic value. They couldn't

enter into businesses. They were cast down. They

didn't have anything. He says in verse 9, I know

thy works in tribulation and poverty, and in

parentheses, but thou art rich. I know the blasphemy

of them would say they are Jews and are not,

but are the synagogue of Satan. They're under

persecution. The Romans empowered the Jews. They

used the Jews to hold down the Christians. They

were poor. It tells us, I just read it to you.

And in the physical realm, they were poor. In

the spiritual realm, what were they? They were

rich. That's what he means. You don't have a

thing in this world, but you've got all of me,

all of my blessings, all of my communion fellowship.

You are rich beyond belief, even though the world

thinks that you're nothing. He commends him.

Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer.

Behold, the devil shall cast some of you in prison,

that you may be tried. You shall have tribulation

ten days. Be thou faithful unto death, and I

will give thee the crown of life." He's telling

them, I know all about your persecution. It's

not that it's going to last a physical ten days,

or ten days represents ten years. We don't know

how long it's going to last. The point of telling

them that is that he knows the extent of the

persecution that is overcoming them. He is in

control of it and he will handle it. So don't

concern yourself with those things. Don't be

afraid of those things. Now this is a beautiful

church. Hopefully we know that we're rich. And

it's nothing to do with earthly, worldly things.

So what are we striving after? What are you striving

after? Money? Prestige? Power? That's what the

world strives after. We strive after knowing

Christ, having fellowship with Him, pleasing

Him, all of our day loving one another. Going

through trials tribulations, whatever it is In

other words we have the motivation and we have

the power to go through anything that comes our

way from the hand of our Lord That's the that's

the lesson We don't really know too much about

all this because we're in a richest country there

is And we all have good jobs. We all have nice

houses and cars And there's nothing wrong with

that. As long as our attitude remains the same.

Christ is preeminent. Christ is precious to us.

All the rest of this stuff is dumb or trash compared

to Christ. The next is Pergamum. and they were

full of false teachers and they didn't do much

about it he says i know thy works thou dwellest

even where satan's seed is and thou holdest fast

my name and has not denied my faith even in those

days wherein antipas was my faithful martyr but

i have a few things against you because thou

hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam,

who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before

the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed

unto idols, and to commit fornication. So hast

thou also them that hold the doctrine of the

Nicolaitans. Which thing I hate. So the doctrine

of he was teaching the doctrine of Balaam. What

is that? Well, it's conformity This conform get

along Take on some religious practices there

of the pagans So you can get along you can make

friends. I Mean so you can have influence over

them So you have to have a relationship in order

to evangelize blah blah blah blah and saying

that for decades, 100 years probably. So they

had these false teachers. Nobody knows for sure

what the Nicolaitans taught. It's not known.

So nobody can say this is absolutely sure. But

most people say that the Nicolaitans taught that

they needed to change to the times, adjust their

thinking, their belief system, and their behavior

according to the times. In other words, God changes

from time to time, from dispensation to dispensation.

You don't have to be persecuted. You don't have

to be different. You just have to change. And

again, we're just going through all this. We

just went through it for four or eight years

in our own day. And we're probably still going

through it in a lot of places. So, again. We

can be thankful that we don't struggle in this.

But be warned. Be warned in your own life. Have

you made compromises to keep any friends? You're

a member of the church. The church hasn't compromised,

but have you compromised in any way in speaking

to people? Have you tried to soften the difference?

That's the warning repent and of course, I'm

not reading all the rewards So he's not Jesus

is not just saying repent. He's saying repent

and you're gonna receive some great stuff But

I'm not we're not talking about that this morning

we're talking about the warnings we're talking

about the sins that we don't want anything to

do with as a church or as individuals within

the church. Remember, the last word of Christ.

I'm not going to read anything from Thyatira,

but their problem was they had women teachers.

They allowed women to teach. We're rampant. That's

all over. Everywhere. It's even in the Philippines.

It's everywhere where they got women pastors

So that's condemned and it's condemned in no

uncertain terms. I mean, it's strong You probably

already read it if you haven't you can read it

for yourself But women are not to be Teachers

or have any type of authority over men. That's

God's Word not mine That's what it says. So here

we have that we're coming in to Sardis. Okay,

so we're going to read this. Some of it, anyway.

This is to the church. in Sardis. And again,

it's from Jesus Christ. And it says then in verse

two, be watchful and strengthen the things which

remain that are ready to die. For I have not

found thy works perfect before God. Remember

therefore how thou hast received and heard and

held fast and repent. If therefore thou shalt

not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and

thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon

thee. Thou hast a few names, even in Sardis,

which have not defiled their garments. And they

shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy."

So this is a dead church. It's got all the outward

trappings, but it's dead. There's only a few

left that haven't succumbed, that have indeed

maintained their walk and their relationship.

And they're supposed to wake up the others. If

they don't, bad things are gonna happen. So this

is about form and ceremony. The liturgy... doesn't

matter in reality the form of the worship we

know what the worship is going to consist of

but how it all is put together that's what I'm

talking about you don't have a certain order

that is right and another certain order that

is wrong again we're confronted with the need

to realize Worship is not an outward thing. You

can do all the right things all morning long

here and you've not worshipped. Regardless of

what way we do it or what order we do it, worship

comes from within. You can dance around, wave

your hands, that's not worship. Sorry. We all

probably already knew that because we don't do

that here. But there's plenty of places that

do it. That's physical. That's nothing. Worship

is within. Yeah, it has expressions. We give

expression to it in our songs, in our prayers,

in our proclaiming God's Word and simply reading

God's Word. All of that is good and proper. Giving,

that's a good and proper thing. As long as it's

all from within, from our heart, from the inner

man. from this overwhelming love to God and his

people. That's why we do what we do. The farm

is irrelevant. And this place was dead. Just

a bunch of people going through a bunch of different

farms. They had no heart. They had no emotional

involvement with God. That's as simple as I can

put it. And that's how you can tell yourself.

Are you emotionally involved here with the Lord

Jesus Christ? I hope so. Are you just putting

your time in? Sardis, they're just putting their

time in. It's gotta be a habit, this is what

we do. Dangerous. So we get to Philadelphia.

Verse 7. And to the angel of the church of Philadelphia

write, verse 8, I know thy works. Behold, I have

set before thee an open door, and no man can

shut. For thou hast a little strength, and hast

kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Behold.

I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which

say they are Jews and are not, but do lie. Behold,

behold, take note. I will make them to come and

worship before thy feet and to know that I have

loved thee. Because thou hast kept the word of

my long suffering, I also will keep thee from

the hour of temptation which shall come upon

all the world. to try them that dwell upon the

earth. That sounds pretty good. But Jesus has

to tell them, he has to say, you have an open

door. In other words, get up and get going through

the door. You have opportunity here. to serve,

to worship me, and to do some good in the synagogue

of Satan, the people that are tormenting you.

Don't just sit there and do nothing. I've opened

the door. Nobody can shut it. And just to give

you more encouragement, I've got people in there.

I'm going to bring some people out of that wretched

place. and they're going to come in with you

and they're going to worship with you. They're

going to worship me with you. In other words,

I'm going to save some people for myself out

of the synagogue of Satan. The door is open.

Get going. Share the word. Share the gospel.

So the warning is to understand and realize the

open door and get busy. We have all the freedom.

We don't have any reason that we have to be afraid

of speaking any kind of words that we want to

speak. The door is open. It doesn't matter how

sinful everything is. This was a very sinful

place. It's called the synagogue of Satan and

they claim to be Jews. They claim to be religious.

They're the true people of God, they would declare.

But they're not, Jesus says. But I'm going to

save some of them. So we don't know who God's

going to save, but we do know how He's going

to do it, if He's going to do it, and He's going

to do it through the proclamation of the Gospel.

We have an open door here. So let's get busy.

We've got a couple events coming up. We'll all

have an opportunity to do that. But we should

be watching for these open doors, these opportunities

throughout our days. Somebody's having a hard

time. You can tell them about Jesus. That's what

we're talking. That's what Jesus is telling these

Philadelphians. Do we have a heart for the lost?

Maybe that's the way I should put it. Do we have

a heart for the lost that enables us? to share

the good news of Jesus Christ. Do we have a heart

for God that enables us to desire to glorify

him by sharing the gospel and seeing men and

women saved? Lastly then, we come to Laodicea.

This is very Convicting hopefully it's always

been convicting for me These these are the lukewarm

folks neither hot nor cold So a very dangerous

position to be in because he says he's gonna

spew him out of his mouth because they're neither

hot nor cold And it's a very fitting example

for these folks in Laodicea because they didn't

have a water supply. They had a aqueduct or pipes

all the way from Helodius, Herladius, I can't

remember for sure, but it was another city. And

in that city they had hot springs. I mean hot

springs. And it was about five miles away. And

it went through this aqueduct system down to

Laodicea. And when it got there, it was neither

hot nor cold. It hadn't gone long enough out

of the hot spring to cool down to a nice refreshing

drink, but it had cooled down from the hot springs

into lukewarmness. So Jesus uses this as an example

for them. In other words, they're not close enough

to the source. They're not close enough to Jesus

Christ their Lord. There's too much distance

between them. They need to get closer so they're

not so lukewarm. That's the point. They need

to be in more fellowship with God. Let me just

read it here a little bit. In verse 15, I know

thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot.

I would thou were cold or hot. So then because

thou art lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will

spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayeth,

I am rich, and increased with goods, and have

need of nothing. and knoweth not that thou art

wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind,

and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried

in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white

raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that

the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. Anoint

thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see.

I should have probably mentioned this place was

known for black wool. They had all kinds of black

sheep, and it was expensive, and they sold the

black sheep. They were also a medical center.

They had all kinds of salves to put on whatever

ailed you. So again, Jesus used the very source

of their income and their pride and their money

against them. You don't need black wool, you

need white. You need purity. You need repentance.

you need holiness you don't need all this other

stuff you're not wealthy you're poor because

you don't have me you get you get your wealth

from me it comes from me you've got this uh search

for you've got to come after me if you want true

wealth spiritual wealth so are we lukewarm have

we gotten away from our communion with God? Do

we even desire to be wealthy spiritually? Are

we all about wealthy physically? There's a warning

here. Are we satisfied with lukewarmness? Well,

as I said, Jesus isn't. There's no lukewarm Christians

that can count themselves blessed or in right

relation to Jesus Christ. And he uses this word

in 19, as many as I love I rebuke and chase them.

Be zealous therefore and repent. Zealous, be

white -hot. That's what the word really means.

Be white -hot about it. Not half -hearted. Be

wholeheartedly after your Lord. Be as close to

him stay as close to him as you possibly can

Now we have this Tremendous little verse here

at the end. This is where we're gonna end And

it's so misunderstood and so much wrongness in

how it's applied It's a mess. But if you understand

it rightly, it's fabulous. So I haven't talked

about this since 2018, so I'm talking about it

now. In verse 20, it says, behold, I stand at

the door and knock. If any man hear my voice

and open the door, I will come into him and will

suck with him and he with me. Now, again. I started

in the beginning. This is to Christians. This

is to people with ears. That's who he's talking

to here. They can hear. So this isn't a general

invitation for the whole world. It's to the churches.

It's to Christians. There's plenty of invitations

for the rest of the world. This is directed to

Christians. He says, behold. Hey, take note of

this. this is important listen up i'm here i'm

stand at the door and i knock i'm here knocking

on the door so what we've learned from that we

learned that jesus wants communion with his people

he's ready to have communion with his people

they're his he loves him he wants more communion

with them that's number one then if you hear

his voice and open the door i mean if you do

you hear the voice of god today you hear jesus

in these verses today are you going to open your

heart to jesus are you going to open the door

are you going to be stubborn are you not going

to repent are you going to be rebellious are

you going to be lukewarm Are you going to remain

distant from God? Or are you going to open the

door? Open the door and come in, and what's going

to happen? Well, he's not going to come in and

shake your hand and go. He's not going to come

in, tap you on the back, and go. He's not going

to say, good job opening the door, I'll see you

later. He's not even going to come in and say,

Give me a glass of water and drink his water

and go. He's not going to do any of those things.

What is he going to do? He's going to come in

and suck with you. That was a big deal in Bible

times. He's going to hang around and have dinner.

And he's going to stay there. He's going to be

with you. He's going to be guiding, directing,

loving, growing you. You're going to be white

hot for him. You're not going to be satisfied

until you're pure. There's not going to be any

such thing as a little sin in your life. You're

going to hate it all and want to be rid of it

all. You're going to be looking for opportunities

to bring glory to God through your works that

have been preordained for you to walk in. All

of those things are going to be true more and

more and more. The more that you're in Jesus'

fellowship and company, the more you're going

to grow. You're going to take off. Your love

is going to be unstoppable. Nobody will be able

to put you in fear of anything. Because you know

Jesus. You have fellowship with Him. You know

that He's taken care of you. And the only thing

that can happen is that anybody can send you

to heaven. And then you'll have more fellowship

with him. It says as much there in verse 21,

to him that overcomeeth will I grant to sit with

me in my throne. See? You're with Jesus. You

overcome. You overcome these temptations. You

overcome your lukewarmness. You're gonna be granted

that door is gonna be open forever. In other

words, you're gonna have life to the max You're

gonna be with Jesus on his throne Even as I also

overcame and I'm sat down with my father in his

throne It's a glorious thing to have communion

with God. It's a horrible thing to have that

interrupted by sin and We should be aware. This

is Jesus own words to all of the churches, remember?

We're going to experience this at some point

if we haven't already. You're going to have to

decide. You're going to have to make the responsible

decision. You're going to be giving an answer

as to why you didn't. You're going to be repenting

or you're going to be in sin. Nobody's perfect.

We've all got to do it. We've all got to repent.

We've all got to believe God. We've got to take

Jesus' Word for things. Not ours, not some wise

counselor, philosopher, teacher. No, we take

God at His Word. He's made it absolutely clear

for us. There's no mistake. The blessed life,

the rich life, is ours in Jesus. when we continue

in fellowship with Him. Amen.