Revelation: The Hope of Glory: Words from Christ to a Church at War [Revelation 2-3]

Turn in your bibles to Revelation 2 we’ll be looking at the letters to the churches this morning. I want to look at these letters to the seven churches as a whole instead of looking at them one by one.

So, we won’t read through the entire two chapters at the start, we’ll hit bits of them as we go through the chapters. But I would encourage you to read ahead each week because we’ll be covering fairly large portions of scripture so to save a little time I won’t read through them fully…your homework for next week will be to read chapters 4-5. but today we’ll...

Look at the collective letters and see how Jesus commends his church, rebukes his church, commands his church, and how Jesus warns his church, which all leads to Jesus’ promise of reward for his church.

[pray]

Here in Revelation 2-3 Jesus speaks to His church and notice Jesus does not pamper His people. He loves his people too much for that. He loves His people enough to not only comfort them, but to confront them as well. He loves his people enough to convict, cleanse, and challenge them with stern warnings of impending judgment.

The reality lying behind the book of Revelation is whether the first century or the twenty-first century, the church is in a battle on a daily basis with sin and evil and suffering. You are familiar with this. As a follower of Christ, you face temptation every day to turn from Christ, to compromise with Christ, to trust in yourself, and to give into sin.

There is a battle waging for the souls of men and women who have not trusted in Christ and His love and His mercy and His victory. We’re in a battle that is happening here in each one of our lives and in this church and in this world that is a part of a much larger battle between conflicting kingdoms—the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan.

So here we see Jesus walking amongst His churches in the midst of the battle, and He’s speaking to them. He’s calling them to hold fast, to endure with patience. To walk with purity amidst a world of sin and evil. And to live with a passion to proclaim the gospel, even when you’re afraid and even when it may cost you your life.

Because there’s something greater than just your life here on earth that’s at stake. Your life is at stake for eternity in this battle. Your eternal destiny lies in the balance and depends on how this battle plays out. The eternal destinies of nations lie in the balance and depend on how this battle plays out.

So Jesus does not play games. He comes to His church, and He speaks clearly to them about their spiritual state. He encourages and comforts them where they are enduring and trusting in Him and proclaiming the gospel.

And He calls them out where they are compromising and their faith is waning. He warns them not to fall away. And in the end He promises that He is coming soon, and in light of that promise, He urges them to be ready.

Before we get into details of the letters to the churches I want to point out...

Four reminders to the church

Four reminders to the church that we see throughout these seven letters. Number one, Jesus knows us truly. Many of these letters begin with Jesus saying, “I know your works … I know you.” And the picture we see all throughout these letters is clear: Jesus knows his churches better than they know themselves.

This is most frighteningly clear in a church like Sardis in Chapter 3 where Jesus says, “I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead” (Revelation 3:1). That is a frightening verse because it is possible for a church to have all the signs of life, for people to look at a church and say, “That church is alive and active” and for Jesus to look at the same church and say, “Completely dead.”

It is possible for a church … Let me be more specific: it is possible for New Florence Baptist Church to look like it is alive to everyone around us in the world and for Jesus to say, “You’re dead.”

He alone knows us truly—as a church and as followers of Christ. We are all prone to spiritual deception. We are all prone to overestimate our spiritual condition, to think that we are fine when we may be far from it. So let’s open our ears and ask Jesus, who knows us truly, to speak to us as a church and as followers of Christ, to show us our blinds spots. Show us where we’re fooling ourselves.

Jesus knows us truly, and second truth here at the start, Jesus loves us deeply. What Jesus is doing in these letters is He’s caring for His churches. Even in His most stern statements, He is calling them away from sin and destruction. “Those whom I love,” Jesus says, “I reprove and discipline” (Revelation 3:19). When a child is running into the street while a car is coming, it is a loving thing for a parent to yell out for that child to stop, to run after them and to warn them, “Don’t run into the street!”

Jesus loves you, church. Jesus loves you, non-Christian. Jesus loves you and He knows that judgment is coming for sin, for your sin, so He graciously, mercifully, strongly, sternly calls you away from sin.

Isn’t it comforting to read these letters—and even amidst some of the most stern, strong warnings—to hear Jesus holding out hope? He says to a church that He is ready to spewed out of His mouth, “Repent, and we will eat and feast together.” The very reason He speaks to these churches, even those that are in the worst shape, is to hold out hope to them. So hear, see, feel that hope for you this morning. Jesus loves us deeply.

Three, He guards us zealously. Jesus guards His church zealously. He protects His church, He provides for His church, and He preserves His church. What a gracious gift that God has given us in these letters.

To think that Jesus, two thousand years ago, revealed in this vision to John His words to His church so that 2000 years later, you and I have words from Christ to us as we struggle with sin and suffering in this world.

Jesus desires to protect us, to provide for us, to help you and me to persevere in the midst of the battles we are facing this week and this month and this year. We saw this last week. Jesus is present with us, among us today. He is speaking to us today through His Word, and He is guarding you today and keeping you today and pulling you back today and encouraging you to press on today. Jesus guards us zealously.

Fourth, Jesus uses us purposefully. Jesus not only wants to sustain and strengthen us in the battle, He wants to send us out on a daily basis into the front lines of the battle so that others might know His mercy. So that others might know His grace. So that others might know His love as the One who died on the cross for our sins and is alive forevermore.

His purpose in every one of our lives is not just to keep us in His kingdom; His purpose is to use us to advance His kingdom all over the world.

Jesus commends His church

So based on these truths—that Jesus knows us truly, He loves us deeply, He guards us zealously, and He uses us purposefully—let’s think about how Jesus commends His church here. Now He tells John to write these letters to angels who represent each church. Some suspect that this is a reference to pastors in these different churches, but most believe that the picture here is basically an angelic representative of each of these churches.

Obviously, Jesus addresses specific things in each church. But don’t forget that the book of Revelation was written for the sake of all these churches, and all these churches would hear (or read) what Jesus said to the other churches. So it’s not like Ephesus just got Revelation 2:1–7; they got the whole thing. And so as Jesus speaks specifically to certain situations in churches, He’s also speaking generally to all His church—then and today.

So how does Jesus commend His church? In four primary ways in these letters.

Number one, Jesus commends His church for faithful perseverance in the Word of Christ. This is one of the key themes throughout the book of Revelation, and it’s evident from the start of these letters as Jesus commends the Ephesian Christians for their toil and patient endurance in the Word.

In fact, circle or underline this phrase. It’s mentioned four times in these seven letters—you see “patient endurance” or “enduring patiently” mentioned. I want you to see the emphasis here.

At the very beginning of this chapter, Revelation 2:2. In the letter to Ephesus, Jesus says, “I know your works, your toil and your [underline it there] 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.” Then look at verse 3. “I know you are [here it is again] enduring patiently …” So underline it or circle it there. Patient endurance, enduring patiently. Two times in the letter to the church at Ephesus.

Then you get to Smyrna and the idea is there. This is a church that is enduring in the middle of persecution and death. Then the church at Pergamum, also not denying their faith in the midst of struggle. Then you get to Thyatira. Look at Revelation 2:19. Jesus says to the church at Thyatira, “I know your works, your love and faith and service and [what?] patient endurance …” Circle it there.

Then you keep going to chapter 3, come to Sardis, where there is not as much to commend (except for a few people), but then you get to Philadelphia, and you see this one more time in verse Revelation 3:10. Jesus says to the church at Philadelphia, “Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world …” Circle or underline “patient endurance” there. Patient endurance. Let that phrase stick out in your mind. Patient endurance, faithful perseverance in the Word of Christ.

Now this plays out in a couple of different ways. On one hand, these first-century Christians are commended by Christ for guarding the church internally. This was the case particularly in Ephesus back at the beginning of Chapter 2. They did not tolerate evil teaching and heretical teachers in the church.

The church at Ephesus, Revelation 2:6 says, hated false teaching and worked zealously to keep it from infiltrating the church. They tested leaders to make sure that their teaching was true and faithful to God’s Word, and when it was not, they addressed it seriously. They did not grow weary in guarding the church from falsehood.

Jesus commends them for guarding the church internally and for advancing the church externally. Now this wasn’t as much the case at Ephesus, which we’ll see in a minute, but it was the case in cities like Pergamum where they endured as faithful witnesses to Christ in the world, even to the point of death.

Which leads to the second thing Jesus commends His church for—not just for faithful perseverance in the Word of Christ, but also for faithful proclamation of the name of Christ. There at Pergamum, they’re living in the middle of Satan’s throne, and Antipas is killed for faithfully proclaiming the name of Christ.

There was faithful proclamation of Christ in light of opportunity that Christ presented to them. To the church at Philadelphia, Jesus says, “I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut” (Revelation 3:8). A door to the kingdom of God that the church at Philadelphia had not only walked through, but a door that they were leading others—particularly Jewish people—to walk through, even though they were facing persecution for it.

So Jesus commends His church for faithful proclamation of His name in light of opportunity and in the midst of opposition from all sides (religious, governmental, social, and economic). When you look at the circumstances in each of these cities, you realize very quickly that it was not popular to proclaim the name of Christ, and great cost came to those who faithfully proclaimed him. In all of these cities you see strong opposition against faithfully proclaiming Christ.

Let me just point out the word there is here for us today in our culture. It is increasingly common in our culture for Christians who believe the Bible and who proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ as the only way to salvation to be labeled dangerous and evil.

To proclaim this Word in our culture today leads to charges of being anti-gay or anti-choice or anti-women or anti-intellectual or anti-diversity or intolerant and ignorant and arrogant.

The more steadfastly you and I today hold fast to the Word of Christ and proclaim the name of Christ in our culture, the more opposition will come from all sides—religious, governmental, social, and economic.

And there will be increasing temptation to shrink back from the Word and the name of Christ. And Jesus, just as He called His church in the first century, is calling you and me in the twenty-first century to faithfully persevere in His Word and faithfully proclaim His name in light of opportunity and in the midst of opposition.

That’s not easy, but that’s why Jesus commends His churches here for trusting God amidst testing in the world. Go to the letter to Smyrna in Revelation 2:10 and see what Jesus says there. They’re experiencing suffering and poverty and slander as they proclaim Christ, and Jesus says to them, “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” (Revelation 2:10). What an astounding verse.

Why is God letting the devil throw his children into jail and to kill some of them? So that they may be tested. What’s being tested? you might ask. And the answer is: faithfulness to Jesus is being tested. Will they be faithful unto death? Will these Christians trust God even when they’re taken from their families, thrown into prison, and they come face-to-face with death? Will they still trust God?

So follow this. God allows Satan to cause suffering for the testing of saints. It’s what we’ve seen all throughout the Bible: Joseph in the book of Genesis, Job, Jesus in the wilderness, Paul given a thorn in the flesh (a messenger of Satan to torment him). God allows these things ultimately for our good.

Remember Satan is subordinate, though he intends to cause suffering to sabotage us… satan is on a leash and he can do nothing outside of the sovereign permission and ultimate purpose of God. We saw that in our study through the book of Job. This is frightening stuff.

This is not some fairy tale cartoon; this is real. There are spiritual forces of evil that want to sabotage your faith through suffering. They want to use trials in your life (physically, spiritually, relationally, of all kinds) to sabotage you.

But God is sovereign, and he uses suffering to sanctify us. So Jesus says, “You’re going to be tested … for ten days you will have tribulation … be faithful unto death … trust God amidst testing … and I will give you the crown of life.”

This is for your good! I know you don’t understand it, and it’s a mystery to you why these things are happening, but trust God, persevere in faith, don’t stop proclaiming Christ even if it costs you everything, don’t stop proclaiming him for you know that the crown of life is coming. And that’s exactly what happened at the church at Smyrna.

Finally, these churches were commended for loving God amidst temptation from the world, for walking in purity. Picture the few names in Sardis who have not soiled their garments in the sin of the world, but have walked with Christ in a manner worthy of His name. So these are the things for which Jesus commends His church.

Jesus rebukes His church

At the same time in these letters Jesus rebukes His church, and I’ve identified two main causes of rebuke in these seven letters, though really only five of the churches are rebuked. Christ does not specifically rebuke the church at Smyrna or the church at Philadelphia. But the other five churches are rebuked for two main reasons.

One, for compromise.

There was compromise in the church in two primary forms. One, tolerance of evil (idolatry and immorality). We see talk about the Nicolaitans. we don’t know exactly all that the Nicolaitans were teaching, but we do know that what they were teaching somehow encouraged and cultivated idolatry and sexual immorality.

In Pergamum, Jesus says in 2:14, “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” (Rev. 2:14).

In Thyatira, Chapter 2, verse 20, we see the people of God being seduced into practicing sexual immorality and eating food sacrificed to idols. And the root of this tolerance of evil was tolerance of error (false teaching and false teachers) because there were teachers in the church who were condoning such idolatry and immorality.

Those two compromises tolerance of evil and the tolerance of error would lead to compromise with the world. These churches began to look just like their cities. There was no distinction between the church and the pagan culture surrounding the church because of compromise.

Clearly we can see a word here for us today. As the church compromises today and becomes virtually indistinguishable from the world around where we’re more concerned about entertaining our people as opposed to proclaiming the message of Christ faithfully.

So, Jesus rebukes his church for compromise. He also rebukes his church for complacency.

Lack of love, Jesus says to Ephesus. Lukewarm faith, Jesus says to Laodicea. Now this picture in Laodicea is particularly interesting. [Rev. 3:15-16] “I know your works, you are neither cold nor hot...” People often read this and assume that Jesus is saying, “Cold is bad and hot is good, and I wish you were one or the other. Either cold (against me) or with a heart that is hot (on fire for me).”

But I don’t believe that’s what Jesus is saying. This is place where historical context helps us understand.

Laodicea was a city with two primary sources of water. Six miles to the north was the city of Hierapolis, home to hot springs that were a source of healing.

Ten miles to the east was Colosse, a city known for its cold drinking water. Hot was good in Hierapolis, and cold was good in Colosse. But water that was neither healing or refreshing—lukewarm water—was good for nothing. And that’s the point.

The church at Laodicea had such an ineffective, apathetic faith that it was good for absolutely nothing, and Jesus says, “Do you realize that you make me sick?” Why such a strong statement? Follow this. Because this was a church marked by self-satisfaction and self-sufficiency.

These were wealthy Christians in a wealthy city who had everything they needed and who had become complacent in their need for God.

This complacency is echoed elsewhere in a failure to complete the works of God and failure to confess the Word of God. Jesus says to Sardis, “I have not found your works complete.” [Rev. 3:2] In other words, you have settled for less than all-obedience. You are apathetic and okay with half-hearted obedience to the commands that feel most comfortable to you.

And the one that comes up over and over again in these letters, what is likely the most dominant rebuke to each of these churches (that are rebuked) is a failure to confess the Word of God to the world around them.

So here’s the deal. These churches are commended and rebuked for a variety of things, but if you had to nail down one theme, one thing, that characterizes all of these commendations and rebukes, they all revolve around confessing God’s Word and carrying out God’s mission in the world.

So church, let’s ask ourselves… are we confessing God’s word to the world around us? Or have we become complacent? With those questions in mind...

Jesus commands His church

Jesus commands His church three things.

First of all, remember who you are and what Jesus says. To Ephesus and Sardis both, Jesus says: remember who you are in Christ, what you’ve received from Christ, what you’ve heard from Jesus. Remember His Word, hear it. Don’t turn your ears from it, don’t pretend like everything is okay. Listen to Jesus.

And repent. Turn from sin and trust in Jesus. Oh, see the grace of God here. Jesus does not yet write off any of these churches. He tells them over and over again. They’ve got different issues, different struggles, but the remedy is the same in all of them: repent. And Jesus gives time to repent.

See His grace today, giving you time to repent. Turn from sin. Stop toying with sin. Flee sin. Stop! Stop compromising and repent of complacency. We all need to repent! Whether from compromise, or complacency, or lacking in proclaiming the word of Christ…repent is the plea from Christ Himself!

Repent and receive. Receive from Christ, hear His gracious invitation to Laodicea, hear it to us. Find your treasure in Jesus. “Buy from me gold,” Jesus says. Clothe your life in Jesus. “Buy from me … white garments to clothe yourself.” And fix your eyes on Jesus. “Salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see” (Rev 3:18). “Come to Me for these things,” Jesus says. There’s only one place to find treasure and life and truth. “It’s in Me, receive from Me,” Jesus commands. What a gracious, merciful command.

Jesus warns His church

And as He offers these commands, Jesus warns His church. Now you may be struck by the sternness of these warnings, and I hope you are. Revelation 2:5, “Unless you repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” Lampstand is symbolic of the church. What’s that about? Revelation 2:16, “If you do not repent, I will come to you soon and war against you with the sword of my mouth.” This is Jesus speaking to His church.

These are startling verses that seem to imply that these Christians are in danger of being rejected by Christ. So what’s going on here? Follow with me, this is key. Jesus is doing what we see all throughout Scripture:

God gives warnings to Christians about falling away to keep Christians from falling away. There are passages in the Bible like these—warnings about Christians falling away—that cause some people to conclude that Christians can lose their salvation. Passages like Hebrews 3:11–14

“Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end” (Heb. 3:11–14).

That passage seems to imply that it is possible for Christians to lose their salvation. But don’t miss the context—both in Hebrews 3 and here in Revelation. These passages are not written to Christians who are thriving in their faith to say, “One day you might fall away.” No, these passages are written to Christians who are wavering in their faith, and God is saying to them, to you and me when we are wavering, “Don’t fall away.” And this kind of warning keeps us from falling away. It’s one of the means God uses to draw us back to Himself and to keep us from continuing to waver.

Let me put it this way—I don’t want you to be confused on this—by grace through faith, true followers of Christ will persevere to the end. Everyone who is born again will be preserved to the end.

This is guaranteed by God the Father. 1 Peter 1:3–5, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

This is ensured by God the Son. John 10:27–29, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

And it’s accomplished through God the Spirit. Ephesians 1:13–14, “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

So the whole Trinity is involved in this thing, in keeping followers of Christ to the end. And the way He keeps you and me is sometimes by warning you and me.

In those times when we are wandering slightly from God, wavering in our obedience to Him, trust in Him. He gives us good and gracious warnings to keep us from falling away. But that doesn’t mean we just sit back and coast things out as followers of Christ because God is going to keep us to the end.

No, by grace through faith, true followers of Christ work to persevere to the end. The Christian life nowhere in the Bible is depicted as coasting down a smooth hill with the breeze blowing through your hair. No, the Christian life is a race that you run. It’s a war, a battle that is fought all the way to the end.

This is over all Scripture. Matthew 24:13, “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” Hebrews 3:14, “For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.” Hebrews 10:36, “For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.”

Now you might think, “What about those who don’t endure? What about those who fall away and don’t come back?” We likely know people who at one point confessed faith in Christ as Christians who today want nothing to do with Christ, are walking in total disobedience to Christ, maybe even completely denying Christ. What about them?

1 John 2:19 speaks of such people, saying, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.” That’s why I emphasize true followers of Christ here.

There are many people—and there were some, maybe even many, in these seven churches—who were embracing false teaching and living in idolatry and immorality who would have claimed to be Christians. But even after these warnings, they would not repent, they would not listen, and in their rebellion they would show that they were not truly followers of Jesus in the first place.

So Christian, let Jesus’ warnings here be a wake up call to you to return to Him, to refuse to settle for compromise and complacency in your life in any way. And at the same time, if you profess to be a Christian, yet you refuse to repent and walk with him, be very concerned about your soul. I urge you, do not ignore his voice. Turn to him, either for the first time truly or return to him as his child and experience His reward.

Jesus closes every one of these letters with a promise for the persevering Christian. Repent and walk in faithful obedience to the Word of Christ, holding fast faithfully to the name of Christ, trusting God amidst testing in this world and loving God amidst temptation from the world, and experience His reward.

Jesus rewards his church

Each letter ends with the promise of eternal life depicted in beautiful ways. Jesus rewards His church, He promises reward. To Smyrna and Philadelphia, this promise is portrayed as total vindication of Christ’s ways in this world.

“You are slandered and persecuted by the synagogue of Satan,” Jesus says, “but it will become clear that I am the true Messiah and the Savior of all.” People will say that you are foolish for going to prison and dying for your faith. They will say that such faith is nonsense, but in the end it will be clear that such faith is the only thing that makes sense.

Total vindication of Christ’s ways in this world, and triumphant victory over Satan’s powers in this world. At the end of every letter (you can go back and look at it), you see one phrase: “to the one who conquers or overcomes.”

This is one of the primary themes of the entire book of Revelation: conquering, overcoming the evil one through faith in Christ, triumphant victory that will last forever.

Total vindication, triumphant victory, and secure protection from the horror of hell. Revelation 2:11, “The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.” Your name, Revelation 3:5 says, is in the book of life! You are secure, Jesus says to Philadelphia, “a pillar in the temple of my God” (Rev. 3:12).

More than any other of these cities, Philadelphia was constantly barraged by earthquakes, and as a result, many of the people had to move outside the city because it was dangerous to live inside the city. And Jesus says, you are coming to a city that can never be shaken.

Secure protection and shared participation in the reign of Christ. A crown of life, I will grant you to sit with me on my throne, where we will have authority over the nations. What language! Identified with Christ, sharing His name, His presence, His authority, and His reign.

Total vindication, triumphant victory, secure protection from the horror of hell, shared participation in the reign of Christ, and permanent citizenship in the city of God. Dwelling with God, in His city, with His name. A new Jerusalem where the old is gone and the new has come. And you will belong there forever and ever and ever. And not only belong there, but feast there!

Look at how many of these promises use language of feasting! You will “eat of the tree of life” (Rev. 2:7) and are given “hidden manna” (Rev. 2:17) and an invitation to eat with Christ (Rev. 3:20). Hear the promise of Jesus. For all who faithfully persevere to the end by grace through faith, there awaits perpetual celebration in the presence of God.