Sermon Tone Analysis

Recap of Series Thus Far

The prologue set the tone and introduced the main characters for the rest o the book.

Jesus is the central theme of Revelation.

We learned that Jesus is indeed the glorified Christ who is in control not only of the churches but also the secular rulers and the evil forces.

Last week we received our first picture of the resurrected Christ in all of His glory.

The letters are in essence sent from Christ to the angel who is relaying them to John who in turn is now relaying them to the church.

Chapters 2 and 3 are all part of the introductory vision of John.

John appears to have intimate pastoral knowledge of each one of these churches.

Each of the letters ends with “hear what the Spirit says to the churches,’ so all the churches of Asia Minor were to heed the promises and warnings given to each church and apply it to their own particular situation.

WEEK 3 Letters to the first four of the seven churches.

We are going to see the first 4 of the seven Churches.

The Church at Ephesus, the church at Smyrna, and the church at Pergamum, and the Church at Thyatira.

You will notice that for most of the Churches, the writer starts out by listing the things that Jesus is pleased with in the Church’s walk with Christ.

This is like how a good teacher before they give the areas that need improvement trying to encourage by giving some of the good first.

Churches should never feel as if they have arrived spiritually.

We should constantly be doing a self - evaluation of where we are currently in our walk with Jesus Christ.

Churches need to be careful about sitting back on what we have done thus, becoming nearsighted and not seeing the glaring areas that need to be worked on if we are going to be effective for the Kingdom of God.

Note: Each of these are form letters.

A formal critical review and study with a sevenfold outline, with each aspect introduced by a formula repeated in the letters.

Here is the basic form of Each Letter.

I. Introduction

A. Address (“to the angel of the church … write”)

B. Prophetic messenger formula and character of Christ (“these are the words of him who ...”)

II.

Body of the letter, consisting of an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses.

A. Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths (“I know our deeds...”)

Weaknesses (“Yet I hold this against you...”)

B. Solution (“Command to repent” et al.)

III.

Conclusion

A. Call to Listen (“Let anyone who is willing to hear listen to what the Spirit is saying”)

B. Challenge to overcome (“to anyone who overcomes”) promise intended for those who overcome.

THE CHURCH AT EPHESUS

Ephesus was one of the four most powerful Roman cities in the Empire.

It was a city of a quarter of a million people, that lay at the harbor where the Cayster River met the Aegean Sea in western Asia Minor.

In ancient times it became a major city after being captured b Croesus of Lydia who contributed greatly to rebuilding the temple of Artemis and establishing the city.

Alexander the Great moved the population from the temple site to the harbor, and a thriving city developed.

The Temple called (Artemision) had been burnt to the ground but was rebuilt in the fourth century and became one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Ephesians quickly became a center of commerce and trade for all of western Asia Minor, one of the most prosperous provinces in the Roman Empire.

What drives your passions?

Jesus lists all of the things He is pleased with from the Church in Ephesus first.

However, the glaring problem had to do with abandoning their first love.

Where were their passions focused and how did a church that had so many good things going for it loos their passion for Christ?

Tell me what you think about, and I will tell you what you love.

Tell me what you talk about, and I will tell you what you love.

Tell me what excites you, and I will tell you what you love.

My prayer for you, as well as for myself, is that the answer will be same for all these.

May the answer always be Jesus

Notice that Jesus is described in two way in verse one of chapter two.

CHRIST CARES: He is the one who holds the seven starts in His right hand.

(Note this is present tense) He holds the Church firmly in his grasp and no one can snatch them out of his hand (see John 10:28).

CHRIST IS THERE: Christ walks (present tense) among the seven golden lampstands.

Our Lord walks among His people, His church.

He is not an absent Father who never shows up.

He sees what we do, hears what we say, and knows how we think about what is in our hearts.

The Average Adult Loses 9 Items a Day

Most of us regularly lose things: keys, wallets, TV remotes, glasses, and phones.

Some of us are more prone to misplacing things than others.

It’s not surprising that men are twice as likely to lose their phones than women.

One study concluded that the average person misplaces nine things a day and spends an average of fifteen minutes looking for lost items.

Why does this happen?

What is the psychology and science behind it?

It comes down to a breakdown of attention and memory.

When we misplace our belongings, "we fail to activate the part of our brain responsible for encoding what we're doing."

The hippocampus part of our brain is responsible for taking a snapshot and preserving the memory in a set of neurons that can be activated later.

We lose things when we do not have a clear reference point of when or where we put down objects like our keys or glasses.

One of the ways we can improve our memory is through practicing mindfulness.

We do this by stepping back and calming our thoughts, focusing on being present in the moment

THE CHURCH AT SMYRNA

Smyrna is the only city that has continued to the present day, having the modern name of Izmir.

Another harbor city with a thriving export trade thirty-five miles north of Ephesus, it was renowned for its beauty and its civic pride, calling itself “the first in Asia” as well as the birthplace of Homer.

It was one of the first cities to erect a temple to the goddess Roma, and in A.D. 26, because of its long loyalty to Rome, it beat out ten other cities for the privilege of building a temple for the emperor Tiberias.

It had a large Jewish population that aggressively opposed Christianity.

In the 80s Judaism had excommunicated the Christian “heretics” from their synagogues, and they wanted nothing to do with them.

In A.D. 155 the famous bishop of Smyrna, Polycarp, was burned alive for refusing to call Caesar “lord” during extensive persecution instigated by the Jews.

SERMON ILLUSTRATION

Chief Rabbi: When Judaism Is Easy People Lose Faith

Jonathan Sacks, the former Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, once referenced what he called the "counter-intuitive phenomena of Jewish history"—a phenomena that applies to Christians as well.

"When it was hard to be a Jew," Sacks wrote, "people stayed Jewish.

When it was easy to be a Jew, people stopped being Jewish.

Globally, this is the major Jewish problem of our time."

What does being a Christian cost you?

This is one of only two of the Churches without weaknesses, and they were the two most insignificant among the churches.

There is a famous statement, well known from the early history of the church: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”

It was made by one of the early church fathers Tertullian in Ad 197 in a defense of Christianity to the Roman Empire.

The actual quote listed in his Apolegeticus reads, “We multiply whenever we are moved down by you; the blood of Christians is seed”.

The suffering, persecution, and martyrdom of the church have been the calling card of the church of Jesus Christ.

HE IS THE ETERNAL GOD AND THE RESURRECTED LORD

Never forget that Jesus knows the situation right now not only in your life but in the whole world and everything that breathes oxygen on this earth.

He will have the last word.

He has always been aware of the circumstances of His people.

Time is in His hands, you can trust Him with your today, your tomorrow, and your final destiny.

The Church at Pergamum and Thyatira

Fifteen miles inland lay the city of Pergamum north of Smyrna by fifteen miles or so.

It became an important city in the 3rd century (some think that the Persians had deliberately refrained from developing it due to its natural military capabilities) when the successor Alexander the Great turned it into a major military fortress.

Pergamum gained fame for the architectural innovations of Eumenes II, who built up the acropolis by adding a circuit wall, the temple of Athena, a great alter to Zeus, and a library that held two hundred thousand volumes.

It also became the leading religious center of Asia.

Temples, altars, and shrines.

A huge section of the city and temple were dedicated to Asklepios and the healing arts.