Diagnosing the Church

Intro

There was a guy that wasn’t feeling well and so he goes to the doctor. They run a panel of tests to figure out what’s going on.

They sent him home and said well call with the results.

A couple days later he got a call from the office and they said I’m so sorry we have bad news and very bad news. Well I guess tell me just the bad first.

Results were not good and showed you probably had less than 24 hours to live!

24 HOURS!!! What could be the very bad news!

We’ve been trying to get a hold of you since yesterday.

What happens when you don’t feel well.

Or maybe you can’t put your finger on it but you know that you just don’t feel right.

You visit a doctor.

You go and they ask questions, give an exam and run tests to try and to diagnose the cause to get you functioning correctly again.

We’ll Never live fully if we aren’t correctly functioning.

Not just our bodies, but a deeper level. a soul level.

so often things are off, broken, and we may not even realize it. We just keep on living thinking that’s the way it’s supposed to be, not realize there is more, greater!

It’s easy to lose our purpose, forfeit our hope, abandon our joy, be absent of peace

Not realizing that along the way our motives, or purposes, our direction has become… broken.

God calls us as his people not just a church, but his body.

Sometimes, in the same way, we can become deficient, broken - not functioning correctly and in need of a diagnoses and repair.

We’ve been talking about the beginning of the end and making sure that we’re living now for what matters most then.

The closer the end draws, the more crucial the church becomes.

In revelation 1 Jesus comes to John in a vision and tells him I want you to write down what I tell you and deliver them to the church.

He delivers a series of messages to challenge his church to realign, readjust and get back to functioning correctly again.

Jesus finds his church, his people, his body, not functioning in a way that its created and intended.

Jesus talks to 7 specific church that were in this region at this period of time.

But more than just to these church, we can find each of us in each of these different messages.

Jesus wants to diagnose what is defective, so that he can make us effective and fully functioning for his kingdom!

But this is actually where the fullness of our individual lives lies as well!

Let’s look at a few of the messages/diagnosis today and we’ll wrap up next week.

Revelation 2:1a (NIV)

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:

Greek word for used for angel is messenger. Most likely not a heavenly being but the Pastors and leaders to churches.

Revelation 2:2–3 (NIV)

I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.

So far, from afar, looks great. Seem to be “doing” the right things. on the outside everything looked good.

But a diagnoses reveals more.

Revelation 2:4 (NIV)

Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.

Revelation 2:4 (NLT)

“But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first!

MISSING LOVE.

You’ve got the church thing down!

But if we do all of the things but don’t love, its all broken.

The form doesn’t match the function.

Looks like a “church” but not one.

1 Corinthians 13:1–3 (NIV)

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

John 13:35 (NIV)

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

Has love left?

This church is busy but doesn’t really care.

I went to a store a couple weeks ago, stood at the front for a few min and then had to track down an employee. They were stocking the shelves. A job that has to get done. But when I needed to be checked out, I’m pretty sure I was the biggest inconvenience of their day.

We can’t become busy and selfish.

Revelation 2:5 (NIV)

Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

Remember - Remember why. Repent - Turn around. Repeat - Go back to how you were doing things.

Revelation 2:8–9 (NIV)

“o the angel of the church in Smyrna write:

These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich!...

LOOKS DON’T REVEAL WHAT’S REAL.

On the outside, this church was the least likely to be healthy.

We have to stop gauging what really matters most by what I see and how I feel.

God says I see more in than what you do. Not matter what happens I’ve never left you. I’m always here. I see you.

I know what you feel and face.

Easy to feel alone when life gets hard.

Revelation 2:10 (NIV)

Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.

Don’t Be afraid.

Stay Faithful.

some in here have stayed faithful and maybe some doubt has set in…

Revelation 2:12–13 (NIV)

To the angel of the church in Pergamum write:

These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives.

Revelation 2:14–15 (NIV)

Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

Had compromised their teachings and beliefs.

COMPROMISE CORRUPTS

Jesus found compromise in this church and it was killing what the church was meant to do.

This church was more concerned with fitting in than standing up and standing out.

We have to realize that we’re not meant to be like the world around us, we are sent to the world around us.

We can want to be so relevant and liked and fit in, that we actually lose our relevance to make a difference all together.

It’s easy to let small compromise here, and excuse a small there because it’s easier. So go along. It’s the norm.

Not realizing it’s corrupting and killing who were created to be.

I can never look like God, the one whose image I’m created in if i let the world around me define what I should look like.

Have we allowed compromise in?

Revelation 2:16 (NIV)

Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

Repent - turn around.

Revelation 2:18–19 (NIV)

To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:

These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.

Wow! this church is busy. They are out loving people and doing things.

Revelation 2:20–21 (NIV)

Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling.

Old testament reference to Jezabel the Queen of King of Ahab that led Israel into sin and worship of other Gods.

SIN KILLS

No matter how you package or spin it, sin is sin.

Sin is living in a way that is against what God says.

What God says stands.

This church had allowed sin to seep into being tolerated and accepted.

Sometimes we fall into sin sin when we make excuses for things that go against God’s word or when were just too passive to stand on what God says is true.

But we have to call sin what it is. If it goes against what God says there is not accepting or tolerating.

We have to stand on the truth of what God says no matter the way the world is going.

Unfortunately we seen this in too many modern churches and christians.

We just love, and in the name of love right and wrong become optional. God loves you anyway.

This is opposite of what was found in the church of Ephesus.

They were standing on the truth but lost their love. In Thyatira for the sake of love, anything is ok

An effective church stands on and speaks the truth but in love.

It’s not really loving if we don’t show people God’s way because any other way doesn’t lead to life.

Revelation 2:22–25 (NIV)

So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’

Very harsh words for if we don’t get rid of and stop making excuses for our sin.

Repent! - Give it to God, get forgiven, turn around, go a new way, don’t be afraid to stand for what’s right.

CONCLUSION

Where do we find ourselves?

Lost our Love for God and others?

Staying faithful when it’s hard?

Slipped into compromise?

Need to be free of sin?

Jesus diagnoses deficiencies, so we can invite him in to help and heal us so we can be fully alive, fully functioning, fully being the hope the world so desperately needs.