Whoever has ears, let them hear
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Where we left off last week was with the glorious visitation of Jesus to the Apostle John. Jesus has a message for John to deliver to 7 churches. Here is the important thing to keep in mind. These are not the words of the Apostle John. These are the words of Jesus speaking directly to the people.
If you have your Bibles, please turn to
“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. 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.
The nice thing about this particular church is that we just completed the book of Ephesians. Now each one of these messages to the seven churches are vital to our own faith. We need to learn from those that came before us. One thing we got from Paul’s epistle to Ephesus was that they did a pretty good job as a church. Even as Jesus begins His message. He compliments them. Now here is what I want to really stress about this message. One it is how you finish your race as we will see. This is not a sprint. Following Jesus takes everything we have , and this church should have heeded this message a little closer. For context. Paul was in Ephesus around A.D. 53. There is about a 43 year gap between Paul visited and this letter arriving to them. So that is decent amount of time to pass. However let us see what Jesus says next
Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. 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.
This is the classic trap of the devil and idolatry at work in their lives. This is definitely at work in the church today. On the surface level, it seems the church is still doing just a well as it was when Paul was there. However God is not about surface level things. God is about deep level, heart level actions. They do good deeds, but why do they do them. Why do they suffer hardships? Being proud of suffering hardships is still pride.
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me.
Then we look at what Jesus has to say. About the love that we need for God.
Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.
The is the first and greatest commandment. If we are not putting God first in our lives then all that we are doing is simply deceiving ourselves into being “Christians”. Here is the sad part about where our faith is right now. You can no longer just state you are a Christian. Are you a Christian that follows the Bible? So many churches have forsaken the Word of God to follow the world. That isn’t a new thing. The Ephesians did the same thing. I want to flush out a little more context so that you can see the Parallels. Ephsesus was a major city and it was a seaport. This city had money and it had status. Now you can argue that the United States is in major debt but at face value we have money and we have status. What do people want more of? What is our society obsessed with? Money and status. Very rarely do I think I can speak for Jesus but do you know what I think just grieves his heart? The term celebrity Christian. There is no such thing as a true Christian celebrity because if you are truly following Jesus then He is the one you are glorifying and not yourself. It is the same thing with Christian influencer. I’ll be honest the fact that being an influencer is even a paying job is beyond my brains ability to comprehend. I’ll tell you who doesn’t need an influencer and that is Jesus Christ. The Esphesians never abandonded Christ on the surface but they did with their hearts.
But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
So the Nicolaitans were a sect of Jesus followers that were teaching hearsay. So again, they were doing half measures. They do some things well and get a lot of it wrong. A good example of this is when a Pastor falls. Someone that has been called by God to preach the Word and yet they fail to do that in their own lives.
Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
You are given eternity and paradise with God to those that hear. If we do not repent and turn back towards God then we are in trouble because we have chosen our fate. Each decision is a decision towards God or away from God.
Repentance. Literally a change of mind, not about individual plans, intentions, or beliefs, but rather a change in the whole personality from a sinful course of action to God. Such a change is sometimes referred to as “evangelical repentance,” since it arises out of the proclamation of God’s grace to the sinner and the correlative work of the Holy Spirit in the new birth (Jn 3:5–8). Such a change is the fruit of Christ’s victory over death—a gift bestowed as a result of his exaltation to his Father’s right hand as Prince and Savior (Acts 5:31).
Repentance is not about feeling shame. It isn’t meant to be used to beat ourselves up. We are imperfect beings. Repentance is a gift from God. It is one of the fruits of the cross. We need to run to the father and repent when we are not where we need to be. God loves worship and service and good deeds. What God loves most is when you are doing all those things with your full heart and not just for appearances.
Now we turn to the next Church
“To 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! I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
This church is being persecuted not just by Jews but by Satan himself. These are people that are suffering and they do not have the money that Ephesus has. Yet they are rich because of Jesus. The point of life is not to move through life without suffering. It is impossible to do that. We live in a broken and a sinful world. There will be suffering in this world.
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.
Be faithful because the rewards that we get here on earth mean nothing compared to the rewards in heaven.
Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Now personally I think this is a really tough piece of scripture. Jesus on the cross defeated death. If you have put your life in the hands of Jesus there is nothing in this world to be afraid of. You have power over the devil, you have the power to suffer through because you know what is waiting for you at the end. This is the only church that did not receive a rebuke from Jesus. Because they kept putting one foot in front of the other and followed Jesus.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
People cannot condemn you. They devil certainty cannot do it. God is the only one that can do that and you have been set free from that by Jesus Christ! So when the devil tempts you, go to the Lord in prayer. When people want to persecute you for your beliefs or tell you that you cannot preach the Word of God. There is no reason to be afraid, in fact those are the moments when we praise God! We pray for those people to open their eyes and see the world for the way it is. There will be a time in the future and it is some what already here when people will be afraid to speak the word of God. Jesus says do not be afraid of people. As Joshua said, as for me and my house we will follow God.
Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.
The one who is victorious in will not be hurt by the second death. That second death is the judgement of God and we will get to that. I want to close with a little history of these two churches because they are very real places.
Ephesus declined over time due to earthquakes, invasions. It was finally completely abandoned around the 15th century. While you can still visit it today, there is no church and there is nothing there but ruins.
the church of Smyrna is a different story however. While it is no longer called that name. It is now called Izmir and is a major city in Turkey. The church that Jesus spoke to so long ago. You can go worship there now this very day. That church continues to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Please use repentance and prayer to examine your own beliefs and motivations. There are times when we think we are doing the “right thing”. I honestly think that most people think they are doing good. Unless you have the Bible next to you and Jesus in your heart, you cannot know what God’s right thing is.
Let us pray.
