9-26-21 Revolution 2:1-7on (3)

before I start I want to give you guys a little analogy sometimes when we study things like revelation or we go deeper into the aspects of Christianity for some you start to ask yourself how does this help me pay my bills how does this help me with my crazy kids.

But What I’ve learned over the years is that the more appreciation i have for the beauty and the detail of God's word it causes me to glorify Christ more and to trust him with the details of my life.

Because if he's got the details under control then I know I can trust him with the details of my life even when things are crazy.

(Ex; One day DJ because he was a college basketball player and was taught film breakdown explained to me Jordan's last play as a bull.)

(Show the video)

so now with that explained we're going to dive in to the breakdown of this seven verse section of revelation

so today we're going to start our journey into looking at the seven churches that this letter from John was written to.

Now I'm going to do this in two phases we're goanna look at the overarching idea of what this could mean in the course of church history.

Then we're going to dive into personal application for us as a church.

· First off we need to look at the overarching view

so one of the reasons I develop my eschatology (which is a fancy word for end times belief) Is based off of the feast of the Jews now Jesus when he came he fulfilled the spring feasts of the Jews.

And in the feast of the Jews there is a gap. Then come the fall feasts now if you want to study this more come in contact me I would love to talk to you about this and we can break them down.

but for time and the risk of going over people’s heads I'm not going to get into that I'm just showing you.

Now the church age slots right in between those festivals you have the summer time and there's no festivals during that summer time it's just a time of growth for the crops that were planted.

Spring is for planting, summer is for growing, fall for harvesting.

And the church age slots in this section

Revelation 2:1 NLT

1 “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Ephesus. This is the message from the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven gold lampstands:

Now the person speaking is Jesus he is telling John to write down what he's about to say to the pastors some translations say messengers that's what an Angel is it's a messenger of God's

As pastors we have to understand that when we preach and teach we are speaking on behalf of God and there should be fear and trembling for every pastor that speaks the word on behalf of God.

Jas 3:1 Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly.

And so Jesus who's the head of the church is going to write to them something

Revelation 2:2–7 NLT

2 “I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. 3 You have patiently suffered for me without quitting. 4 “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! 5 Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches. 6 But this is in your favor: You hate the evil deeds of the Nicolaitans, just as I do. 7 “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give fruit from the tree of life in the paradise of God.

Now here's the thing about first 7 think about this they have not heard from an apostle since Paul wrote to them in the book of Ephesians.

Now John the Apostle the only one left is writing a letter in the same this letters from Jesus.

And if what John is saying is a true believer is going to hear this warning and will change because if you love someone and they're telling you that this is hurting them then you're going to listen because love is more than just saying it's doing.

So because this is writing to a church and there's true believers president inn the church but along with true believers there's also People that say their believers in Word but their deeds do not match.

The truth will be flushed out and how they respond to this warning by the head of the church Christ.

So now let's look at how this applies to us in our context in our modern times.

cause again the question always comes down to how is this nick affect my everyday life how is this going to help me pay my bills how is this going to help me with my kids.

1.Overview of the church at Ephesus

Emphasis is an amazing place it's one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire at this time it's the first city on the mail route to Asia minor.

it has a theater slash stadium that is capable of holding 22 to 25,000 people

but its biggest attraction is the temple two Artemis or Diana It is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world the number one on the list

it's a major port city that's a big tourist trap.

The culture of emphasis is going to be more like the culture that would exist today in a place like Chicago.

Very metropolitan very modern very pluralistic we tend to think that things were so much easier back in those days but the practices that took place in the temple of Artemis would make a sailor blush.

So here's this city that is a tourist trap Pagan is all get out in in it is placed Paul Paul starts to see this amazing conversion of the people the work is so insanely intense there that thousands of people are being saved

Paul stays there for two years after Paul the pastor is Thomas apollos used to stay there and teach for long periods of time the move of God was so insane that people would merely bring their handkerchiefs to touch Paul and their family members would be healed.

This move is so powerful that we're told in Act 18-19 of the apostles that the merchants who are making the trinkets for the tourist trap that is the temple too Artemis aren't selling anymore because everyone's getting saved in abandoning their Pagan rituals.

And so they start a riot and a church service is taking place in that 22,000 seat arena and they kill two of the men that are teaching and preaching in that arena.

This church is an amazing church it is the mother church for all six of the other churches this church has great history great teaching great lineage.

Here's a little side note if all of our experiences in life are always called back to when we first got saved just like in marriage when we first got married and first were dating it means we're not maturing in our relationship with Christ and with the people in our lives

2. they lost their love

So what happens

Rev 2:2-4

This church does some awesome things “I know all the things you do

I have seen your hard work

your patient endurance.

you don’t tolerate evil people.

You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not

You have patiently suffered for me without quitting.

Here's the but when you see buts in the Bible that usually means it's not good

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

this church had lost some things now honestly when I was listening to different sermons and reading different commentaries and going through different things I had to repent because I can see this happening to me so often in my Christian life.

(Ex: bad things good things target is Christ

Satan does not care if we get caught in sin whether that's in is doing good things in the name of God or the normal sins that we think of. As long as we slowly start to drift away from God.

And when we drift away from Christ we lose our love for him and for people we begin to do the work for people based off of how they make us feel how people look at us what people think of us.

And when we live like that our children also begin to see just good morality not life changing work and then they start to drift they begin to think that the Christian life is just about good morals not about life change from the inside out.

3. So how do we change this

now Paul had already given the Ephesians the key to avoiding this

I'm taking this from Bible study that my wife has been doing on the radio if you want to get that full thought that I'm only going to talk about for a second here you can go get her podcast she will leave a link somewhere on Facebook or on the website. I'm just going to take a little bit from her Bible study but it's pertinent to this.

In Ephesians 3:17 Paul tells the Ephesians this

Ephesians 3:17 (NLT)

17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.

Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.

In order to avoid Christian drift we have to let our life grow into the knowledge and the love of God it is the food that we feed on that makes us strong and put our roots deep into the ground. It's the fertilizer for our Christian growth

This is why we need Bible study we need people holding us accountable to prayer we need to go to Sunday school we need to put godly people around us that can push us towards Christ.

and when we do this this is what happens Paul tells them what will produce and their lives if they do 3:17 this will happen

Ephesians 4:14–15 (NLT)

14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.

So some of you are saying OK nick how does this help me pay my bills well here's what I know not because my life has been perfect and I haven't had any troubles or I haven't faced any adversity I'm taking this from a life that has been filled with different road bumps adversity and confusion.

maturity in Christ means when I hit those moments in my life of confusion and frustration and struggle I know that if I keep running back to the one that is growing me up in Christ I can have a Christ perspective on the world and when you have Christ perspective on the world.

It changes everything it allows you to realize that this world is temporary. And that no matter what happens I have a promise that I'm holding on to that in the future all things will be right.

(Ex: God sees you God hears you God cares)