Latest / Bible Study with Pr. Daniel Batarseh | Verse by Verse Series | Maranatha Bible Church - Chicago / The Big Picture of the Seven Churches | Revelation 2-3 | Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Revelation Bible Study Series)

Transcript

The Big Picture of the Seven Churches | Revelation 2-3 | Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Revelation Bible Study Series) · Bible Study with Pr. Daniel Batarseh | Verse by Verse Series | Maranatha Bible Church - Chicago

• 0:02
  Hopefully we remember that when we began this series in the Book
• 0:05
  of Revelation, we took the time to look at it from an aerial
• 0:10
  perspective. And from there we descended
• 0:13
  together, the chapter one with a magnifying glass in our hands.
• 0:17
  And we moved carefully from verse to verse to explore and
• 0:21
  examine all the thrilling details that the Holy Spirit has
• 0:25
  revealed to us. But now we come to Revelation
• 0:28
  chapter 2, and as we approach this section, I believe it will
• 0:32
  be helpful to put aside our excavating tools for a moment
• 0:36
  and to climb up again and to look down and to examine this
• 0:42
  portion of Scripture with a bird's eye view.
• 0:46
  Not the whole book, just chapters two and three that
• 0:51
  focus on Christ's direct addresses to each of these seven
• 0:56
  churches in Asia Minor. Because you see, when you put
• 1:00
  these short letters side by side, you will definitely notice
• 1:05
  similar patterns and repetitions, as well as unique
• 1:09
  details that stand out from each of them.
• 1:13
  And I wouldn't want us to miss out on what the Lord would say
• 1:17
  even from that angle, by rushing through the first door of the
• 1:22
  first church in the section. These characteristics, the
• 1:27
  common ones and the unique ones, have a message on their own, and
• 1:34
  we're going to see what Christ will say to us in them.
• 1:38
  So before we come to each congregation in this book
• 1:42
  separately, we're going to zoom out and we're going to look for
• 1:46
  the bigger picture of what Christ has to say to the church.
• 1:52
  If you want to know, that's where I've been this past week
• 1:55
  on a imaginary hilltop with binoculars, looking at the wider
• 2:00
  landscape of these churches and making notes of what we can
• 2:05
  learn about the church in this and what Christ longs for from
• 2:10
  his church. And I've gathered five thoughts
• 2:13
  for you, and hopefully you will remember these thoughts.
• 2:18
  Again, we're looking at the bigger picture.
• 2:20
  The first thing that we can learn from these seven churches
• 2:23
  as a whole is that the Lord Jesus Christ is passionate about
• 2:28
  the purity of his church. The Lord Jesus Christ is
• 2:33
  passionate about the purity of his church.
• 2:36
  I find it fascinating that before we are introduced to the
• 2:39
  chaos that will come to this world leading up to the final
• 2:44
  moments of history, before we see the events that will
• 2:47
  ultimately bring us to the invasion of Christ's Kingdom
• 2:50
  into this planet, Christ expresses His concerns for the
• 2:57
  church. And here's what that tells you
• 3:00
  and me right away, that Jesus Christ prioritizes the refining
• 3:06
  work of His people. He did it then and He's still
• 3:11
  doing it now. That is his heart posture.
• 3:15
  You know there are a lot of people who dangerously assume
• 3:18
  what the Lord is doing or saying to His Church today.
• 3:23
  You've probably seen it. The word of the Lord for 2025.
• 3:26
  The word of the Lord for 2026. It's no mystery.
• 3:31
  And none of us have to rely on any self-proclaimed prophet to
• 3:34
  tell us what Christ is doing among his people.
• 3:38
  Because according to Revelation two and three, we can conclude
• 3:41
  with confidence that Jesus Christ is prioritizing the
• 3:45
  conviction of His people, the comfort of His people, even the
• 3:50
  chastising of His people in order for them to be more like
• 3:55
  what he has called them to be. And that's what these letters
• 3:59
  really do. They they reinforce that what
• 4:03
  God expects from us as we traverse through this world is
• 4:07
  that we would become like what he wants us to be like.
• 4:12
  Unfortunately, what you have is people who think otherwise.
• 4:16
  God's primary desire is not for you and I to live stress free
• 4:21
  life as much as possible. It's not as interest for you and
• 4:25
  I to accumulate as much resources as possible so that we
• 4:28
  can access greater comfort and luxury.
• 4:32
  Nor it is. Nor is it His ambition for you
• 4:35
  to know your earthly ambitions apart from His purposes.
• 4:39
  What is God after in your life that you and I will look more
• 4:44
  like His Son? That is what we are destined to.
• 4:47
  That's what we are here for, to look more like Christ.
• 4:51
  Yes, with your spouse, with your children, with your kind of
• 4:54
  income, with your limitations. The desire of our God is for
• 4:58
  each of us to be conformed to the image of His Son.
• 5:01
  And unfortunately, many believe that being a Christian simply
• 5:06
  means saying yes to his sin, cancelling sacrifice, and then
• 5:10
  coasting through life without his interests or influence in
• 5:14
  mind. To the degree that some
• 5:17
  professing Christians look no different than the world, how
• 5:20
  can I be? We have verses like this in
• 5:24
  Romans 829. For those whom he foreknew, he
• 5:26
  also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in
• 5:33
  order that he might be the first born among many brothers.
• 5:37
  That's your destination. The moment that you entered into
• 5:41
  Christ. Where you're headed is to be
• 5:44
  conformed like Christ. So those who are in Christ are
• 5:47
  determined to look more and more like Christ.
• 5:51
  In other words, God is after us who are a part of the family of
• 5:56
  God. To be like Christ's siblings.
• 5:58
  In what sense? To share his characteristics,
• 6:00
  Yes, with your unique personality and giftings,
• 6:03
  nonetheless, for each of us to reflect him.
• 6:07
  So that's his program for the church.
• 6:10
  That's what he's doing week after week.
• 6:12
  That's why you and I are here. We have surrendered when we said
• 6:16
  yes to the Gospel, to this lifelong process.
• 6:18
  Chisel me, change me, convict me, whatever you want to allow
• 6:24
  my life, I receive it in faith because I know that this is what
• 6:28
  I'm destined for. And that that's why a lot of the
• 6:31
  mysteries that we try to wrestle with in our lives, it's actually
• 6:35
  not really a mystery. We may not know why things
• 6:37
  happen at the time that they happen or to the degree that
• 6:39
  they happen. We can have this absolute
• 6:41
  assurance, this is purpose for me to look more like Christ.
• 6:46
  He's passionate about the purity of his church and we get a
• 6:50
  sample of what he is after because what you find here in
• 6:55
  Revelation 27 is a similar call to what we read in every letter
• 7:00
  to these churches. There's an interesting phrase
• 7:02
  here, Revelation 27. He who has an ear, let him hear
• 7:07
  what the Spirit says to the churches, to the one who
• 7:11
  conquers. I will grant to eat of the tree
• 7:14
  of life, which is in the paradise of God to the one who
• 7:20
  conquers. You're going to find that phrase
• 7:22
  in every single letter that Christ writes to these churches.
• 7:25
  Other transitions would say to the one who overcomes.
• 7:28
  Either way, both are essentially saying the same thing.
• 7:31
  So that emphasis that repetition.
• 7:34
  What is that? What does that say about the
• 7:35
  Lord? Here's what it says that he
• 7:37
  wants every single one of us to gain victory over any test over
• 7:43
  any temptation that would seek to tamper with your conformity
• 7:47
  to Christ likeness. He who overcomes, he who
• 7:51
  conquers crisis after each of us to be conquerors in our faith,
• 7:57
  not necessarily conquerors in our businesses, conquerors in
• 8:00
  our bodies, conquerors in our relationship with Him.
• 8:05
  And when you look at these letters, you get an idea of some
• 8:08
  of the things that He calls us to conquer.
• 8:11
  When you read Ephesus, you learn that He wants us to conquer
• 8:15
  affectionless mechanical ministry, doing the right things
• 8:21
  with the wrong motive. He wants you to conquer that.
• 8:23
  He wants me to conquer that. When you look at Smyrna, we
• 8:26
  realize that He wants to conquer the severe pressures that come
• 8:31
  from outside persecution, to not bend the knee, to not give in,
• 8:35
  to stand strong. When you come down to Pergamum,
• 8:39
  we realize not just in Pergamum but also in Thyatira, that He
• 8:42
  wants us to conquer false teachings that promote and
• 8:46
  encourage idolatry and sexual sin.
• 8:50
  When you go to Sardis, you learn that he wants us to conquer.
• 8:53
  What dull spirituality He wants us to conquer, just going
• 9:01
  through it all without any sense of life.
• 9:05
  When you go to Philadelphia, what does he want us to conquer?
• 9:08
  The slander of Satan's servants that would try to derail you or
• 9:13
  discourage you by lying about you.
• 9:17
  Leodicea. What does he want us to conquer?
• 9:21
  Lukewarmness, being halfway in, halfway out.
• 9:26
  And so we see here that this is what the Lord is after.
• 9:28
  And here's the most encouraging part about this.
• 9:31
  When I read these letters, I realize it's possible.
• 9:36
  It's possible to be a conqueror. You know why?
• 9:38
  Because out of the seven, there are two churches, Smyrna and
• 9:43
  Philadelphia, who received no correction from Christ.
• 9:48
  Pure praise, pure encouragement. And when?
• 9:55
  When I learned that some time ago, it exhilarated me.
• 9:59
  Why? Because it tells me that it's
• 10:01
  possible to have pure teaching in a church.
• 10:06
  It's possible to overcome any adversity, any obstacles,
• 10:09
  internally and externally. It's possible to be consistently
• 10:14
  fruitful. Ultimately, listen, It's
• 10:17
  possible to be a church that really pleases God.
• 10:23
  It's possible or else he would have criticized every church.
• 10:27
  He didn't criticize every church.
• 10:29
  Two of them, He says keep going. Here's that, what that means for
• 10:34
  us. If the Lord were to write a
• 10:36
  letter to Maranatha Bible Church in 2025, it would be possible
• 10:42
  for him to say something along the lines of I know every single
• 10:46
  one of you. I know all that's going on and
• 10:51
  I'm pleased. Keep going, Mara, not the Bible
• 10:55
  church. Don't give up until you meet
• 10:58
  your eternal reward. So what the Lord is after, more
• 11:04
  than anything else, is to purify His people, and He has many
• 11:07
  means to accomplish it. And we have to understand that's
• 11:10
  our purpose too, to be polished more and more by Christ, by his
• 11:15
  Spirit, by his word, through his people, so that we would look
• 11:18
  more like Him. There's a second thing that we
• 11:20
  learn about these churches and it is this.
• 11:23
  Christ evaluates churches much differently than man does.
• 11:29
  There are a couple of places in these letters where Christ
• 11:31
  comments on the apparent condition or self-assessment of
• 11:35
  these ministries and then reveals the true state of his
• 11:38
  people. So here are two examples.
• 11:40
  Come with me to Revelation 29. Look what he says to the church
• 11:44
  in Smyrna. He says I know your tribulation
• 11:48
  and your poverty, but you are rich.
• 11:53
  And the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not,
• 11:56
  but are synagogue of Satan. So according to Christ's own
• 12:00
  words, this particular local assembly was materially lacking.
• 12:06
  They were limited on their resources, so they didn't have
• 12:10
  the state-of-the-art technology. They didn't have comfortable
• 12:13
  pews. Oh, they couldn't even entertain
• 12:18
  the idea of starting any kind of fundraiser for any updates in
• 12:22
  the church, because there's nobody in the church that would
• 12:24
  be able to donate anything significant.
• 12:27
  You know, I thought about this when I was looking at it the
• 12:29
  other night. How do prosperity preachers
• 12:31
  handle a text like this? If wealth is apparently the sign
• 12:35
  of God's favor, and you can access it by claiming it and
• 12:37
  believing it, why does Christ praise this poor church?
• 12:42
  Why doesn't he say, hey, use your faith, use your mouth to
• 12:46
  blab it and grab it? He doesn't say that.
• 12:50
  It's actually one of the churches that he praises the
• 12:52
  most, and they're poor. So figure that out.
• 12:58
  You're poor. More importantly, tells them
• 13:00
  where they're really rich. He wants to remind them you are
• 13:04
  rich in what what truly matters. You have God's favor.
• 13:10
  You have true worship, you have spirit filled love.
• 13:14
  You have love for Christ, love for the people of God, the lost.
• 13:18
  You have joy. There's humility, there's unity,
• 13:21
  there's endurance, there's strength.
• 13:22
  You're rich. Now compare that to what Christ
• 13:27
  says to the church in Laodicea. Go to Revelation 317, the
• 13:35
  complete opposite of the Christians in Smyrna.
• 13:38
  For you say I'm rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing,
• 13:47
  not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind
• 13:54
  and naked. It's a scathing commentary, and
• 14:00
  a Laodicean church in our day might be like pulling up to a
• 14:02
  parking lot and seeing all these expensive cars lined up.
• 14:07
  You walk to the doors of that church building and their
• 14:09
  automatic doors. The moment you walk in, you are
• 14:13
  confronted with the sweet smell of coffee because they have
• 14:17
  their own coffee station in the lobby that outshines that of any
• 14:20
  commercial establishment that you drive by.
• 14:23
  And you realize that service is about to start.
• 14:25
  So you make your way to the sanctuary.
• 14:27
  But you glance over and realize there's still a long line.
• 14:30
  The singing is about to begin, but it's just singing.
• 14:32
  We need our coffee. So you enter into that room.
• 14:35
  You quickly dismiss the thought and here you are entering into
• 14:38
  this dark space. It's large, but wow, look at
• 14:41
  that equipment. Look at those screens.
• 14:45
  Who's the technician behind that sound?
• 14:48
  And as you're led to that comfy cushion seat, you stand and you
• 14:52
  quickly glance and look over and you can't help but sense that
• 14:56
  there is spiritual apathy in the air.
• 14:59
  You try to brush it off, but it's only confirmed as you're
• 15:03
  seated and the sermon is preached.
• 15:05
  And it's not necessarily heretical, but it is void of
• 15:09
  Christ. It doesn't have biblical
• 15:12
  exhortation. And on top of that, there
• 15:15
  doesn't seem to be passion, There doesn't seem to be
• 15:17
  gravity. When the Word of God is being
• 15:19
  handled. You try not to judge, but you
• 15:22
  can't help it. So you go week after week after
• 15:26
  week, and you realize something else, that with the limited time
• 15:29
  of fellowship that's there, as you get to know the people, the
• 15:32
  conversations are void of Christ equally.
• 15:36
  And they're nice and they're put together.
• 15:38
  And but as you converse and as you get to know people, they
• 15:42
  seem to be more passionate about sports and politics and home
• 15:46
  renovations. In fact, when you try to bring
• 15:49
  up the things of God, it gets awkward, gets weird, and you
• 15:57
  learn the people here, they're not serving in any way.
• 16:00
  Sure, they're attending, but they're not really doing
• 16:03
  anything. There's no hunger for the Word
• 16:04
  of God. There's no desire to make Christ
• 16:07
  known. There's no love language towards
• 16:10
  the Lord Jesus Christ. You get the idea, I'm sure.
• 16:15
  Nothing wrong with stately buildings, nothing wrong with
• 16:17
  large parking lots. We need one.
• 16:23
  But see, this kind of church may seem prosperous, may be filled
• 16:26
  with affluent people, but where there is complacency and
• 16:29
  indifference towards the things of God, Jesus has a different
• 16:34
  opinion about it. And here's where I would like
• 16:40
  for us to consider something Being part of a physical, not a
• 16:43
  digital, a physical community of Christians is not optional.
• 16:49
  And once you and I are convinced of that, then we have to deal
• 16:52
  with something here in America, all the options for churches.
• 17:00
  And we have to understand here that Jesus has a standard for
• 17:03
  the church. And you and I, when we have to
• 17:07
  make that decision about which local assembly to be a part of,
• 17:12
  am I going for what Christ wants, for my own personal
• 17:15
  preferences? You know, you have some people
• 17:18
  who are members of a church simply because it's closer to
• 17:21
  where they live. And we have to be mindful of
• 17:23
  that. We have to be realistic with
• 17:24
  distance, sure. But it's a concern when you're
• 17:27
  more concerned about the distance and not about how close
• 17:30
  that church is to the truth. And you have others who put a
• 17:35
  premium on production value and the events, the entertainment
• 17:41
  that they they promote and they put so much effort into.
• 17:47
  Why do you? Well, he's a dynamic speaker.
• 17:50
  So what? What's the substance of what
• 17:52
  he's saying? Oh, I can tell you this.
• 17:56
  Many, many, many, many are planted somewhere because they
• 17:59
  have found a sweet spot for their conscience.
• 18:02
  They have found a place where they can satisfy their religious
• 18:05
  itch, knowing all the while that they will never be challenged or
• 18:10
  held accountable for what it means to be truly a disciple of
• 18:13
  Jesus Christ. Which church are you part of and
• 18:21
  why is it a place where Jesus says they're in the right
• 18:29
  direction? You're never going to find a
• 18:30
  perfect church, but you can find a blameless place.
• 18:33
  And I know it's becoming increasingly rare, but I also
• 18:35
  want to say this. I do not advocate people getting
• 18:38
  up and leaving churches whenever they feel dissatisfied.
• 18:42
  That is not a way to deal with the church because leaving an
• 18:47
  assembly should be a very slow decision, a prayed about thing.
• 18:52
  That's something that we just do because as members of the body
• 18:55
  of Christ, it's not easy when a member rips away and go
• 18:58
  somewhere else. All I'm saying with this point
• 19:02
  is that you and I must align our thinking with what Christ
• 19:06
  desires, what Christ has in mind for His people when they come
• 19:12
  together. That's a helpful challenge.
• 19:16
  But I see encouragement in this. What do I see?
• 19:19
  I see here that Jesus reminds us that he is ultimately the
• 19:22
  determiner of what a successful Christian looks like and what a
• 19:27
  successful church looks like. He determines that.
• 19:31
  And people as well as leaders in the church would save themselves
• 19:35
  from much unnecessary discouragement if they would
• 19:39
  just stop comparing super superficially and simply come to
• 19:43
  God's Word and let him define what true success looks like for
• 19:49
  individual spirituality and corporate spirituality.
• 19:53
  He looks at this church and Smyrna says you're poor, but
• 19:55
  you're rich. He looks at this rich church and
• 19:57
  he says you're bankrupt in the soul.
• 20:02
  Christ thinks differently than us.
• 20:03
  You know, when I was putting my thoughts together for this, I
• 20:05
  could not help. I was compelled.
• 20:08
  To step back and ask myself this, when was the last time you
• 20:12
  paused, look to the Lord and said, Lord, are you pleased with
• 20:17
  my service? Never mind what so and so said,
• 20:22
  What do you think of the ministry that I'm involved in?
• 20:27
  And I can tell you this, if you come with an open heart and an
• 20:31
  open Bible long enough and inquire of the Lord, you will
• 20:34
  find more encouragement there than anywhere else, because
• 20:38
  Christ value system differs than man's and he is much more
• 20:44
  encouraging than you might imagine.
• 20:47
  Let me give you an example. When you think of a holy person,
• 20:53
  what comes to mind? A holy person?
• 20:58
  Holiness. And I remember being confronted
• 21:02
  by this truth in First Thessalonians, teaching me a
• 21:06
  component of holiness that I think is often ignored.
• 21:10
  Holiness includes many things, but have you ever thought about
• 21:13
  Paul's words or what it truly means to be holy before God?
• 21:16
  Go to 1st Thessalonians with me in chapter 3 verse 12, 1st
• 21:30
  Thessalonians 3, verse 12. And may the Lord make you
• 21:33
  increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we
• 21:41
  do for you. So that.
• 21:44
  So why is Paul praying that we would have bound in love more
• 21:46
  and more? Verse 13 So that he may
• 21:49
  establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and
• 21:54
  Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his Saints.
• 21:59
  Do you see it? I'm praying for you,
• 22:01
  Thessalonians, that you would have bound more and more love
• 22:04
  for one another and for all. Why?
• 22:06
  So that when you stand before God, you would be blameless in
• 22:09
  holiness. That's what this tells me.
• 22:12
  You can't know true holiness unless you know love.
• 22:17
  What does it mean to be holy? Loving people, loving the
• 22:21
  Saints, Loving the stranger, Being practical, Son about you
• 22:26
  being monkish, Son about you being strange, intentionally
• 22:31
  weird. That's not what it means to be
• 22:32
  holy. It's very hands on.
• 22:36
  It's measurable. It acts, I'm praying that you
• 22:40
  have more love so that you'd be more holy.
• 22:43
  Do you see how we can misinterpret things?
• 22:47
  See how it's possible to come to a church and and begin to
• 22:51
  evaluate it with with our own understanding and we might even
• 22:53
  think that we have references to back it up.
• 22:56
  You have to come to God's word and see what he wants and what
• 22:58
  he says is true. What he says is beneficial,
• 23:03
  fruitful, alive, and what's dead and what's carnal and what's
• 23:07
  lifeless. Christ sees things differently
• 23:11
  than we do. But we have a Third Point as we
• 23:17
  are looking at these churches. Christ is deeply interested in
• 23:22
  our works. Christ is deeply interested in
• 23:27
  our works. Now hang on, because I know many
• 23:28
  Christians who are allergic to the idea of works.
• 23:30
  But you're going to have a hard time debating this when you see
• 23:35
  what Christ says to these churches.
• 23:36
  Out of the seven, He makes the same statement five times.
• 23:41
  What is it similar to what we see in Revelation 22?
• 23:43
  Let's turn that together. Revelation 22 I know your works.
• 23:55
  Let's keep reading your toil and your patient endurance and how
• 23:58
  you cannot bear with those who are evil.
• 24:00
  But I've tested those who call themselves apostles and are not,
• 24:04
  and found them to be false. I know your works.
• 24:07
  He says that to five churches. I know your works.
• 24:09
  I know your works. I know your works.
• 24:11
  I know your works. What's the lesson?
• 24:16
  That Jesus is not just interested in what we know and
• 24:18
  what we believe, He's interested in what we do.
• 24:24
  And he praises a church that is practically active in the right
• 24:27
  things and grieves over one that is not.
• 24:30
  I know your works now, righteous.
• 24:35
  These are not the only thing. It's not necessarily the thing
• 24:40
  that we should just focus on, but it's important nonetheless.
• 24:43
  And I want to touch on this because again, Christians have
• 24:45
  developed this allergy to the concept of duty, of
• 24:50
  responsibility, of accountability in action.
• 24:56
  Oh, who are you to tell me that I need to work?
• 24:57
  I'm saved by grace. Isn't it about faith?
• 25:02
  Yes, it is about faith. You're not saved by your works.
• 25:05
  But you're going to have great trouble in facing Christ's words
• 25:08
  here because his understanding of grace is that it energizes
• 25:12
  you to work. It motivates you to serve.
• 25:16
  In fact, there is great danger, according to James's words, that
• 25:19
  if a person has faith with no works, that faith might be
• 25:23
  artificial. So this is very important.
• 25:28
  And here's what I was thinking to myself.
• 25:29
  What kind of efforts is Jesus interested in?
• 25:32
  Because I don't want to be doing something that he didn't ask for
• 25:35
  me to do. And when I came to these seven
• 25:38
  churches, just put them side by side and began to just look at
• 25:41
  it as a whole. I realized something that even
• 25:43
  within Revelation that we have every right to go to the rest of
• 25:45
  the Word of God. Just these letters.
• 25:48
  I know what Christ is after in my life.
• 25:51
  I know where He wants me to put my efforts.
• 25:55
  Here's one thing to consider. Jesus wants you and I to put our
• 26:00
  efforts in maintaining a love for the person of Christ.
• 26:07
  Go to Revelation 2, verse 4. If there was any church that was
• 26:12
  the most impressive out of the seven, it was the Church of
• 26:14
  Ephesus. Man, they could spot out false
• 26:17
  teachers. They work to the bone.
• 26:21
  They were very discerning. But look what he says in verse
• 26:24
  4. But I have this against you,
• 26:27
  that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
• 26:30
  Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do
• 26:34
  the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and
• 26:39
  remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
• 26:42
  I don't want to get ahead of myself, but let me say here, and
• 26:45
  it's worth repeating next week when he says I'll remove the
• 26:48
  lampstand from your place, you know what that means?
• 26:50
  I will shut your church down. What do you mean you'll shut the
• 26:54
  church down? This this church has pure
• 26:57
  doctrine. They they're they're very
• 26:59
  protective of the pulpit and they're working so much.
• 27:02
  What do you mean shut? Yeah.
• 27:03
  But if a church doesn't have ministry rooted in love for
• 27:08
  Christ, I'm not interested in that kind of a church.
• 27:15
  Jesus thinks differently than us.
• 27:17
  So it's strange, isn't it, that this church that toiled, he
• 27:21
  says, do the works you did at first.
• 27:22
  Aren't they doing enough? What works is he speaking about
• 27:27
  here? The things that you and I did
• 27:30
  that nurtured and fostered a love relationship with Jesus
• 27:35
  Christ. In other words, what he's saying
• 27:39
  is go back, Go back to what you did that helped you fall more in
• 27:44
  love with me and kept you in love with me.
• 27:50
  You know, I know. I know of somebody who was
• 27:51
  struggling with that. They were just kind of
• 27:54
  robotically going through things and somebody advised them as
• 27:58
  they were struggling with this. Go back to the songs you used to
• 28:01
  sing when you first got saved and it helped.
• 28:08
  You can get so busy that you abandoned what that time alone
• 28:11
  with the Lord where you pray, not necessarily asking him for
• 28:16
  things. We're just worshipping him where
• 28:18
  you come to the word, not to look for a lesson for Sunday
• 28:20
  school, but just to to be fed to taking the thoughts of Christ
• 28:27
  and commune with Christ even throughout your day.
• 28:30
  Go back to that. So when Jesus says I know your
• 28:34
  works, when he says I'm, I'm, I'm looking for the right
• 28:36
  things. One thing I can say for certain
• 28:37
  is that he wants me to protect my efforts in growing in my
• 28:42
  personal adoration of who he is, but not just that he wants my
• 28:49
  efforts to be in rejecting the evil works of others.
• 28:53
  So Revelation 26 yet this you have you hate the works of the
• 28:59
  Nicolaitans, which I also hate. So when when we say Jesus is
• 29:07
  deeply interested in our works, he's not only looking for what
• 29:12
  we do, he's also looking for what we don't do.
• 29:17
  James summarizes this beautifully.
• 29:20
  So here's a quotation from chapter 1, verse 27.
• 29:23
  Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father.
• 29:27
  Is this two things? What's pure religion to God?
• 29:32
  One, to visit orphans and widows and their affliction.
• 29:35
  That's the positive. That's what you do to visit
• 29:38
  those who are needy, destitute. And two, to keep oneself
• 29:43
  unstained from the world. Those are two main categories.
• 29:49
  Acting out in love and keeping yourself from being polluted by
• 29:52
  the world. That's what's pure to God.
• 29:54
  That's what religion is to God in terms of practical religion.
• 29:59
  That's what I see here. He's asking them, the church in
• 30:02
  Ephesus, go back to your works that you did in loving me.
• 30:07
  But also I want to commend you. You hate the work of the
• 30:10
  Nicolaitans. Keep hating them.
• 30:13
  Did you know Jesus Christ hates things?
• 30:20
  If you really know somebody well, you don't just know what
• 30:24
  they enjoy, what their preferences are.
• 30:25
  You always, with that, know what they don't like, right?
• 30:31
  So with your wife, you know what not to buy and what not to
• 30:37
  include in your relationship because as you've studied her
• 30:41
  and as you've gotten to know her, you know what she loves and
• 30:44
  you know what she hates. Do you know what Christ hates?
• 30:49
  God is love. Praise God, He's love.
• 30:51
  God also hates. What does he hate?
• 30:54
  What can you say? I know Jesus hates this.
• 30:57
  I know he despises it. Why is that important to know?
• 31:01
  Because I don't want to entertain anything that he
• 31:03
  hates. I don't want to engage in
• 31:05
  anything that he despises that would grieve him.
• 31:07
  So what does he hate? What does he hate?
• 31:09
  Can I tell you this when you come to this book alone, in
• 31:12
  these two chapters, I discovered that there are at least three or
• 31:16
  four things just in these two chapters that he hates #1 He
• 31:23
  hates. He hates false teaching, Those
• 31:29
  who misrepresent His Word, those who elevate tradition above His
• 31:33
  word, those who massage the Bible for carnal gain.
• 31:39
  He hates that. Do you know what else he hates?
• 31:42
  You're going to discover this as we go through these letters.
• 31:44
  He hates idolatry. He hates when we have any
• 31:48
  competition in our love for Him. You know what he brings up more
• 31:53
  than once? He hates sexual immorality.
• 31:57
  He hates it. He brings it up more than once
• 31:59
  in these letters. Lastly, he hates apathy.
• 32:06
  He hates apathy. And we're going to see that in
• 32:09
  more than one church, unfortunately.
• 32:11
  So I'm learning, what do you hate?
• 32:13
  And now when he says I know your works, what is he looking for?
• 32:16
  I'm sure He's looking for my efforts and expelling and
• 32:20
  denying and swatting away that which grieves Him.
• 32:25
  Another thing to consider, Christ is interested in my
• 32:29
  efforts for the advancement of His Kingdom to increase over
• 32:32
  time, not to decrease, but the increase.
• 32:36
  Look at chapter 2, verse 19. I know your works, your love and
• 32:44
  faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter
• 32:49
  works exceed the first. He highlights that, so he tells
• 32:54
  these believers here in Thai Tyra, hey, I've been watching
• 32:58
  you over the years and as time is going on, you've only become
• 33:01
  more zealous, more dedicated, more committed to acts of
• 33:04
  service. Now here's what's true.
• 33:07
  What we do for others in the name of the Lord will evolve
• 33:10
  over time. They will change, they'll be
• 33:12
  altered depending on the season of life.
• 33:15
  And though that may happen, there may be adaptation.
• 33:17
  One thing cannot be true of us that it becomes weaker over
• 33:22
  time, no matter what. How we honor the Lord with our
• 33:28
  service and our works may look different, but it should always
• 33:33
  be there and not just there. We should pray that God would
• 33:36
  keep us zealous and dedicated because He's looking for that.
• 33:40
  He expects that, that we're always investing, doing
• 33:43
  something, some kind of inclusion in his work.
• 33:48
  In fact, He wants us to do this for the long term.
• 33:52
  How long? The same passage.
• 33:54
  Look at verse 26. The one who conquers and who
• 33:57
  keeps my works until the end. To Him I will give authority
• 34:03
  over the nation's. So Jesus Christ expects me in
• 34:09
  one way or another to serve him until I see him.
• 34:17
  This Is Us knowing Christ, brothers and sisters, this is
• 34:20
  his standard. So I'm quoting scripture.
• 34:22
  This is not my idea. This is what He's after.
• 34:26
  Christ is deeply interested in our works.
• 34:29
  Yes, the people who've been saved by his grace, but a grace
• 34:32
  that energizes us to serve #4 Satan.
• 34:39
  Satan ferociously opposes the church.
• 34:45
  Aerial view hilltop with binoculars.
• 34:47
  What do I see? Oh, these seven churches.
• 34:50
  Satan is mentioned five times in these two chapters, 4 different
• 34:57
  times in four different letters. Here's what that teaches me
• 35:02
  right away. A church that does not
• 35:04
  acknowledge the evil one or his schemes will not be able to be
• 35:08
  the church that Christ called him to be.
• 35:10
  I'm not talking about those ministries that obsessively talk
• 35:13
  about Satan and demons. I'm talking about a biblical
• 35:17
  informed awareness. That's what I'm speaking about.
• 35:21
  Satan has brought up more than once four different churches.
• 35:26
  Christ includes his name. What do we make of that?
• 35:30
  Well, let's find out because these mentions are not random.
• 35:33
  They reveal His strategies and He is very much at war with us.
• 35:42
  The first time Satan is mentioned in these letters is in
• 35:44
  Revelation 2, verse 9. Let's look at it again.
• 35:47
  I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich.
• 35:51
  And the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not,
• 35:54
  but are a synagogue of Satan. Something similar comes up in
• 35:59
  Revelation 39. Behold, I will make those of the
• 36:03
  synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not but
• 36:07
  lie. Behold, I will make them come
• 36:08
  and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have
• 36:12
  loved you. We're going to look into this
• 36:15
  more in the coming weeks, but let's just establish this.
• 36:19
  Satan uses people outside the community of faith to harass the
• 36:24
  people of God. And at this time, it was the
• 36:28
  Jewish people with this early Christian movement who were
• 36:31
  claiming that Jesus Christ of Nazareth was the Messiah.
• 36:34
  This irked them to the degree that they found many ways to
• 36:38
  prick them and to harm them, to call the authorities on them.
• 36:47
  So right away we see here where at least two mentions of Satan,
• 36:50
  that Satan uses agents outside of the church to bother the
• 36:55
  church. And we have to be mindful of
• 36:57
  that. Here's why.
• 36:58
  Because if you and I don't realize the satanic influence,
• 37:02
  then you might be waging war against flesh and blood.
• 37:06
  When people persecute us, when people call the police on us,
• 37:09
  when people do all these things to us, it's not people that we
• 37:12
  are at war with, it's Satan. And knowing that and believing
• 37:18
  that helps us know what weapons to wield and not to fight in the
• 37:21
  flesh. And so here we see Christ not
• 37:26
  just highlighting and identifying the people that are
• 37:28
  doing it, but who's really behind it.
• 37:32
  Satan, we should expect the same.
• 37:35
  But Satan doesn't just work outside, he works from within.
• 37:39
  Look here at Revelation 224, the church in Thyatira, Jesus says.
• 37:46
  But to the rest of you in Thyatira who do not hold this
• 37:50
  teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things
• 37:55
  of Satan to USA, I do not lay on you any other burden.
• 38:03
  There are many ways that the devil can agitate a church from
• 38:05
  within, and Christ highlights a prominent one, false teaching.
• 38:11
  So if Satan can't pressure a church with persecution, he will
• 38:15
  poison a church with bad doctrine.
• 38:18
  And how does he do it? Does he just manifest on a stage
• 38:20
  and intimidate people to believe his lies?
• 38:23
  No, he doesn't do that. He finds people the same way he
• 38:26
  finds people from outside. He finds people from within to
• 38:30
  persuade God's people. And in this particular church,
• 38:33
  he found a woman who claimed to be a prophetess who was seducing
• 38:39
  the people of God to believe a lie and live out in sin as a
• 38:43
  result of her teaching. So at this point we're supposed
• 38:48
  to step back and be persuaded. The evil 1 is calculated.
• 38:55
  He is strategic. Yes, indeed, more than you
• 38:58
  think. Why do I say that?
• 39:01
  Let me give you a sample. Look at Revelation 2, verse 13.
• 39:06
  This is the church in Pergamum. And what does Jesus say?
• 39:09
  I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, that you hold
• 39:17
  fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days
• 39:20
  of Antipus, my faithful witness who was killed among you, where
• 39:23
  Satan dwells. Contrary to cartoon depictions,
• 39:29
  Satan's headquarters is not in hell.
• 39:33
  His roaming presence is continually on the earth, and at
• 39:37
  this particular time in history, he felt very comfortable to set
• 39:41
  up his home base in a place called Pergamum.
• 39:43
  Why? Well, don't miss any upcoming
• 39:46
  Sundays, because we're going to discover that at least some
• 39:48
  possible answers. But here's what we can
• 39:50
  establish. This is deliberate.
• 39:53
  This isn't random. It wasn't for the views.
• 39:58
  He is so locked in, he's so filled with pride, he thinks
• 40:03
  that he can actually overthrow prophecy.
• 40:06
  And he wants to doom as many people as possible.
• 40:09
  And so clearly to me, here's what I take out of this.
• 40:11
  There was something about Pergamum.
• 40:13
  That helped Satan have a greater influence to gain greater
• 40:19
  control of the region. There was something about
• 40:24
  Pergamum that allowed him to what spread his corruption with
• 40:28
  greater effect. So here's what I took from this.
• 40:33
  Satan is interested in locations.
• 40:38
  He considers that and if he considers that, then surely he
• 40:41
  considers using platforms and and hiring people and, and being
• 40:50
  very intentional of what he does, where he does it, whom he
• 40:54
  does it through. Here's where I'm convicted.
• 40:58
  If Satan is so strategic, what about the church?
• 41:05
  Where's the planning? Where's the fasting?
• 41:10
  Where's the warlike mentality? Where's the awareness, the
• 41:15
  continual awareness that we're at war?
• 41:20
  Hey, church and Pergamum, you're in the same neighborhood as the
• 41:22
  devil. I said this before, forgive me
• 41:26
  for saying it again. If there's any encouragement in
• 41:28
  this, it's that God was able to raise up a church where Satan
• 41:31
  dwells. So no matter how bad Chicago
• 41:37
  gets, the church can still be the church.
• 41:43
  And so we see here that there's something worth considering
• 41:46
  about Satan. But here's what I want to say.
• 41:49
  In addition to that, Satan is not mentioned in three out of
• 41:54
  the seven. Any explanation?
• 42:00
  I can't be dogmatic with any claim from silence, but I do see
• 42:08
  something interested with the churches that Satan is not
• 42:12
  mentioned in. You may disagree with me.
• 42:15
  It's fine. I'm not making again a dogmatic
• 42:18
  declaration here. Just an interesting observation.
• 42:22
  The three churches where Satan is not mentioned is an Ephesus,
• 42:26
  Sardis, Laodicea, unique with their problems, but they share
• 42:32
  something quite similar. Ephesus abandoned their first
• 42:38
  love. Sardis had a reputation of being
• 42:42
  alive but was dead. Laodicea was lukewarm.
• 42:48
  Can we say that Satan does not bother with churches that are
• 42:52
  cold towards Christ? That's not a stretch, is it?
• 43:00
  And when Christians just go through the motions and don't
• 43:03
  pose any lasting threat to the Kingdom of darkness because of
• 43:06
  that love, Satan pays little to no attention to them.
• 43:10
  Why? Because a loveless Christianity
• 43:13
  self defeating. Think about it.
• 43:16
  Jesus told the church in Ephesus, If you don't change the
• 43:18
  way you love me, I'm shutting this church down.
• 43:22
  What does Satan have to do with the church like that?
• 43:26
  Goes to show just how vital it is to have a heart brimming with
• 43:29
  love, just how necessary it is for us to have and to protect
• 43:35
  and to fuel affection for Jesus Christ.
• 43:38
  Because that's what really stimulates fruitfulness.
• 43:41
  That's what really opens up our lives to the potent spiritual
• 43:44
  fragrance that impacts environments that we walk into.
• 43:51
  So a church that's cold towards Christ, they'll shrivel up and
• 43:57
  die in no time. Oh yeah, Let them have their
• 43:59
  services and let them do their thing.
• 44:01
  I'm going to focus on those that love Jesus.
• 44:07
  Satan ferociously opposes the church.
• 44:11
  Here's my final point with these observations.
• 44:14
  Christ desires for His church to be eternally minded.
• 44:24
  There are many more things that we can say, but let's land it
• 44:26
  here. Despite the condition or the
• 44:29
  circumstances of every church, whether there was more
• 44:32
  commendation or more condemnation, Jesus Christ does
• 44:36
  one similar thing with every single one of these assemblies.
• 44:39
  He gives them a promise of a reward for those who conquer.
• 44:45
  He's such a motivating God. He's such.
• 44:47
  He is, as Roman says, the God of encouragement.
• 44:50
  So with every church he says to the one who conquers, and he
• 44:52
  follows it up with a prize. But there is something about
• 44:57
  these prizes, though they are unique in each case they have a
• 45:02
  common trait. And I want you to see, let's
• 45:04
  just look at a few of them. Look at Revelation 27.
• 45:07
  He has an ear. Let him hear what the Spirit
• 45:09
  says to the churches, to the one who conquers our grant to eat of
• 45:13
  the tree of life which is in the paradise of God.
• 45:19
  Look at verse 10. Do not fear what you were about
• 45:21
  to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to
• 45:23
  throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for
• 45:25
  10 days you will have tribulation.
• 45:27
  Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.
• 45:32
  Skip over to chapter 2, verse 26.
• 45:35
  The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end.
• 45:37
  To Him I will give authority over the nations.
• 45:41
  Chapter 3, Verse 5. The one who conquers will be
• 45:44
  clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot His name
• 45:47
  out of the book of life. I will confess His name before
• 45:50
  my Father and before his angels. Verse 21 of chapter 3.
• 45:56
  The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my
• 45:59
  throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his
• 46:04
  throne. Do you see it?
• 46:07
  These rewards are primarily eternal in nature.
• 46:11
  They're everlasting and worth, and they will be fully realized
• 46:15
  in the life to come. So what does that say to us?
• 46:20
  That Christ here uses eternity as an incentive to keep us
• 46:25
  motivated and conquers in our faith.
• 46:29
  Eternity should not be a rare topic coming from the pulpit.
• 46:35
  It shouldn't be absent in our mutual counsel and
• 46:37
  encouragement. It's something that we have to
• 46:41
  think about. It's something that we need to
• 46:42
  use to stir up one another. Why?
• 46:43
  Because I see my Jesus using it every single time with every
• 46:48
  single church. To the one who conquers, Look
• 46:53
  what I'll give you. It's coming and the life to come
• 46:55
  and the life to come and the life to come.
• 46:58
  Evidently, there's something about knowing what's to come
• 47:00
  that keeps me going now. And to refuse to see that as a
• 47:06
  detriment to us. Here's my prayer for our church,
• 47:10
  that no matter what kind of week you had, no matter the bills or
• 47:14
  the surprising payments that came house this or bills with
• 47:19
  health, whatever the case may be, education, the stresses of
• 47:24
  this life would wash away. Because as you come and as you
• 47:26
  leave, you've been reminded of what's to come.
• 47:31
  To be eternally minded. This is what the Lord is saying.
• 47:33
  Remember what's happening. Remember what we're looking
• 47:35
  forward to here. Come on, church, this isn't it.
• 47:39
  There's life to come. I wasn't planning on saying
• 47:43
  this, but I want to end on an encouraging note from the Old
• 47:45
  Testament, and then we'll close together in prayer.
• 47:49
  Jesus said that He wants us to be more than conquerors,
• 47:55
  conquerors in our faith. And I want to tell you something
• 47:57
  about his patience with his church.
• 48:00
  When you come to the book of Malachi, you see something quite
• 48:03
  amazing about God's heart in that refining process.
• 48:09
  In Malachi 3/3 he says he will sit as a refiner and a purifier
• 48:22
  of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them
• 48:26
  like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings and
• 48:28
  righteousness to the Lord. This is what God was doing in
• 48:33
  the Old Testament of the Old Covenant.
• 48:34
  What was he doing? He was refining them.
• 48:36
  Is it any different today? But notice his posture.
• 48:40
  What does it say in the beginning of verse three?
• 48:41
  He will stand. He will sit.
• 48:45
  When you sit to do anything, you're assuming that you're
• 48:49
  going to be there for a while, that you're taking your time,
• 48:52
  you're giving your focus, that you're not in a rush.
• 48:56
  When Jesus purifies you, He's patient.
• 49:02
  When He works on me, He is long-suffering.
• 49:07
  He doesn't just toss us away when we don't comply
• 49:10
  immediately. He works on us and he takes his
• 49:13
  time on us. And you see that even in these
• 49:16
  letters where this church that was ravaged by this false
• 49:18
  prophetess, and he says, what to that church?
• 49:21
  I gave her time to repent. I gave her time to repent.
• 49:29
  If we were to walk into a church with a woman preaching and
• 49:32
  saying it's OK to live in sexual sin, how long?
• 49:34
  How much time would you spend there before you leave?
• 49:37
  You don't care what kind of coffee is in the lobby.
• 49:39
  I'm out of here. Jesus doesn't immediately even
• 49:42
  shut down that church. I gave her time to repent.
• 49:48
  This is the God you serve. And as we pray, let that be the
• 49:53
  object of our desire. Lord, make us a people that you
• 49:57
  want us to be. Help us think like you think.
• 50:01
  Help us work for what really matters.
• 50:04
  Help us realize that Satan hates us and that we have to be on
• 50:09
  guard and help us be eternally minded.
• 50:13
  Lord, we thank you for your help in this overview.
• 50:21
  We pray that these things that we heard would be applied.
• 50:26
  He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the
• 50:28
  churches. So Lord, we do ask that we would
• 50:33
  leave here, sensing your voice and empowering us to live out
• 50:40
  what You've called us to do. And Lord, as we think about you
• 50:45
  sitting while you refine us, we want to now stand in honor of
• 50:49
  you and sing Your praises. Keep Maranatha Bible Church in
• 50:55
  your will. May you find nothing here that
• 50:59
  breaks your heart. Bless every ministry that is
• 51:03
  represented here outside of this church.
• 51:05
  May you find at this time more churches like Smyrna and
• 51:08
  Philadelphia that bring you joy, that OfferUp true sacrifice of
• 51:15
  praise. That's what we're striving after
• 51:18
  and we know that you'll help us by the Spirit.
• 51:20
  We love you Lord. Thank you for loving us first.
• 51:24
  In Jesus name we pray, Amen. Let's stand before the one who
• 51:29
  sits while he works on us. What a great God.