A Call to be Consumed by Christ #3

A Call to be Consumed by Christ

The Church at Smyrna

Revelation 2:8-11

Intro:

Last week we heard Christ's message to the local churches in Ephesus. He commended them for their right beliefs, their right teaching, and their testing and rejection of false teachers. Then Christ lowered a serious condemnation, they have left their first love. They are just going through the motions. They are just playing church. They are not living passionate, Christ-consumed, God-honoring Christian lives. Christ tells them that if they don't repent of this empty Christianity, He is going to remove His power and presence from their churches. They will continue to exist but Christ won't be involved in the church. This is a serious warning. Historically we learn that the local churches in Ephesus did not repent. They continued to exist but Christ's power and presence was not in their churches.

In our passage this week Christ addresses the church in Smyrna. Smyrna was a large and prosperous city which was 35 miles north of Ephesus. Like Ephesus it was a seaport. Unlike Ephesus which is a deserted ruin today, Smyrna is still a large seaport with a population of 200,000. The church in Smyrna was one of only two churches addressed in Revelation 2-3 that is not given a negative evaluation. They are experiencing great persecution at the hands of unsaved Jews and at the hands of the Romans who are calling them to worship Domitian as a god.

I) Christ knows what is happening to these believers in Smyrna (8-9)

Christ addresses the second church in Asia, the church at Smyrna (8). Christ gives the church at Smyrna His identification card, just as He did with Ephesus. Christ says that He is “the first and the last.” This is Christ's title referring to Him as the eternal One. He existed before everything and nothing is greater than Him. Christ is Creator and Judge. He then reminds them that “He was dead.” Christ paid the sin debt for all of mankind by His substitutionary death on the cross. But Christ completes His introductory statement by clarifying that He “has come to life.” Christ in introducing Himself personally to the church at Smyrna reminds them that He has resurrected bodily and that He is alive forever.

Christ moves on to His main message. Christ knows what is going on in their lives (9). He knows about the persecution that they are suffering. Domitian demanded that the empire worship him as a god. Those who refused to do so were persecuted and many times killed. There was a large Jewish population in Smyrna and many of the non-believing Jews were hostile toward Christianity. This made it very difficult to be a Christian living in Smyrna. Polycarp, who lived at a later time, was one of the first to die for his faith. He was bishop of Smyrna. Christ also mentions their poverty. They were extremely poor, in a wealthy city. Christ informs them that they are rich. They are rich spiritually through Christ (Jas. 2:5; 1 Pet. 1:3-9; Eph. 1:3-14; 1 Tim. 6:17-19). The Jews that were persecuting the believers in Smyrna are described by Christ in a very unflattering way. The Jews were the Old Covenant people of God and had been entrusted with the O.T. Revelation. A Jew was to be known for loving God and doing His will. Instead of being godly, Christ says the unsaved Jews in Smyrna were Satanic. They rejected the gospel and they persecuted Christianity. Christ also confronted this reality during His earthly ministry. As Christ was debating the Jewish religious leaders who considered God to be their Father. Jesus told them that Satan was their father (Jn. 8:39-47). Jesus speaks the truth. The unsaved Jews and Gentiles are used by Satan to persecute Christians. Isn't this a comforting thought that Christ knows exactly what is going on with these believers in Smyrna? He also knows exactly what will happen to them in the future, and He is allowing this persecution and suffering as a part of His sovereign plan.

II) Christ encourages the believers in Smyrna about a persecution that is coming (10-11)

Next, Christ gives the church a warning. They are about to suffer something very difficult, of which Christ says not to fear (10). Christ tells them that some of them will be imprisoned and He ascribes it to the activity of Satan. Their persecution was going to continue. Christ says that they will be tested during this time. The non-believers who are Satan's instruments will incite the imprisoned believers to deny Christ and abandon the faith. Their test will be to remain faithful to Christ and hold to the faith. Christ says that this specific tribulation will last ten days. This refers to a short period of time, not an exact number of days (Alford proposes this based on Scriptural precedent – Num. 11:19; 14:22; 1 Sam. 1:8; Job 19:3). Walvoord discusses how Christian suffering causes confusion on the part of believers. It is easy to understand why the unsaved would experience suffering, but why the saved? The Bible teaches that believers suffer at times for some of the following reasons: discipline (1 Cor. 11:30-32; Heb. 12:3-13); preventive measures (2 Cor. 12:7 – Paul's thorn in the flesh); the learning of obedience (Heb. 5:8 – Christ; cf. Rom. 5:3-5); or for the providing of a better testimony for Christ (Acts 9:16).

Christ provides them with an encouraging promise. In His promise is found the reality of death for remaining faithful to Christ and holding to the faith. Christ says that even though faced with death for refusing to deny Him, remain faithful to Christ and He will reward them with the crown of life. One thing that Christ makes clear to them is that even if their persecutors take their lives, it will only result in the believers receiving the crown of life in heaven. This is a reward to individual believers in Smyrna who die for not denying Christ and the faith.

Christ uses a call that He had used during His earthly ministry. Those who were saved and spiritually sensitive would hear what the Holy Spirit was saying to the believers in Smyrna (11). Christ says that the believer who overcomes will not be hurt by the Second Death. The Second Death is the Lake of Fire, which Christ mentions later in the letter (20:11-15). The Lake of Fire was created for Satan and his demons (Matt. 25:41-46). Only the unsaved will be harmed by the Second Death. Christ says that the one who overcomes will be rewarded by protection from the Second Death. The overcomer is described by John as a person who has repented of his sin and trusted by faith in the gospel for the forgiveness of sin (1 Jn. 5:1-5). Every true believer is an overcomer. No true believer will ever be hurt by the Second Death, the Lake of Fire.

Conclusion:

Christ encourages the church in Smyrna by letting them know the He knows exactly what is happening to them. He knows they are poor materially but informs them that they are rich spiritually and heavenly. He warns them that a more severe persecution is coming and some will die because they refuse to deny Christ. Jesus encourages them by telling them that if they die for Christ, He will reward them as martyrs with the crown of life. Some feel they would lose something if they died, but Christ tells them that they will gain a crown for doing so. Christ concludes by telling them that everyone who overcomes (all true believers) will not end up in the Lake of Fire. All true believers will spend eternity with Christ. It does not matter what is done to a true believer during this earthly life, but his eternal destination will never be effected. A true believer's eternal destination is assured by Christ.

The application for believers today is simple. True believers should always remain faithful to Christ and cling to the faith, no matter how difficult or deadly it becomes to do so. Christ says that if you die for Him, you will be rewarded! Not only will you be rewarded, but you will be in the presence of Christ eternally. A true believer will never be sent to the place of eternal torment, the final abode of the unsaved, the Lake of Fire.

A Call to be Consumed by Christ #2

A Call to be Consumed by Christ
The Church in Ephesus
Revelation 2:1-7

Intro:
Last week we began this series A Call to be Consumed by Christ which deals with the seven churches of Revelation. We learned that the entire book is a revealing of information by Jesus Christ through an angel. The occasion is that there are seven churches in Asia that Jesus desires to encourage to faithful living. They are facing persecuting during the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian (John wrote ca. AD 95-96). They are called by Christ to endure/overcome, to be faithful till the end of their lives. The motivation that Christ provides is that He has overcome. The book of Revelation outlines how Christ will bring an end to evil and how He will reward believers in the end. This should be enough to encourage these seven churches in Asia to persevere and remain faithful till the end.
This week we will examine the greeting to the church in Ephesus. At the time of John's writing the church was around 40 years old. The apostle John had just come from Ephesus where he had been involved in evangelism and discipleship. Timothy had been an apostolic representative in Ephesus. In earlier times the apostle Paul had been involved in starting the ministry at Ephesus during his third missionary journey. In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul had attempted to encourage the Jewish and Gentile Christians to be unified. Paul also encouraged them to live godly lives. In Acts we have the last recorded face-to-face interaction with the Ephesian pastors. Paul warned them to protect the church from the false teacher that were coming (Acts 20:17-38).

I) The positive characteristics of this local church (1-3)
Jesus greets the church with a description of who He is and what He is doing (1). Jesus is the
one who holds the seven stars in His right hand (the seven angels of the seven churches – Rev. 1:20). Jesus is the one who walks among the seven golden lampstands (the seven churches – Rev. 1:20). Christ is intimately associated with the local churches. A local church is the physical representation of the universal church (which is Christ's body – 1 Cor. 12:27). Christ maintains the spiritual life of the local church. It is interesting to think about that in Paul's encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus, Christ informed Paul that his persecution of Christians was indeed persecution of Christ Himself (Acts 9:1-6). This is how intimately involved Christ is with His church. Christ wants to remind the listeners in Ephesus of this reality again (Rev. 1:12-13).
Christ informs them that He knows their deeds, toil, and perseverance (2). He wants them to understand that He knows everything that they do. Christ knows what they do, their work for Him, and their steadfastness of faith. Christ also knows that they do not allow wicked men (false teachers, false believers, divisive people, unrepentant believers) to stick around in their gathering. The pastors of the church in Ephesus had been warned by Paul,
“ And now, behold, I know that all of you, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, will no longer see my face.26 Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men.27 For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.28 Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.29 I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock;30 and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.31 Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.32 And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” (Acts 20:25-32).
They had heeded Paul's warning. They had protected the church for which they were responsible. They had tested those who claimed to be apostles. The Ephesians found them to be false apostles. There were people traveling about claiming to be apostles. The term apostle is used in two different ways in the N.T. The first usage refers to the twelve apostles. They were appointed by Christ. The second usage refers to those who were sent ones. They were sent on special assignments to evangelize and disciple. John is referring to the Ephesian church testing those who claimed to be appointed by Christ. Christ is commending them for doing such good work.
Christ also commends them for their spiritual perseverance (3). The Ephesians have not denied Christ and they have not departed from the faith. This is an important theme in the book of Revelation. The N.T. repeatedly addresses the issue of persevering in the faith (Col. 1:21-23; 2 Cor. 13:5-6; Heb. 10:23-25). A person who rejects the gospel and walks away from Christ was not saved in the first place. A true believer does not live sinlessly but neither does he completely abandon Christ. Many times someone says some form of a prayer and automatically people think that person is saved. The truth is the evidence comes in time accompanied by a supernaturally changed life, not in the speaking of a few words.

II) The negative characteristic of this local church (4)
Christ moves on from the positives and addresses something that is a major problem. He tells them that the thing He has against them is that they “have left [their] first love.” There have been numerous proposals for the identification of this error in Ephesus. The church in Ephesus began from the evangelistic ministry of the apostle Paul on his third missionary journey (Acts 19). Ephesus was a city filled with idol worship, witchcraft and sorcery, and sexual immorality. It all began with twelve disciples of John the Baptist learning of Jesus the Messiah and accepting Christ as Savior (Acts 19:1-7). Paul then preached for 3 months in the Ephesian synagogue and then for 2 years longer in the school of Tyrannus. Many people repented of their sins and accepted Christ as Savior (Acts 19:18-20). Many Ephesians turned from idols, magic, and sexual immorality to Christ.
In the case of the Ephesian believers their transformation was radical. They could not continue in the ungodly way that they had been living upon accepting Christ as Savior and Lord. Forty years after the time the church began Christ addresses the Ephesian church by informing them that they have left their first love. Likely what had happened was that the church did not have the all-consuming love and devotion for Christ that they had at the beginning of the church. They were beginning to go through the motions. They no longer were in awe of God. They were no longer in awe of the gospel. They were no longer consumed by Christ. They were no longer consumed by carrying Christ's command of making disciples through evangelism and discipleship. Christ has this against them. They are practicing an empty, passionless religion. They were not living a passionate, Christ-consumed, God-honoring Christian life. Christ has this against them. Christ is not pleased. John Walvoord shares this observation,
“Most of the Ephesian Christians were now second-generation believers, and though they had retained purity of doctrine and life and had maintained a high level of service, they were lacking in deep devotion to Christ. How the church today needs to heed this same warning, that orthodoxy and service are not enough. Christ wants believers’ hearts as well as their hands and heads.”

III) The warning to the local church (5)
Christ calls them back to the passionate, Christ-consumed, God-honoring Christian life that they had lived at the beginning of the Ephesian church some forty years before. Christ tells them to remember how they lived. He calls them to repent. Christ wants them to mourn for how they are living and turn away from it! He wants them to begin living a passionate, Christ-honoring, God-honoring Christian life that they had lived at the beginning of the Ephesian church some forty years before. Wiersbe wrote the following,
“They displayed “works... labor... and patience” (Rev. 2:2), but these qualities were not motivated by a love for Christ. What we do for the Lord is important, but so is why we do it!”
Christ warns the Ephesian church that if they do not repent and begin to live a passionate, Christ-consumed, God-honoring Christian life, He is going to punish them. The punishment is that Christ will remove their lampstand. We are able to know what this means by referring back to Christ's own explanation of the meaning of the lampstands. The lampstands are the local churches! DA Carson shares this,
“The removal of the lampstand from its place can signify nothing less than the end of Christ’s recognition of the church as a church of his. It will become as devoid of Christ as the temple of Jerusalem became empty of God prior to its destruction (cf. Ezk. 11:22–23; Mt 23:38). So grave is the sin of lovelessness in a Christian church.”
Jesus warns them that if they do not repent of their empty going-through-the-motions Christian living, He is going to remove their lampstand. Christ is saying that He will remove His presence from their church. He is no longer going to be intimately involved in the life of the church. He is no longer going to manifest His power and presence in the church. They will truly be a church that lacks the abiding presence of God. No true believer can ever lose his salvation, but according to Jesus a local church can physically exist and not have His abiding presence. This truly is a dead church.

IV) The reward for individuals who overcome (6-7)
Christ emphasizes another positive aspect of the church in Ephesus by stating that they “hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” (6). Walvoord makes the following observation,
“There has been much speculation concerning the identity of the Nicolaitans, but the Scriptures do not specify who they were. They apparently were a sect wrong in practice and in doctrine.”
The Nicolaitans were a group that was compromising the truths of Christianity to avoid persecution from the emperor Domitian. Domitian demanded worship as though he were a god. Christians refused to do so. The Nicolaitans were advocating compromise and were syncretistic. They began taking bits-and-pieces from Roman religions and making them a part of their “Christian” faith. Jesus says, and I want you to get the full impact of this, He hates the deeds of the Nicolaitans! Have you ever heard people say, “I am a Christian, but I like what other religions have to teach. So, I like to take a little from each one.” Jesus hates that! Be warned.
Christ tells them that the person who holds to the faith will be rewarded by being able to, “eat from the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.” (7). This is a promise to all genuine believers. “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son ofGod?” (1 Jn. 5:4-5). This reward is for all believers. It is apart from the warning to repent that was given to the entire church. This reward is addressed to individual believers. All true believers will eat from the tree of life in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 22:2).

Conclusion:
In history the local churches in Ephesus continued to exist but did not have the same spiritual impact as at the beginning when Paul started them. They did not heed Christ's warning and repent of their empty, passionless playing church activity. Walvoord shares this from history,
“The church continued and was later the scene of a major church council, but after the 5th century both the church and the city declined. The immediate area has been uninhabited since the 14th century.”
Keener shares this,
“Eventually only a village remained of what was once mighty Ephesus, several miles from the original site of the city; due to silt deposits, it was already beginning to lose its geographical position as a coastal city in John’s day.”
I think that there are probably a lot of dead churches that still have open doors, and still pay bills. Yet, tragically Jesus is not there! The church in Ephesus was commended by Jesus for holding to the gospel and for teaching the truth. But, He tells them that they have been going through the motions. They have been playing church and if they don't stop playing church, He is going to remove His presence from their church! I think there are a lot of places like this today. There are a lot of churches that are not passionate, Christ-consumed, God-honoring local churches.