revelation

The End

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After journeying for an entire year through Scripture, we’ve finally reached the end of the story, but what we’re looking at today is not another story from history that’s already occurred, but instead the future we look forward. We can look forward to this future with hope because we’ve seen God make good on his promises throughout the entire story found in God’s Word.

Here it is, the end of all things:

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.””
-Revelation 21:1-8

Rather than provide a lengthy reflection on this passage, which is my temptation every time I read these incredible words of hope, I want to simply encourage you to reflect upon the implications of our future hope.

-Both heaven and earth are finally made new for eternity.

-Our future home is a dwelling place with God.

-We look forward to a day when suffering and evil cease to exist.

-The experience of this future hope is completely free for any who would take it.

-Those without this hope have a drastically different destiny.

Reflect upon these truths, and ask: How do these truths impact the way you live right now?

The Need for Renewal

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When I was in high school, I ran cross country. Granted, I wasn’t very devoted to it because I could never really understand why people would run for the sake of running, which is why I took up soccer my sophomore year. But still, I ran cross country.

I found one of the keys is discipline and consistency throughout the race. The only problem is I always started way too fast. I jumped off the starting line like the mobs on Black Friday when the doors finally open. I raced hard out of the gate and ended up winded just a half mile in. Slowly but surely, I settled into the middle of the pack as a result.

How many of us have the same experience when it comes to our walk with Jesus? We started like a blazing fire for Jesus, and now we are barely glimmering embers after hitting the realities of the world around us. Temptations and persecutions have slowly worn us down.

This is exactly where many of the early churches found themselves only a few short years after being planted by Paul. In fact, most of these churches begin with incredible faithfulness and passion for Jesus, but it’s not long until Satan begins to attack and the churches need renewal. The letters in Revelation are meant for just this purpose: spiritual renewal and encouragement.

In Revelation 2:1-11, we find Jesus addressing two churches. First, the church at Ephesus has apparently experienced just the issue that we’ve been talking about. They remained doctrinally faithful, but the passion and love that used to flow from that doctrine has slowly died away. They are no longer living lives that are fueled by the Gospel. Their love for Jesus and others has dwindled, and as a result, Jesus is calling for them to return to their love for Him rather than be satisfied merely with right doctrine.

The Ephesian church needed a renewal of the love and practice of their faith through repentance, and Jesus encourages them toward this end through the hope that they have in Jesus: eternal life with God.

The second church is Smyrna. The problem they face is from the outside: persecution. This persecution threatened their spiritual well being, too. Jesus encourages them with promises of the hope that is beyond this present life.

Both these churches were experiencing threats to their spiritual vitality: one from within and the other from without.

Whatever is threatening your spiritual life, you can find hope and renewal in the Gospel. Return to the words of Jesus. They are for you, Christian. Experience the renewal of your passion and burn brightly for Jesus once again.

The Path to Revitalization

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Over the past several weeks, we have examined the declining churches in the book of Revelation. Jesus rebukes the churches with urgency and specificity. But He does not leave the churches without direction. He guides them away from decline and toward victory once again.

In other words, he provides a path to revitalization.

This path involves three primary steps:
1. Listen
2. Repent
3. Hold Fast 

First, the call to listen to Christ’s exhortation is loud and clear. Every letter to the churches includes the phrase, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” One cannot begin down the road to conquering and revitalization without hearing the Word of God. Listening as the Spirit of God speaks through his Word is vital. Next, a step that is not always primary should be considered. In both the letters to Ephesus and Sardis, Christ calls the churches to remember. For some churches in decline, looking back on their rich history of faithfulness to see how far they have fallen is incredibly helpful. Often Satan can encourage doubts of salvation during times of conviction, thus remembering can encourage a church as it sees God’s previous work among them.

The second primary step toward conquering is to repent of the sins that led to decline. All five churches that have experienced decline are called to repent. Recognizing sin is not enough. Churches must turn from that sin and toward Christ.

Once a church has genuinely repented, they have officially taken steps in faithfulness again. Now, they must continue in that faithfulness by holding fast. As discussed earlier, an essential part of conquering is persevering in faithfulness. In order for revitalization to have a lasting effect, churches must not only listen and repent, but also hold fast.

Death by Self-Reliance

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“So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” 

These are the words of Jesus to the church of Laodicea.

If you have sat through Sunday sermons for long, you have probably heard the warnings against being a lukewarm Christian. Too often, lukewarm is understood to be mediocrity in the Christian life. Preachers declare that to be hot is to be a passionate Christian, while being cold is to be an unbeliever.

But Revelation 3:14-22 does not seem to support that idea, for in this case, the text would apparently be implying that to be an unbeliever is better than being lukewarm. Instead, M.J.S. Rudwick points first to the contemporary situation in which the Laodiceans, despite being rich, could not obtain hot or cold water of which both have good uses, and as a result, the water supply for Laodicea was used as a symbol to represent their “uselessness” and “ineffective[ness]” for the Lord. Yet ineffectiveness seems to be a symptom rather than the root of the problem.

Instead, arrogance and self-reliance are at the core their decline. Apparently, they believe they are prosperous and “need nothing,” but Jesus asserts that they are actually “wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” He calls them to come humbly and rely upon him for their riches. Thus it appears that Satan has sought to develop an attitude of pride and self-reliance in the church at Laodicea.

The pride that leads to this kind of self-reliance continues to be common among churches today, and when self-reliance is present, one will find a declining church or at least, soon-to-be declining.

Reliance upon programs, personalities, and promotionals is deadly for a church. 

Jesus calls us to be reliant upon him, guided by his Word, and powered by His Spirit. When we rely upon our own efforts to create growth, the opposite actually occurs. Sure, some initial growth in attendance may come, but spiritual depth and fruit of the spirit will slowly whither away.

Are you relying upon yourself? Or are you completely dependent upon the Lord? If we’re honest, we all have a bit of a self-reliant streak within us.

May we repent of self-reliance, and instead, draw upon the riches of His power and grace that we might be useful for His glory.

Death by Silence

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Silence can be deadly. You’d think something as passive as silence would have very little effect on anything. For instance, think about when someone is getting bullied. Silently standing by can be just as harmful as actually bullying. Another example, if a doctor gets your results back from a test, yet fails to tell you anything, you could very easily be heading toward your death and never know it.

On an even more significant level, churches possess the life-giving message of the Gospel apart from which people will experience eternity apart from the glorious goodness of our great God. When churches are silent concerning this message, people will die, and ultimately, the church will die. This is made crystal clear with the church at Sardis.

G.K. Beale  argues that the church at Sardis has developed an incomplete witness. Based upon the introductory image, which alludes to the idea of witness, and the idea that the church has a good reputation but incomplete works, the church at Sardis appears to have failed to complete their witness and conquer.  (The Book of Revelation 273-274) In whatever form their compromise took, they clearly were lacking in their evangelistic witness to the world. Satan wants nothing more than for the church to fail in this area, and Jesus will not endure a church who refuses to repent of this sin.

The passage isn’t clear whether Sardis was lacking in their verbal or physical witness to the Gospel. Whether their words or their actions were silent does not matter, their witness was incomplete. We must recognize that our witness must be holistic. We cannot allow any part of our lives to be silent when it comes to the Gospel.

Without works that portray the Gospel, our message will likely fall on deaf ears.

But even worse, without the message of the Gospel flowing from our lips, our works will only provide temporary healing and lead people to eternal torment.

May our churches flee death by completely and boldly proclaiming the Gospel through our words and deeds.

Death by Indifference

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Often churches begin to die because their passion is in all the wrong places: the color of the carpet, the style of music, or an obsession over specific sins. While their passion is misguided and harmful, at least they have passion.

Often, an even deadlier disease in churches is indifference. Apathy toward truly significant issues, such as doctrine, mission, community, and values, will deteriorate a church slowly over time. A poison just as deadly, yet often much quicker to work, is indifference to blatant, obstinate sin.

Thyatira, the third dying church in the book of Revelation, experienced this very problem. In Revelation 2:20, Jesus proclaims to Thyatira: “But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.” Thyatira is rebuked for both their toleration of and participation in sin. Sometimes Satan attacks by seeking to create a tolerant spirit toward sin. Instead of disciplining those in sin, the church at Thyatira had grown tolerant, and as a result, many began to take part in the sin as well. In order to conquer, this church must cast off toleration of sin.

While we certainly want to be careful to love everyone and forgive those who sin against us, apathetic tolerance of sin in people’s life within the church is one of the most unloving approaches we can take. We are told to call brothers and sisters back from sin stemming from compassion like Christ, who has called each of us out of the deadly effects of sin. Tolerating blatant, obstinate sin leads to division, apathy in mission, the tarnishing of God’s glory, and ultimately the death of churches.

Rather than indifference, may we develop a compassionate sorrow over sin in our churches and graciously pursue our church family when they wander from the truth.

Death by Doctrine

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Doctrine… What an outdated term! At least that’s how most people feel. Hearing the word “doctrine” produces images of tired, old theologians studying ancient, dust-laden books in a decrepit library far from society. Unfortunately, that’s an entirely ill-conceived idea.

Doctrine is simply the set of beliefs one holds as a church. In fact, rather than a conception of irrelevancy and decrepitness, doctrine can actually be life-giving. Doctrine that flows from the Scripture and is centered upon the Gospel is a solid foundation and a source of strength for a church.

BUT doctrine can very easily be a poison that undermines the church and leads to death if it’s not based upon the truth of Scripture. In fact, this is just the death that Pergamum had begun to experience in the book of Revelation. This second church in need of Revitalization is called out by Jesus for giving into false teaching, or in other words, deadly doctrine.

Any church that veers from the truth of God’s Word and the Gospel will experience a decline in spiritual vitality and ultimately death. Some may keep their physical numbers up as they merely tickle the ears of the world around them, but their people will not be receiving life.

Cling to God’s Word and the Gospel as your foundation and authority.

Otherwise, your church will experience the death threatened by Jesus to the church in Pergamum.

Death by Duty

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Five of the seven churches in Revelation were on decline. Jesus doesn’t mess around, but He goes right to the heart of the issue and calls each to repentance. The first church that Jesus addresses is Ephesus.

Jesus encourages the church for the fact that they have remained steadfast in their good works and defending against false teaching. Yet these outward actions stand in clear contrast to their inward motives. After his encouragement, Jesus says, “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.”

Ephesus continues to do and say all of the right things, yet they have lost the central aspect: love. Satan has sought to undermine the motives of the church at Ephesus. With loveless motives, every good work and teaching is practically worthless. Paul makes this clear in 1 Corinthians 13. In Spiritual Warfare & Missions, Ed Stetzer and Jerry Rankin make a good point: “Churches can be right and committed but ineffective because their motivation is wrong. Orthodoxy is never an end into itself” (255). Satan attacks the motives of churches, for they will begin to decline as long as their motives are wrong.

Instead of maintaining their institution or continuing in legalism, Jesus calls the church at Ephesus to passionate loving service for the sake of His fame. And he drives the seriousness of this problem with this weighty declaration:

“If not, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place, unless you repent.”

Is your church just going through the motions? Are they just maintaining the status quo for the sake of comfortability? Are they defending right teaching and doing good works only out of duty? If so, they must return to the love they had at first. 

Don’t let your church die the slow death by duty. 

Repent, pray for a filling of power and passion from the Holy Spirit, and hold the glory of the love of Christ in the Gospel before them.

Being Deaf to Christ’s Rebuke

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Five out of Seven churches in Asia Minor were in need of revitalization at the end of the first century. At least that’s the case concerning the seven churches that were addressed in the book of Revelation.

Five churches—Ephesus, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, and Laodicea.

Each of these five were addressed in the same way and for the same reason: they needed to be revitalized.

Over the next few weeks, we will be considering what these letters teach us about church revitalization. We’ll start with a quick look at the construction of the letters and then consider the negative aspect of Jesus address. Later, we will look at the solutions that Jesus provides.

G.K. Beale represents the consensus opinion concerning the outline of the letters. He divides the letters into seven parts that are typical of each letter in the following order: “Command to write…, Christ’s self- description…, commendation of the church’s good works…, accusation because of some sin, exhortation to repent…, exhortation to discern the truth…, and promise to the conquerers.” (1) Each letter varies slightly, but this is the normal structure of the letters. We’ll sum it up with five parts: the self-revelation of Christ, his encouragement and promises to the churches, his rebukes and warnings, his exposure of the churches’ failure in battle, and his path to victory or revitalization.

The rebukes and the exposure of failure are surrounded by Jesus’ solutions. So we’ll start with the middle, negative aspects and in weeks to come work out from there to see how each aspects of the letter was specifically meant to provide new life to the dying churches. We start with the negative because we must grapple with the problem before we will have the motivation to pursue the solution.

First, Christ rebukes these five churches and proclaims a warning of the consequences involved in not responding positively. Each rebuke is based upon a sharp or extended decline in faithfulness. Christ follows his encouraging words to Ephesus, Pergamum, and Thyatira with the following phrase: “But I have this against you….” This phrase clearly sets apart the reason for rebuke.

Christ’s rebuke is no mere angry rant toward the churches. Instead, these rebukes are calls for revitalization. Christ does not long to see his bride wither away and die, thus as he points out in his words to Laodicea, he disciplines those he loves and calls them to life again. Nevertheless, this call for revitalization is followed by a warning for those who refuse to respond rightly. For instance, Christ promises to remove the lampstand of the church at Ephesus if they do not pursue repentance and faithfulness.

The consequences of being deaf to Christ’s rebuke is the death of your church.

Next, having their attention, Christ gets specific by exposing specific failures. Each church’s unique, present decline in faithfulness is influenced in powerful ways by Satan’s specific temptations. Considering each church and the area of decline into which Satan has sought to lead them will provide insight into the typical ways that churches experience a decline in faithfulness. We will consider these ways by focusing on each dying church over the next five weeks.

Revelation & Revitalization Part 1

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The abundance of perspectives concerning the book of Revelation can be overwhelming. Much concerning the genre and imagery of Revelation is largely unfamiliar to most of the contemporary Christian world. Nevertheless, many people hold deep convictions concerning the interpretation of its contents. From dispensationalists to covenantalists and premillenialists to postmillenialists, scholars and lay people alike have passionate opinions concerning this unique book. Yet others avoid Revelation for its difficulty and apparent lack of clarity. Many Christians passively resign themselves to never understanding this apocalyptic book.

While the difficulties and longstanding debates concerning this book cannot be solved in a few short posts, a clear theme in Revelation can be seen and addressed: spiritual warfare in dying churches.

The dire need for revitalization is a direct result of spiritual warfare. Considering Scripture’s emphasis on spiritual warfare, Jerry Rankin asserts, “It is obvious that Satan is diametrically opposed to Christ, to the church, to the extension of God’s kingdom, and to individual Christians….”8 An enemy of God and His Church rules over this world and seeks to “devour” God’s people as the apostle points out in 1 Peter 5:8-9. Churches are constantly under attack from the evil one, and in the present age, some will falter because of these attacks. Thus, the reality of spiritual warfare establishes an expectation that churches will need to be revitalized, and this reality is never clearer than in Revelation.

In the coming weeks, I will elaborate upon various lessons concerning church revitalization that we can glean from Revelation. Continue to check back for posts on the reality of warfare, Christ’s path to victory, and the key concepts for revitalization.