Revelation

Read This Week: Revelation 2

You have persevered, endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
– Revelation 2:3-5 NIV

Judging types, sizes, and styles of churches have become a bit of a pastime in America. Many like to sit around and talk about the genre of music that churches play and the type of welcome one receives. People comment on the activities for the kids, whether or not the youth group is excellent, whether the pastor teaches expositional or topical, and if one can join a small group that is convenient for their schedule. There are as many opinions as there are people. Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church and is the only one with the authority, sovereignty, and supremacy to judge churches and their spiritual intent and rightly assess their hearts. He is the righteous judge of the Church.

Revelation 2 talks about churches. John is relaying the words of Christ to 4 churches in this chapter: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, and Thyatira. All of them have specific characteristics in particular settings with varied challenges. All of them had things they did well and brought glory to God that Jesus commends, but three of the four also had something that the Lord held against them. Only Smyrna had no charges or accusations upon them. They were persecuted and poor, but they had found favor in God’s sight. The others had qualities that were commendable and fitting for Christ-centered churches. But they also had things that Jesus wanted to address, correct, and rebuke.

One of the more interesting ones is Ephesus. The Lord begins his address to them by commending their service, good works, and sacrifice. After all, this was a church that had Paul, Timothy, and John himself as leaders at one time in their history. They had gleaned from the teaching and example of their former leaders and were equipped to be a dynamic church in a big city. Ephesus was also a church that knew how to be a light. They would go to great lengths to separate themselves from false doctrine and teachers and from deceitful behavior (v.6). They didn’t pull back from their witness and stayed on mission despite great opposition. From the outside, Ephesus was a church to be emulated and imitated.

But God sees the heart and saw a heart problem in Ephesus. Not only a heart problem but a love problem. He says in his accusation that they had forsaken the love you had at first. The Church was going through the motions even though their motions were admirable, good, and worthy. But their activities had grown stale and routine, and it wasn’t underwritten by the love and passion they once had for Jesus. So Christ rebukes them for their spiritual apathy and says if they don’t return to a love-filled walk with God, He will remove their influence. God was more concerned about who they were than what they were doing. He wanted their hearts to be right again before they did anything more with their hands.

The same message is relevant to us today. God is telling us through the challenge to the Church at Ephesus, don’t leave me. Don’t leave our first love. Don’t forsake the passion, excitement, joy, and deep commitments of our hearts at the beginning of our life with God. Don’t allow intimacy with Christ to become just a routine and not a beautiful love relationship that is renewed daily. Don’t allow a cooled-down love to hurt our witness and cause us to lose our influence on the gospel mission. Jesus is exhorting us not to leave Him. He calls to us to return to the things we did at first. Stay with the One who gave us life and brought us to this point and who will never leave. Stay by His side and stay in love. He is worthy.

Read This Week: Revelation 1

“Look, he is coming with the clouds,” and “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him,” and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.” So shall it be! Amen. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”
– Revelation 1:7-8 and 17-18 NIV

The ideas, visions, and dreams of what life will be like in the future have captured the imaginations of human beings from the beginning of time. Visionaries and pioneers have existed in every generation with the desire to explore and forge new paths toward the possibilities ahead. The rest gaze toward the horizon, stars, and boundaries of our world, wondering what life will be like in the future. What lies before us and what will become of us has and will always be in our minds and hearts. To be human is to aspire to know.

The book of Revelation is the ultimate look at the future. In the original language, Revelation is the word apokalupsis, which means “a revealing or unveiling.” So the book is uncovering what is to come and, more importantly, who is to come. Chapter 1, verse 8 illustrates this with Jesus’ declaration of being the Alpha and the Omega, who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. This ties in perfectly with that profound passage in John 1, where Jesus is God and with God in the beginning. Now, in this study, we will see Him at the end. We will see Him revealed in all of His glory and what things will look like in the future for those who have placed saving faith in Christ and those who have and will reject Him. In fact, verse 7 tells us that every eye will see him. All will finally see Him for who He is, not who they think He is.

The Apostle John is the dreamer to whom Jesus shows our life in the future. He lives exiled on the Island of Patmos, and the Lord finds him worthy to receive this word and spiritual Revelation to the seven churches, and as John writes, anyone who reads aloud the words of this prophecy. From the start, we see Jesus, the most important truth about Revelation. But this book also shows us eschatological imagery that challenges the imagination. It shows us the Antichrist, God’s judgment, adversity and chaos on the earth, and final things. Most of all, it shows who Jesus Christ is to us. He is our king, our savior, our reclaimer, our deliverer, and our future. The best thing about our life in the future is Jesus and an eternal relationship with Him.

While the prevailing thought in chapter one is the exalted and glorified Christ among his church and his constant care for them, one can’t help but be captured by the language describing the majesty of Jesus. Take this moment to read these lines from verses 13-16, then close your eyes, worship God, and let your heart be filled with joy for your life in the future with such a grand, magnificent Savior: 

I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand, he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.