Frank Words to Imperfect Churches

Well, have you been around the last few months? You're aware that things have been pretty

bumpy for us all at Faith Community. Not trusting ourselves, the elders have retained the

services of the Centre Consulting Group to help us identify and address our faults and our sins

and our failures and our weaknesses and to encourage us back to health. And we do need

them. Even in the short time that they've been here, they've been very direct, very helpful, very

encouraging. But Even they say, look, we're not Jesus. There's only one savior, there's only one

Messiah who can look into our hearts and tell us exactly what's going on and give us grace to

forgive and to be forgiven, Grace to restart and redirect. Which sort of got us thinking, if Jesus

were to be the greatest as a church, what would he look for? I mean, what would disturb him

and what would excite him? What would be the top items on his priority list and what would he

just ignore? More as completely irrelevant. What would Jesus think?

And I have to say that most churches today are fixated on nickels and noses. Money and

numbers. You know, the measure of a church is how many people attend on a given weekend,

how much money they give, how attractive the facilities are, how many programs are offered for

every person. And you know, if bigger is better than biggest is best of all. And so the largest

fellowships, the mega fellowships, the mega churches, have become models for all the others to

mimic.

And, you know, it's sort of like, well, their pastors have succeeded and they've won the right to

lead seminars and reveal their secrets and show the rest of us how it's done. But the question

is, what if it's not about nickels and noses, numbers and size? I mean, what if church health is

something deeply internal and spiritual rather than economic or programmatic?

So there's one section of scripture that records for us 7 letters of evaluation. From Jesus himself

to seven of his local churches. In that time, and starting with a blank piece of paper, he could

commend or/ condemn anything that he saw fit. And it's really striking to notice what things that

he targeted to encourage or to change and what things he didn't even mention. Not once, in

fact, not once did he utter a word about average weekly attendance. Not once did he mention

how nice their facility was. Not once did he complain that a church's menu of programs was

limited. Well, if not those, then then what? And that's what we're going to find out. So look at

chapter one, verse one and two. And I want to try to give you the background 1st and then we're

going to dive into the very first letter. I'm kind of setting up the whole series and then we're going

to look at the 1st letter. This is an open letter from Jesus. Chapter one, verse 1 and 2, the

revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to His servants the things that must

soon take place. He made it known by sending his Angel to his servant John, who bore witness

to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Now I want you

to notice first of all that it's not Revelations. Turn to the book of Revelations. It's not plural, it's

singular.

The revelation and that revelation, what's being revealed is Jesus Christ, who he is, what he will

do, when he will do it. The picture is that God the Father gives God the Son a message which

the Son gives to an Angel and then dictates it to John, who writes it down, sends it to the seven

local churches at the end of the 1st century. That's the picture. And in preparation for these 7

letters or messages. John sees a vision of Jesus that really is startlingly different than what he

witnessed 12 years ago. Following Jesus in Galilee, in Judea before the resurrection. He sees

Jesus, but he says, Oh my gosh, this is really different. And this is a very important picture of

Jesus. So if you look at the vision of Christ, chapter one, verse 9, we're going to read chapter 1,

verse 9 through 20. It's a little longer, but stay with me and you'll see what's going on.

Revelations 1:9, ” I, John , your brother and partner in the tribulation and the Kingdom and the

patient endurance that are in Jesus. Was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of

God and the testimony of Jesus. (He was exiled there.) (10) I was in the Spirit on the Lord's

Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying.” (Excuse me? He didn't cough.)

“Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna,

and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis to Philadelphia and Laodicea.”

(12) “And then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw 7 golden

lampstands. (13) And in the midst of the lamb stands one like a son of man, clothed with a long

robe, with a golden sash around his chest. (14) The hairs of his head were white, like white

wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, (15) his feet were like burnished bronze,

refined in a furnace. And his voice was like the roar of many waters. (6)In his right hand he held

seven stars. From his mouth came a sharp 2 edged sword and his face was like the sun shining

in full strength.

(17)When I saw him I fell at his feet as though dead, but he laid his right hand on me, saying,

fear not, I am the first in the last (18) and the living one. I died and behold, I am alive

forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades. (19) Write therefore the things you have

seen, those that are, and those that are to take place after this. (20) As for the mystery of the

seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars

are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.’

So the vision of Christ, the revelation of Christ, tells us who he really is and what he's really

like. And it's really critical to see that because he's going to be the answer to all of our troubles.

And as we're going to see, Jesus will begin each of his messages to the churches by reminding

him, by reminding them of something about himself.

OK, so who are the recipients? Well, these are churches. Chapter one, verse 4, John to the

seven churches that are in Asia. If you looked at a map at that point, you would see these seven

churches in what is now modern Turkey. To the West is Athens, to the east is Antioch, to the

southeast is Jerusalem, right there in the middle of that area. Below Ephesus is Patmos, an

island. That's where he's writing from, but he's writing to these seven churches.

They were local churches in Asia Minor. If you got close to them and looked at them, you'd see

that. They were on a circular mail route and they were listed in geographic order as one would

travel from Ephesus clockwise, so Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia,

and Laodicea. So OK, how many letters are there? Well, not OK, if you said seven, I would

completely understand that, but that's not right. There's one letter, there's a single scroll that

contains the whole of Revelation, and there are 7 messages, but they're all part of the same

thing. There's not 7 scrolls with a private letter for each of the seven churches, not even 7

copies of Revelation, but one that would be read at each destination and then passed around.

It's like reading somebody else's mail aloud in a group. And that's the point. Jesus wanted

each church to read each other's mail. And learn from what he was saying to others as well as

to them.

We would just call it an open letter. And not so obviously. This is not just for century One

churches. Those seven churches represent churches in every age. Their problems speak

pointedly to our problems as well. And it's really clear from what the letters say that they were.

They were far from perfect. In fact, many were struggling to survive. And so Jesus is apparently

very interested. Intensely interested. In how churches function, how we function as a local

church, as a faith community.

OK, so who are the angels? Well, each of the seven messages begins with this phrase to the

Angel of the church in whatever, in whatever place it is. You say, well, who are these angels?

Some people think that they're heavenly beings watching over the churches. And I understand

that. I mean, of the 175 times the New Testament uses the term Angel, it almost always refers to

these. Created spirit beings who do God's will that most of the time we can't see. But not always

the word Angel literally means messenger and it clearly does in some of the passages.

Like for instance, Mark 1 2 “As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, Behold, I send my messenger,

that's the word Angel before your face. Who will prepare your way?” He's talking about John the

Baptist.

Or Luke 9:52 “And he (Jesus) sent messengers. (That's the word angels in the original) ahead

of him who went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make preparations for him.” He was

talking about his disciples.

Or James 2:25 “And in the same way was not Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she

received the Messengers, (that's the word Angels) and sent them out by another way?

In other words, it can mean human beings, human messengers. And I think it does here

because Jesus is writing to the Angel, a messenger of the church. And that messenger, that

Angel is supposed to be reading it to the body in that locale. So even if it is referring to a

spiritual being, the letter still needs to be communicated to the church by someone and probably

not by the appearing of an Angel materializing in their midst and somehow reading something

that's no, it's a pastor, it's a teacher, it's an elder that he's referring to who will read it to the body.

Who's he writing to? Well, if you read this in the original language, something would strike you

as very startling. Even though it was written to a local church, all the personal pronouns like you

are singular. I mean, you'd expect to say “you all”. But no, no he doesn't. He says you

individually.

So Jesus is addressing individuals. In a sense, there is no way a church can do anything. Only

individuals can do things. And though The Dirty laundry of the church is exposed publicly, the

invitation to change is always very personal and direct. You can't change the church. You can

only change yourself with God's grace. So the onus or the burden is on each person. You are

the church. I don't know why I think the church should be more blank. OK. Why don't you start

with you, because it's just us. We are the church. That's it. So how you respond is how the

church is responding. The content of the letter is interesting because again and again Jesus

says I know. He says it 7 times. I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know.

And it indicates that Jesus is very aware of the conditions of his churches. Five of the seven

times where he says I know, he says I know their deeds, your deeds. So he's giving this naked

evaluation of the obedience and devotion of his people. He says, I know this. Apparently you

can't get anything past Jesus. It's not like he doesn't see what's going on in our lives or in our

church. He knows where each one of us is individually. He knows the things that we've hidden

from each other. He knows the things that have happened behind closed doors. He knows

about you and me, and he knows stuff about us that we're not even aware of. He knows. And so

he writes because he knows now there's a pattern for each of these churches.

Each of the seven letters follows this very distinct pattern, a pattern intentionally designed to

encourage and expose and motivate his church.

There are five parts to each message or letter. Let me just go through those five parts because

we're kind of going to use that outline, I think, all the way through the seven churches.

1. Each begins with a Portrait of Christ and he reminds us of who is writing. And

how important, therefore, this correspondence is. This isn't junk mail to pitch. It's

not a form letter to ignore. This is from Jesus himself. Jesus personally. So we

should sit up and take notice.

2. And then a Praise for some commendable quality. I mean, he wants to

encourage us. He tells us what pleases and honors him, what he's excited about.

And believe me, if there's anything commendable in our lives at all, he'll find it.

He'll tell us and we need to hear it.

3. And then, a Problem needing correcting. And Jesus here pulls no punches. He

exposes what isn't good, what might be poisoning our hearts or damaging our

thinking. He says it like it is.

4. And then he follows his diagnosis with a Prescription for change. He gives very

specific direction, directions on how to address the problem and get back on

track. And he expects us not to be defensive, not to try to deflect, not to

rationalize, not to be passive about his prescription. He expects us to respond

to him, and we should.

5. And so then Jesus.Ends every letter with this Promise, a promise, some promise

to motivate that. This promise gives perspective and he and he just gives his

word, he promises. That He will reward our faith in Him.

In fact, Jesus calls those who believe in him a very special name. And that name is a conqueror,

or the international calls it an Overcomer. I don't think this is a special subset of believers but it's

just a normal out working of all believers faith. In fact, in an earlier letter, John the Apostle John

who wrote Revelation also wrote first John and he explained who these overcomers or

conquerors were.

And it's really clear, he says in 1st John 4:4, “Little children, you are from God and have

overcome them, conquered them. For he who is in you is greater than who is in the world’.

Jesus is in our lives. The Spirit of God is in our hearts and therefore we overcome the word. It's

interesting. The word overcome or conquer is the word Nikkei, from which a brand of clothing.

You know which one it is, Nike. Nike, right? It's because it means conquer or overcome. And so

you see this word conquer or overcome here. Who's the one that conquers the one that has

Jesus in their life.

Or 1st John 5:4&5 “Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.” Conquers the

world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world. Our faith. Who is it that overcomes

the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? The overcomer is the one

who trusts Jesus. Jesus says you've overcome as a result of believing in me.

So every local church, you say? No, wait a minute. I don't think that everybody is an overcomer.

Yeah, yeah, all believers are. Because every local church is made-up with, you know, a range of

commitment, full-fledged believers who are committed to Jesus.

Believers who have become distracted from their faith. And so, you know, they've grown

apathetic and they don't care anymore. Some who are still searching and seeking, trying

to grasp what that good news the gospel is. Some who have never experienced a real heart

change but continue to profess to be a Christian, they say, yeah, I'm a Christian. Why go to

church? And OK, but have you ever really experienced that turning point in your life where the

Spirit of God comes in, forgives you as a result of what Jesus did. Do you really believe that

what Jesus did is enough to make you right with God, that he died in your place for your guilt?

Have you really embraced that? Well, there's people that say it's so many words.

Do they really believe? They say they do. But Jesus knows our hearts, and he promises to the

one who believes the Conqueror. That our faith in Him will be rewarded. And finally, the last part

of every letter is the Spirit speaking.

And so each letter ends with this command. “He who has an ear. How many of you have ears?

Oh Gee, about half of us.

“He who has an ear, let him hear with the Spirit” is saying. In other words, he says, you gotta

hear us. Use them. Listen, this is to you and to me. It's not just back then there, but here and

now, God is speaking to us.

When these letters are going to be read and the Spirit will speak to you in a personal way.

If you're open to hear you, that'll happen this morning. I promise you, by the end of that first

letter, you will have the Spirit of God nudging you. If you have years to hear, you'll hear him

speak to you. OK, are you ready? Ready for the first one? OK, here we go.

II. Message #1: To Ephesus

A. Portrait of Christ: Personally present (vs:1)

Revelation 2:1 “To the Angel of the church in Ephesus write:”

Ephesus was a city over 1000 years old, had a rich and storied history it was founded as a

Greek free city about the time the King David reigned in Israel and it was the third largest city in

the Roman Empire, had a population about the size of Boise, believe it or not, and it was a

politically really important city it was intensely religious and intensely. Politically they merged the

two politics and religion through the deification and the worship of the Emperor. And they

created this huge temple and put statues of the emperor up and they had sacrifices and they

had mandatory confessions where you had to take a little pinch of incense and then you had to

say Caesar is Lord.

You know that would be a problem for Christians who believe that only Jesus is Lord. Well,

among the 50 other idols in Ephesus, Artemis, the goddess of sex, magic and astrology, was

the most popular. Visitors from all over the world pilgrimage to Ephesus to see and worship in

the temple of Artemis. The temple of Artemis was absolutely amazing. It was 4 football fields

long and over 2 football fields wide and five stories high. It had 127 marble pillars overlaid

with gold and jewelry. It employed thousands of priests and temple prostitutes to worship. Oh,

I'm not going to go into it, but you get the idea. It's a big deal. Magic was also widely practiced in

Ephesus, and so much so that an Ephesian document referred to any writing that contained

magic formulas and spells. People believed in sorcery and the Spirit. The spirit world was so

widespread in Ephesus that even non Christian writers during the time tagged the city of

Ephesus as a place of demonic activity. Isn't that amazing?

It was in this place, in this culture, that the Church of Ephesus was born. By the time that the

letter of Revelation had been written, the Ephesian church was about 40 years old. It was

planted by Paul in Acts chapter 19, and over the years it had been enriched by good teaching.

Not only Paul, but Apollos and Timothy, and even the writer of Revelation, John the Apostle,

were some of the pastors and teachers. One of the great doctrinal letters in the New Testament.

Is Paul's letter to the Ephesians written to them in their early days as a local church? So by this

time, the church at Ephesus was stable and rock solid and doctrinally tight, and they knew

exactly what they believed and what they rejected. But Jesus is ominous. He acknowledges

their strong past, but he warns them about their future.

But he begins by reminding them who he is. And so first, a portrait of Christ that he's personally

present. Verse 1, “ The words of him, who holds the seven stars, (the messengers) in his right

hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.”

So the lampstands, remember, represent the seven churches that Jesus is writing to. And Jesus

is comparing a local church to a source of light, a lampstand. Which is, I think, really appropriate

were to be light bearers, darkness diffusers when it comes to knowing God and proclaiming the

good news. And where is Jesus? Well, he's personally present. He's not distant, he's not

absent. He's not 8 billion miles out in space, turn to the left. He's right here. He's walking in our

midst right now. Do you believe that? And what is his message?

B. Praise for:(vs.2-3, 6)

Activity, Purity & Tenacity

Well, it's praise begins with praise. Look at chapter 2: 2, “I know your works, your toil, and your

patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil but have tested those who

call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring

patiently and bearing up for my name's sake. You have not grown weary. Drop down to verse

six. Look at verse 6. “Yet this you have: You hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

So if you just listen to his praise. You might summarize Jesus. Estimation of the Church in three

words.

1: Activity:They were busy making a difference. See that word toil, that word pictures being

involved to the point of fatigue. So they weren't slackers. They took their faith seriously. They

pitched in where needed. You know, one of the things I just have to say is that I've been

absolutely blown away with so many of you stepping up to serve at such a crucial time as this.

And I, I don't know, I can. All I can say is I'm, I'm blown away. Thank you so much. Thank you.

You serve Jesus in doing so. And Jesus sees it, and he praises it.

2: Purity: Another word that describes what they're like is purity. Morally and doctrinally, they

didn't put up with behavior that violated biblical boundaries. They dealt firmly with things that

were wrong and that I think would be especially difficult in the city where casual sex was

considered just normal and an expected part of life. Further, they evaluated doctrinally those

who claim to be teachers and leaders from God. And they exposed them and they rejected them

as imposters and liars, and I think they called them impostors and liars. Just because somebody

claims to be from God or they sound authoritative doesn't mean they are. They have to conform

to God's Word and God's truth in Christ.

And the Nicolaitans were followers of a guy by the name of Nicolaus, who most scholars think

was a teacher who advocated just making peace with the culture through compromise. Oh, it

doesn't matter. Just get along with everybody. It's fine, whatever you want to do. And the church

firmly rejected him and his teaching. No, no, there are boundaries. There are lines. You don't

cross those.

3: Tenacity: The third thing that he praises is their tenacity, the patient endurance. The enduring

patiently, he says so apparently despite hardship and trouble, they wouldn't give up talking

about Christ, sharing the good news with their community with religious tourists that would come

in even if the response seemed small or insignificant, even if by not confessing Caesar's Lord,

but Jesus is Lord, They were marginalized or even physically persecuted. They never quit. They

never gave up, despite the fact that they.were tired and emotionally spent and even discouraged

they didn't give up on their faith. Didn't walk away, but despite these great things, something is

terribly wrong.

C: Problem: They lacked love.

Look at verse 4. “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at

first.”

You know, I think the Son of God says he has something against me. I think I'd sit up and take

notice. Who's with me on that? And the problem is really clear, they lack love. But before we

jump to the common interpretation that, you know, losing your first love is really, we no longer

feel wonderful about Jesus, which we should feel wonderful about Jesus. Let me just slow down

a minute and ask a couple of questions.

What is love? Well, it's not an emotion, although it does produce emotions. And it's not just

action, but it does require action. This is what I think it is. Love as it's defined in the New

Testament. Is this seeking the best for another person, regardless of the cost to you or the

worthiness of the recipient? Seeking the best for another? Regardless of the cost to you.

Or the worthiness of the recipient. In other words, it's selfless. And sacrificial.

Excuse me? And it isn't quid pro quo. I'll love you if you love me back. No, no, no, no, no. I will

love you no matter what. And love in the New Testament is inherently relational. It seeks a

relationship with the one loved. So it really is. There's something wrong with a guy who works all

the time to provide for his family, but he never wants to spend time with his family. And there's

something wrong with a Christian who does stuff for Christ but avoids relating to Christ. Jesus is

a person. He, in fact, is the most important person that we've ever known.

So that's what love is. It's about a relationship. Does it? Does it require a deed? Of course you

do things. Is there a way to do it? Is it emotion? No, but it, but it produces emotion.OK, second,

who is the one being loved? And this is where it gets a bit tricky because most of us are familiar

with this, that are familiar with this passage. We have left your first love. We automatically think

it's all about Jesus. We love him passionately and devotedly. And it is absolutely about Jesus

and we absolutely are to love him that way. But there's another side to this because Jesus links

our love for God and for him with love. For one another. Leaving your first love might mean or

might should include. The love that you have for one another, for other people that step in front

of you. You say, Steve, where in the world do you get that? Well, how about all the New

Testament? Mark chapter 12, when one of the scribes came up and heard them arguing with

one another, and seeing that Jesus answered them well, asked him well which commandment

is the most important of all? Jesus answered.

The most important hero is Israel, the Lord our God. The Lord is #1 “And you shall love the Lord

your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength.” You

know this. “The second is this. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other

commandment greater than these.”

How about John 13:34 and 35, “A new commandment I give to you that you love one another.

Just as I have loved you. You also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you

are my disciples if you have love for one another.”

1st Corinthians 13:1, 2, “If speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love. I'm a

noisy gong or clanging cymbal. (2) And if I have prophetic powers, understand all mysteries, all

knowledge and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have no love, I am nothing.

(13) “……The greatest of these is love.”

1st John 4:19-21 “We love because he first loved us. If anyone says well I love God but hates

his brother, he's a liar. For he does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God

whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must

also love his brother.”

So clearly to lack love is to miss something critical in our faith. This isn't some small subtraction,

it's the heart of who we are. We love God, we love others. And the Ephesian church was

doctrinally pure hard working. Cold Church. Somewhere along the line, they let loose of love.

They left love, the word, the word left. It's the same word as divorce. They divorced themselves

from love, they divorce devotion from doctrine, they separated love from activity. Hadn't always

been like that. At first they marveled at God's mercy and grace to them. They saw people unlike

them with new eyes. If you read the book of the Letter of Ephesians in chapter 2 it talks about

these people who are very different from each other, Jew, Gentile, slave, free. That somehow

they got together and they sat together in a worship service right next to each other, something

that would never happen in that culture and time. But overtime, things got routine. Passion

cooled expectation. Replace desire. Somewhere along the line they'd become a great

organization, but ceased to be great lovers of God and others.

And the lampstand, the light in the lampstand of the church burns brightly on the oil of love

for God and love for one another. And if the oil runs out, the light flickers and dies.

So here's the prescription. Verse 5. “Remember therefore from where you have fallen, repent

and do the works you did at first, if not if not. If not, you have a choice. I will come to you and

remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent.

D: The prescription (vs. 5)

1: Remember

2: Repent.

3: Repeat.

So let me just take him in that order. Remember, ponder how it was when you first understood

what Jesus did for you, that you were totally forgiven, that you were washed clean. I mean, how

did it feel? When you first realized that the burden of guilt was lifted from your shoulders, that

you were forgiven and accepted by God, that there was nothing you could do to make Him love

you more than He already does, how'd it feel?

The Life Application Bible says in the first steps of your Christian life you may have had

enthusiasm without knowledge. Do you now have knowledge without enthusiasm? Both are

necessary if we're to keep love for God intense and untarnished.

Acts 19. It tells a story about the Ephesian Christians who pulled out of their closets all their

Ephesian documents. Remember what Ephesian documents are, you know, spell books, occult

paraphernalia. They piled them up and set them ablaze that day. It says they burned 50,000

drachmas worth of stuff. You know how much that is? That's the equivalent of what one guy

could earn in 167 years of work. I mean, that's an outrageous amount. Why would they do that?

Why would they do that? Well, because they loved Jesus and they loved others and didn't want

to lead anybody astray.

We have to remember this. The church is a Jesus party. And he's invited not only us, but a

whole lot of other people as well. And a lot of the people that he has invited are not a whole lot

like us. And he commands us to love himself. And everybody that steps in front of us.

Remember and then repent.

To repent is just to admit that we're out of whack. We may be in the wrong place and it requires

this decisive moment when you decide to change your mind and change your ways. You can't

change what you won't admit is wrong. If we, if you think you're fine, well, we'll do nothing. And

that's true for each of us. All of us, every one of us needs to take inventory to sort of make a

cardiac assessment and ask, do I really love God?

Am I really loving other people? And if not, OK, we're going to do a course correction here.

And then third, just Repeat. Go back to the basics. We do what we did at first. We relate to God

in prayer and Thanksgiving and worship. We put our heart into it. We obey His word. We make

gathering a priority. We express our care and concern with each other. We listen to each other.

We sacrifice for each other. We give each other the benefit of the doubt. We're honest and

disclosing with each other. We get involved in each other's lives. We relearn to trust each other.

We take time for each other. That's what it is. That's loving God and others. And this is so

serious, says Jesus, that unless they rekindle their devotion to Christ and their love for one

another, they will lose their ability and right to give light to a Dark World about what it means to

have a relationship with God and to heal our relationships with each other.

Hear me well, he says, you don't do this. You got a choice. You don't do this. I'm going to

remove the lampstand. You know what that means? It means that lack of love is a church killer.

Lack of love. Is our church killer? We blow through this whole thing about love. We ignore it.

We think yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, Jesus takes it really seriously. He says, oh, you can meet all

you want, You're just not going to shed any light. I'm not going to work. I'm not working in that

situation. Thankfully. When I look at you, I don't see that. He ends with this promise of fellowship

with God and others.

Verse seven, “He who has the ear to ear, he has an ear. Let him hear what the Spirit says to the

churches to the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of

God.”

Paradise pictures that original garden of Eden just like the beginning. And the whole point of our

faith now and forever is that we know God, we enjoy a relationship with him. We live in His

presence and so heaven is going to bring this ageless, unhindered, finally face to face

fellowship with our Creator forever, along with everybody that belongs in His Kingdom and His

family. We're going to love and be loved forever. And if that's what this is all about, we shouldn't

neglect it now for anything. Nothing is more important than our devotion to God and our love for

others. Absolutely nothing. So do you see why Jesus thinks that he is the answer to our

problems, our deepest needs?

I mean, we have this purpose as a church. We exist to glorify God by pointing the affections the

heart of all peoples to the all satisfying person of Jesus Christ. We do that, we're going to be in

good stead. We lose that. We lose everything worth having. Right now the Holy Spirit is moving

and speaking. Through the Word of God to your heart and mind.

So what is he saying to you? And are you listening?

Let's pray; as you speak, Lord Jesus, and as you give us grace, we will respond. I pray that we

would love you passionately, wholeheartedly. And anyone that steps in front of us, especially

those of the household of faith. You'd give us power and strength. To love.

Thank you Father and we pray in Jesus name and those who agreed said.

Amen