It has been hard for us to generate a sense of momentum in
our series through the book of Revelation due to the breaks from it we have had.
When I originally mapped out the schedle for it, I knew we would have two weeks
out of Revelation—the week that I was in Peru and then this past week, with Bob
Walz here to preach. What I did not count on was the week we had to cancel our
service due to weather. What it has created is an inability for us to get a
sense of where we have been in the book and where we are going. Because of
this, I am starting my post with a review of where we have been so far.
Thus far we have discovered that first and foremost
Revelation is a highly symbolic unveiling of Jesus Christ, and this such that
if readers respond, the result will be great happiness (1:1-3). Much of this
revelation of our Savior is designed to change our view of the world and of the
church so that we see:
·
Those of us who are in Jesus Christ have been
saved by him, freed, and so we have the resources of the triune God to empower
us for following Jesus. (1:4-8)
·
We are part of the kingdom and so can live
underneath God’s reign, on mission, and to his glory. (1:9)
·
Because we live on mission in a broken and sin-cursed
world, our following of Christ and love for the world brings push-back, even
persecution sometimes, and this all in addition to the other trials we face.
(1:9)
·
Yet, genuine believers endure through this, even
if not perfectly. (1:9; ch’s. 2-3)
·
A big part of why we can be faithful growing in
Jesus, serving him, and also sharing him with others is that he has us in his
hands and he is in our midst to empower and encourage us. (1:12-20; ch’s. 2-3)
·
Much of the way we are propelled forward is both
because of our love for Jesus Christ that leads to holiness and mission (2:1-7)
and also by focusing upon the promises of eternal reward Jesus Christ makes to
us. (2:7, 11, 17, 27-28; 3:4-5, 12, 20-21)
·
Additionally, we should be motivated to repent
as needed, when confronted with our disobedience and idolatry. (2:4-5, 14-16,
20-23; 3:1-3, 15-20)
The need to repent prepares us for the last main message
Jesus Christ wants churches in Revelation 2-3 to hear so they can be happy and
healthy in him: We must respond to and
give correction. God wants us to respond to his correction and discipline he
brings our way because he loves us (Prov. 3:11-12; Heb. 12:5-6); he wants us to
make corrections to self as we see the need in his Word (Ps. 94:12; James
1:22-25); he wants us to be willing to give correction to and receive it from
others (James 5:19-20), and all of this is necessary because, even though we
have been saved and transformed by Jesus Christ, we are still inclined to all
kinds of evil and can easily deceive ourselves (Heb. 3:12-13). The willingness
to receive correction from and to give it to others is one of the marks of a
true and healthy local church (see Mt. 16:19; 18:15-20; 1 Cor. 5:1-13; 2 Thes.
3:14-15; Titus 3:10)! Consider these contemporary confirmations of that point.
Gerald Bray (God
Is Love, chapter 6 [emphasis added]) writes:
Church
discipline is too often understood in terms of who should and should not be
allowed to belong to the fellowship of believers. People want to know what
others believe and what commitment they can expect from them before admitting
them to membership, which is perfectly understandable. However, the real task of church discipline begins
after people have joined the fellowship—it is designed to help church members
grow, not to chase away those who our human minds think are undesirable. It
is hard not to think that the church could avoid a great deal of trouble by
realizing that it is a home for sinners, not a company of the righteous who
have no need of repentance. It can begin to do this by structuring its sense of discipline to focus not on
punishment and exclusion but on forming a Christian mind and heart in those who
have come under the teaching of the gospel.
Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears, Vintage Church: Timeless Truths And Timely Methods (Wheaton: Crossway,
2008), 38, write (emphasis added):
The
local church is a community of regenerated believers who confess Jesus Christ
as Lord. In obedience to Scripture they organize under qualified leadership,
gather regularly for preaching and worship, observe the biblical sacraments of
baptism and Comunion, are unified by the Spirit, are disciplined for holiness, and scatter to fulfill the Great
Commandment and the Great Commission as missionaries to the world for God’s
glory and their joy.
Mack Stiles, “Nine Marks Of A Healthy Parachurch Ministry,” 9 Marks eJournal, 8, 2
(March/April, 2011) explains (emphasis added):
The
church is the God-ordained local assembly of believers who have committed
themselves to each other. They gather regularly, they teach the Word, celebrate
communion and baptism, discipline their
members, establish a biblical structure of leadership, they pray and give
together. Certainly the church may do more, but it is not less than this.
Notice how all three agree with Scripture and what the
Church has historically affirmed, that one of the marks of a healthy and true
church is discipline. In other words, there is a willingness to give and
receive correction.
In Revelation 2-3 we discover this need for correction in
three main areas.
1. We Are To Give And
Receive Correction In Regard To False Teaching And Practice.
We see this several places in these two chapters. Jesus
commends the church in Ephesus for correcting false teachers (2:2), and for
hating the works of false teachers, as Jesus himself does (2:6). Yet, he goes
on to tell them they have left the love they had at first, need to repent, and
to return to it (2:4-5). This certainly can be at the heart of much false
belief and teaching. Jesus exhorts the church in Pergamum for allowing
idolatrous, false teaching, and immorality (2:14-15), and he similarly exhorts
the church in Thyatira for the same reasons (2:20). He even goes so far as to
tell the church in Sardis they are dead and need to wake up (3:1-3).
What we see over and over again in these chapters is that we
must be willing to be corrected, to make corrections to self, and to correct
others in regard to false teaching and practice. The receiving and giving of
correction in love to one another is particularly important since there are so
many aspects of our thinking and behavior that we can be blinded to by the
hostile and anti-Christian cultures around us. It is easy for us to be like the
proverbial frog in the kettle. In other words, as the heat is turned up around
us and pressue is put on us to change our beliefs to match those in vogue
around us, we keep giving in little by little until we find ourselves in boiling
waters of great compromise and heresy!
There is a second area in which we must give and receive
correction.
2. We Are To Give And
Receive Correction In Regard To Deafening Idolatry.
Idolatry is “believing in created things, rather than the
Creator, for our hope and happiness, significance and security” (New City Catechism, #17).
Idolatry is a strong emphasis throughout these two chapters
seen in the exhortation at the end of each message, “he who has an ear, let him
hear what the spirit says to the churches” (2:7a, 11a, 17a, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). This
statement arises from the reality that we become like what we worship—blind and
deaf (Psalm 115:4-8; Isaiah 44:9) and so we do not have ears to hear what God
is saying to us (Isaiah 6:9-10). Idolatry, which usually includes love and
desire for good things, makes us wobbly, unstable, and unresponsive to those
things that are important to God, as if we are drunk on other things
(Revelation 14:8). Typically these other loves and desires are confirmed by the
cultures around us that make them seem normative, the way things ought to be.
When this happens we simply don’t hear what God is saying to correct us or we explain
it away as too extreme to follow—the weird and unusual view of a pastor or
teacher.
This is why gospel community is so important. In other
words, we need to come together by the gospel’s influence on us and for the
purpose of helping each other live out the effects of the gospel—to correct one
another when we are in danger of sin’s hardening and deception (Heb. 3:12-13),
and also to spur each other on to love and good works (Heb. 10:24).
Keeping away from idolatry is so important that John ends
his first epistle with the admonition, “keep yourself from idols” (1 John
5:21). Yet, we usually need the aid of each other to do this.
One of the ways to do this is to commit to a Bible
Fellowship and an Iron Man/Woman team.
The final area in which we are to give and receive
correction is a catch-all. In other words, it is every and any other area.
3. We Are To Change
Course No Matter What Wrong Path We Are On.
If we are not willing to do this, Jesus may: War against us
(2:16); remove our lampstand, i.e. our witness as a church (2:5); bring
sickness and death (2:22-23); come upon us for discipline as a thief,
unexpectedly (3:2-3); and remove from us his protection and empowerment
(3:15-20).
Whether or not we live faithfully, on mission, for God’s
glory, as joyful followers, and endure in this all truly matters. Whenever we
are off the path we are to make corrections. If God speaks to us through the
Word as we read it alone, through a fellow believer, in a book, by a sermon, or
while sitting under someone’s teaching, we are to receive and make corrections.
We also are to help our family members, our brothers and sisters in Christ, to
do the same.
Conclusion
It is a fearful and sober thing, to ignore the conviction
and/or correction of God—directly upon conscience, through a friend/fellow
believer, or through a pastor or teacher. Therefore, we need to develop a
responsiveness to how God wants to grow us and change us, rather than
protection against what he wants to do.
We should remember “…the reproofs of discipline are the way
of life” (Proverbs 6:23). And, we need to help each other in this whole matter because
of the joy of growing in our knowledge of Christ and of following Him (Rev.
1:1-3).
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