A Sermon Based Upon Revelation 2: 1-7
By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin
Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership
April 23th, 2017, Easter
Series, 2/9: ‘Jesus Christ Revealed Today
When Wayne and Martha Campbell visited
us while we were living in continental Europe, we took a vacation together and
decided to drive to England and Scotland.
But in order to get there, we had to decide whether to take the new
‘Chunnel’ under the English, or to go the traditional way, by Ferry across the
Channel. Teresa said she always dreamed
of approaching England and seeing the “Cliffs of Dover”, so that settled
it. We would arrive in England sailing
across the English Channel. On our
return trip we would return by the newly constructed ‘Chunnel’ under’ the
channel.
When we arrived in Normandy, France, the
winds were already gusting at around 40 knots.
They told us that when they reached 50 knots, no more Ferries would be
allowed to cross. This was to be the
final Ferry for that day. We spoke
about the winds, but decided that we all wanted for Teresa to realize her dream
of seeing the “Cliffs of Dover”. Who
knows how the weather would be on our return trip.
When we got on the boat, it wasn’t too
bad. We parked our car and headed to the
upper deck. It was windy and cool, so we
had to remain inside. Fortunately there
were large windows everywhere. Our boat
took up anchor. All was going well, until
the winds started to increase. As we
approached the middle of the Channel, the waves got bigger and bigger too. The boat was constantly tossing us to and
fro. Teresa has always had a tendency
toward motion sickness. It was getting to
me too. I told her that my Dad said, as
he traveled by boat in the war, that he was told to keep his eyes on the horizon. That’s what I did. That’s what Teresa did too. It was working for me, but it wasn’t working
so well for her. She was still
experiencing more and more nausea.
A fellow passenger saw Teresa turning a
little ‘sea-green’ with motion sickness, she moved over toward Teresa and tried
to comfort her. The passenger was a
young, very nice, Christian, Pentecostal lady. After seeing Teresa continue to struggle,
she could not help but ask whether or not she could pray for Teresa. “May I pray for you?” She asked.
By this time Teresa was so overwhelmed with nausea feelings that she was
about to explode. “Prayer will be O.K.”,
she told the lady, but she said, “I would just as soon have a bucket”.
Sometimes, we all have a bad
moment. On this Sunday after Easter, it
is traditional to come down from the Glorious message of Easter and face the
challenging realities of faith. Normally
the focus is on Thomas and his doubts. But
today we are going turn the tables, and focus on God doubts about us. Early in John’s vision of Revelation, the Spirit
voices concerns about the churches and instructs them about what they must do
to refocus. The words are still
important for us because we too have moments of difficulty, challenge, and even
failure; we have bad days and hard times, and we need to be helped to get back
to being who God called us to be.
“I
WILL REMOVE….YOUR LAMPSTAND”
One of the most depressing religious
realities I have ever had to face was when I visited Turkey back in the summer
of 1994. I had to face the reality that none of the
churches , mentioned in the book of Revelation, are actually in existence
today. In fact, hardly any Christianity
exists in modern day Turkey at all.
While there is still a Christian congregation still in Symrna, now called Izmir, only about 0.4
percent of Turkish population claim to be Christian. Back in the early 20th century, Christianity
was practically and finally wiped out—through a massive genocide of 1.5 mission
Christians under the Islamic, Turkish, Ottoman Empire in 1915, which was part
of the tragic events surrounding first World War.
When we got off of the boat that landed
at the seacoast town of Kusadasai, the sound that will never escape my ears was
the Muslim call to prayer, where loudspeakers oppressively announce that
everyone should stop what they are doing, and bow facing east and spend time in
prayer to Allah. We were not forced to bow, but because we were
not doing so, it was easily recognized who we were and weren’t. We were made to stand out as strangers in a
very strange land. Now, I’m not telling
you this to be anti-Muslim. I’ve meet a
few Muslim people who were quite nice, considerate and respectful of my faith in
Jesus Christ. Not all Muslims are the same, just like not
all Christians are the same. In fact, when we were riding on the bus from
Kusadasai to Ephesus, our tour guide himself called himself a Muslim. But he
told me that he appreciated my faith because, he said, ‘we worship the same
God’—the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.
Now, I’m not affirming exactly .what he
said or meant, but I must admit that as a visitor in his country, it was
reassuring to hear that he respected and affirmed my faith to be in solidarity
with him, rather than contrary to him.
I’m sure that humble, peaceful Muslims here in America would also
appreciate that we show respect for their faith too, and try to find ways of
agreement rather than dwelling only on the ways we are different. You certainly can’t expect anyone to listen
to your heart-felt faith, unless you also listen to their heart-felt-faith. Even Christians get it wrong, and sometimes
God uses others and their own religion to set us right. The best missionaries have always known that we
have nothing to fear in honest, open, an respectful dialogue that remembers the
biblical words of Jesus who said, ‘those
who are not against me, are with me’.
But what still resounds is not the
simply the ‘nice’, ‘warm’ conversation we had, but the reality that was all
around me. This was a very different
land with a whole different approach to religion or freedom. Today, in that very land where Paul was
born, where Polycarp gave his life for his faith, and where many of Christians
lived, witnessed, and died, there is no open, visible church anywhere in the
surrounding countryside. In the country
where many churches used to be, and were mission to be a worldwide church really
began, there is practically no church left.
The church is in ruins, just like the ruins of ancient Ephesus. While there is secular freedom in Turkey, there
is no open affirmation, appreciation, nor acceptance of the Christian faith in
the real world we were driving through.
As we toured the ruins of Ephesus, I was actually witnessing the ruins
where they used to be a great church that was the mother to many others. But now that church is gone. Also, all of those living, breathing,
witnessing, shining congregations of Jesus named in John’s revelation are now gone. They simply don’t exist anymore. Their ‘lampstand’---the
place where the light of Christ’s love and hope once shone brightly, has now
been ‘taken away’ (2:5), just as the Spirit warned could happen.
I know this warning that ‘the Spirit’ gave Ephesus is not what we
want to hear, especially this Sunday after Easter. The scolding words of this text are harsh: “Remember….where
you’ve fallen…repent…do the first works, or else I will …. remove your
lampstand ...” These words are almost
too direct for most of us to hear, and they are painful too. But unless we are ready to ‘hear’ and
willing to ‘heed’ ‘what the Spirit says’
to us, the situation will get
worse for us too.
I
HAVE THIS AGAINST YOU
Why does The Spirit have something
against the church? Isn't God for us,
not against us? Yes, of course. But my mama was for me too, more than anyone
else in this world. But when she turned
against me, it was for my own good.
That’s how you need to read this text too. Let me explain why The Spirit
was giving such a dire warning to his church.
To
guide us in our understanding consider another text about the church. It also speaks of the church and the threats
to its existence. In the gospel of
Matthew, chapter 16, when Jesus was establishing the community, an assembly of
people, to be called, ‘church’, Jesus
made a promise to Peter. He said to This
one Jesus named ‘Rock’: “…On this rock I will build my church, and
the gates of Hell (Hades) shall not prevail against it (NKJV, Matt.
16:18).
This promise has normally been
interpreted to assure us that the ‘church’ will never die and that the Christ’s
church will continue to exist until Jesus returns to earth in glory. Now, that a beautiful and very hopeful way
to interpret this promise, but this way of interpretation has real problems. First, one problem is that in history, and
still today, churches have died. Just
like those seven churches of Revelation, individual churches still die. Even
today, in our own time, many, many churches close their doors every year. 4,000 churches closed their doors last
year. Of course, some of them
merge. Others relocated. But most of these 4000 close down
completely. Death happens. Just as death happens to people, it can
happen to churches too. That is
evidently not what Jesus was promising; that an individual church would always
exist. Churches die. And
most sobering of all: this church can die too.
Another way to look at the promise here is
to say that while individual churches, like the one in Ephesus, Europe, or even
in America might one day die, this does not mean the church “universal” will
die. The continued existence of the
Catholic Church, and even of many, many Protestant churches in the world, even
the new emerging ones we call ‘contemporary’, or that Christianity is moving to the Southern
Hemisphere, or is alive in China must mean that there will remain some form of
church on earth, and some type of faithful, remnant of churches until Jesus returns. That the ‘gates of death’ shall not prevail
against ‘the church’ must mean that the church is indestructible in a great,
global, or ultimate way. That’s a
better interpretation, and it may be true, but it’s still not what most
scholars have found that Jesus really meant.
No, the picture here is not a picture of
a church defensively sitting on a hill, or rock, withstanding ‘death’ no matter what happens,
but the picture here is more like a
church that is marching straight into the ‘gates
of hell’ or ‘death’ sharing its
message and needing not to be afraid. As
long as the church is doing what it's supposed to do and being who it's
supposed to be, it need not fear death. The
key word to grasp here is the word, ‘prevail’. What Jesus means is that death can’t overcome
a church that is on the offensive. While
the church may need to make a ‘defense’ from time to time, it is only the
‘offense’ that will score and give the
church it’s life.
When the Spirit speaks to the churches
of Revelation, it was what the churches were ‘not’ doing that was killing
them. It wasn’t what the world was
doing to them. Even the church ‘built’
next door to the Satan himself, was the church that was most alive, to whom
Jesus said: “I will give you the crown of life…” Jesus says.
It wasn’t the devil or the evil on the outside that could hurt the
church, but it was only the evil on the inside, of not doing, not being, or not
becoming the church the church is supposed to be.
Once I had missionary colleague who had
once been a pastor in both northern and southern Germany. The northern part of Germany is mostly
Lutheran, and the Catholic churches there are a minority. In the southern part of Germany, it is
mostly Catholic, and the Lutheran churches are a minority there. What he noticed from being a Baptist
missionary in both areas was this. That
in the land where the church, whether Catholic or Lutheran, was in the
majority, the churches were political, powerful, but very spiritually weak,
floundering, perhaps dying too. But in
the area where the church was in the minority, whether Lutheran or Catholic,
the churches were usually spiritual strong and vibrate. The political alignment, even when it was most
favorable, most always sucked the spiritual life out of the true church. But when the church remained personal and worshipful,
and spiritually strong, they remained stronger and faithful to the witness of
God’s love.
What we need to understand is that the
true church is always under attack and in the minority. But even with this, the greatest threat is from
within, rather than from without. When
we lose track of what we are supposed to be about, or we become lost in seeking
political influence or power, or when we lose our own personal, spiritual focus,
we are in danger of losing our light, our candlestick, and eventually, our very
life.
“REPENT….DO THE
FIRST WORKS”
Within these 7 letters to the churches,
especially this first one, God has message to help keep the church connected to
its spiritual life-source. To the
Church of Ephesus we read: “I have this against you, that you have
left your first love. Remember…therefore…repent,
do the first works, or else I will come quickly and remove your lampstand from
its place…. (2:4-5).
This word was not to insult or hurt the
church, but it, and all the letters to the churches were written in hope of
bringing new ‘life’ back into the churches.
The message to Ephesus sounds frank talk between married couples. It is as if Jesus, a husband, is speaking
directly to his bride, the church: ‘You must show the real kind of love you had
for me when we married, or our marriage is going to fail.’
Love is not easy to keep alive, unless
it is true love. Certainly, true love
has it ups and downs too, but it remains, survives, and even grows through
hardships because it is true and continually finds ways of proving itself. But what true love never does, at least when
it is reminded of its fault and negligence, is to take love for granted. If love is not somehow expressed, explained,
or re-established, then the ‘lamp’ of love goes out.
In this day of spiritual decline in the
US, and in the Western world, where Christianity has lost its place of
acceptance and dominance, we in our churches are being challenged to find ways
to ‘return’ to our ‘first love’ and
to do the ‘first works’. While it is unrealistic to try to ‘do
church’ like we used to, when Christianity seemed easier; we must now learn to
renew our ‘love’ for God in ways that make our faithful love for God alive now,
because the world around us has changed.
There are churches that are growing, in spite of the new very different
world we live in today. I don’t think
we have to become like any of those churches, but I do think we need to learn
from them. What is at the center of most
growing churches is a ‘first’ kind
of love and the a kind of ‘first
works’ that makes everything alive, ‘fresh’ and ‘new’.
This kind of ‘first love’ and ‘first works’
is how the church still recovers and finds its life? The church’s life is not found in history or
heritage—no matter how great. The death
of the church in Ephesus proves that.
The Church’s life is also not found in its future---for no church is
promised a future if it does not continue to have a true love that continues
the ‘first works’. And the ‘first works’ of the church is today,
very the much the same as it was then. The ‘first work’ of the church to proclaim, to
preach, and to bear witness to the love of Jesus Christ, and to be ready and
willing to ‘storm’ the gates of hell, in order to share the good news of the
gospel of Jesus Christ. A church that
does the ‘first works’ is not focused
on what’s in this for me, but or what do we do to make everybody happy, but the
church is focus on reaching out to ‘them’.
Only by focusing on this kind of
missionary, evangelistic, gospel-sharing ‘first
work’ can the church prove its ‘first love’ and gain the promise of life in
Jesus Christ.
How do we do this? Of course there are many ways the church can
share the gospel, in word and in deed. Still,
most people in the church are afraid of sharing the gospel, aren’t they? Most are hesitant to personally share their
faith with others. How do we cover the ‘first
works’ of the gospel, and show our love for Christ, so that we share our faith
publically and personally, in ways that show our love of Christ, and bear
witness to our faith?
Pastor Mark Roberts, in an article about
Church and Mission, speaks of how simple it is for a church, made up of people
like you and me, to show our ‘first love’ by doing the ‘first works’. Mark went to college at Harvard, where he lived
in the dorm where Bill Gates once lived, but Bill Gates dropped out of
Harvard. Mark says with tongue and
cheek, ‘Too bad Bill dropped out, he could have been a real success if he’d
stayed at Harvard.’
Of course, if there is any place where
it is difficult to share the gospel, it would be at Harvard. Harvard used to be a place where Christians
Ministers were trained. That’s why the
school was originally established.
Today, however, most of the students who attend Harvard are not from
church or any Christian backgrounds. Today
the atmosphere at Harvard is overly secular.
One of Mark’s Christian friend’s on
campus was an brilliant engineer named Lance.
Lance was brilliant in Science and Math, but his verbal skills were more
limited. When Lance and Mark were
getting together for a Bible Study and Prayer each week, people would ask Lance where he was
going. Most of us, with good verbal
skills would try to avoid the matter, but Lance would just come out and plainly
say, “I’m going to a Bible Study.” It wasn’t long until people became curious,
because of the kind of life Lance and Mark lived. Some would want to attend the study
too. It was not because of any
pressure, or official invitation, but they just noticed a difference in Lance
and Mark from others.
One of those who started coming to the Bible
Study was named Tom. Tom had a hard time
with holding on to his faith. He had a
friend name Liz who came with him. Liz
wasn’t really interested in the faith at all; she just came with Tom. She also watched as Tom struggled with ideas
and with his faith. Even when Tom spoke
out against the faith, the others in group were very patient and understanding. They allowed Tom to say what he felt. They did not judge him. Finally, one day, Tom came to reaffirm his faith to the
group. It was then that Liz made an
unexpected confession. “Tom,” she
said, “I think I believe in Jesus too.” “Really?”
Tom exclaimed. “How did that
happen? What made the difference? Did the arguments or discussion help you, as
they did me? “Not really,” Liz said.
“Tom”, what convinced me was how much the group loved you, showing
patience, understanding, and believing in you, no matter what you said. This is
when what they said about Jesus began to make sense. I believe in Jesus because of the love I saw
in them like they shared was in Jesus. (http://www.patheos.com/blogs/markdroberts/series/the-mission-of-god-and-the-missional-church/)
Didn’t Jesus say that is our true faith
and our true love for each other that would prove that we are his disciples
(John 13:35)? Being a witness to God’s love isn’t that complicated
when are living out of our true faith
and showing God’s love. But it’s practically
impossible to be a witness to God’s love, when we don’t love as Jesus
loved. So, in conclusion, let me ask you: Do you show the love you had at the
first? Are you doing the works you did
at the first? This is where the power
and life of faith began, and this is how it is renewed. It’s as easy as being faithful enough to go
to a worship service, a bible study, and
being asked by someone, “Where are you going?”
or “Why are you going?” When
people see that you put Jesus’ love first and his works first, then the light comes
on. This is the kind of light-energy that gives
the church the power to ‘storm’ the gates of hell unafraid. It is the light of light of love the world
always needs to see its way through the darkness. It is the kind of light no darkness, no
matter how great, can ever extinguish. All
we have to do is ‘turn on the light’.
Amen.
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