06-17-12 Back to the Future

We are going back to the future today,

back to our study of the last book of the Bible,

the book of Revelation.

We left off our study in Revelation chapter 2,

a section of the book in which our Lord

is giving messages to 7 New Testament churches.

Just to get our minds back into this study

let me remind you what’s going on here.

This book was the last Book of the Bible to be written,

given as the Lord’s completion

to all that has come before.

It is unique in that, apart from the brief introductory and concluding remarks of John,

the entire book is a supernatural revelation

given to John by Christ Himself

about 50 years following the resurrection and departure of Christ.

Every book in the Bible was given to the author by the direct guidance of God.

Most of them, however,

are historical accounts

of historical events

that had taken place during the lifetime of the author.

But the Book of Revelation is unique

in that virtually the entire book

is the record of either the personal,

direct audible communication of the risen Christ to John,

or of a supernatural vision of future events

he was allowed to see.

The section we are in right now

is John’s record of a literal,

personal conversation the risen Christ had with him

in which he was directed to give

seven messages to seven churches.

Christ did not tell John why these 7 churches were singled out,

but it is evident from the content of the messages

that Christ selected these 7 churches

because every local body that has ever existed

can find itself mirrored in one of these 7.

Just as all seven of them existed

in 90 AD when John received this vision,

so all seven exist today.

In fact, not only are these 7 churches

symbolic of other churches throughout history,

they are also representative

of each of us as individual Christians.

The pits we fall into

are not nearly as numerous

or as complicated as we sometimes like to believe.

And the ways out of those pits

are also not nearly as illusive

or as complicated as we sometimes think.

With each problem Christ addresses in these churches

He also offers a prescription for healing

and restoration.

We spent two weeks looking at

Christ’s comments to the first of those churches,

the church at Ephesus.

We saw there a church

that had replaced their love for Christ

with a love for truth.

And Christ’s prescription for their healing

was simple:

Rev. 2:5 ''Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you, and will remove your lampstand out of its place-- unless you repent.

Remember...

and repent...

Do you remember?

Do you remember what it was like

when you first met the King,

back when it was all so simple,

when all you knew

was that He loved you,

and He forgave you,

and He took you just the way you were,

back when all you really knew was that you needed Him,

and everything else was just details?

And then you started learning things -

lots of things,

lots of knowledge about God,

and about the church,

and about the world,

and about the future,

and the past,

and somehow things began to get so confusing,

so complicated.

I think maybe knowledge

is a lot like food.

We need food for life.

We need it every day.

More than that,

God has designed us in such a way that good food,

well prepared,

can give us a tremendous sense of enjoyment.

It’s a wonderful part of life.

But,

if we ever allow food

to become our reason for living,

it will turn something good

into a powerful, destructive force in our lives.

Knowledge is the same way.

We need knowledge of our Lord for growth.

It feeds us,

it builds strength

and stability into our walk with the King.

But if we ever allow

the preservation

and protection

and defense

and development of our systems,

our ideas

to become more important

than simple, daily obedience to the leadership of our Lord,

what was once good

will become destructive in our lives.

The people of God

have fought more ugly,

bloody battles with one another

over differences in doctrine

than over anything else.

It is so easy to get caught up

in the same deception

as the church at Ephesus -

the subtle, deadly shift from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ

to a staunch,

rigid,

and determined faithfulness

to our carefully crafted system of beliefs.

You remember, don’t you,

where we were last week -

God never intended for us to learn doctrine about Christ,

He intended for us to learn doctrine through Christ.

It fascinates me to look back now at the earliest roots of my own life with Christ

and see the way He so carefully built into those early years

crucial events that enabled Him to introduce me to the areas of understanding

that He knew I would need in the years ahead.

In the summer of 1968,

the summer just before my final year of college,

I was one of twelve students selected for a student missions team

that spent two months on the Caribbean Island of Trinidad.

One of the most vivid memories I have of that summer

was the morning I spent sitting on a piece of driftwood on the beach,

looking out at the Caribbean Sea,

filled with confusion and turmoil.

At that point in my life

nearly all of my teaching had come from a small group of Bible teachers

who all presented their doctrine in one unified package of beliefs.

It never entered my mind

that anyone else viewed things differently.

In my youthful ignorance I assumed that what I’d been taught

was universally accepted truth within the Body of Christ.

But the night before

my fellow teammates and I got into a discussion about prophecy

and in a matter of minutes I watched

as my team leader skillfully sketched out an interpretation of several key prophetic passages

that led to completely different conclusions than those offered to me by my campus teachers.

Then the discussion broadened into questions about free will

and God’s sovereignty

and about God’s control over the evil that touches our lives.

And what he said differed radically

from everything I believed.

It was a terrifying experience for me.

I felt sick when I went to bed that night,

and worse when I woke up.

I should have been out once again going door-to-door that morning

passing out tracts

and talking with people about becoming a Christian,

but I just couldn’t do it.

I walked down to the beach,

sat on a chunk of drift wood,

and tried to work through the confusion inside me.

I no longer knew what to believe.

All I had left were questions and confusion.

I started talking with my Lord,

telling Him what a mess everything was

and how confused I was.

And then, as I sat there, churning, and brooding, and complaining,

the most amazing realization hit me.

Here I was

with what seemed like my entire doctrinal castle laying in rubble at my feet,

surrounded by little chunks of ideas that didn’t fit together.

But all of my doctrinal confusion hadn’t destroyed my awareness of my Lord,

or my dependance upon Him,

or the obvious reality of His presence with me in the least!

In fact, the turmoil I was going through

was actually drawing me closer to Him.

What I wanted

and thought I needed

was a nice tight fool-proof doctrinal system,

a system that answered all the questions and made me feel intellectually secure.

But what He wanted to create for me

was a situation that drew me to Himself personally,

forcing me to find my security not in what I knew, but rather in Christ Himself.

The Lord’s prescription both for Ephesus

and for me sitting on that chunk of driftwood

was so simple:

“Come back to Me.”

And to Ephesus he said simply, remember...

and repent.

Then, the second message

Christ gave John to deliver

was for the church at Smyrna.

And this message is unique among the seven

because this is the only message

in which there is no sharp warning,

no dangerous behavior addressed -

there is only

affirmation and encouragement.

Rev. 2:8-11 "And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write:

The first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life, says this:'I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.'

I see two key phrases

in this second message:

the first is “I know...”

and the second is “Do not fear...”

Knowing my flesh as I do,

I think if I would have been permitted

to choose God’s goals for my life

I would suggested to my King that He make me both

RIGHTEOUS and RICH,

both FAITHFUL and FAMOUS.

One of the many unsettling things about Scripture

is the way it has of blasting holes

in our flesh-based value system.

Christ’s comments to Smyrna are an excellent example.

Here is the one church

to which Christ offers no word of correction,

and the very first thing the Lord says to them is,

I know your tribulation

I know your poverty

I know the blasphemy being aimed at you.

Now, don’t you find that offensive

to our cultural Christianity

that believes God’s goal is to make every Christian healthy, wealthy, and wise,

rich and righteous,

famous and faithful.

If Christ knows their tribulation,

why doesn’t He stop it?

If He knows their poverty,

why doesn’t He deliver the goods?

Scripture is remarkable

both for the answers it gives

and for the answers it does NOT give.

When we go through pain,

when we suffer physically or emotionally,

the first two questions that so often come to our minds are,

“Why is this happening, Lord?”

and, “Why don’t you stop it?”

Did you see the Lord’s answers

to those questions

in His comments to His people at Smyrna?

Neither did I...

All He says is, “I know.”

“I know you’re hurting.

I know your tribulation.

I know your poverty.

I know.”

That’s all He says sometimes,

because there are times

when that’s all He CAN tell us,

and at those times

that’s all we really need to know.

There are many times when we suffer

because we’re making stupid choices,

times when our own actions

are the source of our pain.

At those times in my own life

my Lord has always been very effective

and faithful

in showing me exactly what’s causing the pain,

and how to take steps to correct it.

But there are also times

when we have made all the right choices,

times when our heart’s desire

is to live pleasing to our God,

and yet suffering still comes into our lives.

That’s where the church at Smyrna was at.

And at those times

the first, and sometimes the only thing our Lord says is, “I know...

I know you hurt.

I know your pain.

I know what you’re going through.”

And with those words

He is also telling us

He is going through it with us.

This world is not the world our God first created.

Our rebellion against Him

has imbedded a legacy of corruption

and evil

and suffering into every life,

and every aspect of human society.

Paul said simply,

2 Tim. 3:12 And indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

Some of the suffering will come

as a direct result of our allegiance to Christ.

Some of it will come

because we live in a sin-filled world.

There are some things God can only accomplish in our lives

through allowing us to suffer.

There are some things He can only communicate to this world

through allowing His people to suffer.

The first thing He wants us to know at those times

is that He knows when we hurt,

and He is going through the pain with us.

Then the Lord goes on to offer His people at Smyrna three more things:

First, He honors them.

Did you notice that one little phrase in parenthesis

after He talks about their poverty?

He says, “I know your poverty (BUT YOU ARE RICH)”.

And with that one little phrase

He’s pulling them out of the world’s perspective

and showing them the way things really are.

He is saying,

“I know the world looks at you

and calls you all fools.

I know they think you’ve chosen a course in life

that will rob you of all the good stuff.

I know they see your poverty

in comparison to them

and think you’re crazy.

But I want you to know the truth.

You are the wealthy ones.

Paul said it really well

in II Cor. 4:17-18

For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

I remember some time ago

hearing a news broadcast reporting the annual Wall Street bonuses,

bonuses in the millions.

And then, shortly after hearing that report

I happened to hear an interview with the neatest Christian family,

a family that was doing amazing things with an income that was near the poverty level.

And in that interview the mother said,

“We don’t need much, and that not for long.”

When I heard those two reports

I knew who had the real wealth.

And with the church at Smyrna, the Lord honors them.

And then He tells them not to fear.

And, folks, when God Himself tells you not to fear,

you don’t have to fear.

He’s not saying it won’t hurt.

But He is saying they will find Him adequate for whatever they face.

And then, finally,

He gives them perspective -

He tells them what they’re going to go through,

and where they’re going to end up.

... Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.

Early in my Christian life

I read a book that had a powerful impact on me.

That book was, The Robe.

It’s historical fiction

about the life of some of the early Christians

during and immediately following

the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.

I don’t recall the exact setting,

but there was one scene in that book

in which a Roman official was frustrated with the inability of his military leader

to stamp out this stubborn little group of Christians

who were causing such turmoil in Jerusalem.

I believe the Roman official

had told the soldier to just kill them all.

And I’ll never forget the soldier’s response.

He said, “Sir, you can’t kill someone who won’t die!”

Those early Christians

had seen their Lord alive on the other side of the grave,

they had heard Him promise

that just as He rose from the dead

so would they.

And that knowledge changed everything forever.

Life in this body was no longer something

to cling to at all costs.

Life in this body was simply a temporary assignment,

one that would be followed by something so much better.

It was that perspective

that Christ offered His people at Smyrna.

... Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. and ... He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.