Revelation 2:1-7 Love the Sinner Hate the Sin

Welcome to recast Church. I'm Don Felsick. I'm the lead pastor here. And I just want to say thank you for coming out on this holiday weekend to worship Christ together. That's the purpose and that's the reason we've gathered together here a great place to meet here in a cafeteria.

Where the school has allowed us the use of this facility. So grateful that you've taken the time out of your busy week to come together as God's people. There's something that's great and glorious about the gathering of God's people.

I love it it's energizing and we've come together to hear from God's Word this morning to see him as he is and To then live our lives according to the way that we encounter his words. So I'm glad that you're here if this is your first time with us and you're just checking us out a special welcome to you.

Glad that you're here. And then if you please fill out that connection card that you received when you walked in if you're willing to fill that out. Just be aware that we do send out a weekly email. So fill out that connection card you received when you walked in you can turn that in in the black box back there we do send out a weekly email called the ecast and that's where you get all of your information and so there's links and All kinds of stuff to the Facebook to the podcast to the website.

To our Facebook page. Like I said, all that stuff is there. So even if you just get that email each week and flag it so that you know where the information is. You can go back to it throughout the week.

If you have questions about different activities. What time does this start? What what time is this happening? Where's the location of this event that kind of stuff? So take advantage of that also if it's your first time with us.

Please take a free coffee mug out on the table on your way out. Just That's our way of saying. Thanks. We're glad that you're here and then. Remember that we don't pass an offering plate here any offerings that you might choose to give you can use the envelope that was provided For you and remember that if you choose to give to the expansion fund.

Which is a fund really escrowed or set aside for the purpose of eventually building a building. You can just mark expansion fund on the envelope or on the memo line of a check and then it gets put into a special fund for our goal of Eventually building a building on our property that we already own on East McGillan.

So that's available there as well. If you're not going to use that offering envelope this morning. There's a place to recycle that out there. Just we can reuse those again next week if there's nothing in them and so you can use that there as well.

One other a couple of other announcements real quick. We are we have recently printed off a large large number like a thousand door hangers to be put out throughout our community and so what that entails is maybe just a family or a small group grabbing some of those and Picking a neighborhood if you would be willing to do that sometime this week or over the next two weeks.

Those are available at the welcome table. Haley has stacks of those to give out. The only thing that I request is that you have in mind where you're gonna put them and tell Haley. So that we're not doubling up on the same neighborhood because that could be really uncomfortable.

Somebody get something on their door throws it away, and then you put another one back there. They're gonna get annoyed with us. So at the same time we want people to be aware that we're a church meeting in this community.

And so that's a really good opportunity for us. We're not looking to knock on doors. This is not a door-to-door evangelism kind of thing. It's to go and actually just hang this thing on their doorknob.

They can they can get and see and and identify that hey. There's a church meeting in the elementary school. And maybe they don't have a church, and they want to come and check us out, so that's available talk to Haley out there.

She's got all of those available for you. And then let me remind you that we're in the process of voting on Steve Isham for the office of elder here at recast Church Elders make up the leadership board of our church.

And according to scripture they are called to be spiritually qualified individuals. That's very very important to us that the people who are leading the church meet the qualifications that are lined out for us.

Directly in scripture and so our ballot is a pretty extensive ballot some ballots are like a postcard that say yes Or no to the person ours is a three-page document that lines out on the left-hand side the Qualifications puts them in writing on the left-hand side and then leaves you room on the right-hand side to to give feedback.

To give positives where has this person ministered to you in this area? Are you seeing good things or where have there been struggles and particularly we want you to be thoroughly and completely honest on this form.

I mean if if Steve's cheated you in business you should you should write that on there. I mean, that's that's the kind of thing man. I hope not but um I Mean we wanted we want it to be an honest feedback about your interaction with him.

And that's the kind of stuff that we're we're looking for in this. But I also want to make sure that you understand this this is very important. This is in our bylaws. I'm not standing up and making this up on the fly when you those of you who might Want to vote no.

You need to recognize that your no will be counted when you give a reason for that and that's in our bylaws. So we don't accept just a no because you don't like his hair. You don't like like his glasses, or you don't like the way he walks or something like that.

We're asking for you to give an affirmation or a reason why he is not qualified so you're voting on his Qualification for eldership you're not just voting on hey I got this gut level feeling that I like the guy or I got a gut level feeling I don't like the guy and if you have a gut level feeling that you don't like the guy come and talk with me about.

That before you cast a vote I mean, that's something or maybe even just come and meet him and talk with him. And I'm sure he would love to he's nodding. I mean, I'm sure he'd love to talk with you if you have questions about things I'm going on in his life or whatever, but it needs to have a rationale if you're gonna vote No, not just like yep.

No, and that's it so We also want to encourage everybody that's that's coming here and attending here. And you're like kind of at that point where you're like calling this your church. We'd like to encourage you towards membership.

Membership demonstrates that you're committing together in community with this local body now. I would trust that the majority of you are actually in with the the universal body that is you've accepted Christ as your Savior.

And if you're in that position. Then the next step would be for you to join in a more formal way with a local body with a local church and membership just simply says this. I want accountability and I want to be clearly connected as a part of the body of Christ and so if you're here.

And you've been attending for a while, and you haven't really thought much about membership. You can come and talk with me about that again membership applications and ballots are both available out on the table.

I'm out there and remember that we need an 85 percent of our of our membership that votes. In order to bring Steve on board and the elder on the elder board so. So that's kind of where we're where we're driving for for that so you can ask Haley.

Out of the welcome table if you need any of those documents or anything like that at this time I'm gonna ask Steve Isham to come and share a brief testimony. So that you can all put a face with a name.

And then we can give glory to God for what he's done in Steve's life, so thanks a lot Steve.

Good morning I'm Steve Isham for those of you who don't know me and as Don said feel free to come up and Interact with me at any time if you have any questions, or just want to get to know me better, but briefly I've been attending recast here for about five and a half years and I've been married to my beautiful wife Jamie on my college sweetheart for 14 years, and we have four kids Charlie's 11 Joey's 9 Abby is 7 and Ellie is down in the nursery is 2.

And I truly love being their dad. I work as a design engineer at striker and We live just a mile and a half down the road here in Mattawan so my testimony I Have been blessed To be raised in a Christian home, and I like to say that my parents taught me that Jesus is Lord in the Bible's absolute truth.

When I was about six years old my dad led me to Christ after a church service one Sunday morning. And as I grew I felt God Drawing me to himself, but my faith became especially real When I was just a couple weeks short of my 16th birthday.

It was September 11th 1994 and my older sister had just started college. And we knew that she was planning to come home to attend church with us in Lansing. But instead we were met with a state police Trooper that informed my dad that she had passed away on her drive home.

She had fallen asleep at the wheel. And that she wasn't gonna be with us. So my world was obviously shaken. But as I looked around I certainly saw many people who really could not cope with that concept of a You know a beautiful innocent 18 year old girl is you know everyone looked at it that way.

And there were lots of folks that just couldn't cope, but then I saw others that truly had Joy and and hope and real peace Even in this tragic circumstance. And I realized that all of those folks that I saw that had some form of hope and joy and peace Truly believed that Jesus Christ was Lord, and so it was really at that time That I made an even more conscious decision that no matter what happened in my life that I was gonna follow Jesus Christ.

That tragic event obviously made a significant impact on my life. But I am living testimony that God uses all circumstances to bring glory and honor to himself. And that's truly my goal. I Obviously fall short many times you can just ask my wife if you want to hear more about that.

But my goal is to glorify God and all that I do. So that's a little bit about me my testimony and obviously I stand before you now. Seeking to be an elder at recast and ultimately I just want to do my part in leading our congregation.

As we shine the light of Jesus Christ to Matawan and beyond.

Thanks a lot Steve for Sharing and that's an illustration to me of how God ultimately uses a variety of things to lead us to faith in him and sometimes many of us I think could testify of tragedy in our lives that have made us understand our faith a little bit more seriously and so.

Thank you Steve for sharing that. I really appreciate that. Remember you can pick up ballots out there. Remember, it's not a popularity contest. It's not if he plucked your heartstring or something like that or if that really meant something to you.

Ultimately, it comes down to character and qualifications according to Scripture. So grab one of those ballots on the way out this morning. We're gonna be continuing in our series called the Lord of the seven and I'm excited about the series because in it We get a chance to know the one who is revealed as the leader of his churches.

Okay, how many of you think that to get to know Jesus Christ is a good thing you think that's a good thing. Okay, good. Lots of hands. I appreciate that. Good to get get the blood pumping this morning get your hand up over your head that kind of stuff.

But yeah, it's good to get to know him. It's always better to know Jesus better. That's just reality for us. But we also get to know through these three chapters introducing and starting out the book of Revelation.

We get to know Jesus specifically in relationship to his church. And we start off this week specific this week with a specific letter to the first of the seven churches. I Want us all to consider what Jesus has to say to us as a corporate gathering to recast this morning.

Our church has a history our church has a shape our church has strengths and weaknesses. But at the end of the day our church is a gathering of sinners saved by grace a group of sinners saved by grace who are seeking to honor Jesus Christ by repenting of sin and and Honoring him and worshiping him and doing community together and encouraging others and building each other up into him so Jesus is going to tell us some things.

That we could be doing that look good that that look like doing well. And he's also going to highlight for us through the Church of Ephesus some things that we could improve on. So let's open our Bibles.

Please to Revelation chapter 2 verses 1 through 7 again Revelation 2 if you don't have a Bible on your lap. Do me a favor and just raise your hand. It's not to call you out. It's just to say. We've got some Bibles back there and we want everybody to have a copy of the Word of God so that you can.

You can follow along. I don't have an outline up on the PowerPoint. The outline is going to be on your lap looking at God's Word. So Revelation 2 Revelation 2 1 through 7 recast God's Word to us. Certainly talking about another church talking talking about the church in Ephesus.

But this is what God desires for us to hear in Matawan, Michigan in 2015 today. So listen in to the angel of the church in Ephesus, right? The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand who walks among the seven golden lampstands.

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 Have not grown weary.

But I have this against you that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen. Repent and do the works you did at first if not I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent.

Yet this you have you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate He who 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.

Let's pray as the band comes to lead us in worship this morning. Father, I thank you so much for your grace and your mercy towards us. We desire and need your presence here. Father, we need you to occupy the parts of our lives that there is darkness and there is sin.

We desire for you to push that out father to be present with us in our gathering and in our community. Father where there is Strife where there is quarreling where there is dissent where there is gossip where there is a broken relationships.

Father I pray that you would be present and moving in close to heal and to fix those things that are broken in our midst. Father we recognize that we're sinful and we've gone through our week with this battle of Fighting against and warning against sin and repenting and turning from it day in and day out and we thank you for your immaculate amazing.

Glorious.

Grace.

That when a sinner repents You give them strength and power. So father, I pray for a repentant heart and I thank you for the blood of Jesus that covers our sin. May we worship him this morning in spirit and in truth in Jesus name Amen.

Well, thank you to thanks to Dave and Lee for leading us in worship this morning grateful for the time and energy that they put In this week for us. I encourage you to get comfortable. Keep your Bibles open to Revelation chapter 2 verses 1 to 7 again.

That's going to be the outline. I know that in the shuffle you maybe lost your place and so turn back there so that you can reference that passage Throughout the discussion this morning, but I want to ask you a question to start off.

Have you ever been called to the principal's office?

A.

Handful of us. Okay so maybe some of us have been called to the principal's office a little bit of trouble there or there's going to be a Little bit of a review of our behavior or something to that effect.

Some of us have had an actual annual job performance review. Have any of you had that happen? So you had to go in and get Reviewed and sit there and hear the good and the bad and all of that or maybe you had a an audit at your business.

And so you had to conform to certain standards and you had an audit in your entire Corporation or your division was being audited or something to that effect and so. Or maybe you had just simply a good talking to by one of your parents.

You know. They sat you down and gave you a talking to you ever ever had one of those so all of those have something in common and that is just this idea of auditing behavior the idea of us being reviewed and having somebody put their eyes on the way that we were living our lives or the behavior the things that we're doing are the things that we're saying and Giving us some evaluation back and I'm guessing that all of us are covered under all of those things that I just mentioned that we've had we've had some of those things at least and Jesus is going to have a sit-down a Sit-down audit if you will of seven specific churches, they were real churches during the life of John.

They're not figurative. They're not figures of speech. They're real churches of gatherings of people in different cities on the western end of what is now modern-day Turkey that peninsula also called Asia Minor and It was actually the Roman province of Asia during the time and these seven churches are within walking distance of each other.

About to go around from city to city would be about 60 miles. So back in the day, you know to have a seven break up the 60 into seven. Seven different legs and you're gonna get about, you know, roughly ten miles at the max and so very doable to take this letter, which is the entire book of Revelation take that entire letter around person by person.

Remember they didn't email it. They didn't text it. They didn't share it as a Google Doc so that everybody could access it at once and rather than any of that. They had to actually physically go and deliver this and so it's interesting that all of these seven churches that are being audited by Christ himself are actually in that same vicinity and even though Jesus is not going to be physically present, you know.

They're not going to see him. He's not going to sit down across their desk and give them the good and the bad. He is writing to all of them with a variety of commendations to each. Corrections to each and promised rewards for change and the interesting thing about this letter is that he wants all of them to read Each other's mail you're gonna see that in this text.

He says I want you to read what the Spirit says to the churches plural so along each stop they all got to kind of see the Commendation of Jesus the corrections of Jesus for each church along the way and now we are recipients of that same Benefit that we get to look in and see Jesus's commendation to the churches.

Offer of reward to the churches as well as corrections for the churches and it's with intention that he recorded that for us. That we might be beneficiaries of this information not that we can look at Ephesus and go man.

You guys had some issues you had some struggles, but that we might look at our church and say where are we at in love? Where are we at in truth? Where are we at in these things that we're gonna see specific?

And so we see right up first the church first church on the docket is the Church of Ephesus. We're gonna see the next Seven weeks are going to be seven churches one one week each church and we're gonna see these churches as we as they unfold what the what the Really sit-down audit of Jesus is for each one of them and our text this morning is completely comprised of the words of the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

You'll see aside from a couple words at the beginning if you have a red-letter version of the Bible. Which I don't think is any any way or magical or mystical but what they do is they try to take the actual quotes from Jesus and turn them into red letters and If you see that then you'll notice that most of our text this morning is indeed red letter if you have one of those.

It's the the words of Jesus Christ quoting him here. And he is speaking the words that John is recording. John's recording at Jesus is speaking and he commands John to write to. This mystical phrase right to the angel of the Church of Ephesus.

Now I mentioned last week in one of the introductory messages that many see angel here as a metaphor. For the human leader or the human director of each church. Maybe even the pastor some see it as a literal angel like each church has a guardian angel or something to that effect.

Which seems a little bit kind of confusing like why would he be writing a letter to an angel last time? I try I don't know if angels get mail. Where would you post a letter to an angel? I don't know where you would send it.

And.

So Others believe that by the way I didn't mention this last week. Others believe that the angel could be a metaphor for this overall spirit or flavor of each individual church so each church has a has a kind of tendency towards it or a bent and so some people see that I lean towards the Angel being a specific human leader for each church.

And that it's intentionally written with them in mind so that they can help guide and steer their church Towards what is wholesome and healthy and what Jesus is? Recommending for them, but it makes sense for John to be addressing concerns to them These leaders and to be honest It makes a little difference who the angel is when you consider that these letters were read to each Individual church at an assembly of the entire gathering.

So a reader would this this letter would come into town a reader would step up and read Revelation 1 to 22 in a gathering to the church in Ephesus and then they'd move on to the next church and on to the Next church Smyrna Thyatira all these churches and they'd move on but it would be read in the gathering so all of us would be privy to.

Like I just got up and read all of us are privy to the information and have it available to us the indictments and the.

Commendations.

Each of these letters follows a pretty clear formula where Jesus identifies himself in a unique way and some of you have kind of Analytical mind so you're like, well, is there what is the formula? How does that work?

Jesus identifies himself in each of these seven letters in a unique way. He identifies something specific about his character and in the introduction He commends them usually not every time which is kind of kind of interesting.

How many of you would like a commendation from Jesus if he's issuing? Commendations and he routinely does how many of you know that that missing might be a downer? But some of these letters lack a commendation like he doesn't even say anything that they're doing right that's that's pretty rough.

He rebukes most all of them gives them some kind of a correction something that they need to change. I say most of them because I want you like to be at one of those churches. Where he doesn't say anything that you're doing wrong like that would be kind of that'd be kind of cool, right?

And I think the point being that we can kind of get a mix of this and we'll we'll see that there's some things that we're Struggling with and some things that we're doing well, and I think you know that in your own heart.

You know that there's a mix in in each of us. But he encourages them all so he commends most of them rebukes most of them. He then encourages them to take heed to his words. He says pay attention if you have ears to hear listen heed this pay attention to the things that I'm saying and then lastly he offers them a specific reward for conquering or overcoming and Conquering looks different for each church.

Conquering looks different for each one of these as he is indicting them and telling them what they need to change. And so how does Jesus reveal himself to the church in Ephesus? What's his what's his mo?

How does he approach them and Jesus reveals himself in power to them? Ephesus was a powerful city and so it makes sense that Jesus reveals himself as powerful in the midst of this. It was the fourth largest city in the entire Roman Empire fourth largest city in the Roman Empire during this time.

It was arguably the most influential city in the entire Roman province of Asia. It was not the capital but because of its art its religion its industry. It actually would be kind of like saying well, what's our capital of our state?

What is it?

You guys didn't know that right off the bat. Are you like what? Lansing but what's the largest city in our state Detroit? So you can kind of get a feel for that Ephesus is the Ephesus is the Detroit where Pergamum is the Lansing.

Pergamum is the capital of that Roman province. But and it has the has the political clout, but when it really comes down to it Ephesus is the big city in Asia. It's the big one. Okay, even in this ancient time.

It had over a quarter of a million residents. 250 ,000 people lived in Ephesus without running water without electricity. Any of you think that that might get a little cramped and crowded and smelly? Okay, it's I mean and this is an ancient city 250 ,000 that's three times by the way three times the population of Kalamazoo.

Three times the population of Kalamazoo just to give you a perspective. It was a city that was steeped in Greek idolatry. It was the seat of the worship of the Roman Emperor in Asia the imperial cult as it was called where they would actually Pay homage and and give offerings to the the Roman Emperor as deity.

They would worship him. It was also known for black magic even when Paul the Apostle went through the city of Ephesus people repented of their voodoo style of religion and they piled up their spell books and their amulets and their charms and all of these things that they thought brought them power and they burned them when they became Christians a huge bonfire and it was estimated that the worth of the magic books alone was over 50 ,000 pieces of silver.

A place steeped in black magic and Satanism and idolatry and all of this kind of stuff. A place that understood and moved and breathed in the realms of power. Ephesus. Further than this Ephesus was the center of the worship of Artemis.

Who was the Greek God the Greek goddess of rednecks. Okay, so you're like, where's he going with that? Um, she was the patron goddess of hunting. Okay, so she would she was she never married according to Greek mythology.

And she was the huntress and all everybody who was into hunting would pay homage to her. And so she was the queen of hunters so to speak. And Ephesus had a large industrial park dedicated to the making of silver statues to Artemis.

If you had a silver statue to Artemis, it was made in Ephesus in the Roman Empire. These things were spread all throughout all the way to the Roman city itself and they were known for making these silver statues.

Like a factory and industry in Ephesus. So Ephesus was a powerful city. It was filled with a good understanding of prestige. So Jesus in verse 1 identifies himself as the one who holds the leadership of the church.

I am the one who holds the stars in my right hand and he walks among his churches. He paints a picture of his sovereignty over those who are his and he wants the Ephesians to sit up and take note. Who's the one addressing us?

Who's the one who has written this letter to us? Who's the one that is? Offering us a review. The Lord Jesus Christ himself the Almighty one the one who holds the stars in his hand. He's the one in verses 2 and 3 Jesus jumps right into the Recommendation for this church that has been established in a pretty rough city.

How many of you think just from the description that I gave you that that would be a hard place to establish a church? Sounds pretty tough. Sounds like a difficult place. Sounds kind of like maybe like Detroit right like a difficult place to have a church plan or maybe Dearborn or something and there's there's a lot of a lot of struggles there in that community.

And he commends them. Jesus says I know your works. Ephesians to speaking to the church. I know your works. And the word for works here is not what we might think in our mind specifically good works, right?

You're thinking well, it's a commendation, right? So he's like, I know you're good works. No, he's saying I know the way that you roll. I know the things that you do. It's a more general statement that all of us should take to heart and that's just simply the reality that Jesus knows the way that You and I roll.

He knows the way that our church rolls. He knows the things that we are doing. Jesus knows how we roll. He sees the things that we do individually as well as understanding and knowing. Intimately the corporate flavor of our church recast and it's a pretty cool thing to Consider that Jesus knows what is going on in his churches.

Anybody glad for that? He understands and he knows. It's not meant to be a scary thing. Like Jesus is watching you. He's gonna squish you. He's gonna get after you. No, it's it's a it's a peaceful thing.

He says I see I see your toil. I see your work. It's something that we ought to consider. He sees the way that we're behaving. Jesus breaks down the work of the Ephesians into three categories. Remember all commendations.

He says I see your works your works look like this toil. Patient endurance and not putting up with evil three things that he says I see in you Ephesus. I see these things toil patient endurance and not putting up with evil.

These obviously are three things that are commendations from the Lord so therefore worthy of commendation by God himself. They have apparently endured difficulty and you can imagine just from the culture that I explained to you.

Can you imagine some difficulties that they might have faced as a church with so much black magic magic and so much Imperial cult worship. I'm sure that Christians on a regular basis were asked to bow to statues routinely and regularly in that community and culture lots of persecution and They've endured that in a culture that was so steeped in idolatry and black magic and various forms of paganism.

I'm sure that it costs something real to be a Christian in that culture. It cost you something to be a Christian. And the Ephesian Church worked hard in that context to remain pure according to the text even testing those who claim to be Apostles, but we're not.

They they took this seriously their purity as a church. Now how many of you would agree with me that all so far what you heard in this commendation Makes us sound like the church in Ephesus was a pretty conservative church.

Would you agree with me on that sounds fairly conservative in the way that it it rolls and I'm talking theologically. It's just gonna take it's gonna take truth seriously and they seek purity in practice and purity in their teaching.

They're not gonna put up with people acting out in evil or teaching that which is false. How many think that's a good quality in a church? That's pretty good quality in a church the details by the way of how the Ephesian Church Tested their teachers isn't spelled out for us.

We don't have a roadmap for how best to Test our teachers, but they were apparently pretty good at it. The church in Ephesus was good at that practice and they rooted out false teachers those that were false.

According to Jesus himself. He says those that are false. You're finding them. You're actually identifying correctly the ones that are false and you're you're removing them. And I would suggest to you and maybe even your your maybe the wheels are already spinning in your mind that this Jesus already is Starting to look a little different than the Jesus of our culture the Jesus that you're gonna hear about in the media the Jesus that everybody's gonna use for their bumper sticker and their cause and their Jesus is fill in the blank, right?

Jesus is revealed. Different than our routine cultural understanding he commends them for not bearing with those who are evil. Is that a popular message in our culture? Are you gonna hear that declared about Jesus in the newspaper tomorrow?

No.

No, not at all. Unless it's a derogatory article against Christians or something like that. Well, here's what Christians believe. Or here's what Don preached yesterday or something like that. I'm not gonna be in the news.

I.

Hope not.

We'll see.

But he This is a Jesus who commends them. For not bearing with those who are evil and you might you might even be thinking for just a second. You're like, wait a minute Don. I thought Jesus hung out with sinners.

Didn't Jesus hang out with prostitutes and tax collectors and here he's commending a church for not putting up with evil people. What's get what gives here? What's the? Where's the balance in this what's going on?

And it's in there. It's extremely important that we get this, right? So bear with me as we kind of take a little side note here into this this realm of What-is-Jesus-doing-here-commending-them-for-for-not-bearing-up-with-evil-people-and-equally-in-his-own-life-if-we're-following-his-example.