I’ve thoroughly enjoyed diving into Revelation 2-3 over the past seven weeks. As I noted before, we often overlook these very important chapters at the beginning and skip to the cosmic stuff that happens throughout the rest of the book. Yet Jesus gave seven clear, concise, and relevant messages to these ancient churches. In many ways, we still struggle with the same things they struggled with. We also may be gifted in the way these churches were, too. The important thing to glean from this study is that each church can speak life into your walk with Christ.

Here is a summary of what we have talked about for each week since August…

1. Ephesus: Forgetting Your First Love– Christians in the Ephesian church were doing alright, except that they had forgotten what church was all about. Everything we do must be about Jesus Christ. He is the reason we have hope and are called to reach out in love to other people. Yet tragically in many churches, Christians today struggle with the temptation to make Christianity about something else other that Jesus. We all need to be reminded of the church of Ephesus to never forget our first love–Jesus Christ.
2. Smyrna: Joy in Poverty– God never promised us worldly riches. God did promise us something much better, however, with a transformed life through Christ. As Jesus put it in Matthew’s gospel, we are called to store up treasures in heaven. So many times in our world we think that having more stuff will fill some void in our soul. Yet the church of Smyrna teaches us to have God’s joy in times of poverty, and even in times of persecution and hardship.
3. Pergamum: Beware of False Teachers– Pergamum struggled with false teachings in their church community. The specific teachings of this church are difficult to pin down, but most likely dealt with sexual immorality and misunderstanding the role of God’s grace in faith. Likewise, we looked at modern day false teachings and how it is not true that God loves some more than others, or that church is a place for people who have it all figured out!
4. Thyatira: False Prophetess– Just like Pergamum, Thyatira dealt with its fair share of false teachings, most notably with someone Jesus called Jezebel. We looked back at the Old Testament in 1-2 Kings to see Jezebel’s tragic story of what happens when we continually reject God’s guidance. Thyatira warns us to seek repentance and pursue Jesus.
5. Sardis: It’s Time to Wake Up– Sardis was the sleepy church! Jesus commanded them to wake up, and likewise cautions us to wake up today as well. God calls us to wake up from sin and death, and to realize we need salvation in the first place. God calls us to wake up to Jesus’ mission of redeeming all creation. And God also calls us to wake up and live life to the fullest by being fully present through a relationship with Christ.
6. Philadelphia: Steadfast in Faith– The church of Philadelphia taught us that faith often takes time and endurance. In other words, we cannot rush it or suddenly have everything fixed. Just like a slow-cooked gumbo, we need the time to soak in the teachings of the gospel, as well as form Christlike character as we interact with our world.
7. Laodicea: Dangers of Being Lukewarm– We often feel neither hot nor cold with our faith. We often assume (just like the Christians in Laodicea) that we are too good for God’s grace. Likewise, God wants to energize us and give us a passion for Godly living.

Take some time today to think about which church you resonate with. Do any of the struggles of a particular church seem applicable to you? What is Jesus speaking to you that might be found in these scripture passages?

As we wrestle with this topic of endurance and faithfulness, I think it is important to point out one thing. Everything we do can either draw us closer to or push us further away from God. The authors of scripture often noted this in how we form our character as humans. People develop righteousness when they turn towards God and allow God to renew them. Unrighteousness develops when people stubbornly refuse to take the steps towards God’s kingdom.

Jesus noted this in the church of Philadelphia with how they had endured many tribulations and kept the faith. All those years that Philadelphia continued to persist and focus on God’s love produced an admirable faith–so commendable that Jesus did not scold them as a church like he did other churches in Revelation!

Think about that for a moment. Everything we do either brings us closer to God, or it pushes us further away. In many ways, our faith journey is a lot like taking steps. We don’t suddenly arrive at the final destination–whether that be heaven or a life that looks like Jesus. We don’t get there overnight. It takes time to develop a Christlike spirit. It takes time to have Godly character and attitude. It can even take a lifetime to practice being a disciple of Jesus over and over again, day in and day out.

In my interviews to become a Methodist pastor, I once heard a story from one of my mentors. (If you’ve ever been around the United Methodist Church for a long time, perhaps this Wesleyan theme of perfection might sound familiar.)

John Wesley, the great evangelist and founder of our denomination, had a question he would ask people as he preached the gospel hundreds of years ago. He would ask them: “Are you going on to perfection?” The correct and hopeful answer is obviously, “Yes, I am moving towards the direction of perfection.”

Well, a young pastor many years ago was going through the pastor ordination process and he was asked this very question by the board of ministry: Are you going on to perfection?

This young man thought about it for a moment and I can only guess what was going on in his mind based off of his answer. He probably thought to himself, Going on to perfection? Well, nobody is perfect, so why on earth would I say yes? I know I’ll just sin and sin again each and every day! So he boldly told the committee with a smirk, “No, I’m not going to move on towards perfection.”

An older pastor in attendance with many years of wisdom asked in response, “Then where are you moving towards? Imperfection? Hell? Satan?”

The point is that we are called to move on toward perfection. We are called to continually strive towards it. Even if we fail, we must always trust in and follow Jesus. Only he can change us from the inside out to make us perfected in God’s divine love.

How are you taking steps towards God? How do you struggle with temptation to go the other way? We all take various steps in life, and if we are not careful, we might find ourselves journeying in the opposite direction of God’s kingdom.

Never forget that every action you take in life either brings you closer to or farther away from Jesus.

I attended a Baptist church for about 3 and a half years while in college called UBC in Waco, TX. I had been raised in the Methodist church, but did not really connect with my university’s Wesley Foundation or anything like that at the time. My time at UBC was very influential and in many ways actually helped me to discover God’s calling on my life for pastoral ministry.

While at UBC, I learned about one of the founding pastors of the church, Kyle Lake, who had such a passion for reaching people disconnected from the church. I remember hearing stories about him asking various Baptist organizations for money to start this church plant, and the older pastors (dressed in very formal suits) who were in charge of these committees broke down in tears because they realized what a passion he had to reach younger generations–perhaps even their own children and grandchildren who had drifted away from Christianity.

Kyle died during an electrocution accident while performing a baptism on Sunday morning in 2005. This was before my time at Baylor and UBC, but his legacy obviously lived on in the life of the church. After his tragic and untimely death, someone from the church found a copy of what was supposed to be the sermon he was planning to preach that day. Here’s how that sermon was going to end:

Live. And Live Well.
BREATHE. Breathe in and Breathe deeply. Be PRESENT. Do not be past. Do not be future. Be now.
On a crystal clear, breezy 70 degree day, roll down the windows and FEEL the wind against your skin. Feel the warmth of the sun.
If you run, then allow those first few breaths on a cool Autumn day to FREEZE your lungs and do not just be alarmed, be ALIVE.
Get knee-deep in a novel and LOSE track of time.
If you bike, pedal HARD… and if you crash then crash well.
Feel the SATISFACTION of a job well done—a paper well-written, a project thoroughly completed, a play well-performed.
If you must wipe the snot from your 3-year old’s nose, don’t be disgusted if the Kleenex didn’t catch it all… because soon he’ll be wiping his own.
If you’ve recently experienced loss, then GRIEVE. And Grieve well.
At the table with friends and family, LAUGH. If you’re eating and laughing at the same time, then might as well laugh until you puke. And if you eat, then SMELL. The aromas are not impediments to your day. Steak on the grill, coffee beans freshly ground, cookies in the oven. And TASTE. Taste every ounce of flavor. Taste every ounce of friendship. Taste every ounce of Life. Because it is most definitely a Gift.

In John 10:10 we find the same kind of idea in the words of Jesus Christ. He promised that he came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. Jesus wants us to come alive and see the world through the beautiful lens of God’s everlasting love. That means savoring each and every moment and realizing the true gift God has given us. God’s grace can be found in so many places.

As we saw with the church of Sardis in Revelation 3 this past Sunday, God wants us to wake up. God is all about waking us up and allowing us to come alive in Christ. When we truly embrace God’s love, our entire world is flipped upside-down. Through that precious relationship, we discover what it means to live well.