I love Sundays at a2 Church! I love it when God’s people get together to exalt God and encourage one another! Here’s an overview of yesterday’s worship experience at a2 Church. Extended notes of the message follow…
Opening Worship Set:
Let God Arise (You Tube) or here (Amazon) by Chris Tomlin
Great, Great God by Gateway (recording not available)
You’ll Come or here by Hillsong
Stephanie Thomas welcomed everyone, shared a couple of important announcements and the intro to the morning message. She shared two great passages of Scripture as a segue into the song the band brought.
Isaiah 52:1-2, Wake up, wake up, O Zion! Clothe yourself with strength. Put on your beautiful clothes… 2 Rise from the dust, O Jerusalem. Sit in a place of honor. Remove the chains of slavery from your neck, O captive daughter of Zion. 3 For this is what the Lord says: "You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed."
Ephesians 5:14-16, Wake up from your sleep, Climb out of your coffins; Christ will show you the light! 15 So watch your step. Use your head. 16 Make the most of every chance you get. These are desperate times!
The a2 band introduced the message with the following song:
Slumber (You Tube) or here (Amazon) by needtobreathe
We shared Part 2 in the series GOD WINS with a message titled, One Church. Two Church. Good Church. Bad Church.
Finally, we responded to the message with a time of prayer and reflection. The a2 band led us in singing, “Awakening” (You Tube) or here (Amazon) by Hillsong / Chris Tomlin, and wrapped everything up by baptizing six people! Yay, God!
Here are the extended notes from the message.
One Church. Two Church. Good Church. Bad Church.
GOD WINS: A Study of Revelation – Part 2
September 18, 2011 * Chris Goins
C.S. Lewis in his book, The Screwtape Letters described the church like this: “…spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners… …which makes our boldest tempters uneasy.”
NOTES: Revelation 2-3 are focused on the church…
In Revelation 1 we get a glimpse of Jesus. He’s large and in charge – glorious and majestic — walking in and among His church — supervising, examining, inspecting and evaluating.
In fact, Revelation 2-3 contains seven letters that Jesus wrote or dictated to seven churches in first century Asia — modern Turkey. These were seven actual, specific churches. But in Revelation numbers matter… And since seven is the number of completeness or perfection, Jesus is speaking to all churches — both then and now…
Five Important Realities About The Church:
1. The church is at the heart of God’s redemptive purpose and plan. Jesus holds the church’s leaders in His strong hand —secure in His grip and under His authority. He loves the church and is present and at work in it and through it (1:12-13, 16, 20; 2:1).
NOTES: The churches in Revelation 2-3 are far from perfect… They were messy, because people are messy… People are sinful, imperfect and flawed… These churches were a mixed bag…
Four of the churches got mixed reviews… One of the churches was an absolute wreck… At least two of the churches were struggling with sexual sin… But Jesus refused to dump the church… John said, “He was standing the middle of the seven golden lampstands…”
That’s how committed Jesus is to the church He died to redeem… This is one of the reasons it baffles me when believers get casual about and apathetic when it comes to their commitment to and passion for the church of Jesus Christ…
Article from Washington Post: Some time ago Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck wrote a piece that appeared in The Washington Post. It was basically a synopsis of a great book they wrote titled, Why We Love The Church… The piece in the post was titled, Jesus Loves The Church… I wanted to read some of that piece… I’ve slightly edited and adapted it for our purposes… But here it is…
"Here’s what the haters won’t tell you: Jesus believed in and founded the church… He didn’t start a movement of latte-drinking disciples who excelled in spiritual conversations. He founded the church (Matt. 16:18) and commissioned the apostles to proclaim the good news that Israel’s Messiah had come and the sins of the world could be forgiven through his death on the cross (Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 2:14-36).
"For almost two millennia, it was axiomatic that Christians, like, actually went to church (or at least told other Christians they did). From Cyprian to Calvin it was believed that for those to whom God “is Father the church may also be Mother.” But increasingly Christians are trying to get more spiritual by getting less church.
"Take a spin through the religion section at your local bookstore. What you’ll find there is revealing – there are “revolutionary” books for stay at home moms, teenagers, and Christian businessmen. There are lots of manifestos. And most of the books about church are about people leaving the church to “find God…” It used to be you had to overthrow a country to be considered a revolutionary, and now, it seems, you just have to quit church and go pray in the woods.
"We’ve been in the church our whole lives and are not blind to its failings. Churches can be boring, hypocritical, hurtful, and inept. The church is full of sinners. Which is kind of the point. Christians are worse than you think. Our Savior is better than you imagine.
"But the church is not all about oppression and drudgery. Almost every church we know of visits old people, brings meals to new moms, supports disaster relief, and does something for the poor. We love the local church, in spite of its problems, because it’s where we go to meet God. It’s not a glorified social/country club you attend to be around people who talk and look just you do. It’s a place to hear God’s word spoken, taught and affirmed. It’s a place to sing praises to God, and a place to serve others. It’s a place to be challenged…
"We love the church because Christ loved the church. She is his bride–a harlot at times, but his bride nonetheless, being washed clean by the word of God (Eph. 5:25-26). If you are into Jesus, don’t rail on his bride. Jesus died for the church, so don’t be bothered by a little dying to self for the church’s sake. If you keep in mind that everyone there is a sinner (including yourself) and that Jesus Christ is the point and not you, your dreams, or your kids, your church experience might not be as lame as you fear.
"Perhaps Christians are leaving the church because it isn’t tolerant and open-minded. But perhaps the church-leavers have their own intolerance too – intolerant of tradition, intolerant of authority, intolerant of imperfection except their own. Are you open-minded enough to give the church a chance – a chance for the church to be the church, not a coffee shop, not a mall, not a variety show, not Chuck E. Cheese, not a U2 concert, not a nature walk, but a wonderfully ordinary, blood-bought, Spirit-driven church…?
"The Church, because it is Christ’s church, will outlive American Idol, the NFL, and all of our grandkids. We won’t last, but the Church will. So when it comes to church, be like Jesus: love it, don’t leave it. As someone once said to Jake Blues in the huge Christian classic, the Blues Brothers, “Jake, you get wise, you get to church.”
2. The Holy Spirit is still communicating to the church, and the church needs to listen.
Revelation 2:7 (ESV), He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. (2:11; 2:17; 2:29; 3:6; 3:13; 3:22)
The Holy Spirit is still communicating to the church…
Seven By Seven: The Basic Pattern of Each Letter
• A snapshot of Jesus that comes directly out of the vision John had in Revelation 1. It's like God is reminding us, "The most important thing is not the church, it's Jesus’ activity in the church!"
• Second, we get a confirmation about the reliability of the intelligence Jesus has on the church.
Jesus begins each letter the same way… He begins by saying, “I know... I know… I know…” That's a profound and humbling thought... To realize that Jesus knows the actual score… He knows everything… He knows it all…
• This followed by the ultimate performance review where Jesus commends the church for what's going good, and He "calls the church on the carpet" for where they're blowing it!
• After His evaluation, Jesus makes the action step(s) the church needs to take crystal clear and rather simple. He lets the church know what they need to do to get right and stay right, spiritually.
• Finally, each letter concludes with Jesus giving the church a promise that church can live on and the challenge, to keep listening…
3. Every church is planted in the context of a culture that in its own way is diametrically opposed to God, and that church will either transform the surrounding culture, or the surrounding culture will eventually transform the church.
Romans 12:2 (PH), Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold…
Romans 12:2 (MSG), Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God…
4. Every church has a tendency to drift towards one of two extremes: separatism or syncretism. Both extremes are dangerous and deadly.
Separatism / Isolationism – We isolate and protect ourselves from culture by hiding out in our own “Christian” subculture. We become fundamentalists who impose our own man-made rules on people in the name of achieving holiness and avoiding worldliness.
Syncretism / Compromise – We become so immersed in and aligned with the values, beliefs and mindset of the culture that we lose our distinctive identity as the people of God and the church of Jesus Christ… We end up abandoning and diluting the simplicity of the gospel in the name of relevance.
Dangers of Separatism: Ephesus / Sardis
[Ephesus] Revelation 2:2-5 (NLT), “I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. 3 You have patiently suffered for me without quitting.
Revelation 2:4-5 (NLT), “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! 5 Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches.”
Revelation 2:4 (ESV), But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
Danger #1: Right beliefs when it comes to doctrine; but a loss of passion when it comes to worship and compassion and action when it comes to people.
[Sardis] Revelation 3:1-2 (NLT), Write this letter to the angel of the church in Sardis. This is the message from the one who has the sevenfold Spirit of God and the seven stars: “I know all the things you do, and that you have a reputation for being alive—but you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead. I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of my God.”
Danger #2: Right beliefs when it comes to doctrine; but a loss of mission in the world and impact on the surrounding culture.
Revelation 3:5 (NLT), All who are victorious will be clothed in white. I will never erase their names from the Book of Life, but I will announce before my Father and his angels that they are mine.
Danger of Syncretism: Pergamum / Thyatira / Laodicea
[Pergamum] Revelation 2:13-16 (NLT), I know that you live in the city where Satan has his throne, yet you have remained loyal to me. You refused to deny me even when Antipas, my faithful witness, was martyred among you there in Satan’s city.
14 I have a few complaints against you. You tolerate some among you whose teaching is like that of Balaam, who showed Balak how to trip up the people of Israel. He taught them to sin by eating food offered to idols and by committing sexual sin. 15 In a similar way, you have some Nicolaitans among you who follow the same teaching. 16 Repent of your sin, or I will come to you suddenly and fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
[Thyatira] Revelation 2:19-20 (NLT), I know all the things you do. I have seen your love, your faith, your service, and your patient endurance. And I can see your constant improvement in all these things.
[Thyatira] Revelation 2:20 (NLT), But I have this complaint against you. You are permitting that woman—that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet—to lead my servants astray. She teaches them to commit sexual sin and to eat food offered to idols.
Danger #1: Compromise and rationalization when it comes to personal ethics and sexual purity.
NOTES: The expression Jesus uses for “sexual sin” when He addresses the problems in Pergamum and Thyatira refers to at least three things for our culture:
• Adultery – sexual involvement between a married person and someone he or she isn’t married to…
• Fornication — That’s a different “F” word for some of you… But in the New Testament it’s a “catch all” word that refers to any kind of sexual activity outside the confines of marriage…
• Pornography — which is a growing epidemic for the American church…
Jack Hayford describes the problem like this in his book E-Quake: “To indulge yourself outside the biblical guidelines in terms of sexual behavior is to abandon yourself to demonic influence and thereby to be restricted in your capacities for what the Lord wants you to be. It may not damn your soul to hell, but it will certainly bring so much hell into your life that you won’t do much good for heaven.”
Danger #2: Worship that is marked more by convenience and cultural accommodation than it is by passionate God-centered devotion.
NOTES: Both the church at Pergamum and Thyatira were struggling with the issue of “…food sacrificed to idols…” (2:15; 2:20).
Both of these churches were located in what could be called union towns… In that era, union or trade guild meetings often involved the worship of pagan gods… And if you were a Christian and went to the union hall, but refused to worship the local area deity, you were not considered to be a good union member… The social and economic consequences were pretty high…
What was evidently happening, was that some of the believers in these churches were compromising their faith… They were actually participating in the worship of pagan gods and rationalizing it by saying, “I worship Jesus in my heart, so it doesn’t really matter what I do when I’m in the Union Hall…” God said, “You bet it matters!”
These believers had segregated their lives into the sacred and the spiritual… They behaved one way when they were with family or believers in the local church, and a completely different way when they were at work… They had slipped into idolatry…
Some of us can’t relate to the language of idolatry… But it’s important to remember the way Tim Keller defines idolatry… Keller writes:
“Idolatry is not just a failure to obey God, it is a setting of the whole heart on something besides God.” ~ Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods, page 171.
We may not be able to relate to the false gods the people in Pergamum or Thyatira struggled with, but we have our own false gods we regularly bow down to: the god of money, success, power, being smart, the god of sex, approval, being attractive, the god of relationships, pleasure, work, career or reputation… You name it…
Here’s the problem: You can’t segregate your life in to the spiritual and secular… When it comes to your life, Jesus is either Lord of everything, or He’s not Lord of anything…
[Laodicea] Revelation 3:17 (NLT), You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.
Danger #3: Convenience, comfort and affluence that dulls spiritual sensitivity and ultimately take precedence over commitment, devotion and total consecration to Jesus Christ.
[Laodicea] Revelation 3:18-20 (NLT), So I advise you to buy gold from me—gold that has been purified by fire. Then you will be rich. Also buy white garments from me so you will not be shamed by your nakedness, and ointment for your eyes so you will be able to see. 19 I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference. 20 “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.
John Piper nails it when he says, “Christ did not die to redeem a bride who would keep him on the porch while she watched television in the den. His will for the church is that we open the door, all the doors of our life.”
5. The church is not meant to merely survive! It’s God will for the church to thrive!
Two Examples: Smyrna and Philadelphia
[Philadelphia] Rev 3:8, 11-11 (NIV), I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.
11 I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. 12 The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name.
Book Quotation: I love the way Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck end their book, Why We Love The Church… They write:
“The church is not an incidental part of God’s plan. Jesus didn’t invite people to join an anti-religion, anti-doctrine, anti-institutional bandwagon of love, harmony and reintegration. To be sure, He showed people who to live. But He also called them to repent, called them to faith, called them out of the world, and called them into the church.
“[1 Corinthians 13:7] says, ‘Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.’ If we truly love the church we will bear with her in her failings, endure her struggles, believe her to be the beloved bride of Christ, and hope for her glorification. I still believe the church is the hope of the world — not because she gets it all right, but because she is a body with Christ for her Head.
“Don’t give up on the church. The New Testament knows nothing of churchless Christianity. The invisible church is for invisible Christians. The visible church is for you and me.
“So I guess this is my final advice: Find a good local church, get involved, become a member, and stay there for the long haul… Go to church this Sunday and worship there in spirit and truth, be patient with your leaders, rejoice when the gospel is faithfully proclaimed… While you are there, sing like you mean it, say hi to the teenager no one notices, the blue hairs and the nose-ringed, volunteer for the nursery once in a while. And yes, bring you fried chicken to the potluck like everyone else, invite a friend to church, take the new couple out for coffee, give in the offering, be thankful someone vacuumed the carpet, enjoy the Sundays that click for you, pray extra hard on the Sundays that don’t, and do not despise ‘the day of small things’ (Zechariah 4:10).”
Closing Illustration:
A few years ago an anonymous author penned some words that I believe describe what life must have been like in that first century church and what God desires life to be like in the church today.
The Fellowship of the Unashamed
I am part of the "Fellowship of the Unashamed." I have Holy Spirit power. The die has been cast. I've stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of His. I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure. I am finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tame vision, mundane talking, chintzy giving, and dwarfed goals!
I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don't have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by presence, learn by faith, love by patience, live by prayer, and labor by power.
My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions few, my guide reliable, my mission clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, diluted, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.
I won't give up, shut up, let go, or slow up until I've preached up, prayed up, paid up, stored up, and stayed up for the cause of Christ.
I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, and work till He stops. And when He comes to get His own, He'll have no problems recognizing me…my colors will be clear. ~ Anonymous
References:
The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis
Vision Weekend - Part 1, September 11, 2011, a message by John Ortberg of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church
Church: Love It, Don't Leave It by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck
Why We Love The Church by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck
Revelation Message Series by Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church
Revelation 2-3: Letters to the Seven Churches, Mary 20, 2011, a message by Bob Thune of Coram Deo Church
E-Quake by Jack Hayford
ESV Study Bible
Life Application Study Bible
Revelation 1-11: New Testament Commentary by John MacArthur
Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation by Dennis Johnson
The Returning King by Vern Poythress
Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, Revelation, Grant R. Osborne
Revelation: The Triumph of Christ by John Stott
How To Buy Gold When You're Broke, a message by John Piper of Bethlehem Baptist Church
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