Living Community (Part 1 of 3)

When you get a letter from a friend, you probably don't start looking immediately for what the letter says about you. The truth is that's not the best way for us to read the Bible either. Today on Truth for Life, we're beginning a study in the book of Revelation titled Letters from the Risen Christ.

In this study, Alistair Begg helps us avoid common distractions that can derail our Bible study. Well, let's read the Bible, Revelation chapter 3, and the first six verses, and then from verse 14. To the angel of the church in Sardis write, These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds. You have a reputation of being alive, but you're dead.

Wake up. Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. Remember therefore what you have received and heard, obey it and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.

Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me dressed in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never erase his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my father and his angels. He who is an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. And then verse 14.

To the angel of the church in Laodicea write, These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other. So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I'm about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, I'm rich, I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing. But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich, and white clothes to wear so you can cover your shameful nakedness, and salve to put on your eyes so you can see.

Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline, so be earnest and repent. Here I am, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me. To him who overcomes I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Let's pause just once again and in a simple chorus from the old CSSM days, ask God's blessing. And now make the book live to me, O Lord. Show me yourself within your Word. Show me myself, and show me my Savior, and make the book live to me.

Amen. In the material that was sent to me and to the other speakers, but the passage that relates directly to my task, I was directed as follows. The Bible reader will expound the text, but will also focus on Christ as revealed in the text. The Bible reader will expound the text and focus on Christ as he is revealed in the text. What an immense privilege to have the opportunity to take the Bible, to study it, and then to be able to share it with others, and in all of that, to have our gaze turned again and again to the Lord Jesus. I love to tell the story of unseen things above, of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love. Therefore, it is an immense privilege for us, for of all the places we could be on this morning, all the circumstances that we might face in the providence of God, he has ordered our steps, none of us is here by chance, in order that we might hear from the risen Lord Jesus Christ himself. Now, I use that little chorus purposefully in prayer, asking that God would show himself to us in the reading of the Word.

There is an inherent danger in it though. If you know it, or if you listen carefully as I said it, it says, make the book live to me. And the great inherent danger in the study of the Bible is that we want to move immediately from our reading of the text to personal application. And so from time to time, especially in a small group context, after you've read a portion of Scripture like this, it's not long before somebody in the group will say, let me tell you what this means to me, which of course is of interest, but is of secondary importance. Because what the individual may be about to say may actually be true to the text, may be actually helpful to the rest of the group, and in actual fact, it may be completely bizarre. And the only antidote then is to come to the text of Scripture not saying, let me tell you what this means to me initially, but coming to the Scripture saying, let me find out what this means. And once I understand what it means in the context in which it has been delivered, then and only then may I begin to make points of personal application.

So it's important for us this morning to recognize that what we're dealing with here is history and geography. We're dealing with real churches in real places, real men and women, real families living at a certain point in time. And from the passages we know that Jesus understands their condition, He understands their circumstances, and He writes to them expressly in the awareness of the context in which they're living. So for example, all the way through, you will find in each of the letters Jesus is saying, I know this.

In chapter 2 He says, I know your deeds, I know your hard work, I know your perseverance. And again in verse 13 of chapter 2, He says, I know where you live. The churches to whom these messages are addressed are first of all listed in verse 4 of chapter 1.

They're referred to there, they're listed in chapter 11, I should say. And the way in which they're listed would appear to be simply on the basis of the way in which a messenger would visit each of the churches. If they made the journey from where John was writing on Patmos, it would be about sixty miles across to Ephesus, which would be the closest point, therefore the natural starting point.

And if the person taking the messages went on foot in a northerly direction to Smyrna and then to Pergamum, then it would be only natural for them to come back in a southerly direction. Indeed, they would have to and visit the rest of the churches. Now in what way could it possibly be that here as we sit in the twenty-first century, these messages written to churches in the first century could be relevant to us this morning? After all, we come from such a variety of places—local churches scattered throughout the British Isles and beyond. Well, it will be quickly apparent to us, I hope as we read this and as we read for our homework in the rest of the days, that the specific issues which are addressed by the Lord Jesus via his messenger in these churches, the things that he's talking to these first-century congregations about are timeless.

Men and women picked up with a sense of triumphant expectation. Men and women dealing with failures in the experience of their Christian pilgrimage. People who have begun very well sliding into laziness. Congregations that were once known for their vibrancy and their genuine commitment to Christ and his people suddenly becoming dreadfully complacent, and there is a doldrum effect among them.

And they need someone to come and speak directly to them and call them again to account. All of those things, which are specifics as you will see and we will find in these studies, all of those things are not unknown to us this morning. And indeed, some of us are painfully aware of the issues that we've left behind.

And so the mail comes, first to these first-century congregations and then to us. There is an interface between my wife and myself, and we had a significant discussion just last week when I had gone in inadvertently and deleted all of her personal mail. And she informed me that it wasn't my mail, it was her mail, and please do not press the delete key. And I claimed my computer incompetency and so on, but it wasn't enough to suffice. And she told me, she said, press the thing, keep as new.

Do you see that there? Keep as new. Would you do that? Okay, I said I would. And so far I haven't touched it since then, I'm so afraid to. But anyway, I do know that when I go in next time, I will go not delete, but keep as new so that she can bring it up as many times as she likes. She can read it till she's a hundred years old, as far as I'm concerned. Now here you come to the book of Revelation, and frankly, you go around and certain people have deleted the book of Revelation. They pressed the delete key a long time ago. Whatever this book is, I don't know. Whoever it was written to, I don't know.

What it is about, I haven't got a clue. Hit the delete key, put it somewhere, drag it over to that big waste bucket, and put it in there for now. There's a lot of the Bible we've got to deal with.

Don't do that. Keep us new. Come to it, asking God, as we do now, to speak to us in the immediacy of our circumstances from the historical context of these ancient letters. Now it is at this point that I want to introduce a nursery rhyme, because it's important in going forward. It goes as follows. Pussycat, pussycat, where have you been?

I've been to London to visit the queen. And pussycat, pussycat, what did you there? And this is a bit I couldn't remember, thanks to my assistance.

I frightened a little mouse under the chair. You say, well, thanks very much for that, but how could that possibly be relevant to studies in the book of Revelation, most simply for this reason? That there is a great message in this nursery rhyme, isn't there? You missed it?

All these years you've been saying it and you missed it. The fact of the matter is that the cat goes in order that it may make a visitation upon the majesty and gets distracted in the process, chasing mice under chairs. Now, here's the thing, especially about the book of Revelation.

I've grown up in Scotland, as you know. I've heard more sermons on the letters to the seven churches in Revelation than I've had spaghetti bolognese in my lifetime. I could keep you here a long time giving you all the amazing stories that have been given to me in these letters. And I am forced to conclude that a lot of it was chasing mice under chairs, because it left me empty of an understanding that would satisfy my mind, and it left me devoid of a vision of the risen Christ alive and ready to meet his people where they are. It is imperative, therefore, that as we study in these mornings that we keep our eyes on Jesus. Failure to do so we'll find us chasing speculative, figurative mice under chairs and all over the place.

The book of Revelation, as with the rest of the Bible, has not been given to us to satisfy our curiosity, but it has been given to us in order that our lives may be changed by it. Now let me give you one final picture, and I'm going to move on. In the ice skating in the Olympics, when those ice skaters spin as they do, it's remarkable, isn't it? You say to yourself, you know, if I tried doing that just a couple of times out on the front grass, I'm going to fall on my rear end immediately. And my wife will point it out, haha, you're not very good at spinning, are you? So how in the world do you do that? And you can't watch them, you know, because you're trying to stay with them.

Well, I checked. And apparently the key is this, that before they go into the spin, they focus on a certain point. And then as the spin commences and as increases in velocity, they train themselves on each revolution to try and at least catch a glimpse of the fixed point again and again. Failure to do so, and they would go skating right out very, very quickly. Now, you're a sensible group of people.

You can make the application. If we fail constantly to keep our focus on the Lord Jesus Christ, then in the study of the Scriptures, and particularly perhaps in the study of Revelation, we will begin to spin helplessly and hopelessly out of control. The key is focus, looking unto Jesus.

I think it's Alec Mattia in his wonderful book called Look to the Rock. He says that the Bible is a book about Jesus, that in the Old Testament he is predicted, that in the Gospels he is revealed, in the Acts he is preached, in the Epistles he's explained, and in the Revelation he is expected. So the word that has been given to me to make sure that in the exposition of the text I turn the gaze of my own heart first to Christ and then the hearts of the listeners I want to pay careful attention to. And then we will discover the amazing relevance of this to each of us. When our churches are crushed, when we feel ourselves depleted and disappointed, then it will be a glorious vision of the Lord Jesus Christ that will help us.

If we come from church congregations where we've been thinking a little too much of ourselves, perhaps talking about ourselves more than we should, proudly and foolishly drawing attention to ourselves, then it is by this vision of the risen Lord Jesus Christ that we will be necessarily humbled by reminding ourselves that we as local congregations may be lampstands, but all of the light is Christ himself, and we exist in order that he might shine through us. Now, I've taken time on that purposefully. I'm not going to do that every morning.

You'll be relieved to know. But it is important to establish the ground rules. The main things are the plain things, and the plain things are the main things.

Resist every temptation to go crawling under the chairs. All right? Now, immediately, having said that, you turn to the thing, and you realize that as you look at the text, the number seven comes again and again. These are the words of him, verse 1 of chapter 3, who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.

And as Leon Morris says, for one so fond of symbolism, these things can hardly be without significance. Well, just when we come to this first verse, we discover that Mr. Smith, who is present at our local Bible study, immediately wants to launch in with a word of personal testimony about what the number seven has meant to him in his life. And also, he's very quickly going to tell you that he knows the identity of the angel of the church in Sardis. What is the leader to do?

Well, first, the leader is to do their homework, so that we have studied the text of Scripture, we have studied those who have said helpful things about it, so that we are prepared to recognize that there is a clarity to this, there is a brevity to it, and it is all-purposeful. And so, you pick up one commentary, and it says that the angel is the messenger. You pick up another commentary, and it says that the angel is the pastor or the bishop or the leader of the church. But that's one of the explanations. Then one other explanation is that the angel means angel. There's an intriguing idea, isn't it? That angel means angel.

Don't go under the chairs. Or that angel is expressive of the spirit of these congregations, so that he is personalizing, as it were, the church, the entity, the body itself. The angel of the church then simply is an expression of its prevailing spirit.

Now, for myself, I think three or four is probably where we ought to be. But we don't need to tie ourselves up in knots about what is uncertain, and thereby get confused about what is clear. Because the message that is given to this angel, whose identity is obviously cloudy, is a message that is clearly meant for the church. And so, we say, well, we can't say with absolute certainty just who or what this angel is, but we do know that the Lord Jesus has spoken very, very clearly, and He has identified Himself here, the words coming from Him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. Now, each time Jesus is designated, and these messages follow a pattern throughout, you'll discover that it ties back in to the vision of Christ that is given for us by John from the ninth verse on in chapter one.

And here is no exception. Jesus is identified in terms of his majesty and his authority. But who are, then, these seven spirits of God, or what are the seven spirits of God? Mounds, in his commentary, says the seven spirits of God are enigmatic at best. Which means, I don't know.

But when you're clever, you can do it in a sentence like that. The seven spirits of God are enigmatic at best. Which sounds better than saying, I haven't a clue who the seven spirits of God are.

But he hasn't got much of a clue. It may be a symbolic expression of the full range of the exercises of the divine power in the seven churches. It may be expressive of the heavenly entourage referred to in verse four of chapter one. Or it may be, as the footnote in the NIV seems to suggest, a reference to the sevenfold operation of the Spirit of God that is referred to back in Isaiah chapter 11 and verse 2.

Make a note of that and just put it down for homework. Isaiah 11 2, question mark, vis-à-vis Revelation 3 1. Again, we needn't stumble over what is hazy. Because the Lord Jesus says very quickly, I am the majestic one. I am the authoritative one. I am the one who holds all of the deeds and the responsibilities of these churches. I move among them. And I want you to know that I know your deeds.

I know your deeds. It is important for us, even essential for us, as we read and interpret scripture to keep our focus on Jesus. The details may be intriguing, but we never want them to distract from the main message that salvation is in the Lord Jesus. You're listening to Truth for Life with Alistair Begg.

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