Jesus is Lord Over His Churches

If you would take your Bible and turn to Revelation chapter 1 Revelation chapter 1 and we'll be in verses 19 to 16 and you might say pastor you're concluding our study through The seven churches, but you're doing it backwards. You're concluding with chapter 1 when you probably should have Started the whole thing with chapter 1. Well, I kind of did that on purpose in Finishing up today.

I will sing some things that I feel like will really be Highlighted because we have already studied the churches, but we'll be in Revelation chapter 1 Verses 9 to 16, of course We're finishing up our study through the seven churches and the series has been all about what does Jesus say? About the seven churches of Revelation.

We've tried to ask that question and then also make application for us Now we have studied the fallen church at Ephesus The Ephesian church was doing everything right as we see But they had committed the most Grevious of sins that we see in all of these churches as a whole they had forsaken they had abandoned they had left Their first love which is their love their personal love for Christ We studied the fearful church at Smyrna the church at Smyrna was one of these seven that did not receive a rebuke or a correction But they were feeble.

They were very fragile They were fearful from past persecution and our Lord told them that they had more persecution to come I don't know about you. But if I was in that church I probably would have been been thinking and saying come on Lord give us some good news But that was what they had before them then we studied the compromising church at Pergamum The church and these people they had held on to the name of Jesus, but they were greatly compromised They had allowed false teaching and teachers into the church and this teaching opened the door for idolatry and Sexual immorality then we studied the tolerant church at Thyatira I tried to make sure we covered all of these churches in one message, but this church I just couldn't do it So we took two messages there and this church had a genuine love for Christ and they had a genuine faith the text tells us They had been faithful in service and perseverance and these things were growing And if we stopped there, we would see that it was a good report But it wasn't because they had allowed a woman false teacher to exist in the church And that woman false teaching that woman false teacher in that teaching led many into paganism and into sexual immorality Then we studied the dead church at Sardis the church at Sardis and their situation was simple They had a name that they were alive.

In other words, they had a good reputation But their character which God knew was that they were dead But there were some there was some life there in that Christ commanded them to wake up and to strengthen what remained Then we studied the faithful church at Philadelphia. Now, this is my favorite Not just because it's positive But I think it does apply to us and my second favorite is the church at Ephesus and that is because that is the one Thing we have to be on guard against But this second church they did not receive a correction either They had little strength, but they had kept Christ's word and they kept Christ's name and they had persevered So they had a great open door of ministry that was opened up to them All they had to do was continue to obey All that they had done all along and that door would remain open and then the last church We studied the foolish church at Laodicea This church was the worst of the worst in that it appears that there were no genuine believers In the congregation they were either cold They were they were neither cold Non-professing nor hot which would be genuine believers They were lukewarm the text says in that they were professing believers, but not genuine believers But there was hope if they would repent Now I would encourage you to continue to study and meditate over these letters I would continue I would encourage you to continue to meditate and pray over their Situations and if you've not gotten all of those messages make sure you do that a matter of fact I think that last message has not been posted.

I'll make sure that gets done But then third I would encourage you to understand That these things do apply to us in our day and our time Although these things can look a lot different when we compare these churches to us But much of what we see here, although it may seem distant does apply to us I give you an example many of these churches face persecution We don't face persecution now so we could have a tendency to turn that off in our thinking But one day we very well could face persecution Some of them were in extreme poverty.

We are a blessed people in our culture You might feel like you were poor, but you are not you travel into a third world circumstance You'll see that you were very very wealthy One thing that might not seem like it really applies is this Jezebel false teacher there at Thyra Tyra We don't have that problem in our church, but it is a huge problem Women false teachers in the American Church today is a huge huge problem I could continue there, but I think you see what I'm trying to show us these things relate to us Now this is how I want to conclude this series first.

I want to make some observations from verses 9 to 20 and I want to apply along the way as I normally do but then second I want to give us a few lessons that I see from this teaching and From these letters you could add to these lessons you might might think well pastor you missed one. Here's a good lesson Well if that's the case you write that down pray over that now the theme or the thrust of the message tonight is simple We will see that Jesus is Lord over his church and his churches Plural and that's the title of the message Jesus is Lord over his churches now this is a big portion of Scripture and Because of time I will not go back and read the scriptures again like I normally do So let's read them.

Let's make sure we pay attention to them and then we'll jump into them first night I John your brother and partner in the tribulation in the kingdom and the patient endurance that are ours in Jesus I was on the island called Patmos on account of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus I was in the spirit on the Lord's Day and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches To Ephesus and the Smyrna and the Pergamum the Thyatira Sardis Philadelphia and Laodicea Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands And in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest his The hairs of his head were white like white wool like snow His eyes were like a flame of fire and his feet were like burnished bronze Refined in a furnace and his voice was like the roar of many waters and in his right hand He held seven stars and from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword And his face was like the Sun shining in full strength When I saw him I fell at his feet as though dead But he laid his right hand on me saying fear not I am the first and the last in the living one I died and behold I am alive Forever more and I have the keys of death and Hades Right there for the things that you have seen those that are and those that are to take place after this as for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and The seven golden lampstands the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are the seven churches Now out of verse 9 is obvious that we see who wrote the letter John now, this was the Apostle John and the text says he was on the island of Patmos Some of you might not know what that means but that meant that he was in in kind of a prison or Or on or in exile and it says that he was in prison or exiled because of preaching Christ and preaching the word of God now verse 10 tells us That he was in the spirit on the Lord's Day and we see in verse 11 that Christ revealed Himself to him and he told John To write down what he saw and what he heard now right away There's something that I want to apply to us.

We believe that Sunday is the Lord's Day Now if you've not heard my teaching and preaching on Sunday being the Lord's Day I would encourage you to go get that Sunday is not another Saturday Saturday Or excuse me Sunday is a unique day It is the Lord's Day but the lesson that I want to focus on here is this if We are in the spirit and that's another way of saying that if we are spirit filled in spirit controlled If we are spirit filled and spirit controlled on the Lord's Day when we come to worship Well by the Word of God through the Word of God and in the Word of God God will speak to us He will Kind of sounds like I'm Coming alongside expository listening or it sounds like expository listening is coming aside alongside this see it all goes together folks If we're in the spirit on the Lord's Day and we come attentive and ready Then the Lord will speak to us from his word now this is how I'm gonna approach the rest of the verses I'm gonna make five observations here and Some of these will be short.

I'm not gonna cover all this by no means and everything I will share will begin with the word What so number one? What John heard? What John heard we see this in the second part of verse 10 and into verse 11 But here we see that John heard the voice of Jesus And here we see that what he heard and who he heard we see two things here First this was a familiar voice Think about it the Apostle John knew the voice of the Lord some of you know this but John had a unique relationship with the Lord Jesus As a matter of fact the text tells us that the Lord loved John in a unique way This was the Apostle that the Lord loved he had walked with his Lord He had talked with his Lord as an Apostle all during the Lord's earthly ministry.

He knew him So this was a familiar voice second. This was a fearful voice although John knew the voice of his Lord and Certainly this was comforting in some way as we will see This was the Lord of the universe who held all power and all authority Speaking to him and later on we're gonna see that he failed as if he was dead Now there's a lesson here that applies to to these letters into this teaching when we study these letters in this teaching This should be familiar Now think about it the voice of the Lord was familiar to John So these letters should be familiar to us.

We should know them We should understand the teaching absorb the teaching and have it in our minds and it should be familiar to us But there should be a great deal of fear attached to these things first because It is the Living Lord speaking through these letters and second because we could commit any and all of these sins here Don't ever think well pastor. I don't think we could do that.

Oh, yes, we could oh Yes, we could but third this voice was a commissioning This was a voice of commissioning Jesus was calling and commissioning John to write down what he saw and heard his plane And he was being called and commissioned to send what he wrote down to the seven churches So we see what John heard. He heard the voice of his Lord and though and through that he received a Commissioning a calling and a command to write it down write down what he saw write down what he heard and Send it to those churches and those churches were named and for us as The pastor of our church just like John and just like those other pastors of those individual churches I am commissioned I am called I am Commanded to make sure that I keep these letters in this teaching before us as a church and as a people Occasionally when I'm teaching and preaching certain things men will come up and say, you know, you need to re-preach that one day pastor Sometimes I'll teach things on a Wednesday and some of you will come up and say pastor you ought to share that on a Sunday morning I know what you mean by that But there are certain things that I teach and re-preach and what I'm showing you is this this is extremely important And this means I may teach this material and these letters again in the future This means that we may Study this material in these churches in small groups one day This means that I certainly should reference this teaching and keep this teaching before you When I have the opportunity as I study and teach other things and this means that all of us should work to keep this teaching In our mind, so what John heard number two what John saw we see this in verses 12 to 17 What John saw now whereas the voice of the Lord may have been familiar.

I believe it was What John saw was not? here John had a vision of the glorified Christ and What we see here is full of symbolism and lots of spiritual meaning now I'm not gonna be exhaustive here But I want to make sure we do see a few things things here and and what what John's seeing Basically will come to the surface first.

He saw seven golden lampstands now the meaning of those lampstands is easy This was and this is symbolic language for the seven churches listed in verse 11 And in case there is any doubt in verse 20 the Lord says that the mystery of the seven lampstands is this It represents the churches but a question Why represent the seven churches as lampstands? We could say that a couple of them were dumpster fires not lampstands Think about that simply This is what we have here in their day.

The lampstand gave off light these churches were To be churches and a people who shine the light of the gospel They were to be a churches and people who shine the light of God's Word and the message of the one true God in a dark world that believed in all kinds of pagan gods You see the reason for the symbolic language now my question for us is this are we a lampstand church? What message do we shine as a church in our community in our world?

Do we shine the gospel well into a dark world the world in which we live do we shine God's Word? in an Optimizing manner into a dark world that hates more and more what God's Word says If you think about it, there are churches in the not churches and denominations who do not shine God's Word well and as individuals Especially members of Grace Life Church we shine You shine but the question is what do you shine or who do you shine? second We saw Jesus in the middle of the lampstands Now this is simple and it really needs no explanation, but we need to see it verse 13 says that the Lord Jesus was in The middle of those lampstands notice there was no thing No person between Christ and those churches Those churches did not have to go through the Pope.

They didn't have to go through some Delesiastical board you notice that? Simply each church was independent free-standing self-governing self-ruling. These were local autonomous Churches and they related to their Lord Jesus according to who he was What he said to them and their local situation is very personal Now before we move on I want to say two things things here first look at the fact that he was walking Among them he was walking even among these horribly sinful churches Like I said, we would classify a couple of these churches as dumpster fires Not lampstands, but he was among them and second we we must see that our Lord walks among us He's with us.

He is around us. He is in us Now think about this I ponder this quite a bit today He was among the laodicean church and we would say I'm not sure if that's a church pastor He was among them and he is among us He is among all his churches second John saw Jesus in his honor Glory and authority now starting in verse 13 and on through verse 16.

We see a Great and mysterious description of our Lord and I'm not gonna be exhaustive here But I will give us the basic meaning of what we do see here and it will come to the surface for us all I believe we need to see that this description of our Lord's clothing and his appearance was and he is that of Judge and King one with all honor and with all authority His white hair symbolizes and speaks of the fact that he is the eternal God His eyes speak of the fact that he sees and perceives all which enables His eyes speaks to the fact that he sees and perceives all which is which enables him to make right judgments Have we not seen all through these letters that he knew them he knew them he knew them.

It was intuitive as God he knew them. He didn't have to have a report. Well, how did he know because he sees them? His feet were seen as as burning brass And it's symbolized and spoke of judgment This speaks to the fact that our Lord Jesus sees and understands the church is perfectly and he judges what he sees Just like much of what we see here his voice being like the sound of many waters can be confusing now There are opinions here but it seems best to think that this speaks of Christ's authority and what he says and The sword coming out of his mouth should be obvious to us this speaks of the living Word of God coming out of his mouth And his face shining like the Sun obviously speaks of his great power now again I've not explained all of this, but I believe we see the point in this description of Jesus John saw the Lord Jesus in his honor in his power and in his authority He saw the Lord Jesus in his power to judge his ability to judge and that and that he does so by and through his word he saw the Lord Jesus as Lord of all and specifically the Lord of his churches and What we need to see here is simple powerful in much needed Jesus the one that we say that we love and the one that we say that we Serve he is Lord.

He is Lord of the church This is the Lord that we say we love and serve And it's sad So many See our Lord's relationship to his church much different than what we see here I thought about two ways that people in churches view our Lord's relationship to them a Lot of churches view the Lord is kind of a hands-off boss You ever had a hands-off boss the kind that just gives you a job and really never tells you what to do in their hands off a Lot of churches view the Lord that way They would say something like this. Yes. This is the Lord's church He's given it to us and he's hands off.

Well, not this Lord that we see in the scripture Not this Lord that we see all through these letters Our Lord Jesus is not a hands-off boss. No and a lot of churches and a lot of people in churches See the Lord is like some kind of a cosmic Santa Claus See he exists to just give the church what they want But that's not what we see here.

You could probably add to that In other words the faulty ways churches and people think the Lord relates to them and what we must see is this We must make sure that we see he that he is Lord of his church He is walking among his church in his church And he is walking among and in his churches as Lord Not as a cosmic Santa Claus to give the church what they want not as a hands-off boss And he walks among our church as well So from verses 12 to 17 we saw we see what John saw He saw the living Lord of the universe who is up and close very personal with his churches.

He's among them And again, this may be repetitive, but we must see that our Lord is Lord and he is with us He is among us. He walks down these aisles. He's here when we're worshiping He's down these halls in our small group classes And if that is a case and it is then we should make sure that we know what he said to each of these seven churches and apply this to us and it starts with me We're gonna see that emphasized a little more here in a moment.

So what the Lord saw number three What John did we see this at the beginning of verse 17 now these two these next two points will be rather short Now this is really simple to see verse 17 says that when John saw Jesus He fell at his feet just like a dead man, but think about it We saw that John heard a familiar voice and a voice of commissioning and calling So why would he fall down as though dead?

He fell as though he was dead because a vision of the exalted living Lord Jesus can produce only one thing for the true believer worship reverence honor fear worship and What we must learn here and see is this when we encounter our Lord through his word We should be moved to worship. We should respond in Reverential fear in worship we should fall before him in worship and if the spirit so moves on us accordingly Maybe we fall down as though we are dead So our simple response and all that we've been studying here should be twofold worship and obedience because you cannot worship without Obedience and it starts with me as pastor and then it starts with the other elders of the church and then other leaders And then all of us so what John did then number four Number four We see What Jesus did excuse me number three we see what John did number four we see what Jesus did verses 17 to verse 18 or the second part of verse 17 Now here we see that Jesus did three things of course everything pertains to John first Jesus affirmed John here.

We see something very personal and very purposeful John was on his feast on his feet before his living Lord in Jesus John affirming his acceptance of John second Jesus assured John next Jesus simply said do not be afraid now question did John have a reason to be afraid? Yes He saw the exalted living Lord God So notice what we hear what we see here Jesus affirmed John and he assured John He touched John and he called John not to be afraid and for us We should be affirmed and we should be assured our Lord wants what's best for us and for his church Notice how positive this is our Lord wants what is best for his church this church and for us and We can attain that and we can hold on to that which is his best for us By knowing what our Lord says about all of these churches and obeying what he says So number four what Jesus did and then number five what Jesus said we see this in verses 18 to 20 Here we see that our Lord Says quite a lot and just like With all that we've seen in these verses.

I will give us the simple but plain meaning here, but first Jesus asserted his lordship verse 18 Now Jesus had already shown himself in his great honor glory and power Here he says the very same thing but a different way He said that he is the first and the last or that he wasn't his God That's what that means also that he was and is the living one Simply he was sharing with John that he is the living God He said that he was dead which is speaking of the cross, but he is alive forever which speaks of his resurrection and exaltation And that he holds the keys to of the power over death and hell now the point here is this Jesus was explaining in revealing more of his lordship He was asserting his lordship over all and especially over his church in second Jesus assigned John what to write and say verse 19 He simply told him you write down the things you see and what I tell you and then you send it to all the churches And for us these things were and are meant for us as well We can truly say that our Lord told John what to write down and what he saw and what he's What he heard and send it to those churches and these were circular letters that is passed down through the generations and it's for us as well Then third Jesus revealed the mystery of the seven stars in the seven golden lampstands.

We see that in verse 20 first the seven stars are Simply the Lord's angels the Lord's pastors the Lord's angels Pastors elders of those individual churches and then second the seven lampstands That's the seven lampstands that Christ was walking among. That's the seven churches this real simple and there are several things We need to see here in verse 20 again each church is independent Self-governing and accountable to the Lord who is the Lord of the church? What the church at Smyrna did had really no bearing on the church at Philadelphia?

The church at Ephesus which was clearly the flagship church of the region They had no power or authority over the layout to see in church Simply each church was responsible to the Lord of the church, but something new here The Lord had each of those pastors in his right hand Not some of them all of them Again, we would say a couple of these churches were not lampstand churches And we would probably think he really has the Lord the pastor of the church at Laodicea in his right hand Yes, he did Now there's some observations and lessons here if those pastors were in the Lord's right hand then they were surely protected and They surely could not escape judgment and punishment if they didn't obey Now an application for us we need to see again our Lord's lordship over his church This church our church and if we ever lose sight of his lordship over his church Then we are in trouble You see that That's why these churches moved away from Truth in righteousness and in the sin they had lost sight of his lordship over his church And they had lost sight moved away from their love for him So let's make sure that we never lose sight of the fact that this is his church Yes, we can say it's our church, but we should be very very careful there because this is his church and his pastor it humbles me and It strikes fear into my mind and my heart and my thinking that I would be in the Lord's right hand and look church If I am not in his right hand Then this is not an acceptably healthy church and you need to leave But if I am in our Lord's right hand then please pray for me Please pray for me because I'm in a very serious position This reminds me of the seriousness of my call and my commissioning as the pastor here So what Jesus said to his church? quite a lot Now I want to transition now into these lessons these are broad big Observational comes out of this teaching Again, this is incomplete.

You could add to it These are things that resonated with me and during the week and along the way I've been holding on to some of these things in my mind and I just jotted these things down This will just take this teaching wrap it up drive it home and help us conclude But the number one the first lesson the most serious sin that we see in these churches is leaving our first love Think about it in all these churches that our Lord corrected If their love for Christ was what it should have been They would have listened and obeyed immediately If their love for Christ would have been what it should have been They wouldn't have gotten into these sins and predicaments to begin with am I right?

Is my reasoning faulty? If the church at Thyatira had loved their Lord supremely first They would have heard this instruction and repented immediately But if they did not that was a reflection of their love or a lack of love for their Lord In the Ephesian church They were the church that did everything right? Even the things that we do not see listed in the ladder they did right think about it We've learned that they were this mission hub for the region Because we know so many of these churches came out of that work there.

They did everything right But if they did not rekindle and reignite their love for Christ they would lose it all And the reason I say that the Ephesian churches Letter this letter is one of my favorite is is because this is the first thing we must always check Is our love for our Lord as it should be as a people as a church and as individuals?

And it starts with the leaders it starts with me Number two second lesson our Lord does not make light of false teaching and false teachers In all these churches that had false teaching false teachers in them Jesus commanded them to repent fully and totally and in those circumstances that involved dealing with people and it involved even excommunicating people and something else In these churches that did tolerate false teaching and false teachers We can see where there were some who knew better.

There were some who were not into that teaching, but they allowed it and What that shows me is this We need to always be diligent about our doctrine and teaching and theology We know the scripture when something comes along we examine it when a new teacher comes along we examine it when books come along We examine those things when podcasts and sermons come along we examine those things why to make sure we are not entertaining false teaching and false teachers and Luke Church that is it requires being constant always vigilant because there's always something new coming along Number three women in leadership is not permitted Now I know I am kind of opening a can of worms here And I know that there was only one church that had some kind of a woman teacher But we need to see that a false woman teacher It's not to be allowed or permitted and on top of that any woman teacher except Woman women who teach other women that's not to be permitted either because that's forbidden now.

What am I trying to show you? This one church had a false teacher a woman teacher and that was a serious thing But I use that as a piggyback to share with you that women in leadership Over men and teaching men is not permitted at all And that is a serious sin that most people are getting into today Because culture demands it and it's not that God is anti woman or Paul is anti woman or I'm anti woman I'm married to one and I live with three But what I'm showing you is this God's proper roles in the church are given to us from the scripture Number four the fourth lesson there are consequences for disobedience and refusal and a refusal to repent In the five churches who were abused and corrected we see that there were consequences spelled out for not repeat for not Repenting but with the Ephesian Church we see that they could have literally lost their lampstand if they did not repent That meant that who they were as a church would have been removed and they could have continued to meet they could have had a steeple on top of the building, but Christ wouldn't have been there and at this point we need to see refusing to repent always has consequences and sometimes those consequences are literally Losing the entire church.

We must never ever ever forget that if we allow sin in the leadership or in the church or in the teaching if we allow sin to dwell in the life of the church there are consequences if that is not repented of number five or the fifth lesson our Lord wants this church to hear and obey How many times do we see? over and over He who has an ear let him hear We saw it with every church See, this is where I'm glad we studied the churches first These letters were meant to be circular letters and they were in these churches Heard with each letter each letter he who has an ear he who has an ear he who has an ear Here and obey and the point is this our Lord said over and over and over to his churches here Listen and obey and that tells us that our Lord Desperately wants his church to hear his instruction Listen to what he has to say and obey.

You know what this tells me our Lord is patient with us He's patient with us. Oh But we should not abuse that patience when you're patient with your children. Do they ever abuse that? We can be just like that Number six six lesson even the worst of these churches was a lampstand church. I know I've covered this son think about it Chapter one verse 13 tells us that Christ Jesus was among seven lampstands not five And we learned in chapter three verses 14 to 22 that the layout to see in church was the worst of the worst It really does not seem that there were any true believers in that congregation We even see that Christ Jesus was outside the door of the church and he was knocking trying to get in the door of his Own church, but it's still had a lampstand again.

I would have put this one in the dumpster fire category Honestly, I don't see that it's a church I Would say and believe that this was not a lampstand church that it was gone. They had lost it But what I say doesn't matter the Lord Jesus Says it was a lampstand church. You know what that tells me I've been wrong many times Because I in my pride in judgmentalism and dogmatism I have pointed at churches through the years and I've said there's no hope There's no hope Maybe one day the Lord will lead us to where we can adopt a layout to see in church and we can be used of God To bring it back to life then number seven Number seven There's hope for the worst of situations, I know this is a little redundant, but we need to see it in Every church listed in in every church circumstance described There was hope from the church that had forsaken their Lord to the church with a vile woman False teacher wreaking havoc in the church to the church that really seemed like a non church There was hope and we should always see that and hold on to that There is hope for the worst of situations even those who seem like they are not even churches so We have been studying and all of this time What Jesus says about the seven churches?

That's the title of the series and tonight I wanted to just wrapped up wrap up things by looking at one particular fact Jesus is Lord over his churches and if we live that as we should Then we will continue I believe to walk through the door The open door of ministry that he has before us. I Will conclude real quickly By referencing The church at Philadelphia they had an open door Sat before them What did the Lord say nobody could close that door? But yet they could have If they would have disobeyed if they wouldn't have been obedient if they would have allowed sin in We're not a perfect church.

We're a growing church Definitely a healthy church. I don't see any of these sins in the life of our church If I'm wrong, I've got leaders and other men around me who would say our pastor you're not seeing it, right? I really firmly believe we have an open door of ministry and our worst enemy Will be us So Jesus is Lord over his churches