April 19 2026
Revelation 2
One of the things I find amusing that keeps popping up on social media is people who are selling T-shirts and other merchandise that say something to the effect that if Paul were still around then the Christians living in America, would most likely be getting a letter from him. I mean can you imagine what would be written there in Paul’s Letter to the Americans? I suppose we can all agree that if Paul were to send us a letter it probably wouldn’t be a good thing. Now Paul was not alone in being someone who could write letters to churches. If we look through the New Testament, we find that other leaders in the church, those like Peter, Jude and and James all left us letters that were written to the churches in their care . And last, but not least, on this list of letter writers, is John whose name is found here, on this very last book of the Bible, for he is to write down all the God reveals to him.
You see, what most people often forget is that the book of Revelation is actually a series of letters which were written to churches. John was instructed by the living Jesus to write down all that was revealed to him about concerning the future of the seven churches in John’s care. What is revealed to John is grounded in the unchanging nature of God. We are to remember that what God had done in the past, and what God is doing right now in the present is all done with our best interest in mind. Knowing this then we will not fear what God reveals to us that he is going to do somewhere out in the future because we know that this also will be for our benefit.
So this big reveal God gives to John is a reality that is shared with seven churches. Now the names of the churches that John was writing to were the churches at Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum and to Thyatira and Sardis and Philadelphia and Laodicea. These were actual, historical churches and the sites where these churches used to worship can still be found in what is today modern Turkey. Yet, what the Spirit had John write down was not just a mere history lesson where we get to stand outside of their story and shake our heads and point our fingers at their mistakes. While, yes, these were letters were for actual churches they do still have something to say to all churches down through the ages. You see, if we rightly understood what we call the book of Revelation then we would know that John has already written a series of letters to the churches here in America, letters which speak to what we are dealing with at this time. This universal nature of these letters is further reinforced by their being seven churches because the number, “seven”, is a Biblical number that speaks to the idea of completeness.
So before we even begin we first must realize that what we read about in the book of Revelation must be done with this question in mind: Where do we see ourselves in this story? To answer such a question requires us to be brutally honest about just how we are doing at the moment, and our certainty about where we are headed. You see, what is at stake for all followers of Jesus who form these communities called the church is their participation in this future Jesus is busy at work preparing for all of us. In our modern way of thinking the future, our life is a blank slate on which we are able to create our very own happy ending. Yet as we are all too painfully aware, our great plans often go astray and over time we can be left disappointed and disillusioned. Perhaps from this we are to realize the uncertainty of our future so that we turn to God and discover the certainty of the future that he is bringing about, a future that is founded on the very faithfulness of God.
John points us to this future when he writes that the resurrected Jesus who stands before him is one, “…like a son of man”, and he is seen to be walking among seven lamp stands. Now when we hear the phrase, “…one like a son of man”, we are to know that this phrase is pointing us to a prophecy of Daniel found in the seventh chapter of his book. Daniel, as we might recall, is one of the many Jewish people captured by the Babylonians, who were forced to be their slaves. These slaves marched thousands of miles from their home in Judaea to a strange land to live in exile. Yet, even though this exile had happened because God’s own people had failed to live up to the covenant they made with God nonetheless God is found to be still caring for them far from their homeland. God knew that his people were in desperate need of hope. The people of God knew that their very existence was linked to God’s plan to bring his blessing to every family on earth but now that they no longer were in the good graces of God, they had to wonder just what was going to happen to this future God promised to them? Was their failure going to be the undoing of this plan of God? In these questions we hear the longings for a resurrection hope, for the people of God felt very dead in their sins, unable to see a way forward. So God took one of these people, a man called Daniel, and God gives Daniel a profound vision of the future that God was most assuredly going to bring about. This prophecy is found in the seventh chapter of Daniel. One night, Daniel saw this: that there, “…with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and he was presented before him. And to this one alone was given, dominion, and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom is one which shall not be destroyed.” So here God is telling Daniel to have no fear of the future that God has in store. Everything is right on track and this future is more wonderful that Daniel could have imagined. Even so, we find that this vision made Daniel anxious and alarmed most likely because Daniel could not make sense of just how one who was most certainly human could nonetheless be found to stand brazenly before the Ancient of Days and remain alive. I mean, all the people of God knew the story of Moses, the most holy law giver and not even he was able to see the glory of God without perishing. We are left wondering, just how could this one like a son of man not only stand before God but further why has this man this been granted an eternal kingdom by the Ancient of Days? The answers to these questions had to wait until the arrival of one who claimed to be this one, the Son of Man, this one we know as Jesus.
But this vision with one like a son of man was not all that Daniel saw that night. You see, his vision goes on to tell us that even though kingdoms will come and kingdoms will go, it is the saints, the holy ones of God, these are the ones who will be given the everlasting kingdom to possess forever . Imagine Daniel trying to make sense of all of this? Can you imagine seeing in the heavens this one like a son of man and hearing that it is this one who is then promised an eternal kingdom? Yet, this is not all because in the same breath we also hear that this same eternal kingdom is also promised to be given to those known as saints the holy ones of God. Perhaps what this says to us is that instead of putting all of our effort into trying and creating our own futures we instead should strive to be the holy people found in this vision. You see, if we are indeed saints then God promises us that we will have not just an eternal home but we will be those who possess a kingdom forever and ever.
Now what stands between this future and the present we live in is what Daniel hears next because we are told that a kingdom of great power and strength will make war against the saints, and this kingdom will prevail over them. Yet, all is not lost, because in this moment where the saints appear to fail, this is when we are told that the Ancient of Days will come and he will judge the saints worthy of receiving the kingdom promised to them. So at last what will be found is that, “…the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole of heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; the kingdom of the saints shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey them.” You see, this is the prophecy which the Holy Spirit proclaims has now become a reality when Jesus stepped out of the grave. The one named Jesus who is found to be greater than death certainly cannot die when standing in the presence of the Ancient of Days. This Jesus is the one who has been given an everlasting kingdom which cannot be destroyed, one which cannot pass away. And this kingdom of Jesus, this is the kingdom God promises his saints that one day they too will most assuredly possess.
The importance of knowing this prophecy of Daniel becomes rather obvious then, because if Jesus is indeed the one like a son of man, and if now the Ancient of Days has given the resurrected Jesus his kingdom, then what is at stake is our stake in the kingdom. If we know that this kingdom will only be given to those known to be the holy ones of God, then we should want to know just how we might become known as being a saint before God. And if we know that we will face opposition from the kingdoms of the world then we must then also know how we can endure and remain faithful to God under pressure in order that a life lived in an everlasting kingdom will be our experience.
Now one more thing that John also realized is that not only is Jesus the one like a son of man who has received his kingdom, but this kingdom has already been given to the saints to live in right now here in the present. You see, I believe that John had witnessed this holy kingdom, as we find described in full detail, there at the end of the fourth chapter of Acts: “Now the entire number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him were their own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds and laid them at the apostles feet and the proceeds were distributed to each as any had need”. Here the truth spoken in the prophecy of Daniel, that the saints would be given a kingdom, is seen being lived out right here in real time. This is what the kingdom given to us through the work of the Holy Spirit looks like when the people of God join him in his holy work. So what once was a hope for our future is now found to be a living truth that is found right here in the present. No longer do we have to place our faith in a future that seems vague and uncertain because now in this community called the church this hoped for future can become a present experience. So this gives what we do as the church a great weight of importance because God expects that people can observe us and in our life together see a future that is both compelling and certain.
So there is an ideal life that God expects each little community of believers to strive for. God expects that each assembly of believers be a transforming power in all of the places where churches might be found. So what John is writing to the churches in this letter is their performance review after their witness has been examined by the Holy Spirit. As I’ve already said though, we must not use what the Spirit says here as a mere history lesson that indeed the church doesn’t always get it right. No, we are to see ourselves within this story. This requires us as a church to be confronted by all the ways we fail at witnessing to the fact that the kingdom of God has indeed been given to saints like us. Now a few years ago, I wrote a series of messages on what is recorded in the second and third chapters of Revelation, covering only what was said concerning each of the seven churches. Yet, what I now realize, is that every situation faced by each church is found to be addressed somewhere within the revelation given to John. A good example of this is the Spirit’s concern with what is happening within the church at Ephesus. As we find recorded in the fourth verse of the second chapter, the church at Ephesus has, “…abandoned its first love”. Now without knowing where this problem is addressed within the revelation of John, this phrase is difficult to figure out. I mean, just what is this first love that John speaks of here? Well, as it turns out, the translators may have also interpreted this phrase without considering the revelation given to John. You see, if they had stood back and looked at the big picture they too would have seen that a better translation is that the church at Ephesus had given up not on their first love but rather they had given up on loving others with the greatest love, which is the love that compels someone to lay down their life for the sake of others. Sure, it was good that the church at Ephesus hated what Jesus hated yet what was more important is that they loved others with the same great love that Jesus loved us all there upon the cross.. When the church at Ephesus refused to love others with the greater love of Jesus, then they called into question as to whether they were really under the authority of God. In doing so they had clouded the witness they were to project out to a watching world.
All of these seven churches that John is writing to vary as to how well they witness to the kingdom of God. Two of these churches, Smyrna and Philadelphia, are praised by Jesus for being those who have suffered at the hands of the kingdom of this world yet they have remained faithful to God. Therefore all that these churches needed is to be reminded that God is and always faithful to be there for them in their trials and suffering. The other five churches, like the church at Ephesus, have allowed the pollution of the world to find a home in their communities. Two of these churches, Pergamum and Thyatira, have issues concerning their faithfulness to the holiness code all churches have covenanted to follow. And the last two churches, Sardis and Laodicea, are those who are in the worst condition of all of those the Spirit has inspected. The church at Laodicea is perhaps the church which most people have heard about because this is the church which Jesus said was neither hot nor cold but was a putrid mix of both, a lukewarm mess that needed to be spit it out. What Jesus spoke of here is not the level of their spiritual fervor, but rather that this church was trying to hold fast to two opposing ways of life. You see, a church must know that to possess the kingdom of God means that the kingdom of the world must be soundly rejected. Jesus wants nothing to do with any church that refuses to pledge their allegiance to his kingdom alone. So if we place ourselves in this story of Laodicea, we must ask ourselves, is our faith in the future Jesus alone commands? Or have we perhaps lost faith in Jesus and his future, so that we live with one foot in his kingdom all the while having one foot in the kingdom of this world? I pray that we find the faith to choose Jesus because Jesus has always faithfully chosen us! To God be the glory!
No comments:
Post a Comment