Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – Revelation 2-3 Overview

Chapters 2 and 3. And you’ll note the similarities between the picture of the church in Revelation and what we just sang as recorded in holy scripture in Psalm 45. The queen rides forth to conquer all the king’s enemies with him. As the church rides forth following Christ in chapter 19 of the book of Revelation, the queen is perfumed with myrrh. Smyrna, remember the myrrh church. Our Savior was perfumed with myrrh.

Brought gifts of myrrh at his birth and then perfumed with myrrh at his death, which death would accomplish the salvation of the queen. The queen is to consider these things. Did you hear that in the psalm? Pay heed to these things, queen, who you are, what God has done with you, what he’s brought you away from, and what he’s taking you to do. As the Spirit tells the churches to listen to what the Spirit says to the churches in the seven letters, turn to Revelation chapter 1.

And we’ll read what is really the introduction to the seven letters to the seven churches beginning at verse 9. Revelation 1, verse 9. Please stand for the reading of God’s word.

I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice as of a trumpet, saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last,” and “What you see, write in the book, and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.

Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. And in the midst of the seven lampstands, one like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to His feet, and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire. His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice is the sound of many waters.

He had in His right hand seven stars, and out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last. I am he who lives and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.

Write the things which you have seen and the things which are and the things which will take place after this. The mystery of the seven stars which 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 which you saw are the seven churches.”

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you, Lord God, that this word is unlike any other word to us, any other book. It must be spiritually discerned and we are unable to do that apart from the quickening of the Holy Spirit. Father, we pray that the Spirit would do His work and that He would indeed shine light upon the path that we must walk this week. In Christ’s name we ask it. Amen.

Please be seated. Turn, if you will, to James chapter 1, beginning at verse 22.

But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass or mirror. For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. Pure religion, undefiled before God and the Father, is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

The Scriptures tell us that they are a mirror to us. They’re a glass that God holds up and we hear the words. And I don’t know your personal habits of reading the scriptures, but I know that every Lord’s day we come together and the scriptures are read to you and a mirror is held up before you. The scriptures give us great warning not to walk forth from this place as we are wont to do, forgetting what we’ve heard in the word, or maybe make commitments here and then not follow through in the context of the week.

Today, the Lord God has brought us to a summary of Revelation chapters 2 and 3. And we spent some time gazing into this mirror as it were. And I want us to spend a little time there today reflecting on what we saw, that we not be forgetful hearers, but rather doers of the work that God has called us to do.

And we’re going to look at this from several aspects, but primarily we’re going to look at this as the bride of Christ would look at it. You know, I thought as I contemplated on this sermon this last week that brides, you know, they want to look perfect on that day. And I remember what my bride looked like on that day. Wonderful vision from heaven. I bear the truth. Brides want to look that way on their wedding day.

They probably spend a lot of time looking at the mirror. And the mirror reflects back beauty. And the mirror also reflects back imperfections. And so in these letters to the seven churches, the mirror from our Savior reflects back the beauty of these various churches—what things they were doing right, and what heavenly beauties they shone with, what attributes of the King they possessed.

But the mirror also reflects back imperfections. You know, your tie’s not on straight, you got dirt on your face, your hair is whatever it is. When you looked in your mirror first this morning, you probably saw more imperfections than the last time you looked in the mirror. And that’s the way our lives are. God reflects back blessings upon us. “Well done.” And He also reflects back imperfections that we need to attend to.

And we want to look at that today.

Now, the context for this—we began last week just by way of review—these centrality of these themes from chapter 1. It’s so important to set the stage for what we’re reading in these letters. The church of Jesus Christ today is so used to taking things out of context. So you read something like the book of the letter to the church at Ephesus. “Well, the church needs to be more loving,” you know, and you miss the context because the context is the centrality of Christ.

We talked about that. Absolutely critical to our faith and our life and our worldview. The centrality of victory, though, is a very important theme sounded early on in the beginning verses of this book and then repeated throughout the entire book. This is not going to be a passive, defeatist bride that he’s writing to in these seven letters. The mirror is not going to show someone, or if it does show someone who’s that way, it’s by way of showing an imperfection that needs to be fixed.

The bride is a new creation. And what happens as we go through the pages of the book of Revelation, this new creation in Christ—remember, the last thing he says to the last church in terms of his designation of who he is to Laodicea—he is the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. And what’s going on here from AD 70 on is this new creation is being spun into the world, and the church is part of that. She is the creation of Christ, his bride, and the church through the preaching of his word affects this new creation and the power of the Spirit as well.

The importance of Lord’s day worship—well, what does that mean to us today? Not much our sermon, but Lord’s day worship going back to the Sabbath, the seventh day. The day of the Sabbath rest was a day of enthronement for Adam and Eve. It was a day of rest, union, and communion with Christ and the Father and the Spirit. And it was a day when the Spirit would come and they would receive Sabbath day enthronement. They would be transformed into rulers over the created order in a fuller sense than they were before somehow.

And in the new covenant, that’s really played out in major themes: that the church now, as Revelation 20 through 22 shows, enters into Sabbath day enthronement. And now we’re not under the angels, our tutors. Now we’re ruling over the angels from AD 70 onward. That’s the reality. And it’s the reality for you and me today. We come together, you know, under the headship of the great Nazirite warrior.

You know, I meditated on this description. Let’s read it one more time of who our Savior is. Let’s remember not just who we are. We want to look at the mirror and see who we are. But let’s remember who our Savior is because he’s central, not us. And if we get it wrong there, if we don’t understand who Jesus is, we’re going to get nothing right. Okay.

What does it tell us about Jesus? It isn’t the picture that, you know, hangs over there at the church. If you were here when we used to worship over there in the sanctuary, you know, the big brother pictures they’ve got over there. This is not the image that’s given to the bride of what her groom looks like in Scripture.

What does it say? Well, it says that His head and His hair were white like wool, as white as snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire—seeing, discerning, evaluating, and burning things up that are displeasing to him. His feet were like fine brass, as if refined or heated up super hot in a furnace, reference probably to the Old Testament altar, which the offerings would be burned up inside of, and it would glow.

And in Revelation, His feet are placed upon the land and the sea. He is ruler of the kings of the earth, and those feet are bringing heavenly fire down to transform this world, to burn up the old creation and affect the new creation. This is a powerful, mighty King of Kings here. His voice—the image is as the sound of many waters. In His right hand: seven stars. Out of His mouth: a sharp two-edged sword. He is not for peace; He is for war. He brings division.

Now, the end result is God’s peace and order. But it is accomplished through the preaching of the word, which brings first division. Remember the four horses. The purity of the preaching of the gospel produces division before it produces the victory of the death of the apostate church. His countenance was like the sun shining in His strength.

And I mentioned last week Psalm 19, verses 5 and 6: “In them He hath set a tabernacle for the sun, which is a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and rejoices as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven and his circuit unto the ends of it. And there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.”

Powerful image. That’s what’s being drawn upon. This is the great Nazirite warrior. The Lord Jesus Christ will destroy all enemies of His. And then it goes on to say, “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.” How does it happen? Through his word. You see, same image beginning to end. We could turn many, many places in the scriptures to see the same image.

And as I thought about that these last couple of days, I thought, you know, maybe we should just spend the whole time thinking about that. We won’t. But understand that if you’re the bridegroom of Christ—you’re married to this mighty Nazirite, headcrushing, all powerful, brilliant, shining warrior—that’s who your husband is. You should fear him properly. Now, I don’t mean in a slavish sense because He loves you. He died for you. But you should expect him to be different than your expectations. And you should not be comfortable. You should not be too comfortable.

Now, you know, we want to rest in Christ’s work, but do not be too comfortable with your relationship here. You understand who this is and you understand your sin, and you will not become too comfortable and cozy with Jesus. We have relationship. He loves us. I’m not denying it. We’re going to conclude the worship day today by singing of God’s eternal love for us. We conclude at the wedding feast, the Lord’s Supper. But do you understand here that this perspective I’m bringing to you is a biblical perspective?

And you know, I think it has relationship to who we are in our marriages. You know, Jesus is not the lap dog for the church. Jesus is not, you know, as Otto Scott said, a buttercup. He is a powerful figure. And men, you know, we have a culture that doesn’t like powerful men, doesn’t like strong men. And we are not to be lap dogs in our homes. We’re to be mighty rulers, loving them certainly. But there should be an—you know, the scriptures say a requirement for officers.

And I cringe every time I read these requirements. But one who rules his house well with reverence and awe—his family must have for him. That’s a high mark, but we’ll never reach it. You know, if we don’t have the reverence and awe and a holy fear of Jesus Christ and offending him by our sinfulness as His bride, so we’ll never reach that mark either.

So, so let’s remember, you know, who it is that our groom is before we look at the mirror. Now, let’s look at the mirror and see who we are to be as we get ready to continue our relationship with him and to continue living out the marriage that the church has with the Lord Jesus Christ.

And I want to make observations on these seven letters. They’re really sort of summarized well. Could just read the summaries, I suppose, and comment a little bit. And that’s basically what I’m going to do. And what I’ve done here is I’ve played off of the terminology for the names themselves. So Ephesus means “desirable,” for instance. And that’s important. You know, we don’t think of names as important. We’re all messed up in our culture today. Names are very important. And certainly biblical names, inspired names are important.

And Ephesus is first of all the desirable bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Ephesus is the first church that receives this letter. Let’s just read the letter that she’s received and then make some brief comments.

Okay. “To the angel of the church at Ephesus, write: ‘These things says he who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: I know your works, your labor, your patience. You cannot bear those who are evil. That’s good. He says, “That’s good. You don’t like those guys that are evil. You can’t bear them. You have tested those who say they are apostles and are not and have found them liars. And you have preserved them—you have persevered rather and have patience and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary.

They’ve done a lot of good things here, haven’t they? We wish we could get these kind of commendations from our Savior. We pray that we would if He were to speak to us in such a direct way today. Nevertheless, I have this against you: that you left your first love. Remember therefore, from whence you have fallen and repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

But this you have: that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God.’”

I’m going to spend a little more time on this one than the others. I’m going to progressively spend less time with each epistle. So don’t get too afraid of the length of the sermon.

So what does all this mean? We’ve gone over this and my summation of it is this: Ephesus—we are to be the desirable bride of the greater Adam, the greater gardener. Remember the references in this epistle to the garden and we are to have as our motivation in life a love that submits and propagates. He will feed us if we do these things.

And love, if you look at the mirror, what God is showing Ephesus is by way of good works—that she’s done all this stuff. She’s hated evil. That’s good. So that’s how she looks beautiful: through her hatred of those who hate the King, she’ll destroy all the enemies of the King. But somehow she’s pretty distorted as she looks at the mirror because while striving to do that, she somehow has left—not lost—she’s left her first love.

Now, what does this mean? Well, first love. Micah tells us that we have these three things that God requires of us. Those three things are to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.

Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with God. Justice there is, you know, the standard of God’s word. Mercy is the, you know, the law of kindness. I’m going to speak on this in a couple weeks, but the law of kindness in the Proverbs woman, that word kindness is this word mercy—it’s said—and it’s covenantal loyalty, your faithfulness. It’s not general dispersive, you know, kind of kindness as we would describe it today. It’s like the word meek. Meek—Jesus is not meek and mild. Jesus is meek. He’s broken to harness. He does what the Father says to do.

And we’re to be meek, which means a horse with strength, but under guidance to the Father. So our terminology has gotten all messed up. The word kindness refers to the covenant of loyalty and the distribution of mercy and grace in that kindness to those we have relationship with. And we’re supposed to love that. And ultimately, we love that because we’ve received it from the Father.

And our love for God and for the Lord Jesus Christ motivates us to show that to His people. So the desirable bride is first—their first love of the desirable bride is to be the Lord Jesus Christ and His people. It’s interesting that they were commended, the Ephesus church was commended for the love of the saints. Paul says that you were known because you loved the saints, church at Ephesus.

Ephesus was a tremendous missionary center. It was a center of propagation of the faith because of the love of the Savior. And he ran into tremendous difficulties there, and as a result—maybe of those sort of things we don’t know what happened—but somehow they lost that love of the Lord Jesus Christ, the loving of the deeds of mercy and kindness probably to the saints as well, and they became a cold, judicial acting church without the extension of the love of Christ that demonstrates itself in love to one another.

Now see, it isn’t just a minor imperfection because Jesus says, “If you don’t repent of this particular problem, you’re dead in the water. I’m, you know, snuffing you. I’m putting out the light. Lampstand’s going to be removed. You’re not going to be a church anymore.” So don’t think of this as a small thing. Think of this as critical.

And as we look at this particular first bride’s mirror as a church of Jesus Christ, we want to ask ourselves: How are we like the Ephesus church? Do we have the same beauty she does? Do we hate evil? Sounds weird, church that, you know, their problem is they’ve left their first love, but they’re commended for hating evil.

Well, love for Christ means a hatred of all of Christ’s enemies. So they’re commended for that. But it’s got to be a hatred for His enemies because we love Him. And so this first mirror asks us: How well do we love the Lord Jesus Christ? How well are we fulfilling the obligations of doing justice and loving mercy and walking humbly with God?

The Ephesus church no longer loved Christ. And because it didn’t love Christ anymore, it no longer did justice. Really, even they’re commended for it, but He—why would he take their lampstand away? Because pretty soon all you’re doing is acting out your own justice.

Now, I want to say that love is, you know, it says here that you’re supposed to remember by way of correction and do the first works. Love in the scriptures is not a feeling. Love has this component of doing things. 1 Corinthians 13 has a bunch of actions that love is—love is kind. It exhibits itself in kindness to people and it doesn’t do the action of getting easily offended or taking into account wrongs suffered. Okay, actions. It’s not an emotion.

But I want to be real careful that way too because I think that to a degree Ephesus had forgotten that there is emotion involved. You know, if you obey your parents, children, out of a out of a slavish kind of grim judging obedience is not love. Jesus says if you love me you’ll keep my commandments but you’ll keep my commandments—He doesn’t go on to say this, but the implication also I think is—that you’ll keep the commandments motivated not out of fear or ultimately duty detached from a love of Christ. It’s a duty that’s connected to the love that God has shed abroad in our heart based on the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And you know, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, pray about it. Because the Bible says this is vitally important for you to understand: your first love should be for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, for those of us who are converted, you know, somewhat later in life or came to a full apprehension of the faith somewhat later in life, it’s probably a little easier because if you became a Christian, you know, in the middle of your life or after you were a kid and started to grow up, you know that first flush of excitement, you know, that first sense of love for the Lord Jesus Christ, the desire to tell friends and neighbors and anybody else about Jesus Christ and about the Bible. You know what I’m talking about?

Well, that’s the way Ephesus was. That’s why they were a missionary center. That’s why they were evangelistic. And that’s why they were known for love of the saints. If you’re connected to love for Jesus, it’s going to flow out horizontally in love toward His saints and a taking of the gospel with you wherever you go because you’re loving Him.

So, so this mirror shows that these kids—this bride wasn’t doing well at this particular thing. She’s supposed to have—I think the church should have a love for the Lord Jesus Christ that is infectious. A happy bride—a happy bride would speak of her beloved to all that would listen to her. Yeah, she just got married. “He’s a great guy,” and she wants to talk to people about him.

And we want to talk to people about the Lord Jesus Christ because of our love for who He is. Ephesus had this major thrust but then lost it.

It’s interesting that Apollos here was of course at Ephesus at first and he was well schooled in the things of the Lord. It says, and he was showed matured in his faith through the ministry of Aquila and Priscilla. But you know, I thought about that phrase “the things of the Lord” as it talks about—if a church like Ephesus perhaps one thing it had become is sort of cold and theological in the sense of having a lot of doctrine, abstract concepts, which might have been proper having originally come from a love for Jesus.

You know, theology is really “things of the Lord”—properly understood, theo logic—God word or study of God. It’s a person of God. But we abstract things, you know. Our culture is Greek. They were Greek. And we tend to abstract these things out and we no longer think of, you know, the doctrinal positions we hold as “things of the Lord.” And that’s dangerous. See, that’s dangerous because you start to move away from the apprehension of the Lord Jesus Christ as our ultimate love—love of Christ.

And as I said, Paul commented on their love for the saints. We need as a church to make sure we commit ourselves repeatedly, and the Lord’s table is a good place to do it, to a love for the Lord Jesus Christ that is the center and the motivation of who we are as people and as a church. You don’t want to grow weary through the culture wars that we engage ourselves in.

And Ephesus was in worse culture wars than we were. You know, thousands of people shouting down Paul at the big arena in Ephesus because he attacked Diana worship. If a church like ours is particularly prone—I think to this particular temptation. I’m not saying we’re like Ephesus, but I am saying it’s a temptation to us because we’re more involved in the culture wars.

You see, we know the difference in worldviews. And so as we suffer opposition, you know, for homeschooling or for biblical political action or for Sabbath observance or for any of a number of distinctives that we hold as a church, then we could become weary in all of that and get kind of cold-hearted and forget the love of our Savior. And we want to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Now, what does Jesus do for this church? Well, Jesus in each of these mirrors that we’re going to talk about gives gifts to the church. Going back to your outline now, the desirable bride’s beauty was her hard work, her patience and well-doing, and her hatred of evil. The desirable bride’s imperfections in the mirror was she had left her first love. And the groom’s gift to her to enhance that first love again is his presence.

“I’m the one in the midst of the lampstands with the pastors in my hand. I’m there with you.” He says, you’ve left your first love, but oh, here I am.

See, now I think that we want to take that person—as Christians, we understand that Christ’s presence is with us. And a meditation on the presence of Christ should be part of the way of rekindling the love for the Lord Jesus Christ that is both obedience as well as this emotional aspect to it. But I also want to make application as we go through these letters to our marriages.

You know, I think that if this is what the bride of Christ is supposed to be like for her groom and this is a picture of the groom in a particular area, then it is by way of application useful for us. See, that our marriages should reflect some of these things, okay? Our marriages are pictures of the marriage of Christ in the church.

So brides, you know, if you’re married to a husband in this church, married to a husband, then you want to ask yourself: Are you as good as Ephesus? Ephesus at least was hardworking, hated the enemies of her husband, et cetera, et cetera. I mean, not—you know, if your husband is godly—enemies of Christ, of course—but are you hardworking in your commitment to your husband?

Husband. You know, the bride—I want to be careful how I say this—but women were created—bride women we’ll call them because not all women become brides—but bride women, Eve sort of women, they’re created for a purpose and the purpose is to be a helpmate to the husband. And his purpose is to go out and take the culture of God and the worship environment into all the world. And wives, you’re supposed to help your husbands do that.

You know, it’s not your job ultimately to do that by yourselves. You’re in a support role, as it were, for your husband. Now, that’s not all the story, but that is a very significant part of the story because that’s what we’re told in the beginning creation of the wife. Wife women are supposed to be helpmates for husbands.

And before you even start looking at the mirror, I want to make sure that the wives here are looking at the mirror as wives and not just as individuals. Now, you’re Christian women as well. You have an obligation to Christ. But remember, he says it’s real easy to say you love me and not love the image bearer of me, your husband or your brother or whatever it is.

So you ought to know that part of your evaluation of how you love Christ is how you love your husband. And as you pick up the mirror of this piece of scripture and begin to look at it, remember that you’re looking at yourself as a helpmate to your husband. Okay? I know you’re more than that, but that is central to who you are.

And maybe right there you want to in your heart do a little transaction with God, do a little transformation there about getting your heart and mind straight about that role if it offends you somehow. If it doesn’t, then you can go on to the next part, which is to say: “How are you doing? Are you a hard worker in terms of being a helpmate to your husband in his work of dominion and preparing him and helping be part of his support structure for what he does?”

You know the scriptures well, so you can help counsel him and guide him. Do you administrate well? You’re a hard worker like the Ephesus church at least was a hard worker. And then are you doing that stuff still, wives? Now, you know, you’re just married—it’s easy—but if you’re into it 15, 20, 25, 30, 45 years, are you doing it still because of your love for your husband?

See, you want to evaluate that. You want to think about that. You want to say, “Well, I’m doing all this stuff. I don’t really love him anymore, but you know, I’m a faithful, obedient wife.” Well, you know what? That’s what Ephesus was. And Jesus threatened to take away Ephesus’s position. He threatened to take him out because they weren’t doing it motivated by love.

Now, I know it’s application, and I don’t want to push it too far, but I think it’s legitimate. And I think if you’re a wife here this morning that doesn’t love your husband, you ought to repent of that because I think you’re probably in a position like Ephesus was. You didn’t lose your first love. You left it.

We watched a movie the other night. I think it was called “A Family Thing” or “The Family Thing” or “A Family Affair.” I don’t remember the name of it. Robert Duvall and James Earl Jones—they were played half brothers. Plot isn’t really too important for the point of the illustration, but there was a nephew—James Jones’ son—was living with him and he got him and Duvall didn’t get along well.

And they go to a picnic and it turns out the nephew was divorced and had a couple of kids, and there’s a picnic scene and the nephew is a very bitter young guy. He’s not a happy camper, and he’d been real good in athletics and hurt his knee or something in college and that was part of it—big part of it. And his wife and him were alienated. You could tell, you know, she’d brought the kids over for his visitation thing and there was tension.

And afterwards, Duvall told him—”ought to get that chip off his shoulder,” and he said, “This is about you. It’s about all kinds of people that you have relationship with.” Well, I talk too much. But the point is this: As I watched this young man, I thought of how easy it is for me or for you—men, but I think also for wives—to slowly turn off love being covenantal commitment with intellect and devotion and emotion for one another.

I think that people don’t end up just getting up one day and being tempted to divorce and doing it. I think they over a long period of time—over little hurts that happened between them—turn the thing off. You know what I mean? They take little turns away from one another. And this guy made a little turn when he was hurt, I’m sure. And then depending on how it worked out, a little more turn. Conflicts continue because the more you turn, the more God causes conflicts in the relationship because you are a covenantal union.

You know, you’re not—you’re a three-legged race, husband and wife—whether you like it or not. So you turn and it gets worse, and you don’t repent. So you turn a little bit more and you harden yourself a little bit more, and pretty soon you wake up one day and there’s no reason to be married to this person anymore and you’re a bitter guy or you’re a bitter woman.

And now in this church, I don’t think we’re going to have much of that because you’re not going to get divorced because you know that church will bring sanctions against you. But it is just as repugnant to God—whether you divorce or not—to allow yourself to turn little by little against the one that God has called you to love, right? It’s an offense to him and he would warn you.

But if that’s what’s going on in your heart, he warns me, he warns you—husband or wife, whichever it is—if that’s what’s going on in your heart and you’re leaving your first love, understand that you need to repent right quickly before that division becomes too great.

Now, husbands have an—I’ve leaned kind of heavy on the wives. Husbands, what are you supposed to do? We have an obligation to Christ, but you also have an obligation to your bride, right? You’re supposed to be Christ in this thing. You’re supposed to be that bright, shining warrior, and you’re supposed to have presence with your wife.

Because what happens as those alienations occur is presence goes away, doesn’t it? You don’t want to be around each other anymore—less and less. It’s not real comfortable. And Christ, remember, He’s the standard, but He’s also the means of fixing things. And He comes to the Ephesus church and he says, “Hey, I’m the one who walks around you. I’m here. Okay, I have presence.”

Now, it’s a condemning presence because He’s evaluating, but it’s also a strengthening presence, isn’t it? Without Christ, you can’t do it. You can do nothing of yourselves, he says in the epistles, but you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

It’s important that the Ephesus bride knows that as cold as she’s become, Christ still sees her as desirable. And husband, it’s important for you to communicate to your wives—matter what’s happening in the relationship—you still see her as desirable. Not because you know, whatever it was that first got you into the relationship necessarily, but because God says this is your wife. This is your covenant partner right here. Nobody else. Forget the dreaming. Forget, you know, maybe you got involved in this for looks or money or whatever it was at first. All that’s gone. Doesn’t make any difference ’cause this is the wife of your covenant and you need to see her as desirable because that’s what I’ve placed her in your life and you’re going to—your standard is Christ as a groom. You want to see her as desirable and because of that you want to exercise presence so that you can rekindle in her—help her to rekindle that turning away from losing the first love back to loving her husband.

The motivation for the duty and the obligation—everything else—got to be—oh, if you didn’t, you’re in a world of hurt here. Okay, love.

Children, you have obligations in this as well. Now, it’s a little more even—we’re even more extrapolated out from the application—but you see, like I said earlier, you have obedience to your parents, right? And you want to do what they want you to do. They want you to obey.

But at the end of the day, the motivation for your obedience to your parents—who represent God to you—never forget that, young children—they represent God to you. And your motivation for obedience to your parents should be a love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Simple meditation on him dying on the cross for you. That’s the great demonstration of his love. Think about that. Pray about it. Think about what Jesus did for you and develop that motivation—that his love for the Lord Jesus Christ but also love for your parents who represent Christ to you.

Evaluate yourselves. Hold that mirror up today, children. How well are you doing? Are you obeying? Number one, if you’re not, you’re even worse than Ephesus. You got no love, you got no obedience. Boy, you know, it’s a bad deal. Repent, children. But if you’re obeying but haven’t developed the love for the parents and the love for Christ that should be your motivation for obedience, repent of that, too. It’s a bad deal. It’s a very bad deal.

Don’t take pride in the fact that you took out the trash or washed the floor, whatever it is. But instead pray that God would give you—that you would obey him as he tells you to love your parents and to love him.

I mentioned these requirements from Micah: to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God. If you’re not loving mercy and if your obedience of doing justice is not motivated by love, that I think Micah 6 tells us that the underlying reason for that is what? You’re not walking humbly with God. It’s pride. Pride, I think Micah 6 tells us, is the love killer here.

And whether it’s the children, the wives, the husbands, if you’ve moved away, rotated out from covenantal commitment and love and devotion to one another, understand it’s because your pride is involved there and it’s a humiliation of your pride by pleading the blood of Christ that will allow you to overcome. Ephesus had to overcome. Christ is going to give her the strength to do it. Okay.

So the first mirror up there for the bride is love. Okay. And that’s her requirement that she’s met with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let’s go to the second church. Smyrna. Smyrna was the perfume bride of the one who suffered. Let’s read the text. Verse 8:

“To the angel of the church in Smyrna, write: ‘These things says the first and the last, who was dead and came to life: I know your works, tribulation, and poverty—but you’re rich. I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you’ll have tribulation ten days. Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.’”

Now, so what is the mirror here for this church? Well, they, you know, they look in the mirror and Christ holds up the mirror of his word to them and they see a lot of things they’re doing right. They’re persevering. They’re persevering in times of great difficulty. They’re suffering.

What’s the imperfection that they’re looking at in that mirror? The imperfection is—there’s a temptation to them. Now they have not succumbed to it, but the imperfection is that there’s a temptation there along with them to bag it and to quit in the context of this persecution.

So Smyrna is the perfume bride. Smyrna comes from the word myrrh—perfume myrrh. We the perfume bride and we the perfume bride of the one who suffered, as we shall never have to suffer. He says he’s the one that was dead and raised back up to life and whose sufferings give meaning to our sufferings for him. If we are abased with him, we shall surely reign with him. He gives us resurrection life.

So as Ephesus needed love, Smyrna and you need patient perseverance, right? And this is something that your eyes going to see reflected in the mirror. Even if you’re doing well, you want to patiently persevere until Christ turns history somehow. Whether you’re going through trials as a church and you think you’re going to die as a church, you’re going through trials as an individual—maybe one of your kids is going through a trial. This last week getting spanked a ton. A lot of restrictions. You think you’re going to die. And God says, “Do what’s right. Patiently persevere and Christ will turn things. History will change. The next month will come and summer will come and then winter. And your problems will be replaced if you persevere patiently for the Lord Jesus Christ.”

She holds up the mirror. And what she sees positively are works. The word works is in every one of these, by the way, you know—you never see a lot of mention about, you know, emotions. It’s their deeds that he observes in them. What are their works? Suffering and poverty for the sake of her husband. And the imperfections—I said—is a temptation to quit.

And what does God give as strength to his bride? He gives resurrection strength. Jesus Christ said, “I’m the one who died and raised back up again. I’ve got what you need. You need to persevere even unto death if required, and you can do it because I’m your husband and I’ve got resurrection life. I can strengthen you so that you can persevere patiently to the end.”

You know, I’ve thought a lot these last few—this last year or so—this is earth, not heaven. This is not the time for rest. This is not the time ultimately for retirement. We don’t look to when we’re 65 and can retire and everything gets easy for us—and easy street comes. Uh-uh. That’s heaven, boys and girls and women. This is the place of work. Now, there’s rest in the middle of it. Don’t get me wrong. We’re enjoying God hopefully in the work we’re called to do, but this is work here on earth.

And you’re supposed to not just run three-quarters of the course of work and then sit around and lounge around for 20, 25 years. Uh-uh. We work right up to the end. You see, we run the course to the finish. We persevere patiently to the end of it. You see, that’s what God calls us to do.

We’re tempted not to do that. We’re tempted to think we shouldn’t have trials and tribulations because we’re so tied to this earth that we think this is the place where all satisfaction, all contentment, and all blessings must come to us here. And if you think that, you’re not going to be very happy because it isn’t going to happen here. You know, even if you get what you want, God gives you what you want. He gives you the quail and it makes you sick to your stomach because it doesn’t bring satisfaction. Keep eating it. Don’t take the drug, the food, whatever it is—sex. Whatever it is, never enough ’cause your attitude is wrong. This is not the place of contentment, eventually long-term, you know, fulfillment. That’s heaven. That’s when you die in this body when Christ returns.

This is a place of work and trials and tribulations. Jesus—I mentioned this earlier—there’s two places where this word myrrh is used apart from here in the one form of the word. The first is the wise men who come to Jesus when he’s born and give him myrrh, frankincense, and gold. And the other is when myrrh is used to help prepare his body for burial—beginning to end. “Man of sorrows”—what a name, right?

And we enter into the sufferings of Christ. Christ didn’t suffer and die so that you wouldn’t have sufferings in life. Christ suffered and died that your sufferings would have meaning. That they’d be for the sake of faithfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ. And you could enter into the context of your life the sufferings of the Savior. That gives meaning to life, purpose, and you understand why things are difficult.

This is earth, not heaven. Now, it’s being transformed. But, you know, creating a new world is tough work. It’s tough duty. You know, there’s an old song I used to hear: “We saved the world. It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it.” Well, that’s us. And it is our job to bring in a new creation, make manifest the kingdom of Christ. No, it’s Christ working through us. It’s the Spirit pulsing through us. We do it through the means of the word.

But that’s what about doing here. And you know what? It isn’t just out there. It’s in here, right? These mirrors held up to the bride starts with her. We’ve talked about that before. Enough said, I suppose.

Okay. So we want to patiently endure in suffering. And we’ll do that if we pass through the Ephesus test, won’t we? If we have love for the husband that’s motivating us, then when the trials and tribulations come, we’ll persevere through those things because of the love.

So, you know, there’s seven churches here, but I’m kind of doing the as the first four and the last three just sort of flow out of the first four. So what you’ve got is love in the first church, patient perseverance in the second church. And I’m sure that in the context of our relationships here in this church, both individually to God as well as to the relationships we have with each other, this is an important text for us.

We must learn to submit ourselves under the mighty hand of God that he might exalt us in due time.

Wives—okay, talked about us as a church in general of us as Christians. Wives, you know, you suffer a lot. You suffer in ways that men don’t understand, you know. That’s what I’m sure that’s true. And in this church, you got a lot of work you’re called to do—particularly if you got kids and you’re homeschooling and all that stuff’s going. If you don’t, life is very difficult and there is suffering that goes on.

And maybe you as a wife are going through particular sufferings, trials or tribulations. And you know, as you look at this particular mirror, you know, thank God that you’re persevering. Recognize that there’s a temptation to you to bag it and don’t give into the temptation. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Assume his resurrection strength for your commitment to marriage. You know, first Peter 3 talks a lot about this and as it leads up to the submission of the wife to the husband, even if he’s not a believer.