1. "What surprises me is the number of people who call themselves Christians who live as if they themselves create their own relationship with God by virtue of their own actions."

2. "Trusting God's kindness, or even more, their own innate goodness, most people, even self-confessed Christians, see little role for Christ in their salvation, other than providing a good example and some helpful teaching. The real work is left to us."

3. "Friends, can you begin to imagine Christ publicly owning you before His Father forever? This one is mine."

4. "Nothing else in our lives is as ultimate as God is. And anything else that claims that allegiance from us is lying to us. We have a greater hope than this world can give or than this world can take away."

5. "When we begin to understand the truth about the life beyond death, the life that God has made us for eternally, I think we then see that this current life is invested with far more worth and dignity and importance than we ever understand when we think we merely die and rot like the animals."

6. "Friends, every sinful pleasure, whether of money or of mind or of the body, every sinful pleasure will lie to us just like the serpent lied to Eve in telling her that she could disobey God without concern knowing that she would not surely die. But he lied. And she died. And that's the way it is with sin."

7. "Beware too much reliance on church membership. We can discipline you for adultery. We can't discipline you for much hypocrisy or probably any lack of love. The most serious of sins will never be dealt with by church discipline."

8. "The heavens may declare the glory of God, but they tell us nothing about the cross of Christ."

9. "You can't repent of what you've never been told is a sin. And you can't love the one you've never heard of."

10. "What else are you going to give your time to that's more important than making sure that you have this eternal life?"

Observation Questions

1. In Revelation 2:4-5, what specific criticism does Christ give to the church in Ephesus, and what does He command them to do in response?

2. According to Revelation 2:10, what does Christ tell the church in Smyrna they are about to experience, and what promise does He give to those who remain faithful?

3. In Revelation 2:14-15, what two groups of people does Christ say the church in Pergamum has among them, and what practices are associated with these groups?

4. How does Christ describe Himself to the church in Laodicea in Revelation 3:14, and how does He describe their spiritual condition in verses 15-17?

5. What counsel does Christ give to the Laodicean church in Revelation 3:18, and what three things does He tell them to "buy" from Him?

6. What repeated phrase appears at the end of each of the seven messages in Revelation 2-3, and what promise is given to "him who overcomes" in Revelation 3:21?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why is it significant that Christ presents Himself with a different description at the beginning of each message (e.g., "holds the seven stars," "the First and the Last," "has the sharp double-edged sword")? How do these descriptions relate to each church's specific situation?

2. The sermon emphasizes that trials accompany eternal life for Christians. How do the letters to Smyrna and Philadelphia support this teaching, and what does this reveal about the relationship between faithfulness and suffering?

3. In Revelation 3:20, Christ says He stands at the door and knocks. Given that this is addressed to a church rather than unbelievers, what does this image communicate about the spiritual danger of the Laodicean church and Christ's relationship to His people?

4. Several churches are criticized for tolerating false teaching or immorality (Pergamum, Thyatira, Laodicea). What does this pattern reveal about how sin deceives believers, and why does Christ consider tolerance of error so serious?

5. Each message ends with a call to "hear what the Spirit says to the churches." Why does Christ emphasize hearing as essential to eternal life, and how does this connect to the broader biblical teaching that faith comes by hearing the Word of God?

Application Questions

1. Christ commended the Ephesian church for their hard work and doctrinal discernment but rebuked them for forsaking their first love. In what specific ways might you be going through the motions of Christian activity while your affection for Christ has grown cold, and what concrete steps could you take this week to rekindle that love?

2. The sermon noted that many self-professed Christians believe they can have salvation while continuing in unrepentant sin. Is there a particular sin—whether of thought, word, or deed—that you have been excusing or minimizing because you assume grace covers it? What would genuine repentance look like in that area?

3. The Laodicean church was self-deceived, believing they were spiritually rich when they were actually "wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked." What safeguards can you put in place—such as honest friendships, regular self-examination, or accountability—to help you see your true spiritual condition?

4. Christ promised the church in Smyrna that they would suffer persecution but should "not be afraid." What specific fears about following Christ faithfully—whether of rejection, loss, or hardship—do you struggle with, and how does Christ's promise to give "the crown of life" change how you face those fears?

5. The sermon emphasized that hearing the gospel and speaking it to others is essential because "you cannot repent of what you've never been told is a sin, nor love One you've never heard of." Who is one person in your life—a neighbor, coworker, or family member—to whom you could speak about Christ this week, and what would you say?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Genesis 3:1-24 — This passage recounts humanity's fall and expulsion from the tree of life, which Christ promises to restore to those who overcome in Revelation 2:7.

2. John 6:60-69 — Peter's confession that Jesus has "the words of eternal life" reinforces the sermon's emphasis that Christ alone accomplishes and gives eternal life.

3. Romans 10:5-17 — Paul explains that faith comes by hearing the word of Christ, supporting the sermon's point that hearing is the way to eternal life.

4. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 — This passage warns that the unrighteous will not inherit God's kingdom but celebrates that believers have been washed and justified, illustrating how sin deceives and grace transforms.

5. Hebrews 10:19-39 — This exhortation to hold fast, encourage one another, and endure suffering connects directly to the sermon's call for perseverance through trials as we await eternal life.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Universal Question of Eternal Life

II. Common Misconceptions About Eternal Life

III. How Eternal Life Is Described in Revelation 2-3

IV. Trials Accompany Eternal Life

V. Sin Deceives Us About Eternal Life

VI. Hearing Is the Way to Eternal Life

VII. Christ Accomplishes Eternal Life

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Detailed Sermon Outline

• Islam promises gardens of eternity for the righteous (Quran)
• Hinduism teaches freedom from death through realizing the Self (Katha Upanishad)

Jesus was once asked one of the most recurring questions in human history. A man ran up to Him and fell on his knees before Him. Good teacher, he asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life.

Now this question is found not only in Christianity. This is a common concern in philosophies and religions around the world. So we read in the Quran: those who have faith and do righteous deeds, they are the best of creatures. Their reward is with God. Gardens of eternity beneath which rivers flow, they will dwell therein forever.

God well pleased with them, and they with Him. All this for such as fear their Lord and cherisher.

And it's not just the so-called Abrahamic faiths. In the Katha Upanishad of Hinduism, we read, Having realized the Self, which is soundless, intangible, formless, undecaying, and likewise tasteless, eternal and odorless, having realized that which is without beginning and end, beyond the great and unchanging, one is freed from the jaws of death.

And it's not just the great religions and Philosophies of the world that address this question. I asked the same question yesterday of Google. And except for a couple of stray answers about animals having eternal life and Mormonism, I got a lot of pretty good answers. The PCA, Presbyterian Church in America, popped up first with an excellent answer. Not far behind were Evangelism Explosion International, Christianity.com, Wikipedia, Southern Baptists, and the American Bible Society.

I had not really considered how much evangelism is probably going on under the good offices of Google.

But answering the question carefully and sort of officially in writing is very different from what goes on probably in most people's lives from day to day.

I think most people would clearly think that they don't need Christ. To have eternal life. Most people, of course, are Hindus, Buddhists, or Muslims. So if that's what you are today, I'm not surprised that you don't think you need Christ to have eternal life. And of course, atheists probably wouldn't even begin to ask such a question.

But what surprises me is the number of people who call themselves Christians who live as if they themselves create their own relationship with God by virtue of their own actions. I'm pretty sure four out of five people you might ask on the mall or on the street downtown who call themselves Christians would answer the question, How can I have eternal life?

by saying something like, well, live right or do what you know you should do. Trusting God's kindness, or even more, their own innate goodness, most people, even self-confessed Christians, see little role for Christ in their salvation, other than providing a good example and some helpful teaching. The real work is left to us.

Other people grasping the Christian teaching that eternal life is fundamentally our relationship with God, and that relationship begins in this life, treat Christianity as a kind of cosmic get out of jail free card. You know, all of a sudden in becoming a Christian, we are loosed not only from the penalty of our sins, but from the trials and tribulations of living in a fallen world. Circumstances, it's taught, will bend to our desires as we exercise our faith as a kind of spiritual energy to make it so.

The virtuous Christian then is the victorious Christian now. Suffering only comes through a lack of faith in God. When saving faith comes in, suffering goes out.

Probably more people think of eternal life as something they once purchased. With some confession of faith in Christ. Maybe they pay to walk down an aisle, a sincere tear, some change in behavior, a prayer prayed, or a card filled out. But whatever it was, their spiritual commerce is long done and now they can go on and lead their normal life. They reason that sin is normal because I am human.

And therefore I can, of course, keep on sinning. So sins of the body, mind, and heart are all things that can be forgiven in Christ. So therefore we should assume that we are forgiven in Christ as we continue living the life that we've really always wanted to live anyway.

Others think that eternal life comes through our awakening to God's presence around us. Sparked by beauty, we see God in the guise of something in His creation. And rejoicing in that, people think we rejoice in Him. Spiritual life, eternal life, does not need to wait to hear a certain message or read a particular book. We find it in the flower, or in the beauty of the sunset, or the symphony, or human love.

We could go on.

How can you have eternal life?

Can you have it without Christ? Without suffering? Without repentance, without words.

If so, what would such an eternal life be?

With those questions in mind, let's turn to our text for this morning. It's in the book of Revelation. If you're not used to using a Bible, that's the very last book in the Bible. The very last book in the Bible, chapters 2 and 3. If you're using the Bibles provided here in the main hall floor, you'll find that on page 1287.

And if you're using the Bibles provided in the balconies of the West Hall, that's on page 1216.

Before we even read it, let's just familiarize ourselves with it. You'll be helped to get through this sermon if you take a Bible and look at it. So if you look, you see that there are divisions in these chapters. Again, the chapters are the large numbers 2 and 3. I'm not going to be able to cover everything in these chapters.

But I want you to get a basic idea of what's going on here. And if you look, you see there are four divisions in that first chapter with those headings to the church at Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira. And then 3 in the third chapter, Sardis. Philadelphia, Laodicea. So there are seven messages of Christ to the judge.

We had John's vision of him in chapter 1. And these are messages to seven churches in Asia Minor, what's today modern western Turkey. Their names are probably headings there in the Bible that you're looking at. So the way these messages go, they're actually in a kind of geographical order. We begin in Ephesus and if you were taking a boat from Patmos where John was, to the shore, you would go in at Ephesus, the leading city of the province.

And then you just simply travel north. You go north in about 30 or 40 miles to Smyrna, modern Izmir. North from there to Pergamum and about 10 miles from the coast. And then it's a long distance just going to the southeast on a great road that ran down to Pergamum and then Thyatira, rather down to Thyatira, then Sardis, then Philadelphia, and then further south down to Laodicea. So it's sort of like a large triangle.

With the points being Ephesus and Pergamum and then Laodicea. These messages are not given as seven categories of churches. O Mark, are we a Laodicean church or are we an Ephesian church? They are also not given, I think, as a picture of church history in progress. So we are in the Smyrna age or the Philadelphian age.

I think these are what they seem to be. They are clear words of the risen Christ to particular churches in specific situations. And in them, we really find the summary conclusions for the book of Revelation as a whole. Here we have a kind of front-loaded application where Christ, through John, tells the The churches, the points, what the takeaways should be from all of the visions that He is about to give John in this most amazing book. So you see seven times at the end of each of these messages, there's a call to hear, to pay attention, because this is, as I say, the application of the book.

Remember, we saw a couple of weeks ago in chapter 1, verse 3, that this book is to be read and we are to hear it and take it to heart. So with that in mind, let's listen to our text for this morning, Revelation, chapters 2 and 3.

For the angel of the church in Ephesus write, these are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand. And walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your deeds, your hard work, and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.

Yet I hold this against you: you have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen. Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. But you have this in your favor.

You hate the practices 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 the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. To the angel of the church in Smyrna write, these are the words of him who is the first and the last, who died and came to life again. I know your afflictions and your poverty, yet you are rich.

I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful even to the point of 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 will not be hurt at all by the second death. To the angel of the church in Pergamum write, these are the words of him who has the sharp double-edged sword. I know where you live, where Satan has his throne, yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city where Satan lives. Nevertheless, I have a few things against you.

You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality. Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Repent, therefore, otherwise I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna.

I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it known only to him who receives it.

To the angel of the church in Thyatira write, these are the words of the Son of God whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first. Nevertheless, I have this against you. You tolerate that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching, she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.

I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer unless they repent of her ways. I will strike her children dead, and all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan's so-called deep secrets, I will not impose any other burden on you. Only hold on to what you have until I come.

To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations. He will rule them with an iron scepter. He will dash them to pieces like pottery, just as I have received authority from my Father. I will also give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

To the angel of the church in Sardis write, these are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds. You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it and repent.

But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you. Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with Me dressed in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never erase his name from the Book of Life, but will acknowledge his name before My Father and His angels.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: these are the words of Him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.

I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews, they are not, but are liars, I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you. Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to to test those who live on the earth. I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have so that no one will take your crown.

Him who overcomes, I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God. And I will also write on him my new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

The angel of the church in Laodicea writes, these are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other. So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, 'I am rich.

I have acquired wealth, and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, Pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich, and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness, and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am!

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

Well, we see that these messages are addressed to all churches by means of these seven churches. We come to these Angels, again, we thought about this last week, messengers. Tyndale translated it once, Tiding Bringer or Tiding Bearer. This angel could be either a pastor who would read this message to the congregation or some other just heavenly representation of the congregation itself. Either way, the point is these messages are to reach these congregations and beyond.

We see they are reached beyond because these are the words of the Lord. These sound less like letters and they do Old Testament prophecies beginning, this is the word of the Lord.

You know, these are the words of Christ. That's why He says, Let Him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He wants all churches to hear this. We should note this from seeing the fact that there are seven churches. It alerts us that these are meant, these messages are meant for all churches.

So keep in mind as we study this morning that this is one of the most pointed passages in the Bible on eternal life. Did you notice that each one of these letters is completed in a call to and a promise for eternal life. And as we consider these messages, I pray that we will understand them better and also understand better our trials and our sins, how God meets with us to give us eternal life and what Christ has to do with it. First, let's begin simply by noting the way that eternal life is described in our passage. So, eternal life, point one.

Well, as I say, each one of these messages concludes with a statement on the one who overcomes or conquers. What does that mean? It's the one who holds on to faith in Christ, regardless of the trials they suffer. Those who do not give up their faith in Christ. In chapter 2, verse 7, we see that we are called to eat from the very tree of life itself.

We find that's in the paradise of God. So the curse is lifted that we read about from Genesis 3 earlier in the service. That curse that kept us from the tree of life is now no more if we are among those who overcome. Or you look down in chapter 2 verse 11, We receive the promise that we will not be hurt by the second death, that is by hell. You may remember the old saying, Born once, die twice.

Born twice, die once.

That's what we have promised here to us in chapter 2 verse 11. In 2:17 we see that image of the hidden manna that will be given to those who overcome. God provides for His people. Christ is the bread of heaven. The world may not see it, it's hidden, but we know that Christ is the life of God to us.

And that white stone in verse 17. A white stone, a sign of acquittal by a jury or victory in a contest. We're given a new name, a new birth, a new identity in Christ, which again, though hidden from this world, is real as we are accepted in Christ. You look down in chapter 2, verse 26, We're given authority over the nations. We reign with Christ as He dispenses judgment and mercy over the nations.

Eternally. Or in chapter 3, verse 5, we're reminded that part of this eternal life is our simply being forgiven for our sins. It's being clothed in this perfect purity and righteousness of Christ, as we see here represented in this verse where we find that he who overcomes will be dressed in white. That represents the righteousness of Christ, our acceptableness in Him. He will fit us for His own presence forever.

I love the way the hymn that we'll sing after the sermon today says this at one point. He says, Let not conscience make you linger, nor a fitness fondly dream. All the fitness He requireth is to feel your need of Him, and even this He gives you. Our future is secure in Him. Our names, He says here in 3:5, will never be blotted out from the Book of Life.

Instead, Christ assures us that He will acknowledge His name, the name of the One who overcomes, who believes, who has faith in Christ. He will acknowledge His name before My Father and His angels. Friends, can you begin to imagine Christ publicly owning you before His Father forever?

This one is mine.

Friends, that's what we see presented here as an aspect of this eternal life. In chapter 3 verse 12 it becomes clear that we'll be made a fixture in the presence of God. We'll never leave Him again. That's what it means being a pillar in His temple. We will not walk out.

We are there. We will be with Him forever. Or in 3:21, another expression of this is we're invited to Him. Be with Him in His power, even as Christ is with His Father in His power. Remember His prayer in John 17 today may be one even as I, you and I are one, I in them and you in Me.

Well, in eternal life that prayer of Jesus is answered as we are finally made one with Him forever in fellowship and love. Now, friend, if you're here and you're not a Christian, I don't know if this kind of eternal life with God sounds very attractive to you.

I understand that you may have more sympathy for the kind of self-determination that the poet Henley famously wrote about in his poem Invictus, Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit, from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be, For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance, My head is bloodied, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears looms but the horror of the shade, and yet the menace of the years finds and shall find me unafraid. It matters not how straight the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.

And yet, friends, Mr. Henley died at the age of 53.

I wonder as he approached death, how much the master of his own fate, the captain of his own soul, he felt.

My friend, if you're skeptical, what if this life isn't all there is? What if there is something more? Do you see any indications of that in your own life and your own experience?

In what stark contrast to Mr. Hinley's self faith is what Christ teaches us to follow him. I love how the Heidelberg Catechism expresses our hope as Christians. What is your only comfort in life and in death? Answer, that I am not my own, but belong body and soul, in life and in death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.

He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven. In fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to him, Christ by his Holy Spirit assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him. What must you know to live and die in the joy of this comfort?

A, answer three things: First, how great my sin and misery are. Second, how I am set free from all my sins and misery. Third, how I can thank God for such deliverance. My Christian brothers and sisters, please see the hope that is held out to us here in this assurance. Of our eternal life with Christ.

Nothing else in our lives is as ultimate as God is. And anything else that claims that allegiance from us is lying to us. We have a greater hope than this world can give or than this world can take away. We have hope that Christ alone is the author of. Sometimes people think that if we start talking of the afterlife, We will reduce the importance of this life, but I couldn't disagree more.

When we begin to understand the truth about the life beyond death, the life that God has made us for eternally, I think we then see that this current life is invested with far more worth and dignity and importance than we ever understand when we think we merely die and rot like the animals. Friends, we know that we have eternal life with God. If we are in Christ. Point number two, something else we should see in these verses about this eternal life. Trials accompany this eternal life.

Jesus warned His disciples about this. He warned them when He was with them in His earthly ministry. He warns them here in this book. Look again at chapter 2, verses 2 and 3. Look what you see there.

Hard work. False apostles that have to be tested. Hardships. Look down at verse 9. Afflictions and poverty are mentioned.

And friends, this is to Christians in a church here, this second one, the church in Smyrna, that he seems to particularly praise. These are the people God likes.

They are hearing slander and blasphemy. They're in verse 13. He praises those Christians for not renouncing their faith in Him, which must have meant they were tempted to.

You can see why one Antipas mentioned there in verse 13, evidently was put to death. According to tradition in 92 A.D. the pastor of the church there in Pergamum, Antipas, refused to worship the emperor and so he was burned to death after he maintained before the Roman governor that Jesus, not Caesar, is Lord.

He had been a faithful witness. These letters are full of the reality of trials that are part of the Christian's pilgrimage in this fallen world. If you're here and you're not a believer, you may be surprised to know that we Christians don't think this world is basically a good place. We think this world has great good in it. We think God has made this world.

He declared creation good and people are all made in the image of God regardless of what they think religiously. In that sense, we're not surprised by the good that happens.

Even when we're talking about people who don't believe what we believe, even when we think there are people who will end up eternally under the judgment of God in hell, we're not at all surprised for good that happens, good they do, good they represent, because they're still made in the image of God. But we also understand that in those verses from Genesis we read earlier in the service, something cosmic happened. We understand that in our first parents' rebellion against God, the whole creation has been, as it were, thrown out of kilter. The whole creation is now at war with God. So if you're trying to understand Christianity, you need to get your mind around this idea of human sinfulness and of our rebellion.

In fact, the rebellion of the whole creation against God and the disorder that has brought. And that's part of what we understand about our world.

So, Christian friends, how are you doing persevering in the trials God has before you?

I love the way here, if you look in chapter 3, verse 8, you see the Philadelphian Christians, and He acknowledges that they have but little strength, and yet He praises them for their faithfulness. Friend, He can fully provide for all of our needs. We know Christians have trials. The only way we can help to bear each other's burdens and sorrows is we covenant to do is letting each other know about them. Friends, if you'll let each other know about the trials you're under, God will get more glory as He sustains you through them.

Of course, some trials are just so public that everyone knows about them. I'm interested to imagine and think that as this letter was being read in the church of Smyrna, maybe about 95 A.D., there would have been a young man there sitting in the congregation listening to it. Who would hear this, who would grow up to love the Lord and serve Him for many years as pastor of this church there in Smyrna. And about 60 years after the words of this letter would have fallen on his ears, he would himself find himself in a fresh wave of fervor for worship of the Roman emperor. And as the pastor of the church, he would be confronted with what he would do when he was publicly confronted about worshiping the Emperor of Rome.

Since Emperor worship was being freshly enforced, Polycarp, this man, was singled out. He was known as the aged pastor of the Christians. And so he was particularly pressed by the police commissioner to say, Caesar is Lord, and offer incense to Caesar in worship, knowing that if Polycarp would, all the other Christians would likely follow. Polycarp? Refused.

They began to threaten him and so they ended up taking him to the arena where games were being held and there he was brought before the governor for examination. The governor tried to persuade him to recant. Have some respect for your years, he said. Take your oath and I will let you go, he told him. Revile your Christ.

Polycarp replied, 80 and six years have I served him and he has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King and my Savior? The governor continued to try to persuade him, and Polycarp still refused. Then the governor threatened, I have wild beasts here, unless you change your mind you'll be thrown to them. Why then call them up?

said Polycarp, refusing to worship the emperor. Then the governor said, if you do not recant, I will have you burnt to death, since you think so lightly of wild beasts. Polycarp rejoined, the fire you threaten me with cannot go on burning for very long. After a while it goes out. But what you are unaware of are the flames of future judgment and everlasting torment which are in store for the ungodly.

Why do you go on wasting time? Bring out whatever you have a mind to. So the governor, completely at a loss, sent his crier out to give out three times in the middle of the arena. Polycarp has admitted to being a Christian. Polycarp has admitted to being a Christian.

Polycarp has admitted to being A Christian. And at the crier's words, the whole audience broke into loud yells of ungovernable fury. The destroyer of our gods, who is teaching whole multitudes to abstain from sacrificing to them or worshiping them, worshiping them. They cried out that he would be burnt alive. And says the witness, it was all done in less time than it takes to tell.

He was bound to a post. They piled up wood. Polycarp lifted up his voice and praised to God. And as His amen sounded, ending His prayer, the men lit the fire and Polycarp was burnt to death.

Friends, I remember when I first read that 30 years ago, it just seemed like an unthinkable scene to me. I have to say, 30 years on in modern America, I can more see something like this happening. I can more easily imagine it today. What is it the writer to the Hebrews said? Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing. But let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Dear friends, trials are part of the normal way we follow Jesus in a fallen world. Trials accompany us on our way to eternal life.

Sin deceives us about eternal life. Sin deceives us. Love fades slowly. Other priorities, sensual pleasures, relaxing our guard on teaching God's truth, becoming more tolerant, intoxication with a reputation rather than a reality behind it. All of these sins were lying to believers now and are beckoning to us with their lies still.

Loving God, what an ambiguous notion we think. What does it really mean to love God? Isn't it really just trying to do good to others regardless of our affections and what about a little illicit sensual pleasure? I mean can't we have this and eternal life? After all we're a religion of grace, right?

We know that we can't work our way to heaven or earn God's favor. Why are we at it? Are sermons really so important? So why don't we all line up, you know, just alike on how we read the Bible? I know we won't and if we don't then it must not matter.

So some people think this is okay and others think it's not. Well we have differences of opinion, right?

Isn't the important thing simply to permit, to welcome, to accept, to tolerate, and leave it to God to sort all this out? God knows what I'm really like. He accepts me. I know He does. I can feel it.

What is it Paul wrote to the Corinthians about who would have eternal life? Who would get into God's heaven? 1 Corinthians 6, Do you not know that the wicked will not Inherit the Kingdom of God. Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexual offenders, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers will inherit the Kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were.

But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. You see throughout this various proper names, Balaam, Nicolaits, Jezebel. We don't know all these people were in particular. Two of those names are Old Testament names, Balaam and Jezebel, both famously led God's people into immorality. I don't think that's what these people in the first century would have been named.

The risen Christ is characterizing them by their actions. Just like if I might call someone a Benedict Arnold. I'm not saying that's their name. That's what they're doing. I'm revealing their character by calling them that.

Well, so he's revealing these teachers who were saying to these churches, Look, you can have salvation in Christ and hold on to your sins. And by so teaching they were leading people into immorality after immorality. There was the sin of toleration as well. You look there in chapter 2, verse 20. It's the whole church of Thyatira that's criticized at this point.

And what they're criticized for is that they tolerate Such false and God-dishonoring teaching. And Laodicea was in such bad shape with their unchecked worldliness that God basically called them useless. People have often misunderstood that hot or cold as if God would rather you be hot and zealous for Him or cold, even an atheist against Him, but just not lukewarm, which I guess just means a kind of nominal church tender. That's not at all what this means. Hot is good and cold is good.

Hot as soothing, cold as invigorating to drink, Laodicean water was famously lukewarm. They had no spring. They got their water from about four miles away. It came through pipes. It was lukewarm by the time it got to them.

It was wretched to taste. They were famous for disgusting water. So what he's saying is that you guys are disgusting. You are spiritually useless. Because you've given yourself over to the pleasures of the world.

You think because you are so financially rich and your church is in such good shape with its money that you don't see your real satisfaction in these wrong things. You don't see how you've forgotten Me. Friends, every sinful pleasure, whether of money or of mind or of the body, every sinful pleasure will lie to us just like the serpent lied to Eve in telling her that she could disobey God without concern knowing that she would not Surely die!

But he lied. And she died. And that's the way it is with sin. Are you aware of the deceptive power of pleasure?

When Ken Barwick and I were talking about this passage yesterday, he remembered that wonderful section in the Screwtape Letters where Lewis describes pleasure. For you have Screwtape, the undersecretary of temptation in hell, according to Lewis, Warning his junior tempter nephew who's on earth trying to wreak spiritual havoc, warned him of the danger of pleasure. I quote Louis, Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are in a sense on the enemy's ground. I know we've won many a soul through pleasure. All the same, it is His invention, not ours.

He made the pleasures. All our research so far has not enabled us to produce one. All we can do is to encourage the humans to take pleasures which our enemy has produced at times or in ways or in degrees which he has forbidden. Hence we always try to work away from the natural condition of any pleasure to that in which it is least natural, least redolent of its maker, and least pleasurable. An ever-increasing craving for an ever-diminishing pleasure is the formula.

It is more certain and it's better style to get the man's soul and give him nothing in return.

Brothers and sisters, is the promise of some pleasure, some sin of sex or slander tempting you at work?

Does the sin of religious hypocrisy tempt you this morning?

And lie to you and leave you thinking that it's good that people here at church think that you're better than you really are.

Do you really not see the danger in that? Do you really think your danger is going to come from what other people think of you rather than from the reality of your state itself?

Have you left your first love? And do you think it won't matter? Remember, He's the One He says here in 2:23, He's the One with eyes that blaze like fire. It means here He says He is the One who searches minds and hearts. When we're converted, we begin to see what a lying hope sin is.

And God changes us, and He keeps on changing us more. CHBC members, two things: a warning and a thanks, a warning. Beware too much reliance on church membership. Beware too much reliance on church membership. Mark, are you speaking against church membership?

Yeah, I'll probably die first. I'm talking about too much reliance on church membership. What I mean is we can discipline you for adultery, We can't discipline you for much hypocrisy or probably any lack of love. The most serious of sins will never be dealt with by church discipline.

And a thanks. As the senior pastor of this church, I am thankful for the works of love which do characterize this congregation. As I'm sitting reading through these letters, seeing the Lord Jesus evaluate His churches, I am reminded again and again of the folks that I pray for as I pray through the directory and what goes on here. I love the way correcting false teaching is seen as an act of love in this congregation. And it is.

I appreciate the way so many people labor over Scripture and listen to what they're taught with great patience and with much curiosity and care. I'm also thankful for many of you who volunteered to help with a Weekender last week, or giving up time to help us with the ensemble, or spending time reaching out to new members, or coming to the missions reading group. I love how easy it is to tell visitors we can find a ride for them, because I can ask almost any of you who live almost anywhere to take somebody almost anywhere in the DC area on the way home. I am thankful for your vulnerability as you share with an elder your trials are as you share with me some fear that you have. I'm thankful for the husbands and fathers who bend their careers around for the benefit of their families.

And I'm thankful for the way young mothers, like Hun McBride, who's just had yet another child and still she reaches out in hospitality to others. I'm thankful for new Christians like Rob McCutcheon working immediately to get plugged in and for their friends and families who are caring for them. The way people get here early in order just to help or to uphold us in prayer. I thank God for wives who follow their husbands, or for Derek Gobits who will leave the possibility of lucrative jobs here in D.C. to go serve the IMB, or Paul Giacomini doing the same thing with Wycliffe, or our own Hope Henry and Peter and Missy Hess in Central Asia. I thank God for so many works of love I've gotten to see in this congregation.

And I pray that God will protect us from the deception that sin would try to work on us, telling us to ignore it and just go on in confidence of our salvation. Friend, sin deceives.

So what is the way to eternal life? It is hearing.

Hearing, I said. Now this may surprise some of you, but hearing is the way to eternal life. Surely it's just a matter of how I live my life, many say. Friends, again, look at the conclusion of each of these messages. In every single one we find that the final exhortation is to hear.

Hear in the sense of hear and take to heart. This is to be read and received as the Word of God in all the churches. For most of these churches, that was a call to hear and repent. For the two who Christ doesn't criticize, Smyrna and Philadelphia, they are called to hear and be encouraged, to hold on and to keep going. So we are called to hear Christ's voice in the sense of listening to His words and believing them and trusting Him and obeying them.

If you look down in chapter 3, verse 20, you'll find a very famous verse. Here I am. I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. You realize this isn't said to non-Christians.

This is said to self-confessed Christians.

And it's not said to individuals. It's said to a church, the Laodicean church. And it's not an image of somebody coming by like a visitor and Sort of courteously knocking on your door. Anybody home? Would you like to invite me in as a guest so you can have dinner with me?

This is a master returning to his house. And as soon as the servant hears the sound of the hoofs and certainly hears his voice, he is to throw wide open the door and to recognize him for who he is. And so live in fellowship with his rightful master. The house is his. Right?

So what that means is that we as a church want to hear the words of Christ. We want to hear the Word of God. We want to recognize this as the truth that we need to know and hear and acknowledge. Now, if you're here today and you're not a Christian, we do want you very much to hear the gospel, the good news. And the good news is this, that though we are all separated from God because of our sins, As I mentioned a few moments ago, God in His amazing love has come personally.

The Son of God was incarnate, took on flesh. Jesus of Nazareth lived a perfect life, lived the life that we should have lived. And He died in our place, paying our penalty. And God then calls us to recognize the truth of what He's done. When He died on that cross, He was bearing the wrath of God for the sins of all of us that would ever turn from our sins and trust in Him.

And to show that that was true, so we could all know indisputably, God raised Him from the dead. He was raised, we read, for our justification. And He ascended to heaven and is this Jesus that is coming back. So, friend, the way you, according to the Bible, the way you, according to Christianity, can have eternal life. Be forgiven of your sins.

Have fellowship with God forever. It's by turning from your sins, repenting of them, and trusting in this Christ. Trusting in His righteousness and His work on the cross for you. That's what it means than to be a Christian. That's why He tells the Laodiceans here up in verse 318, Buy from Me gold refined in the fire so you can become rich, and white clothes to wear so you can cover your shameful nakedness, and salve to put on your eyes so you can see.

It's ironic because these are like the three leading industries of Laodicea. They were a very wealthy banking center, so wealthy they had refused imperial help a few decades early when they had had an earthquake. They said to the emperor, no thanks, we don't need the money. We've got plenty. They rebuilt the city after the earthquake themselves.

They were a wealthy city. They were a city that was known for their special wool they had. They were a city that was known as a medical center and especially for this certain eye salve. But here Jesus picks up all these images in verse 18 to tell them how poor they really are. That they needed to come to Christ in humility for all the things that their city was famous for providing for others, gold and clothes and salve, so they would no longer be poor and blind and naked spiritually.

They must come to Christ and rely on Him for all of this. Friends, hearing is the way to eternal life. How would these people in Laodicea ever know this if they weren't contradicted, spoken against, in the path that they were on. Hearing is the way to eternal life. Has anyone ever realized their state if they do not first hear this message that we know no one would ever concoct?

The heavens may declare the glory of God, but they tell us nothing about the cross of Christ. That's why in Acts 10 Cornelius had to send to Peter to tell him the gospel. That's why Paul reasons as he does in Romans 10 about faith coming by hearing and how no one is saved unless hear and believe the gospel. That's why we're given the Great Commission to go into all the world and tell people this good news. Christians, that's why you should not just be praying for your friends in your neighborhood or at work, but you should be speaking to them, telling them of this good news of Jesus Christ.

And friends, as Christians, we have no right to expect popularity in this world for speaking the gospel. The gospel contradicts people in their sins, and in their flesh. We know that from our own life experience. The gospel contradicted us. We had to turn to become Christians.

Eternal life begins with this kind of hearing. And friends, you can't repent of what you've never been told is a sin. And you can't love the one you've never heard of. Tell people the good news of Jesus Christ. Because eternal life begins with hearing.

Finally, number five, Christ accomplishes eternal life. Do you notice how in these messages to the churches Christ began everyone with an image of Himself, showing Himself to be fully sufficient to meet their challenges. He is the author of eternal life. So to the church in Ephesus that's forsaking Him, He reminds them in chapter 2 verse 1 that He holds them in His right hand. And that He walks among them.

To the church in Smyrna, suffering afflictions, poverty and coming murderous persecution, He presents Himself there in chapter 2 verse 8 as the First and the Last who died and came to life again.

To the church in Pergamum, which was wrongly tolerating at least a couple of false teachings, Christ presents Himself there in 2:12 as Him who has the sharp double-edged sword, which we know from chapter 1 is His Word.

To the church in Thyatira that was tolerating immorality, He presents Himself in chapter 2 verse 18 as the Son of God whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. He Himself is perfectly pure and His vision is perfectly penetrating. To the church in Sardis which had more reputation than reality and was almost, as Christ says here, dead, He is the one we see in chapter 3 verse 1 who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. That is, He holds the churches in His hand.

And He has God's Spirit in His complete fullness, God's Spirit who gives life.

To the church in Philadelphia, weak and rejected, yet faithful, Christ presents Himself in 3:7 as the One who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. That's a messianic symbol from Isaiah 22. And though they may have been expelled from the synagogue, what Christ opens no one can shut, and what He shuts no one can open.

He is, as He had taught John decades before, the gate through whom the sheep enter to have eternal life. And to the church in Laodicea that was self-deceived and in desperate need, ruined by their own self-serving nature, Christ here in chapter 3 verse 14 presents Himself as the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. He tells the truth. He is the truth. And He is the Lord of all.

Christ alone is the One who can bring us eternal life, which is as He defined it in His prayer, that they may know youw, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom youm have sent. Friends, we can't save ourselves. Jesus' first disciples realized this. As Peter said to Jesus so long ago, you, have the words of eternal life. So we read these words near the end of Revelation.

To him who is thirsty, I will give to drink without cost from the springs of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God, and he will be my son. It is Christ who gives eternal life.

My question for you this morning, my pastoral application of these two chapters to you, whether you're a member of this church or an atheist or anyone who's visiting, Do you have this eternal life that Christ gives?

Do you think you can know if you do? John, in another letter he had written, said, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. Friends, we are supposed to be able to know in this life that we have eternal life. And it is a good thing to know that you have eternal life. I love the way our church statement of faith talks about election.

In one of the articles, I think it's Article 9, where it says, It may be ascertained by its effects in all who truly believe the gospel. That is, you can tell if you're elect by the way you're living. Are you living in a way that puts God first? Are you repenting of your sins? That it is the foundation of Christian assurance, and it's this last phrase, and that to ascertain it, with regard to ourselves, demands and deserves the utmost diligence.

Friend, what else are you going to give your time to that's more important than making sure that you have this eternal life? The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. But whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him.

Jesus said, I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned. He has crossed over from death to life. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. And do you remember what Jesus taught about His own people? I give them eternal life.

And they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand. Christ alone gives eternal life, and He is able.

Let's pray together.

Lord God, we thank you for the great promises that we have in Christ. Thank you for the Lord Jesus, giving your Son for us. Thank you for his teaching. Thank you for his words to us. Thank you for calling us simply to look to the Son.

And believe in Him. Thank you for this hope that we have for the last day. Lord Jesus, we give you our praise. We thank you for the gift of eternal life that you tell us about in youn Word. We praise you and we ask that you would move among us, confirm by your Spirit our own thoughts about having eternal life.

Or in your mercy correct us if we do not and teach us the truth for our eternal good and for your glory. We ask in Jesus' name, Amen.