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This talk was delivered at the 2022 Evangelical and Reformed Conference which is held annually at the Skogheim Conference Center, Port Shepstone, KZN, South Africa. The conference theme was Life in Babylon and Ronald Kalifungwa preached 5 sessions on the first 3 chapters of Revelation calling us to a renewed vision of Jesus and his lasting commitment to His church.
Our first sermon in this series set the focus directly on Jesus. The churches mentioned in Revelation chapters 1-3 needed to see something that would encourage them and propel them forward. They needed to see a true vision of the glorified Christ. We saw various things about Christ. These things were shown to benefit them and to prepare them for this journey in a wilderness filled with overwhelming trials.
Now, following on in Revelation chapters 1-3, we turn our focus to the church. How will these churches survive these overwhelming trials? In a world opposed to Jesus, with a spiritual enemy doing his worst, what hope does the church have?
The Living Lord of the church is present in the church.
The great revelation is that Christ is the hope of the church because Christ is Lord of the church. He is present and committed to her value and growth. Jesus calls his church precious. Regardless of the state of each church, the Lord does not leave them. He warns them, he encourages them and he walks amongst them. Revelation 1-3 makes this clear.
Jesus is not far from his church, observing what happens at a distance. Both then and now, Jesus is present in the church. He has attached his name to his church and he is at work. That goes for every church – even yours. That’s reason enough to turn your heart once again to the Lord of Revelation. He is the Lord of the church. Value his church, and to trust his work in the church. As Pastor Kalifungwa reminds us, “He will protect his church, he will provide for his church, he will build his church.”
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Event: 2022 Evangelical and Reformed Conference.
Location: Skogheim Conference Center, Port Shepstone, KZN, South Africa.
Transcript
The Church Of Christ In Revelation
Please turn your Bibles to Revelation chapter 1, Revelation chapter 1. I’ll just read a few selected verses. Revelation Chapter 1, we’ll read verse 12, 13 and 20.
Revelation 1, reading from verse 12,
“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 the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.” (Revelation 1:12-13)
Then we read in verse 20,
“Concerning 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.” (Revelation 1:20)
Yesterday, I drew your attention to the vision of Christ which is something of a preamble, indeed the preamble, the messages that our Lord sends to the churches. We noted that, at the time, when the church was going through a difficult time and going persecution and perhaps feeling discouraged, even as they lived under the weight of that suffering and witnessed the death of many of their brethren, they needed to see something that would encourage them and lift them and propel them forward. They needed to see a true vision of the glorified Christ.
And we saw various things about Christ; things meant to benefit them, to prepare them for this journey in a wilderness that would present many an overwhelming trial to them.
I want us now to come and reflect on the church of Christ – that’s our subject for this morning – the church of Christ as portrayed in this Revelation to the churches, which the Lord brought via John the Apostle. And there are four things I want us to reflect on as we think about the church.
The Church Is Cast In The Mold Of Golden Lampstands
First, you will note that she is cast in the mold of golden lampstands. She is cast in the mold of golden lampstands. John tells us, “I turned to see the voice that spoke to me, and having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands.” (Revelation 1:20)
A lampstand is a holder with a socket for a lamp. Sometimes the word is translated as “candlestick,” that is to say, an object with a small hole in the middle for holding a candle. It is an appropriate symbol for the church because the church exists to hold out the light of the Gospel. In first Timothy Chapter 3, the Apostle Paul refers to the church as “the pillar and ground of the truth.” (1 Timothy 3:14-15)
The church is about the truth: she preserves the truth, she defends the truth and she propagates the truth, she preaches the truth. The church exists to hold out this truth, to hold out the light of the Gospel. Richard Brooks, in his little commentary on Revelation writes, and I quote, “It’s not the church’s business to make truth or alter truth or improve truth, but rather to receive it, to stand firm upon it, to contend earnestly for it, to preach it.” End of quote. So the church is rightly called a lampstand and these churches in Asia Minor, seven of them, were all lampstands.
The lampstands you will notice are golden. They are the golden lampstands and they are golden to indicate that they are highly precious, highly valuable. They are precious because they are made of gold. There are a number of minerals which are categorized as being precious. They include gemstones like ruby, sapphire, emerald, diamond. Many of us will be familiar with gold.
They are all referred to as precious or immensely valuable because of the numerous striking physical and metaphysical attributes they contain; attributes such as colour, beautiful colour, shine. They have fewer, perhaps even no impurities. And then, they are rare. They are therefore highly prized. They cost an awful lot.
The churches in Asia Minor referred to, metaphorically, as golden lampstands are precious – that’s the point being made. They are precious to Christ. He is the one who refers to them as golden lampstands. They are precious to him.
The church was given to him by the Father in eternity. Then, before the world was created, before ever any of us saw the light of day, the Father said to the Son, “Ask of me and I will give you a heritage among the nations.” (Psalm 2:8)
And when you fast forward to John 6:37 and 39, the Father has, at that stage, given to the Son this heritage, this bride. She was given to him by the Father in eternity and he paid a dear price for her.
Many of you who have grown up in Western cultural setups, you probably will never appreciate this. If you are a man, I wonder how many of you paid a bride price? None, I would guess. But in African cultural setups, it is common to pay a bride price, sometimes a very huge bride price.
Well, the Lord Jesus Christ had to pay a dear price, a very dear price for his bride and it came in the form of his own blood. He shed blood for her. He bought her with his own blood and the Holy Spirit lives in her. And he lives in her to free her completely of remaining sin and to conform her completely to the image of Christ. He is working in her to change her, to transform her from one degree of glory to the next. You can then begin to see and understand how precious she is to him.
Now the combination of gold, the golden lampstand on the one hand, and the light of the Gospel on the other, would seem to suggest that the church must be of a high quality. The church must be pure in order to be an effective instrument in the hand of God. It’s not enough that we have the truth. It’s not enough that we preserve the truth and defend the truth. It’s not even enough that we preach the truth.
That truth must be preached, must be defended by a holy church, a church given to God, a church submissive to God, a fit instrument able to demonstrate in her own life the truth that she stands upon, and the truth that she preaches. She is cast in the mold of golden lampstands.
The Church Has A Lord Who Walks In Her Midst
Secondly, she has a Lord who walks in her midst. She has a Lord who walks in her midst. She doesn’t walk alone. The Lord walks with her and in the midst of the seven lampstands, we read in verse 13, “One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.” (Revelation 1:13)
This one walks among the churches, walks in her midst. She’s not alone. She might have felt that she was alone. She might have felt that the Lord had abandoned her and left her at the mercy of the cruel Romans. She might have felt that she would die on her own – hungry, powerless, unable to defend herself against the dragon and his helpers, the beasts. She might have felt that way.
She might have felt a little bit of what the Old Testament church felt. God had promised them a land flowing with milk and honey. He gave that promise to their fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but then here they are in Egypt and in slavery. And they were to be in that condition for many years and life wasn’t getting better. Is this the land flowing with milk and honey? Is slavery equal to the prosperity you promised our forefathers?
They cried. They complained. Indeed, it felt that the God of their fathers had abandoned them. But you know what happened. God saw their condition, God heard their cries and God came down to them. God sent Moses to them, to go and assure them that the I am that I am still cares for them. He is still committed to the covenant he made with their fathers and he will lift them out of that situation and indeed bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey.
And he would walk that path with them. He would be there with them even as they stand before the Red Sea, wondering whether they can ever cross over to the other side. He would be there with them in the wilderness, a place without food, a place without water, possibly a place full of enemies; enemy tribes, enemy nations. He would be there with them and he would eventually bring them to the land flowing with milk and honey.
Well, here is the church again in the wilderness of this world feeling somewhat abandoned, somewhat neglected, somewhat alone and he comes through John to remind them that indeed, they are not alone. He walks with them. He will walk with them. She has a Lord, a king who walks with them.
And there are two things mentioned about this Lord who walks in their midst: first, he holds the Seven Stars in his right hand. We read that here in verse 2 of chapter 2, “These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand…” (Revelation 2:1)
The stars are the angels, he tells us. And these are not heavenly angels. The word “angelos” which is translated as “angels” means “messengers.” And the messengers here are the pastors, the elders, the bishops. They are in his right hand because they are his ministers. They’re his under-shepherds. The Lord is the ruler over his church. He is the head over his church. He is the king over his church and he rules through these pastors, these shepherds.
It is therefore not their business to legislate what the church must be or what the church must do. It is their business to execute the law of the master, the law of the king, the law of the head of the church. Their function is ministerial. It is pastoral. They are in his right hand and there to serve him, to serve the church.
And then, he walks in their midst. He walks among the churches. He walks, “peripateo,” that’s the Greek word and I mention it deliberately here. It’s a little bit like how Socrates might have done his work as he taught. He wasn’t a Christian but he conversed with his students and as he did that, he walked around asking them questions, prompting them, trying to get them to think. And the Lord Jesus Christ walks around, he walks about.
This speaks of the fact that the Living Lord of the church is present in the church, interested in every member of the church, interested in her business, inspiring her business, imparting knowledge upon the church, moving them to think about that knowledge, to apply that knowledge to their lives.
He is there to feed her, he is there to watch over her, he is there to protect her, he is there to provide for her. He is there to do what he promised he would do way back in Matthew chapter 16. He will build his church. He will not leave his church at the mercy of the Roman Emperor and his helpers, his cruel helpers. He will protect his church, he will provide for his church, he will build his church. She has a Lord who walks in her midst.
The Church Is In Varied States Or Conditions
There is a third thing we must observe about the church: she is in varied states or conditions. She is in varied states or conditions. We find this readily demonstrated in the seven churches in Asia Minor and it is also true of all churches in all ages and in all places. Various churches of One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism – they are not in the same places. You don’t always experience the same conditions, but all of those experiences put together describe the experience of the church universally.
Now what I want to do in this sermon is to barely mention in a general way the varying states or conditions of the church as represented in these seven churches in Asia Minor, as it was known then, and then in succeeding sermons, I will zero in on these conditions. But let’s observe for now the general conditions are summarized here among the seven churches and we will use William Steel’s categorizations of these conditions.
First, we find the churches in grave danger, the churches in grave danger. And these included the church at Ephesus and the church at Laodicea. Ephesus had lost their first love. We’ll delve into that a little later today. they once loved the Lord passionately, energetically and it would appear that all they did was driven by this love – but not anymore. They have lost it.
Laodicea, on the other hand, had become lukewarm. They were neither hot nor cold. And the Lord Jesus Christ says to them, “I wish you one or the other of these things, but you’re neither cold nor hot.” (Revelations 3:15-16) You can’t be effective like that. You can’t achieve anything when you are middle of the road. You must be something. You must be identified by something. He found them nauseating. Both conditions open them to the danger of being removed from the scene of history. And indeed, if you went to Turkey today to look for the church at Ephesus or Laodicea, you will find that both don’t exist anymore.
Sometimes we feel comfortable in our churches. And we have the sense that, as a local church, we will always be there, we will always be here to mount a witness for the Lord. Now mind you, his Word will always be there, but you may not always be there. His Word will always be there but you may not always have the privilege of being the lampstand that holds that truth.
And that was the danger, the churches in grave danger. The Lord counted them precious but they did not return the favour. Somewhere along the line, they stopped counting their Lord precious. Does that describe you? Does that describe your church? Yes, you’re busy as usual, you’re achieving things as usual, but do you still love your Lord? Do you love him with the same passion and intensity as you did before or you’ve lost that? Now it’s not clear whether you are even committed to him.
And then we find the churches that were neither very good nor very bad. They included churches like Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis. Pergamum was a worldly church. Thyatira was a faithful but declining and deteriorating church. Sardis, on the other other hand, was a dying church.
And we have churches of this type today in our day and age. Worldly churches, churches that are driven by political agendas that are set by worldly, non-Christian leaders. Yes, we also find faithful churches, but that faithfulness appears to be declining, it appears to be deteriorating.
And dying churches. Have you been to churches that feel like they’re not just dying, but are dead? Not dead after the definition of the Charismatics, when they look at you Baptists and Presbyterians, pursuing your reformed traditions – they think you dead! Not referring to that, but churches that no longer display spirituality, true spirituality, the life of God, the Life of Christ whose vision of what Christ seeks to do in the church is waning. They have no joy, they have no passion, no drive – dying.
And then we find the churches that were in excellent condition, in excellent shape. They included Smyrna and Philadelphia. These churches get only commendations from Jesus, no criticisms. That’s incredible!
Smyrna was commended for their faithfulness, encouraged in their faithfulness. Their faithfulness, apparently, to the end. Philadelphia appears to have been the favoured church among the seven. Like Smyrna, they did not receive any condemnation from the Lord. They were faithful and even though they faced harsh opposition from what is referred to as the synagogue of Satan, they persevered, they pressed on, they endured. They were determined to fulfil their mission and their calling and they were determined to get to the end.
She is in varied states or conditions.
I wonder where your church fits in these descriptions? Is she in grave danger? Is she very bad or is she in excellent shape? Wonder where your church fits you. You’ll never find a perfect church, I know that, but imperfect churches can be good churches. Is yours one?
The Church Is Given Hope
Let’s hurry on to our fourth and final point: she is given hope in the form of warnings, encouragement and promises. She is given hope. I won’t unpack this now. Let me give us some examples. Ephesus, for example, was warned for her lost love. The Lord said to her, “I’m coming to you and will remove your lampstand.” (Revelation 2:5)
Smyrna, on the other hand, was encouraged. In chapter 2:10 he says, “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 will have tribulation in ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.” (Revelation 2:10)
Philadelphia is given a promise too, in chapter 3:12, “ He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.” (Revelation 3:12)
Now here is the point: the churches are in different conditions. Some are good, some are bad, some are very bad, but at this stage, the Lord doesn’t write any of these churches off, not yet. He hasn’t given up on any one of them.
Ephesus has lost her love. Laodicea is lukewarm. These are nauseating conditions but he doesn’t give up on them. The day may come when he will do that if they don’t repent, if they don’t return, if they don’t do the things they did at first, but for now he only warns them and encourages them. He even gives them promises if they should prove themselves faithful. He doesn’t write them off. He doesn’t make war on them with the sword. Not yet.
He hasn’t given up on you. You may feel that he has, because you are sick. And you may feel that he has, because it feels like he’s not answering your prayers. You may feel that he has because you are small, because you don’t have much money. You may feel that he has because a frowning providence hangs over your head, but he hasn’t. He hasn’t.
If things are not going so well because you are entertaining sin or tolerating the world or whatever it is you might be doing wrong; he calls you. He calls you, doesn’t he? “Remember the height from which you have fallen; repent and do the things you did at first.” (Revelation 2:5) And when you do repent, you will be forgiven. You will be blessed again.
There is hope. The Lord is slow to anger. Exodus 34:6 through to 7 tells us, “He is abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, and forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” (Exodus 34:6-7)
That’s your Lord. You can cast yourself upon him and he will hear you and he will forgive you and he will bless you.
Let me say a number of points as I come to a close, points of application.
What We Must Know About The Church
First, we must be conscious and we must believe in the fact that the church is precious in the Lord’s eyes. We may be imperfect, we may be weak, may be small, we may be going through difficult times and we may not be regarded by the world. The world may think we are backward, perhaps bigoted. That doesn’t matter. As a church, we are precious in the eyes of the Lord. We are the golden lampstand.
Secondly, we must be conscious of the Lord’s presence among the churches. If we are the true church of God, the Lord actually lives in us through his Spirit. He has made his dwelling among us and he lives in us. We must be conscious of that, we must know that. And sometimes, because of sin, consciousness of it might be weak, sometimes even absent, but we must believe what he tells us: he lives in us and he is among us. Where two or three are gathered in his name there he is in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:19-20)
Thirdly, we must be conscious of the fact that he knows our conditions, whether weak, lukewarm, strong. He does not overlook what we do, he does not ignore what we do not do. He knows. He sees. What in your estimation is the condition of your church? Are you weak or strong? Are you loving less or lukewarm? Are you faithful or dying? The Lord knows all about that.
Fourthly, we must be conscious of the fact that he is speaking a message to us: a message that corresponds with our character, a message that corresponds with our condition. If what you need is a warning, a warning you receive. If what you need is encouragement, the Lord will give you plenty of it. If what you need is an exhortation, the Lord will meet you at your point of need.
And finally, we must realize that ultimately, Christ is the answer to any problem, any need. And the prescriptions he makes are the “panacea” (remedy) for all the problems we face. Christ is the answer. To each one of these churches, Christ introduces himself in some way or other, depending on what they needed to know about him at that particular moment, depending on what they needed to experience in that particular situation. He reveals that he gives that to them. Christ is the answer.
And whatever condition we might be in, as we speak to our Lord, as we pray to our Lord, we must ask that he would come among us and reveal what we need to know about him for that time, for that moment, for that condition. And when we do it will be well. It will be well with those who fix their eyes on Jesus. Amen.
[Music] Song: Christ our Hope in Life and Death by Keith and Kristyn Getty
What is our hope in life and death?
Christ alone, Christ alone
What is our only confidence?
That our souls to him belong
Who holds our days within his hand?
What comes, apart from his command?
And what will keep us to the end?
The love of Christ, in which we stand
O sing hallelujah!
Our hope springs eternal
O sing hallelujah!
Now and ever we confess
Christ our hope in life and death
What truth can calm the troubled soul?
God is good, God is good
Where is his grace and goodness known?
In our great Redeemer’s blood
Who holds our faith when fears arise?
Who stands above the stormy trial?
Who sends the waves that bring us nigh?
Unto the shore, the rock of Christ
O sing hallelujah!
Our hope springs eternal
O sing hallelujah!
Now and ever we confess
Christ our hope in life and death
Unto the grave, what shall we sing?
“Christ, he lives! Christ, he lives!”
And what reward will heaven bring?
Everlasting life with him
There we will rise to meet the Lord
Then sin and death will be destroyed
And we will feast in endless joy
When Christ is ours forevermore
O sing hallelujah!
Our hope springs eternal
O sing hallelujah!
Now and ever we confess
Christ our hope in life and death (O sing!)
O sing hallelujah!
Our hope springs eternal
O sing hallelujah!
Now and ever we confess
Christ our hope in life and death
Oh, now and ever we confess
Christ our hope in life and death
Ronald Kalifungwa has been in pastoral ministry for thirty six years and is presently the pastor of the Lusaka Baptist Church in Lusaka, Zambia. ln addition to this, he teaches Christian Reasoning and Rhetoric at the African Christian University and is also presently serving as the acting Principal of the Lusaka Ministerial College. Ronald is married to Sarah and together they have five children (three biological and two fostered), a daughter in love(law) and 4 grandchildren.