Bethany Presbyterian Sept 24,2023
Matthew 5:10, Jeremiah 1:4-19,
Psalm 119:129-144, 2 Corinthians 4:8-12

Revelation: The Church of Smyrna - “Do Not Fear!”

We read earlier a portion of the first chapter of the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah was an Old Testament prophet who was in his teens when God called him to deliver God’s message to the people. Now this is what God says to Jeremiah - “Jeremiah, I want you to be my prophet. I am going to give you a very hard message to tell my people. You are going to have to tell them that they need to clean up their act and start living as my people or else destruction will happen to them. I know that this is not a pleasant thing to have to do. I realize that it is not easy to deliver a harsh message to people and I am afraid they are not going to take it well. You are going to be persecuted. You will be beaten and imprisoned and all manner of terrible things are going to happen to you. You will be alone most of your life and you will never have the opportunity to marry. But, Jeremiah, stand firm, Do not fear. I will be with you!” And what God said to Jeremiah was true. Jeremiah agreed to do this for God and Jeremiah suffered just as God said he would. Jeremiah was beaten and thrown in prison and persecuted in many different ways because he was willing to do what God asked him to regardless of the cost.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was martyred during WWII in Germany because he stood up against the state takeover of the church by Hitler wrote a book called “The Cost of Discipleship” that I truly believe should be mandatory for every Christian to read. In this book, Bonhoeffer states that if we as followers of Christ don’t experience some suffering in the name of Jesus, then we really aren’t following God as God has called us to follow. Bonhoeffer spent many years in prison in Germany for his stand for the church and was eventually hanged - all because he was willing to hold firm to his faith in Christ.
Pope Francis in a homily recently stated that there are as many Christians suffering for their faith today as there were in the days of the church during New Testament times. That is hard to believe but then he listed some examples. And while these are hard to hear, I think it is important for us to know what is happening around us in the world as we gather and worship without a worry at all that we are going to be arrested or killed because we are gathered here in the name of Jesus Christ.
These are some of the incidents that have taken place this summer in other parts of the world:

1. Chinese Pastor Shaojie Zhang was sentenced to 12 years in prison for ‘fraud’ and ‘gathering a crowd to disturb public order’ because he refused to stop holding worship in his home.
2. Also in China, 160 Christian churches have received notice that their church - many of which are in private homes - will be demolished.
3. Burma has declared all citizens must convert to Buhhism. Currently in order to remain Christian the churches have to pay bribes to public officials to remain open. Even with the bribe the Christians are currently suffering physical and emotional persecution.
4. It is estimated that in West Africa Boko Horan has murdered over 2000 Christians.
5. This month in Iraq 11 churches have been burned to the ground and Iraqi leaders have declared their intention to totally eradicate Christianity from the country.
6. There have been similar incidents in Kenya, India, Columbia and Sudan.

Bethany Presbyterian Church. September 17, 2023

Matthew 22:37-39, Deuteronomy 7:6-9, Revelation 2:1-5,7, Psalm 31:14-24
Revelation: The Church of Ephesus - “Learning to Love One Another”

The letter which is written to the church at Ephesus is one of seven contained in chapters 2 & 3 of the Book of Revelation. To correctly interpret and apply the message contained in the passage which refers to this Ephesian church, we must first pause to look at the first three chapters Revelation as a whole. In chapter 1 the entire Book of Revelation is introduced as the revelation of Jesus Christ. We have taken this to mean not only that it is a revelation revealed to John by Jesus, but that it is also a revelation about Jesus. From this first chapter, we learn that this whole letter, what we refer to as the book of Revelation, is written it its entirety to these seven churches mentioned in chapters 2 and 3. In chapters 2 & 3 we find specific messages conveyed to each of the seven churches named in chapter 1. The seven letters contained in these two chapters follow the same format. First, the church which is being addressed is named. This is followed by a description of some aspect of the character of Jesus which is directly tied to the vision of Christ in chapter 1. In each instance the characteristic mentioned seems to have a particular relevance to the church addressed. Next comes an evaluation of the church, usually beginning with a commendation for that which is praiseworthy and then moving to a rebuke for what is displeasing to God. Corrective action is then outlined and the letter closes with the challenge to consider what has been said. It has been pointed out that more than seven churches existed in Asia at the time Revelation was written. The number of seven is hardly a coincidence, but rather a clue to the arrangement of the book. There are not only 7 churches, but seven seals, seven trumpets, seven different images of people and angels, seven bowls, seven dooms, and finally seven new things. Seven, in Revelation, stands for completeness, meaning that even though seven churches are mentioned, what is said about them is complete - these letters to the seven churches represent all churches. Each of the seven churches has its unique strengths and unique weaknesses so that there is a distinct message given to each. However, the problems addressed in chapters 2 & 3 are those which have characterized the church throughout its history. The church world-wide of today would provide ample illustration of the same issues found in these seven churches of Revelation. Indeed, in any local church most, if not all, of the problems described here could be found among those in the congregation. By divine design, then, the Holy Spirit has not only spoken to the ancient church, but also to us as well. This is why the reader is urged to take seriously the Lord's words to the churches - to us: ’He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches’. In other words, Jesus is saying to us today, “Pay attention to my words in these letters because here you will find yourself.” It is appropriate that the church at Ephesus is addressed first. Ephesus was the largest city of the Roman province of Asia. By the time the gospel was preached here it had a population of more than a quarter of a million people. Located at the mouth of a major river and also on a gulf of the Aegean Sea, it was a flourishing commercial and export center for Asia. Ephesus was also the end for the great road from the Euphrates, as well as a cross roads for many of the major cities in Europe and Asia. It was truly a breath-taking city: The traveler from Rome landing at Ephesus would proceed up a magnificent avenue thirty-five feet wide and lined with columns which led from the harbor to the center of the city. It boasted a major stadium, marketplace, and theater. The latter was built overlooking the harbor, and seated some 25,000 people. Ephesus was also a prominent religious center: Temples were built to Roman leaders Claudius, Hadrian, and Severus whom the people worshipped as gods. The major religious attraction, however, was the Temple of Artemis (Diana in Latin), one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. About four times the size of the Parthenon, it was adorned by the work of many great artists. The dimensions of the temple as 425 feet long, 220 feet wide, and sixty feet high. There were 127 pillars of Parian marble, with thirty-six of them overlaid with gold and jewels. It was an amazing sight and a tourist destination for the few wealthy in the Roman Empire who could afford to travel. We know a good deal about the Ephesian church from the New Testament. Paul's first visit to Ephesus was very brief. Paul’s disciple Apollos was there as well and had an effective ministry. When Paul returned to Ephesus, he stayed for three months, teaching in the synagogue at Ephesus, followed by two years of teaching in the school of Tyrannus. The result was that many came to believe in the gospel. Most of the new converts wished to make a complete break with the magic of their pagan past and burned their books publicly, books which were worth 50,000 pieces of silver. A huge amount of money but an example of how important this new faith had become in the lives as so many. As a result, the gospel flourished in Ephesus. Jesus always begins his letter to each of these churches talking about the things the churches are doing right. Two things are commended in the Ephesian church, their persistence and their purity, their diligence and their doctrine. Jesus congratulates the Ephesians on the persistence of the church members in their personal commitment to obedience and ministry, even in the face of difficulty and opposition. Doctrinal purity was diligently preserved by the Ephesian church - in other words, the church was willing to stick by what was taught in the message of Jesus Christ instead of allowing themselves to be influenced by what was popular, or current. Because Ephesus was located on commercial sea and land routes, many Christian travelers passed through, some of whom were teachers who were teaching false information about living as the people of God. These travelers actively promoted their false doctrines. The warning of the apostle Paul had been taken very seriously by the Ephesian church. They had not allowed false doctrine to corrupt their congregation, even though some false apostles had attempted to do so. For this the Ephesian church was sincerely praised. But there was a very serious problem in the church,: 'But I have this against you, that you have left your first love’. When the church in Ephesians was first formed, the Apostle Paul had commended them on their love for one another. But even though the church was strong in their faith and their holding to the truth of the gospel, they lost their love of each another. The Ephesian Christians were caught completely off guard by this charge, for the simple reason that they had almost unconsciously forgotten the priority Jesus taught in loving our neighbor. In the passage Jesus says that because they have lost their call to love each other, their lampstand would be removed. What this refers to is the lampstand which illuminated the Holy Place in the temple. The lampstand then became a symbol of the illumination to the world of Jesus Christ through the church. Remember Jesus’ passage at the end of the Beatitudes which said to let our light shine - you don’t put your light under a basket, but you let it shine so that the world will see the love and grace of Jesus Christ. That is the primary job of the church and according to Jesus, one of the chief ways we show the love of Jesus, is to show the community around us that even though we are a collection of different people, because we share the love of Jesus, we can truly love one another as different as we are. This letter to the Ephesians says that if we lose that love of each other, we will lose our witness to the world and therefore the purpose God has given us. So what does that mean practically for us as a church - it means to love one another even when someone annoys us, or someone disagrees with us, or because we know something about a persons past, or maybe even their present, or because a person hurt us, or does something we disapprove of, or because a person is not part of our ‘circle’ of friends or part of our family. It means that we truly believe that everyone in this congregation is here because God placed them here and we are all one in the eyes of God - even if we don’t like someone or who they are or what they have done…… Remember Jesus’ words, in John 13 - “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” What Jesus is saying is that we can do all the good deeds we can and give loads of money to good causes and serve people in the community and live pious and obedient lives, but if we don’t love each other, if we don’t love everyone who is part of this church, then all that good stuff is worthless. What Jesus is saying is that the best witness we can have for the community is to show the people around us that we can love each other - different and imperfect as we are. “,How can you go to church with so and so, didn’t you know that….” and the response is, “Because we come together in the love of Jesus and because he loves everyone, we can to.” And those who are unloved in our community begin to think, “If Jesus can love so and so, then maybe he can love me as well. If that church can love and embrace so and so, then maybe they can love and accept me as well….” What a powerful witness we can be simply by being willing to allow the love of Jesus to teach us that we can not only love ourselves, we can love everyone here…. It is not that we can neglect sticking to proper doctrine and continuing in our mission regardless of what form it may take, but that we remember that of all the things we do, the greatest thing is to love.
Amen!

Bethany Presbyterian Church
September 10, 2023
Revelation and the Church

Last week we talked about the book of the Revelation of John. We are going to spend the next several weeks looking at the church and Jesus’ vision of what he wanted his church to be. So today, we are going to look at the church in general, and how these churches in Asia Minor to whom the letter of Revelation was written came to be.
There is no concept of ‘church’ in the way we think of church in the Old Testament. God gathered his people and they worked and traveled and worshipped all as one people. After God’s people made it to the promised land, God did send priests to live out among his people, but worship took place exclusively in the Temple in Jerusalem. Eventually there were synagogues in different locations among the people which became a center for the people to gather for study and activities, but worship was still only in the temple in Jerusalem.
When Jesus came and began to teach the people, he began to teach this concept of ‘church’ was not a place of worship, but Jesus’ taught ‘church’ was the idea of God’s people working together to do the work God had asked them to do - In Matthew 25 Jesus says: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, "I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’” Jesus was concerned the idea of ‘proper worship’ and worrying about conducting worship ‘in the right way’ had taken precedence over doing the work God had called the church to do. For Jesus corporate worship was important, but he also wanted to make sure the church worked together to bring about God’s love and grace to the community.
Pretty familiar are Jesus’ words to the Apostle Peter, also in the book of Matthew, ‘to you I will give the ‘keys to the kingdom’; ‘the kingdom’ being God’s people whom Jesus envisioned to be gathered together in ‘churches’ - not buildings but in groups who gathered together to study, break bread (which was their term for what we call communion) and to care for one another.
After Jesus’ ascension and the gospel message began to spread out from Jerusalem, people gathered together and they called the local congregations ‘church’ but there were no buildings, just groups of people who began to be called ‘Christians’. We have recorded several of the Apostles who left Jerusalem and began to travel various places, teach about Jesus and form those who became believers into groups. However the most prolific founder of churches was the Apostle Paul.
Paul was called by Jesus on the road to Damascus and given the responsibility of teaching Gentiles about Jesus. Paul was commissioned to do this work interestingly enough by the followers of Jesus in Antioch. The people in the church there decided the mission of their church would be to finance Paul’s mission to spread the gospel of Jesus to the people living in what we would call Greece and Turkey today - back then it was known as Asia Minor. So we have recorded in Acts the actual ‘sending’ of Paul to do this work God has called him to do.
But there was much resistance to this Gospel message both by the Romans and by the Jews.
Becoming a follower of Jesus in this territory called for Jesus’ followers to be very courageous and very brave. It would have been impossible to have a ‘church building’ because these followers had to work and worship in secret.
You’ve probably heard a lot about the persecution of these Christians and it is hard for us to even conceive of what it would have been like to make the decision to hear Paul teach the message of Jesus and then decide you are going to give you life to Jesus and become a ‘Christian’. And then you had to hide it………
Except being a ‘Christian’ meant you were to then change your life and do the things Jesus taught you should do - you were to gather together with other believers and you were to care for those in society who were in need - and those who made the decision to follow Jesus took this calling very seriously. They were constantly putting their lives on the line to do what they were called to do…….. To gather and to care for the poor and the widows and the orphans and the prisoners and all in need.
Much of the mission of Paul as he traveled was to stop by the congregations he had formed and take up an offering that he then took to those who were in need. We have recorded how those within the church would sell their possessions to raise money to help others who were in need.
So Paul would travel, he would form ‘churches’ - which were groups of people who gathered in various locations, usually homes, and would study (altho remember there were no Bibles for them to read so they would recall and discuss the stories Paul had taught them), would share in communion and would work to help others. But people are people and whenever they would encounter a problem, cause groups of people, even ‘Christian people’, encounter problems, would contact Paul and he would write a letter to them to help them work through their issues. Some of these letters we have as most of the New Testament - Corinthians was a letter to the church in Corinth, Ephesians was a littler to the church in Ephesus, and so forth,
Then John, the Apostle, was sent to the Island of Patmos and Jesus himself decided he, himself, needed to address seven of the churches in Asia Minor. So Jesus tells John to write down Jesus’ words as he addresses the issues that are going on in these specific churches in Asia Minor. These churches were founded by the Apostle Paul and we don’t really know exactly why these particular churches were targeted by Jesus although many biblical scholars think it is mainly because of their closeness geographically and it would be easy for this circular letter to be distributed between them - and also because these churches and their good and bad practices could easily represent any and all churches and the issues that pop up as congregations throughout history struggle to work and worship as God’s people.
You heard me mention the term ‘circular letter’. In our modern day of copiers and email distribution lists we forget that in ancient times they had none of these things. Paper was extremely expensive so letters who were meant for more than one person would be written once, and then ‘circulated’ between the different churches. So I would write a letter to Cleveland and Bethany and after Cleveland read it, they would send it to Bethany and so one.
Which reminds us that the book of revelation, where all the letters to these churches are written, would be sent in its entirety to all the churches - so not only did the churches read what they were doing right and doing wrong, but so would everyone else…. So this one copy of Revelation would be circulated from church to church as they each read it.
The biggest difference between our experience today and the experience of those in the seven churches of Revelation would be the society in which we live. These groups of Christians met in houses - although they had to be very discrete about it so that the members would not be arrested, tortured and killed. And as hard as they tried to keep themselves off the Roman and Jewish radar screen, people in the congregations were still discovered and taken by the Jewish leaders and by the Romans and tortured and killed.
What we need to think about as we freely worship and work together, is to think about how difficult it is for us to try and live up to Christ’s call to the church, and imagine how hard it was to live up to the Christ’s expectations and be persecuted at the same time as were these early churches.
This letter of Revelation is Jesus’ words to these people, who are trying to remain faithful during this time of persecution. Jesus encourages them by reminding them why they part of Christ’s church and about the ‘great reward’ if they can remain faithful in the midst of the severe persecution they experienced and admonishes them them to remember they are still to ‘be God’s people’ - to usher God’s kingdom into the world where people worship God in spirit and truth and where God’s people spread God’s love as they care for those who are in need.
As we hear Jesus’ words to these churches through John’s writings in Revelation, we are to think about ourselves - where do we see ourselves in this church? What are we doing right and where does Jesus see room for improvement in our work and worship?
We are the people of God; we are gathered into congregations put together by God - blessed and loved and charged to be the arms and legs and feet of Jesus in this community. Amen!

September 3, 2023
Daniel 7:13-14, John 19:25-26, Psalm 2, Revelation 1:1-3

What is Revelation?

Revelation is one of the books of the Bible that seems to fascinate most people. It is a bizarre book and to read at face value impossible to understand so for most of the Sundays during this fall we will be unraveling a bit of the mystery surrounding the book of Revelation. While this book seems to be overwhelmingly odd and mysterious and worthy of ignoring, if we get past the far out imagery Revelation is a actually a book of encouragement and instruction and worship. We will spend a couple of Sundays looking at the overall message of the book and then the rest of the fall we will look at the 7 churches this letter was originally sent to, to help them as they tried to live and work and worship as God intended for his church.
We can’t really understand the book of Revelation, which is actually a letter, until we talk a little about the Apostle John, - who wrote the letter. John is credited with writing 5 books of the New Testament. The Gospel of John, the letters 1, 2, and 3 John and the Book of the Revelation. He wrote so extensively about love in these books that Bible scholars call him the apostle of love.
John began life as a fisherman and after Jesus called His disciples away from their jobs and professions and into a new way of life, for 3 1/2 years John and the other 11 disciples lived their lives together. Jesus was teaching and training them to become apostles-the ones He would send after His resurrection to preach the Gospel of God's Kingdom to the world.
The Bible depicts the disciples as a close-knit group but John was especially close to Christ; in his own Gospel account he refers to himself repeatedly as "the disciple whom Jesus loved”.
Jesus gave John, along with James and Peter, special opportunities for involvement in certain activities and plans. The Gospel writers all mention John's presence in the accounts of Christ and His works. John was there when Jesus restored Peter's mother-in-law to health, He witnessed Jesus' raising of the daughter of Jairus; John saw the "transfiguration," that time on the mountain when Jesus met with Moses and Elijah and John witness the ‘glowing’ or the glory of Jesus; John helped Peter prepare the last Passover; with Peter and James, he was with Jesus in Gethsemane as He cried out the anguished prayer just before His crucifixion; John, along with Peter, followed the band of officials to the palace and, because of John's acquaintance with the high priest, gained admittance to the building where Jesus was being questioned after his arrest. John was also the apostle immediately at hand when Christ gave up His life at the crucifixion. During the crucifixion, Jesus appointed John to care for His mother, Mary. John took her to his own home where he cared for her.
John and the other Apostles remained some 12 years in the area of Jerusalem. The persecution of Christians under Herod Agrippa I led to the scattering of the Apostles through the Roman Empire's provinces. According to Church tradition, after Mary’s death, John went to Ephesus. From there he wrote the three epistles attributed to him. John was then banished by the Roman authorities to the Greek island of Patmos, where, he wrote the Book of Revelation. When John was aged, he was released from Patmos and returned to Ephesus where he died at an old age. John was known to be the youngest of all the apostles and believed to survived them all. It was during his stay on Patmos that John wrote Revelation. The content of this book

comes from a vision given to John from Jesus himself. According to the words of John, Jesus lifted John into heaven so he could see what it was like. Then Jesus gave John the message Jesus wanted to be sent to the churches put in the form of a letter. Revelation has forever been the portion of the Bible that has garnered the most controversy. Because of the strange imagery, strange and varied interpretations of the book have been proposed. Most of you are probably familiar with the interpretation that states that the book of Revelation is the prophecy of the end times - which in many way it actually is but not in the way you probably think. In the minds of many, this prophecy is one of fear and devastation and destruction. An account of how there will be a time when believers are raptured and lifted into heaven and then those who remain and then become believers must contend with the antichrist who will stamp all who are left behind with the number 666 on their forehead and life will be difficult and believers will be tortured and killed. Then Jesus will come back and kill the antichrist and restore his kingdom. However this scenario is never taught anywhere in scripture. Yes, if you cobble together some of the passages used in Revelation and use your imagination you could conceivable come up with such a picture, but that is not what Revelation is about and was not how the letter was interpreted until sometime in the late 1800s by one man who cherry picked some verses from here and there and came up with this idea of rapture and tribulation. Remember, Jesus tells John to write down what John sees in heaven so lot of the imagery like ‘streets of gold’ are simply John trying to explain something in human terms that really isn’t explainable - the true wonder of heaven. And the message Jesus gave him, John is to send to the 7 churches that exist during the time of John. The book is not a prophecy, but a book to be written to churches that were having problems during John’s lifetime. The problem with all the weird images that appear in the book have to do with our lack of knowledge of the times in which John lived. Most of the imagery refers to common folk tales and legends of the time of John - stories that back then everyone would be familiar with. Just like using current movie references or TV show references or even our fairy tales to illustrate parts of a sermon, in 1000 years if someone were to find one of my sermons with one of those stories about Star Wars or the TV show Cheers or references to things that won’t exist in the future they wouldn’t have any idea what I was talking about unless they knew 20th century pop culture. We don’t know these folk tales John was using to illustrate his message to the people of these churches and to the people throughout the Roman Empire who would receive this letter and read it. But the people in John’s time clearly would get what he was talking about. And John was trying to be a little discreet in much of his message, because if the letter was read by the wrong people, it could get the members of these small churches in even more trouble with the authorities. What John is trying to do with this letter is to encourage those people in the church who are being persecuted. All those strange images of violence in Revelation are images the people were encountering right then - it wasn’t meant to the something in the future - these followers of Christ were suffering, they were watching family members die, they were being tortured - all because of their faith in Jesus Christ. So John is trying to help them understand what wonder and glory will be theirs if they just stick it out; if they don’t abandon their faith. As we will talk about later, that is why in the midst of these violent scenes in Revelation, we have these beautiful pictures of heaven and of worship. Those great scenes where John talks about the glory of God and the no more tears and no more pain; where John talks about this glorious worship with everyone praising God with singing angels flying around. The believers life in John’s time is something we will never be able to relate to because we are not being thrown to lions and used as torches and impaled and left to die along the roadways for everyone to see…… So Jesus says, write these people a book that will help them get through this; will help them understand that the pain and suffering they are experiencing now will be far outweighed by the wonder of heaven and eternal life in the presence of God. Through the fall we will learn more about the book of Revelation - but mostly we will concentrate on learning about those 7 churches John is writing to. Because each one of them is having a unique issue they are having to deal with; each one of them is having a problem that we can relate to in the church today and we can hear Jesus’ words of encouragement, but also Jesus words of warning about what we need to work on and change as we try to worship and serve as the church Jesus knows we can be. And it is kind of amazing these first century churches are having some of the exact same problems we experience in the church today. As Solomon said: “There is nothing new under the sun” and we will certainly see that in the church issues 2000 years ago and today. Revelation is not as a book to be analyzed and pulled apart verse by verse to try and understand, but as a spiritual book to feed upon, and through it, to better understand the power of God and the place of Jesus Christ in his scheme of things. To understand that through whatever is happening in our life - God is there, God is in charge and that God is eternal.
Amen! prop