Slide 1

“Revelation is based on the idea that God’s sphere of being and operation (‘heaven’) and our sphere (‘earth’) are not after all separated by a great gulf. They meet and merge and meld into one another in all kinds of ways.”

-N.T. Wright

Slide 2

More than Revelation is about the FUTURE, it’s about what’s happening RIGHT NOW.

Slide 3 

“The Revelation of Jesus Christ.” Revelation 1:1

Slide 4

“Him who is and who was and who is to come…the faithful witness…the ruler of the kings of the earth…” Revelation 1:4-5

Slide 5

“Don’t be afraid…” Revelation 1:17

Slide 6

“I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.” Revelation 1:17-18

Slide 7

Revelation wants to shift the church’s focus from the THREAT of ROME to the PROMISE OF CHRIST.

Slide 8

“To 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.” Revelation 2:1

Slide 9

“I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people.” Leviticus 26:12

Slide 10

“I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people…” Revelation 2:2

Slide 11

I know (οἰδα [oida]) not “I know” γινωσκω [ginōskō]

Slide 12

– Your deeds

– Your hard work

– Your perseverance

Slide 13

– You don’t tolerate wicked people

– You have exposed false apostles (Acts 20:28-30)

– You hate the practice of the Nicolaitans

Slide 14

“You have forsaken the love you had at first.”

Slide 15

Thy first love (την ἀγαπην σου την πρωτην [tēn agapēn sou tēn prōtēn]).

“Thy love the first.”

Slide 16

“And because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” Matthew 24:12-13

Slide 17

“So now I ask, dear lady, not as if I were writing you a new command, but one we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. This is love that we walk according to his commands. This is the command as you have it from the beginning that you walk in love….Many deceivers have gone out into the world…” 2 John 5

Slide 18

“We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another” 1 John 3:14

Slide 19

“By this will all men know you are my disciples if you have love for one another.” John 13:35

Slide 20

We resist the world while keeping our hearts open to others

Slide 21

NO LOVE, NO CHURCH

Slide 22

“If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place” Revelation 2:5

Slide 23

“Whoever [let anyone] who has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious…”

Slide 24

Warning given to the corporate church; charge to hear is given to the individual Christian.

Slide 25

Individual Christians need strong churches; strong churches need strong individuals.

Slide 26

“To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life.” Revelation 2:7

Slide 27

Martin Rist:

“A man wins the Christian victory when hostile circumstances are unable to deflect him from his loyalty to Christ.”

Slide 28

“Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven.”

“Christians aren’t perfect; just persistent.”

Slide 29

“To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God…” Revelation 2:7

Slide 30

“No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:62

Slide 31

“It was majestic in beauty, with its spreading boughs, for its roots went down to abundant waters. The cedars in the garden of God could not rival it, nor could the junipers equal its boughs, nor could the plane trees compare with its branches— no tree in the garden of God could match its beauty. I made it beautiful with abundant branches, the envy of all the trees of Eden in the garden of God.” Ezekiel 31:7-9

Slide 32

“Which is in the paradise of God.”

Slide 33

Martin Rist:

“The Christian learns to be more anxious to be worthy of satisfaction than to possess satisfaction… As the ear must be trained for the heavenly music, so the palate must be trained for heavenly food.”

Slide 34

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us…” Hebrews 12:1

Slide 35

– How the World Grinds Us Down

– False Teaching

– Develop a Divided Heart

– Be Passive in your Faith

About three weeks ago, I went out to Tacoma, Washington to visit my dad. He was 95 battling two kinds of cancer. He was ready to go. He had said his goodbyes. I wanted to spend some time with him. I left early on Thursday morning, flew to Austin, Texas. I was speaking at a marriage conference there Friday night and Saturday after the conference Saturday a friend of mine’s a great pastor, just a loving guy. We talked for about an hour, said, well Gary, let me pray for you. Let me pray for your family. I’m gonna pray for your dad. So he’s praying for me. And then as he prayed for my dad about as clearly as I’ve ever heard God speak in my life, I heard these words. Gary, he’s already here. That phone call was broken up by another call from a family member who told me Gary dad passed in the past hour.

And at 95 he had lived a full life. He told us he was ready to go, but it was such a kindness of God in the midst of a busy weekend to give me that where as much as I missed him, I was overwhelmed by where he is. Corinthians tell us to be absent from the body, is to be present with the Lord and for the next day. And then I woke up that morning, I thought, this will be my dad’s first full day in paradise. What must it be like? And it was just an amazing encouragement to consider how he lives and exists and what he experiences even as I speak. So over the past three weeks, I’ve just become more and more aware of how we often think of heaven as up there. Something that we’ll get to someday and and earth with such a big separation.

But we’re starting a new series on the book of Revelation called Sincerely Jesus about the seven letters to the seven churches. And they will stress throughout that there isn’t this iron curtain between the two. That in fact heaven is very aware and involved in what is going on on Earth and we will live the best lives on earth when we realize that heaven is watching and near than we could imagine. And T Wright puts it this way. Revelation is based on the idea that God’s sphere of being in operation, what we call heaven and our sphere earth, are not after all separated by a great gulf. They meet and merge and meld into one another in all kinds of ways. More than revelation is about the future. This is so key for the next seven weeks. It’s about what’s happening right now. So let me set the scene.

Revelation was written in 95 Ad about that time, Jesus has come me amazing miracles, great teaching died on the crossroads and dead sent his spirit. A lot of people had seen him, but the church is still surprisingly small, just a few thousand scattered amongst a lot of little house churches. And they were being persecuted and they were being hounded. All of the original disciples, except for John, who wrote down these letters, had been killed. Not just died. They had been killed. This world had killed them. John was the only one left and he was on the island of Patmos exiled imprisonment. Now what does this do to an early church? Think about it. All of the leaders are gone. They’ve been killed. Lemme, lemme put it in modern terms. Let’s say for whatever reason the state of Colorado had had it with Cherry Hills Community Church.

So they, they killed Kurt and they kill me. They killed Bronson and Ramona and Roxanne and they said, well, we don’t like that worship they’re doing. So they kill Myron and Halle and they go after the elders and Jamie’s gone and Luke is gone and Andy’s gone and they got Laura and Diane and and, and now they’re done. And then you get a call on Tuesday evening, Hey, would you like to teach this Sunday in front of that? Or we’re really running outta elders. We need people to say, would you be willing to consider being an elder? And I could just imagine your spouse saying, God, please say no. Now after they would probably fire Mark Carville our head of security, just consider what was like for the early church. They feel overwhelmed with the opposition and persecution of Rome. That’s when Revelation is written.

It’s why Revelation was written. It lifts up a beleaguered church to say, regardless of the opposition and how terrible things seem right now, Jesus still reigns. He is the center of history. His kingdom not Rome, they talk about Babylon. It’s referring to Rome. His kingdom not Rome is the center of what matters. The book begins one one. This the revelation of Jesus Christ. Again, it’s not about the end times, it’s not about what will happen. It’s about the supremacy of Jesus over all time, past, present, and future. So it opens celebrating him. This is verses four through five. Who is and who was and who is to come. The faithful witness, the ruler of the kings of the earth. And it presents Jesus in such a glorified state. So powerful, so wonderful, so amazing that when Jesus shows himself to John, who remember had seen Jesus, he had lived with Jesus for three years, but now he sees Jesus in his glorified state.

And Jesus has to tell him in verse 17, Hey John, don’t be afraid, <laugh>, it’s still me, but it he, he wanted to show himself in that glory for the message that would follow. You see, John in the early church wouldn’t fear Caesar. They wouldn’t fear Rome if they would just compare that to the glory of Jesus. Jesus is there. Rome looks fierce. Rome looks evil and mean and powerful. But compared to Jesus, Rome is nothing. He reminds John, I am the first in the last verses 17 and 18 and the living one, I’m not dead. I’m not a memory, I was dead. But behold, I am alive forevermore and I have the keys of death and Haiti. So if you’re looking at a guy who always lived who will never die, and who in his hands has the keys to death and your eternal destiny, you don’t fear anyone else. No one else even matters. The book of Revelation was designed to shift the church’s focus from the threat of Rome to the promise of Christ. When I was growing up, there’s a very popular movie that was released called Crocodile Dundee. It’s a story of an Australian who comes to the United States and sort of a clash of cultures. And in one iconic scene there’s an episode where he tells the New Yorker who brought him over that he doesn’t have quite the same fears that she has. Watch this scene.

You got a light buddy? Yeah, sure kid. There you go. And your wallet Nick, give him your wallet. What for? He’s got a knife. <Laugh>. That’s not a knife, that’s a knife.

Jesus is to John and the early church sort of as the original Crocodile Dundee. You’ve got this threat you live in fear of. Here it is. It’s right in front of you. They have a knife. But he says this, this isn’t a knife, this this is a knife. And that’s what Jesus is holding up to John and the churches saying, you don’t need to fear what’s going on out there. Look at heaven right here present with you. That’s the context. And so we’re gonna get into the first letter that seven weeks. We’ll go through all seven letters. The first letter is to the Church of Ephesus, chapter two verses one through seven. It says this to the angel of the church in Ephesus, right? These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand. That refers to the churches, the seven stars, the seven churches, and walks among the seven golden lampstands.

The lampstands also represent the churches and it represents Jesus. This is so key walking among the lampstands. Why does that matter? And what does it mean? Why would it picture this powerful Jesus just walking among the lampstands? And why does he have to do it? Well go back 2000 years. Lampstands aren’t electric incandescent lights. They have to be tended. It’s a picture of Jesus making sure every lamp is filled with oil, never runs out. He’s trimming the wicks. He’s making sure the lamps keep burning. Jesus is saying, I haven’t left you to the mercy of Rome. I haven’t forgotten about you. I’m not hiding up in heaven. I’m walking among you. I’m making sure you have the oil. I’m making sure the wicks are trimmed. I am sustaining you. It’s a beautiful fulfillment of a prophecy from the book of Leviticus where God promises this.

I will walk among you and I’ll be your God and you shall be my people. We are not forsaken. Jesus emphasizes his activity. In the next several sentences, we says this, I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people. The choice of the word no is emphasizing the activity of Jesus. There are two choices that Jesus could have in using those words. He chooses Hoda, not ginosko. Some of you remember ginosko from the word gno, gnosticism, gnostics. That’s an I know, meaning I I’m gaining information. I’m trying to perceive what’s going on. I’m trying to figure out what’s happening. Hoda in the Greek is a complete understanding. It’s not just perceiving. It’s I got this. I know you back and forth. I know what’s going on. And so Jesus is saying all of this that’s going on, I am fully aware I’ve got this.

I know exactly what is happening. I understand it. The implications, your fears, your hopes, everything Jesus is saying, I’ve got it. And what does he know? He says, I know your deeds. I know your hard work and I know your perseverance. Now why does perseverance follow deeds and hard work? This is a universal truth. You can come to Christ. And at first it seems like it’s fun and it seems like it’s exciting. But this world will try to wear you down God’s good deeds. The work of God is always met with opposition by a hostile world that wants us to pull away from him. I, I have to warn the younger Christians, and I wanna remind the older Christians of this. We can’t expect to follow Christ and maintain the favor of the world. We, we can’t. Some pockets of history, you can do that for a little bit.

But in general, the world has an agenda that is opposed to God. And we’re gonna have to choose who do we fear and who do we follow? The world wants to weigh us down. And it might use family members, it could be your parents, it could be your adult children, it could be your job, it could be ridiculed by social, by social media, ridiculed by culture. You believe that. You really think that you’re still one of those people. You could be grinded down by your own battles with sin until eventually you just wanna give up. You’re tired of having to push back. I, I, I would never intentionally watch a zombie movie. Now I just don’t like that genre. When I was younger, you know, you’re with your friends and I would see one or two and it always went through my mind watching these zombie movies.

Why don’t the heroes just let themselves get bitten, right? Because then the zombies will leave them alone. Just become one of us. We’ll buy you. You’ll do what we do. You’ll sleep when we sleep. You’ll, you’ll follow what we do. You’ll attack the people that need to be attacked. Why do you keep pushing back? And it’s really a picture of the world saying, just become a zombie. Just believe what we believe, do what we do, attack those that we say you should attack and, and you’ll have peace. We won’t have a problem with you. And so it’s one thing to do hard work and it’s one thing to do good deeds, but we have to do perseverance because this world is kind of like filled with zombie people because those are the other things that Jesus commends them for that he knows. ’cause We know you don’t tolerate wicked people.

Now we’re all evil in the sense of we all have sin. We all struggle with sin. But here’s the difference. This isn’t referring to sinners who fall as they try to live up to the truth. Repent and then follow Jesus. This refers to sinners, refers to sinners who deny the truth. And they say that evil is good. Instead of opposing one of the world’s lies, they just say, okay, fine, I’ll agree with you. If you’ll just leave me alone, you’ll let me have my job, you’ll let me have my reputation. And, and they would be tolerating that wrong evil teaching. It says you have exposed the false apostles. Paul warned him of this in Acts 20, you hate the practice of the nickens. The lyan basically said, because we’re forgiven in Christ and we have freedom in Christ, what you do doesn’t matter. The moral commands, the teachings of the apostles on how we handle things and how we treat people and sexual morale, all those things.

You don’t have to worry about that ’cause we’re all okay in Christ. And Jesus says, it is appropriate. You don’t tolerate false teaching and you don’t accept the practices of those who are trying to lead others astri. In other words, you’ve done many things, right? But he has this against them. He says, you’ll forsaken the love you had at first. Now, I grew up in all the older translations tend to have your forsaken, your first love. That’s what I thought until I get in there. And I’d always think, well, it means I’m not worshiping Jesus as I’m serving him. I’m not having my affection for him. But that’s not what it means. And most modern translations signify this. Here’s what it says, literal in the group. We don’t usually get this intense, but just to explain what I think it really means. If you know the Greek letters, this is the word for agape and and this is protein first.

It’s literally saying, thy love the first you’re forsaking the love you used to have, the love you had at first. So, so what is that love that you’re forsaking? Is it the love of Jesus or is it the love of others? The answer is yes, it’s forsaking the love of Jesus. But this is where the emphasis lies the love of Jesus that leads us to love others. It’s not just worshiping Jesus, it’s worshiping Jesus by showing love to others. Jesus warned that this would happen. He speaks in Matthew 24 because of the increase of lawlessness. Again, the zombies are chasing you and you just get tired. He says some the love, some will grow cold, but the one who endures to the end will be saved. It’s an identical passage to what Jesus is saying in Revelation two. I mean, it’s the beauty and consistency of scripture that as Jesus speaks in the gospels.

So he speaks in the book of Revelation. And I think what’s happening here is that just always fighting the false and and the untrue is it releases adrenaline, right? You know how that feels. You got your hackles up, you’re ready to go. And it doesn’t really, it’s not conducive to worshiping spending time with God or spending time listening to others and loving for them and caring about them. It, it almost seems like two things that go against each other. And so this, this is sort of where we get to graduate school Christianity, because this is really hard to do. Standing against evil without hating people who espouse evil is really difficult to do. We’ve gotta reject false teachers. We must stand against evil. But we can’t start to hate people who teach evil and espouse evil. We are pro people. We’re pro love. We wanna call them in to experience Christ grace as we have.

And why I’m convinced this is what Paul, that what John is talking about is because this is what John talks about in all of his letters, in all of his writings. It’s very similar to what he said in two John five. He says, so now I ask dear lady that’s referring to the church, not as if I were writing you a new command. He goes, I’ve always said this one we have had from the beginning that we love one another. This is love that we walk according to his commands. This is the command as you have it from the beginning that you walk in love and then he adds. Many deceivers have gone out into the world. John warn the church, this is the truth. We hold on to truth do what is right and we love. But deceivers will come in and try to undercut one or the other.

He says in one John, another one of his epistles, we know that we have passed from death to life. Why? Because we love one another. And then in his gospel in John chapter 13, he has Jesus say the identical thing that he kind of says in revelation, we know that we have. By this all men will know you are my disciples. If if you have love for one another, this is the constant, consistent and persistent message of John that we show we love God when we love others. And what has happened in Ephesus, I think is they’re opposing the false has robbed them from loving what is true they become, they just become contradictory and contentious instead of remarking living in the world instead of living in love. So here’s the challenge to be a Christian today, as it was 2000 years ago, we have to resist the world while keeping our hearts open to those who live in the world.

We resist the world’s pressure to make us zombies, but we’re not destroying the zombies. We’re trying to evangelize and teach them. And that’s one of the best way to love those who are a sin is is sharing the truth of our faith. We don’t go along and say, no, that’s a lie. That will destroy you, that will hold you up. And, and and basically there are some that are saying that no, you don’t have to listen to what the Bible says. You can still call yourself a Christian and say, no, that’s wrong, that’s not true. So we speak the truth. That’s part of love. But then we’re demonstrating it with acts of love. If Jesus was writing to the Church of Cherry Hills community Church, I think things he could commend, he goes, look, I, I’ve seen your acts of love. Manna is a great example.

You guys gave so generously if you’re new, it is just amazing how generously people gave. So that what we do out here in the lobby, we can have a separate building feeding the hungry of, of Highlands Ranch once a week and then having an outpost where we try to call out and rescue women who are being sexually trafficked, then provide job training and and whatnot. It seems to me he would also commend that like every other week it seems like we’re commissioning somebody to go to war as Mexico or other places. They’re building houses, they’re doing children’s vacation, Bible schools and whatnot. But it goes beyond what just happens at this church. It means if you’re out watching your kids play soccer, you’re not just there to watch your kids. You’re there to be God’s eyes and voice. Lord, is there a family I need to reach out to?

Maybe they need some money, maybe they need somebody to listen. You’re at work. You’re not just earning a paycheck. You’re saying, Hey, can I pray for you? You’re there as an outpost. You care. You notice in a way that others don’t. You slow down to be available to bless others. And that’s what it means to love. The Bible talks about being devoted to good deeds. Every day we wake up saying, I’m so blessed by God, who can I bless accordingly? The message of the letter to the church of Ephesus is this, if there’s no love, there’s no church we can meet here on Sunday. We can speak the truth, we can sing songs to God. But if we are not demonstrating love, we’re not a church in Jesus’ mind. And we will cease to exist because that’s the exact warning given to the church of Ephesus.

If you do not repent, he says, I will come to you and remove your lamb. Stand from its place. You will cease to be one of the seven churches. Now, this would’ve been so astonishing in the first century because the church in Ephesus was the church. It was the modeled church. It was established by Paul. That’s about the highest pedigree you can get. He had sent Priscilla and Aquila to disciple him, say, taught by among the best. Timothy was there. Then after Paul died, Timothy went back. Timothy was ultimately martyred there. And after Timothy was martyred there, John the beloved. As apostle moves there with Mary, the mother of Jesus, I mean have talk about a Hall of fame leadership. It was amazing that no other church had this kind of leadership. But Jesus is saying, leadership alone isn’t enough to sustain you. You can still fall if the individual Christians don’t step up.

Look at this next verse. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the spirit says to the churches, to the one who is victorious. What’s going on there? The warning is given to the corporate church, but the charge to hear is given to the individual. Christian. God can set up a great church for you to be a part of, and you might miss what God wants to do in your life because individually you’re not living up to that charge. Here’s what that means. Individual Christians need strong churches. The zombies will get you if you don’t have brothers and sisters in Christ. If we’re not listening to teaching, that’s reminding us of the truth. They’re relentless. We need strong churches, but strong churches need strong individuals to keep going. And if we do that, if we overcome, the promise is more glorious than we can believe. The next verse to the one who is victorious, John writes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life.

Now, John loves to use the language of being victorious and overcoming. Paul always uses the language of faith. Now we have to look at all of scripture together where we’re saved by grace through faith. But Paul, John stresses the need that we overcome the opposition of the world. It’s his favorite language. Why? John is an old man. He says this world, it doesn’t give up if it’s one thing, it’s another thing. If it’s this false teacher, it’s that false teacher. And then we have sin crop up and then this happens, or then they kill one of our leaders. He says, it just is relentless. So we must overcome. There is a constant battle between the world and the church. He says, and this, this will, it’ll wear you down. And then there’s a constant battle of our own sin. He says in his epistle, if we say without sin, we’re liars.

So the Christian life is about learning how to overcome in the constant battle between the world and us, and us and us commentator. Martin risk puts it this way, victorious means a man wins the Christian victory when hostile circumstances are unable to deflect him from his loyalty to Christ. Overcoming means the world throws everything it has against you and you say, no, I’m gonna be faithful. I’m gonna hold to the truth. I’m gonna cross that finish line. I want to eat from the tree of life. We saw a physical picture of that earlier this year during the college football season, when the second best team in the nation, appropriately named after our Lord’s mother, had a running back named Jeremiah love appropriately named for our sermon. The way that love moves forward. My guess is he’ll be a Heisman trophy candidate next year playing for Notre Dame against Penn State.

And it was incredible the determination of this young man that he would cross the finish line. Watch this. Penn State throws everything they have against him. Mrs. That tackle that second. That’s the third guy that tries to go after him. You’ve got a fourth hit, then a fifth coming from the side, a sixth, one in front, a seven one trying to pull him back. And he says, no, I think I’m gonna score anyway. And it’s a picture of the Christian life. They’ll come at you from the front, they’ll hit you from the side. You’ve got somebody trying to pull it, just stop. And the Christian one says, no, I will go forward. I will hold onto the truth. I will demonstrate love. When I grew up, there was this famous bumper sticker. A lot of cars had bumper stickers back in the day. And it always said, this Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven.

And even as a young boy, I thought, that’s not quite right. I mean, are we gonna say that there’s no difference between a Christian and a non-Christian and how we act, how we drive, how we treat people? I, I don’t think that’s entirely fair. A better picture might be this, Christians aren’t perfect, they’re just persistent. We will fall. We’ll mess up at times. Our sin seems to get the best of us, but we keep getting up. We keep moving toward the finish line. We are the Jeremiah love saying, you can hit me and try to pull me back, but I am going to score in two ways. I’m not gonna leave the truth. I’m gonna hold to the teachings of scripture believing they are beautiful and they’re true and the best way to live. And I will never stop loving even those who hate me, even those who per persecute me.

I want to be known by love. In every one of these seven letters, you’re gonna see the next several weeks overcoming the world’s opposition is the condition to enter life. Again, we have to write, read that in context with Paul saying, we’re saved by grace through faith. But John emphasizes it is not an option to overcome. We must overcome if we want to enter life. And it’s amazing the promise. He says, if you’re victorious, I’m gonna give you the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. Now, the tree of life is a pretty important symbol that he’s using here. The tree was used to represent Artemis. She was the goddess, the most popular goddess in Ephesus. And Ephesians was sort of the center of the worship of Artemis. And so it had a tree. You would see a tree in the first century and you would think of Artemis.

And Jesus is saying, this is the tree of Artemis. I’m talking to you about the tree of life. And it’s so much better. It doesn’t even compare. Here’s a prophetic rendering of the Tree of life from the book of Ezekiel. It was majestic in beauty with its spreading bowels for its roots went down to abundant waters. The cedars in the garden of God could not rival it, nor could the junipers equal its bows. Nor could the plane trees compare with its branches. No tree in the garden of God could match its beauty. I made it beautiful. This is God talking with abundant branches, the envy of all the trees of Eden in the garden of God. It’s Jesus saying to the church, this is what Rome promises. This is the tree of Artemis, but this is the tree of life. What tree will you live for?

And it’s not just a tree of life, it’s in the paradise of God. The word paradise appears just three times in the New Testament. The first occurrence is when Jesus is on the cross and he says to one of the thieves, today, you’ll be with me in paradise. The second time is when Paul writes to the Corinthians that he’s caught up to the third heavens paradise. And look at Paul. He’s a great example of this passage. Why would a man like Paul be so hungry and cold and have no possessions and let himself be persecuted? Three times he got the 40 slashes minus one. But he was persistent. He never gave up. He kept pressing forward. They couldn’t dissuade him from loving others and speaking the truth why he had been to paradise. And if you have seen what I’ve seen, seen, I know how it ends.

It is so glorious. I don’t want one of you to miss it. I don’t wanna miss it. I I don’t care what this world offers. I am ruined to the tree of Artemis. I’m ruined to anything that Rome could offer me. And that’s really what’s going on here. We, we say to Rome or Babylon or Denver, I, I don’t care about your fame. I don’t care about your acclaim. I don’t want your luxuries. I don’t want your pleasures. I don’t want your protection. I am living for the tree of life in the paradise of God. And so I am ruined to everything this world could tempt me with or threaten me with. This is ultimately the victory of Jesus. Remember Adam and Eve were cast out of the paradise, the the garden of Eden. Jesus is saying, I’ll bring you back, but it’s even better. Adam and Eve were never allowed to eat from the tree of life. And Jesus says, you’ll overcome and you’ll be in the paradise of God and you’ll get to eat from the tree of life. You have eternity ahead of you. This isn’t a short season like the persecution is. This is an eternity of the paradise eating of the tree of life. It is such an incredible promise that he offers us.

The night before, I heard the words from God about my dad, that he’s already here. I I had a dream. I don’t get a lot of ’em. And I don’t believe in interpreting dreams. If God’s speaking to me through a dream, it’s just like I know what it is When I wake up. And I told Lisa about this, we didn’t know my dad would die that day, but I said, Lisa, this seems kind of funny, but I just got this sense that God was telling me, Gary, your dad, he he’s about able to cheer for you and root you on and support you like he never has before. I was, it’s amazing. I mean, he can barely talk now. He, he’s so weak. And he was an amazing man in the memorial service on Friday. I mean, people were just crying, remembering, and so grateful for him.

But he’s from that generation. If you’re my age, you know your parents, they weren’t, they weren’t super encouragers. They weren’t saying that. And I don’t think he ever really got the world I live in what it is on focus on family. The other things I’ve done, I don’t think he really understood. But then after God told me, he’s already here, and I realized he joined an incredible throng. He sees paradise. He sees what matters. And I was reminded of the glorious passage. Hebrews 12, one. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. Let’s run with perseverance. The race that is marked D for us. Let’s be spiritual. Jeremiah loves, he’s gonna see you. He’s gonna get, that’s why he does this. This is what he lives for.

And it’s true. The paradise is so amazing. He says, I don’t want any of my children. I don’t want any of my grandchildren or great-grandchildren to miss it. And that’s my appeal to you today. It’s Jesus’s appeal to you through the Church of Ephesus. If you could see the paradise of God, you would overcome, you would trust in Jesus, you would want to win. Now there’s the warning inherent in it, but the glorious promise, basically Jesus is saying to the church of Ephesus, it may feel, it may look, it may appear that the entire world is against you trying to make you a zombie. But all of heaven stands with you. This not a knife. This is a knife. You have nothing to fear. And you have everything to gain the tree of life in the paradise of God. And you won’t live a single moment without Jesus actively there.

Remember, he’s walking among the lampstands. He’s making sure you don’t run out of oil. He’s trimming the wicks. He will not leave you alone. He knows your good deeds. I don’t know your good deeds. Nobody else may see your good deeds. We don’t know what you do at church or in your neighborhood or at work or at kids’ games. But Jesus, I know that I, I know I know what you’re doing. So don’t let the world grind you down. How will the world try to grind you down three ways. False teaching. I’ve never seen a period of the church where false teaching arises within the church. Instead of confronting what scripture says directly, they say, well, you can be a Christian and not agree with that. We, we look at it differently now. The churches believe this for 2000 years, but we think you can do both. And then to develop a divided heart trying to please the world and God at the same time, it doesn’t work. Like when I moved here three years ago from Texas and I went to the DMV Colorado to, to get a new driver’s license. After they went through all the paperwork, she looks at me very professionally and says, do you renounce your Texas citizenship?

Is that necessary? I I, I have no problem with Texas. You cannot have this license if you don’t renounce it. I renounce my citizenship and it’s kind of silly. And she stamps it with a big hole.

If Colorado says, I have to choose one or the other, can Jesus not make the same claim? Are you gonna follow the tree of Artemis? Are you gonna follow Babylon? Are you gonna pursue the tree of life in the paradise of God? And then the third way, maybe you do hold the true teaching. Maybe you do keep your heart for God, but the world just grinds you down so that you’re silent. You don’t share the truth, you don’t demonstrate love. You’re just gonna live in your little circle and you’re falling right into what Ephesus did, you reject false teaching. You try to keep your heart right, but you’re not loving. You’re not sharing. You’re not demonstrating the love of God. Jesus says, look, overcome this and here’s the promise you will eat of the tree of life in the paradise of God as my dad is, even as I speak. And as if you could see as he sees you would give up everything this world offers for that same experience. Let’s pray. Jesus, thank you that you know, that you see that you’re tending to us and that you give us your word to guide us.

Give us perseverance. Lord, give us that commitment and that vision of what you’re calling us to, that we don’t want to miss out. Pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.