RSS

Tag Archives: Apostle John

Revelation 2

03 Aug

The Message to the Church in Ephesus

2 “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Ephesus. This is the message from the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven gold lampstands:

2 “I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. 3 You have patiently suffered for me without quitting.

4 “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! 5 Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches. 6 But this is in your favor: You hate the evil deeds of the Nicolaitans, just as I do.

7 “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give fruit from the tree of life in the paradise of God.

The Message to the Church in Smyrna

8 “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Smyrna. This is the message from the one who is the First and the Last, who was dead but is now alive:

9 “I know about your suffering and your poverty—but you are rich! I know the blasphemy of those opposing you. They say they are Jews, but they are not, because their synagogue belongs to Satan. 10 Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer. The devil will throw some of you into prison to test you. You will suffer for ten days. But if you remain faithful even when facing death, I will give you the crown of life.

11 “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. Whoever is victorious will not be harmed by the second death.

The Message to the Church in Pergamum

12 “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Pergamum. This is the message from the one with the sharp two-edged sword:

13 “I know that you live in the city where Satan has his throne, yet you have remained loyal to me. You refused to deny me even when Antipas, my faithful witness, was martyred among you there in Satan’s city.

14 “But I have a few complaints against you. You tolerate some among you whose teaching is like that of Balaam, who showed Balak how to trip up the people of Israel. He taught them to sin by eating food offered to idols and by committing sexual sin. 15 In a similar way, you have some Nicolaitans among you who follow the same teaching. 16 Repent of your sin, or I will come to you suddenly and fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

17 “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give some of the manna that has been hidden away in heaven. And I will give to each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one understands except the one who receives it.

The Message to the Church in Thyatira

18 “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Thyatira. This is the message from the Son of God, whose eyes are like flames of fire, whose feet are like polished bronze:

19 “I know all the things you do. I have seen your love, your faith, your service, and your patient endurance. And I can see your constant improvement in all these things.

20 “But I have this complaint against you. You are permitting that woman—that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet—to lead my servants astray. She teaches them to commit sexual sin and to eat food offered to idols. 21 I gave her time to repent, but she does not want to turn away from her immorality.

22 “Therefore, I will throw her on a bed of suffering, and those who commit adultery with her will suffer greatly unless they repent and turn away from her evil deeds. 23 I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am the one who searches out the thoughts and intentions of every person. And I will give to each of you whatever you deserve.

24 “But I also have a message for the rest of you in Thyatira who have not followed this false teaching (‘deeper truths,’ as they call them—depths of Satan, actually). I will ask nothing more of you 25 except that you hold tightly to what you have until I come. 26 To all who are victorious, who obey me to the very end,

To them I will give authority over all the nations.
27 They will rule the nations with an iron rod
    and smash them like clay pots.

28 They will have the same authority I received from my Father, and I will also give them the morning star!

29 “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.

Revelation 2

Dear God, I’ll be teaching a Sunday school lesson at a local church this morning on these letters. Frankly, studying them closely has been a good reminder to me that you don’t just look the other way at our sin. You bring us to yourself. You call us to yourself. You offer forgiveness. But then you still command us to go and sin no more. You tell us, “You have heard it said…, but I say…,” raising the bar to a level that is uncomfortable for even the most self-righteous person. So this morning we will talk about not loving you enough, not loving others enough, and making compromises with sin. We will talk about how doing all of the right things and even being faithful in the midst of persecution is a problem if our hearts are still not discerning and allowing you to examine us for sin we’ve allowed to infiltrate our lives. Sin I’ve allowed to infiltrate my life.

So here is my lesson for this morning that you and I worked on yesterday (at least I hope you were part of it–I think you were):

The Set-Up

  • John was on Patmos in exile for preaching about Jesus.
  • Jesus appears to him and identifies himself.
  • Jesus tells him to write everything he sees down and send it to the 7 churches in Asia

The Church at Ephesus

About the city itself:

  • Important trade city.
  • Beautiful city with many temples
    • Temple to Artemis, one of seven wonders of ancient world
      • Artemis was goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, transitions, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity
    • Also had amphitheater that held 45,000
  • Visited by Paul, Timoth, Priscilla, Aquila, and Apollos.
    • Some traditions say Apostle John lived there in old age.

How does Jesus describe the Ephesians:

  • The Good
    • Hard working
      • What kind of work is Jesus referring to?
    • Patient endurance
      • What were they patiently enduring?
    • Rejection of evil people
      • What would an evil person look like for them to reject?
      • What would rejection look like?
    • Discerning who is a false apostle and rejecting
      • How do you identify a false apostle (Christian)?
    • Patiently suffering for Jesus
      • What do you think their suffering looked like?
  • The Bad
    • Don’t love (agape) God/Jesus/Holy Spirit like they used to?
      • Agape, Eros, Phileo, & Storge
        • Agape (ἀγάπη): This refers to unconditional, selfless love, often associated with divine love or charity. 
        • ·         Eros (ἔρως): This describes passionate, romantic love, often involving physical attraction and desire. 
        • ·         Philia (φιλία): This denotes the love between friends, characterized by affection, loyalty, and shared experiences. 
        • Storge (στοργή): This refers to the love between family members, particularly between parents and children, highlighting natural affection and bond. 
      • What does agape love for God look like in this case?
    • Don’t love (agape) each other like they used to?
      • What does agape love for each other mean or look like in this case?

How do you think “The Bad” happened?

  • How does one or a collective group lose their agape love for God and others?
  • What does it look like when a person or group of people look like the church in Ephesus?
    • Quoting Earl Palmer: In this way the love of God had become for the Ephesians a theoretical starting fact, one of the sentences on the menu, but not the very daily bread by which they were even alive in the first place and through which they would continue to stay alive. This was a spiritual illness that haunted Ephesus, and until this letter arrived, it was an illness of which they were probably unaware.
  • Selfishness creeps in: It seems like when selfishness creeps in we just don’t have the capacity to love God and love those around us like we should, or even at all. We start getting concerned about our rights. Then we eventually start to fight for ourselves instead of for others. We stop sacrificing for others and start to expect others to sacrifice for us.
  • What other areas of our lives does this pattern of losing our agape for others play out?
    • How do we keep that from happening?

Hope for repentance:

  • Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give fruit from the tree of life in the paradise of God.
    • “Victorious” is repentance.

The Church at Smyrna

About the city itself:

  • Wealthy city 40 miles north of Ephesus
  • Temples to different Greek and Roman gods, including Zeus and the “goddess of Rome.”

How does Jesus describe the church in Smyrna:

  • The Good
    • They faithfully suffer through persecution and poverty
      • Their poverty might be, at least partially, due to persecution
      • Poverty can be especially difficult in a wealthy environment
      • They might be persecuted because of denouncing worship of other gods or the emperor in Rome
  • The Bad
    • None

Jesus’s encouragement to them

  • Not much material hope for this present world
    • No promises of wealth
    • No promises of physically surviving
  • Promise of not being harmed by the “second death.”
    • Acknowledges the existence of Satan (verse 9) and/or the devil (verse 10)
    • Satan/devil does not have ultimate power.

Hope for repentance:

  • Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. Whoever is victorious will not be harmed by the second death.
  • Earl Palmer: As a Christian I am able to face up to tragedy as tragedy and not artificially to assume the stnce that it has somehow not really happened. It means that there are bad experiences and events that happen to us and because of us. These events are negative and harmful. They are like jagged rocks that scar the landscape of our life’s journey. But the discovery we make in the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that they very landscape uon which the angry outcroppings stand is surrounded by a larger grace and will so that life can go on. The field will grow see and bear healthy crops because the power of God’s gift of life is greater than the deadening effects of either human sin or cosmic evil. This is the reason we do not lose hope; this is also the reason we are enabled to call a jagged rock a jagged rock. “I will give you the crown of life (verse 10).”

Rebuking the cultism of fear:

  • We do not need the world’s power to stand up to dangers of this age.
  • Jesus gave us four tools and four tools only to impact the world around us:
    • Prayer, service, persuasion, and suffering.

The Church at Pergamum (Pergamos)

About the city itself:

  • 45 miles north of Smyrna
  • Was the Roman capital for the area (133 B.C.) (throne of Satan acknowledges its role as capital for the region)
  • Center of emperor worship in the Roman world.
  • Many impressive temples to Asklepios, Zeus, Athena, Nikephoids, Dionysus, and others.

How does Jesus describe the church at Pergamum:

  • The Good
    • Faithful in the face of persecution
      • Antipas martyred
    • Do not deny being followers of Jesus
  • The Bad
    • Eat food sacrificed to idols
      • 1 Corinthians 8:4-13
    • Sexual immorality
      • What do we make of the “sexual immorality” Jesus refers to here?

How do you think “The Bad” happened?

  • Allowed outside influence.
  • Gave into the temptation of something they already wanted.

Hope for repentance:

  • Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give some of the manna that has been hidden away in heaven. And I will give to each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one understands except the one who receives it.
    • How do we examine our own hearts and discern what sins we have allowed into our lives?
    • The manna is the good food we need as opposed to the junk food we have selfishly pursued
    • Earl Palmer: The white stone was a symbol in the Roman world used in legal trials, academic grading systems, and at athletic games…The point is dramatically symbolized for the Christians at Pergamum. Their drift into sinfulness does not need to be the last word for either themselves or for others. In spite of the harm that has happened, there can be healing—a new identity to fulfill the identity distorted by sin; healthy food from God who knows of the human need to be fed and healed, and made whole.

The Church at Thyatira

About the city itself:

  • 30 miles inland (east) of Pergamum.
  • Outpost to protect the trade road between Pergamum and Sardis.
  • More trade guilds than any other Asian city (Sir William Ramsey).
    • In the biblical context, a trade guild was a group of individuals practicing the same craft or profession, organized for mutual protection, social, and religious benefits. These guilds were less like modern labor unions and more like fraternal orders, focused on regulating trade, ensuring quality, and providing social support for their members. 
    • Big temptation to give into religious views of trade guild in order to be able to commercially participate and survive.

How does Jesus describe the church at Thyatira

  • The Good
    • Love
    • Faith
    • Service
    • Patient endurance
  • The Bad
    • Focused around one person and her influence: Jezebel
      • She is leading the people in the same type of sins described for Pergamum
        • Sexual sin
        • Eating food offered to idols.

How do you think “The Bad” happened?

  • Why did some follow Jezebel
    • Gave into the temptation of something they already wanted.
  • Who are people who have the opportunity to be Jezebels in our lives?

Explicit promises for both good and bad groups

  • Jezebel and her followers
    • Great suffering for Jezebel and those who follow her
    • Jezebel’s children will die
    • Each will get what they deserve
  • Those who repent and/or remain faithful and do not follow Jezebel
    • No further suffering will happen beyond what they have already endured.
    • They will get authority over all the nations

This one closes differently than the first three letters.

  • Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.

Father, I want this to be a time of real self-examination and repentance. I’ll do the other three letters next week, and then we will see how to tie it all together. For right now, however, I just want us to sit with these four churches and the Holy Spirit and ask that our hearts be examined. Convict us where we need to be convicted. Comfort us where we need to be comforted. Teach us through your Holy Spirit and through each other.

I offer this prayer to you in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on August 3, 2025 in Revelation

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

3 John

16 Nov

1 The elder,

To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth.

2 Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. 3 It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

5 Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers and sisters, even though they are strangers to you. 6 They have told the church about your love. Please send them on their way in a manner that honors God. 7 It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. 8 We ought therefore to show hospitality to such people so that we may work together for the truth.

9 I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not welcome us. 10 So when I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us. Not satisfied with that, he even refuses to welcome other believers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.

11 Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God. 12 Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone—and even by the truth itself. We also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true.

13 I have much to write you, but I do not want to do so with pen and ink. 14 I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.

15 Peace to you. The friends here send their greetings. Greet the friends there by name.

3 John

Dear God, yesterday was the whole book of 2 John, and since today’s New Testament reading for the Catholic church was 3 John I figured I might as well do the whole book here. I’ll confess, though, that after seeing this letter was addressed to an individual, as 2 John seemingly was, I went back to see if 1 John was too. It was not. So there’s that.

When I was reading this book this morning, I found myself being delighted for Gaius. I was happy for him to be receiving such a complimentary letter from the Apostle John. People were talking about him behind his back, and it was good. The word had reached John that Gaius was faithful to the truth and walking in it. He is loving strangers. Simply put, he’s a good guy doing things the right way under the authority of Jesus and his teachings.

Next, John warns Gaius to not emulate Diotrephes. He has some terrible things to say about Diotrephes, and he points out to Gaius that they should not be emulated and that John intends to publicly address them when he arrives there. I don’t know what Diotrephes problem is, but this admonition reminds me of two things.

  1. The warning you gave to Samuel in 1 Samuel 3:11-14 about Eli and his sons. Of all the things you could have said to young Samuel in that moment (e.g., I am calling you to be the next judge of Israel, you will do great things in my name, etc.), you focused on the sin of Eli and his sons and basically warned him not to follow them by indicating that they would be severely punished for them. If Gaius was having any doubts about how he was behaving vs. Diotrephes, John put those questions to bed quickly.
  2. A conversation I had with a friend yesterday who is trying to help a certain people group through the nonprofit where he works. A fellow worker in the ministry got upset about this targeted help and physically left the meeting they were in and resigned from the ministry. My friend was befuddled. How could he not see that this is what Jesus would do? How could he not see that their call as Christians is to love them?

Father, I have all kinds of decisions to make in every moment. Oh, how I would love to be Gaius, the kind of person John would write this letter to. And, oh, how I would hate to be Diotrephes, the kind of person John would have to publicly reprimand. But the line between them is not as far apart as I might like to think. At any given time I can get sucked into disparaging others, judging others, and even hating others. My love can be limited and lacking. Not that I shouldn’t publicly challenge someone as John was willing to do if someone is obviously doing something wrong, but I need to be careful about how I do it and that I don’t just privately complain and moan while not doing anything constructive with my criticism. And I need to also have enough self-awareness through the refining of your Holy Spirit to see when I’ve crossed the line and drifted away from the man you need me to be. When I sin. So I am sorry for the sin in my life. I’m sorry for my unconstructive anger. I’m sorry when I am simply foolish and even slothful. I bring myself to you. I worship you. I thank you for everything in my life.

I pray all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on November 16, 2024 in 3 John

 

Tags: , , ,

2 John

15 Nov

1 This letter is from John, the elder.

I am writing to the chosen lady and to her children, whom I love in the truth—as does everyone else who knows the truth— 2 because the truth lives in us and will be with us forever.

3 Grace, mercy, and peace, which come from God the Father and from Jesus Christ—the Son of the Father—will continue to be with us who live in truth and love.

4 How happy I was to meet some of your children and find them living according to the truth, just as the Father commanded.

5 I am writing to remind you, dear friends, that we should love one another. This is not a new commandment, but one we have had from the beginning. 6 Love means doing what God has commanded us, and he has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning.

7 I say this because many deceivers have gone out into the world. They deny that Jesus Christ came in a real body. Such a person is a deceiver and an antichrist. 8 Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked so hard to achieve. Be diligent so that you receive your full reward. 9 Anyone who wanders away from this teaching has no relationship with God. But anyone who remains in the teaching of Christ has a relationship with both the Father and the Son.

10 If anyone comes to your meeting and does not teach the truth about Christ, don’t invite that person into your home or give any kind of encouragement. 11 Anyone who encourages such people becomes a partner in their evil work.

12 I have much more to say to you, but I don’t want to do it with paper and ink. For I hope to visit you soon and talk with you face to face. Then our joy will be complete.

13 Greetings from the children of your sister, chosen by God.

2 John

Dear God, I had forgotten that this letter was addressed to an individual. I mean, it’s not without precedent that we have letters in the New Testament that were addressed to individuals (see Timothy and Titus). But somehow this seems a little more personal because it is to a woman and her children. Of course, I know the “lady” referenced here could be the church as a whole. I even looked at a couple of commentaries for clarification and they said it could be either. So, I’m just going to roll with the idea that this was written to an individual with her children because the personal nature of that interaction with the Apostle John appeals to me.

Heresy is such a scary thing because it can be so attractive to believe. I guess people wouldn’t teach it or believe it if it wasn’t attractive on some level. And one of my fears as I share you with others is that I will teach heresy. Of course, who’s to say there isn’t any of my personal theology that is heresy? I’ve been taught be imperfect teachers who were taught by imperfect teachers. There are times when we try to meld our theology to fit our own biases and preconceived ideas. We are all guilty of that to some extent, no matter how righteous we try to be.

So I like how John boils it down to a couple of things here. Jesus was real. The story of his life, death, and resurrection is real (verse 7). Reject the teaching of anyone who tries to say otherwise. And our command is to love him and love others (verse 5). He took his time to record these two things, and the church fathers decided that this is one of the important things from John’s writings that needed to be preserved for people like me thousands of years later: Jesus is real. Love him and love others.

Father, it doesn’t seem like it should be as hard to live this out as it is, but here we are, failing to do it every day. There are times when I ignore Jesus’s teaching while he was here on earth because it is too hard or inconvenient. There are times when I get selfish and don’t love others. And then only bad things flow from those moments. So I give you my heart in this moment. Right now. I will do my best in the next moment, but in this moment that interfaces with you I tell you that I believe in the life of Jesus that is recorded for us. I believe because so many people who were there and witnessed all of it went to their death proclaiming it even though it was the very story they were being killed for. And I will fill my heart with love for others. Help me to be willing to pay the price you are calling me to pay to exhibit the love you need me to exhibit.

I pray all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on November 15, 2024 in 2 John

 

Tags: