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Rev. 2:8-11
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Letters From Jesus: Modern Mega-(suffering)-Churches Revelation 2:8-11; 3:7-13 Here is a list of the ten largest churches in the U.S. Why are these churches so popular—what draws thousands of people every week? They all have strong leaders. Most of them function as a Pastor/CEO type leader. People want to follow these leaders. People come because of the teaching. Notice I did not say that the teaching itself is good. I know that some of these churches have good teaching, but I also know a few of these are founded on false teaching. They all have a multitude of programs and ministries for all ages. They all have many employees. Willow Creek had 500 FT and PT employees. They all have big buildings. The one at the top of the list recently purchased an 18,000 seat auditorium where the Houston Rockets basketball team used to play. Willow Creek is completing a 60 million dollar addition to their facility. And of course the most obvious thing these churches are commended for is their large size. Thousands of people have studied these churches and other like them to discover the secret to their success. Leaders, programs, building and huge numbers of people make for an attractive church, and apparently successful church. But are these the things that really make for a successful church? Since we are in week four of the Letters from Jesus to the seven churches in Revelation, by now you should be getting an idea of what those churches were commended for—and what they were condemned for as well. The church in Ephesus was commended for sound doctrine, moral purity and good biblical discernment. The church in Thyatira was commended for their love, service, faith and perseverance. So how does this list compare with the list of megachurches? In many ways this is not a fair comparison because I am sure these megachurches have many of these same qualities. But if you had to choose between these two lists, you would have to choose the first one. Jesus personally commended these churches for their good qualities. But if you remember, only two churches out of seven received nothing but good news from Jesus. The rest received a mixture of good and bad and one received only bad news. But two of the seven, Smyrna and Philadelphia, received only good news. Why did Jesus commend these two churches? What was the secret to their success? Remember, these are the only two churches in all of the Bible that were not reprimanded for some sinful practice. Paul wrote thirteen letters and every one of them had words of correction. Jesus wrote seven letters, but only two didn’t contain a reprimand. If thousands of people have studied megachurches to learn secrets of their success, and we know all of them are flawed in some ways, doesn’t it make more sense to study these two churches to learn the secret of their success? We should not only study their success, but also strive to fully imitate them. Full Complement of Biblical Qualities Whatever we learn from these two churches, it is important to understand that they possessed more qualities than those we will study this morning. They also possessed all of the other qualities that were seen in the other churches. They had sound doctrine, moral purity and good biblical discernment, love, service, faith and perseverance. I would summarize all of these qualities in this way: love and truth in action. If you recall, Ephesus had truth in action, but was greatly short on love. Thyatira had love in action, but struggled with the truth. Since Smyrna and Philadelphia are not condemned for any deficiency, then we can confidently assume they possessed this full complement of Biblical qualities—they had love AND truth in action.
If we don’t understand this, then we are as guilty as every other person and church seeking a quick fix. Think about it—why do people study megachurches in the first place? Let me ask you a similar question—why do you put miracle grow plant food on your plants? Because you want them to grow! You probably won’t see any genuine miracles, but there are certain chemicals in miracle grow that enhance the growth of plants. This is the same reason people study the secrets of megachurches—they want the equivalent of a spiritual miracle grow to sprinkle on their churches. They see it as a simple formula. This church did A, B & C and they grew like crazy. If our church does A, B and C, we will grow like crazy as well. This is a quick fix mentality that is a sure sign for disaster.
But if we’re not careful we can make the same mistake any time we study the Bible. I could pick out two principles from these successful churches in Revelation and turn them into a quick fix program. You could make quite a strong case. After all, if these are the only two churches with a perfect track record, then if we do exactly like they did, then we will be a good church as well. But that would be lazy theology at its worst. They had a full complement of Biblical qualities—love & truth in action. In addition to these, they possessed the following qualities as well.
Spiritual Prosperity through Material Poverty Look at what was written to the church in Smyrna, Rev. 2:8, 8 “To the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. 9 I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! Jesus knew full well that the church in Smyrna was poverty stricken in a material sense. No big buildings. They couldn’t afford 500 employees. No TV ministries. They didn’t have any of the material prosperity which we are so accustomed to—yet Jesus said they were rich. Materially they were poor and destitute, but spiritually they were wealthy. They had abundant spiritual prosperity.
Jesus said something very similar to the believers in Philadelphia. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. Jesus did not say that this church was in poverty, but that they had “little strength”. This does not mean that they were spiritually weak because Jesus commends them for being strong and steadfast. Having “little strength” probably related to their size. They were probably a small congregation that had not had a big impact upon their city. They weren’t a megachurch that had their own stoplight—they were a small church.
Does this remind you of any church you know—a small church without much money? I can’t help but see the comparison to our own church. At one hundred in attendance we are equal to the average size church in America. We don’t have the people and we don’t have the money that many other churches do. We’re still a new church with few resources in the fourth poorest county in the state. It is easy to get a “we’re just a small, poor church mentality”. If you tend to suffer from this poor church syndrome, let me correct your thinking.
1. As “poor” as we may feel, we are still in the richest 5% of all people in the world. Compared to megachurches we may at first appear to be in poverty, but compared to the rest of the world, we are incredibly wealthy. 2. Spiritual prosperity leads to reliance upon spiritual power. If a church has a lot of worldly wealth then there is an ongoing temptation to solve your spiritual problems with material solutions. What should a church do if a particular ministry is not going very well? If a church has financial resources, the first response to the problem might be to pour some more money into the ministry. Hire additional staff, do more advertising—whatever it takes to make the ministry more effective. But if you lack those resources then you will be forced to look for spiritual answers to your spiritual problems. Please don’t misunderstand me—I am not saying that it is always wrong to use money to advance God’s kingdom. In fact, that is the purpose of money. Right now there is 45 trillion dollars tied up in the retirement funds of Americans. What might happen if even a small fraction of that money was released for the work of the Kingdom? It could have amazing results. It’s not wrong for individuals or for churches to have material wealth as long as they use them wisely and not as a substitute for spiritual power.
3. Material poverty does not always bring spiritual power. Being poor, or I should say less rich, does not automatically lead one toward faith and reliance on God. A lack of finances more often than not leads to a lack of contentment. A lack of contentment leads to decreased faith, more complaining, an increase in covetousness and greed and a twisted view of God. Material poverty is not a badge of spirituality, but it can lead one toward deeper faith. If our lack of resources does not lead our church to pray more, then we are still just a church with few resources.
Sovereign Perseverance through Suffering Suffering is a normal part of being a Christian. Paul wrote to his disciple Timothy and said, Everyone who wants to live a Godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Suffering should never take us by surprise. Suffering should never make us doubt the love of God. Notice what the Lord Jesus wrote to these two churches about suffering. To the church in Smyrna he said, Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death…
These two churches were the cream of the crop. They possessed abundant qualities of both truth and love and they lived out their faith in the real world. Despite their faithfulness, Jesus promised them that suffering and persecution would come to them as well. Instead of megachurches, I call them mega-suffering-churches. But suffering is a lot like material poverty—it does not automatically bring spiritual growth and prosperity. Just as material poverty can lead to a loss of faith, so suffering routinely causes people to lose their faith. So what makes the difference between a person or a church who is able to endure suffering and one who is destroyed by suffering? Why can two people go through the same trial and one ends up walking away from God and the other has increased faith? The difference is not what comes in the midst of the trial, but what has been cultivated before the trial. Why do you think Jesus commended the other churches for the sound doctrine, moral purity, discernment, love, service, faith and perseverance? Because if you have these qualities you will be able to endure suffering and trials and if you don’t have them then suffering will destroy your faith.
Let’s take one of these qualities and see how it can help us persevere through suffering. Take sound doctrine for example. What happens to those churches who teach that God does not want believers to ever be poor or sick or suffer? When suffering inevitably comes to them then one of two things must happen. Either they come to their senses and reject the false teaching of their church or else they reject their faith. A person cannot live with the tension between the teaching that says a good Christian will not suffer and the reality of their present suffering. They will either embrace the suffering of Christ, reject Christ altogether or else go insane trying to reconcile these two opposite realities.
Why is it so necessary that we persevere through suffering? Because perseverance is the only true test of our salvation. You can call yourself a Christian, but if you do not endure and persevere until the end of your life, then you were not genuinely saved in the first place. The world is filled with people who once appeared to be strong Christians. They went to church, read their Bibles and outwardly did the things Christians are supposed to do. But inwardly their spiritual muscles were never strengthened. They did not cultivate the qualities that were commended by Jesus. When life was good, God was good—but when life turned bad God suddenly did not look so good after all. Jesus commended the Philadelphian believers for keeping his word and not denying his name. This means that some in the church will deny Jesus, especially when they are suffering.
Jesus told the Smyrna church to be faithful to the point of death. I would like to tell the story of one man from that very church who endured to the point of death. His name was Polycarp and he was a student and disciple of the apostle John. The same John who wrote recorded the words of Jesus which was sent to the church in Smyrna was the one who taught this man named Polycarp. Polycarp became the Bishop of Smyrna. He was the lead elder in that city during the years of tremendous persecution. The official declaration from Rome was that anyone who denied the worship of the pagan Gods would be guilty of a capital crime. Of course true believers would never deny Jesus so they were preferred targets for persecution. One day Polycarp was led into the public arena to appear before the Roman governor of Smyrna. The historian Josephus picks up the story. Now when Polycarp entered into the arena there came a voice from heaven: "Be strong, Polycarp, and play the man." And no one saw the speaker, but our friends who were there heard the voice. And next he was brought forward, and there was a great uproar of those who heard that Polycarp had been arrested. 2 Therefore when he was brought forward the Pro-Consul asked him if he were Polycarp, and when he admitted it he tried to persuade him to deny, saying: "Respect your age," and so forth, as they are accustomed to say: "Swear by the genius of Caesar, repent, say: `Away with the Atheists'"; but Polycarp, with a stern countenance looked on all the crowd of lawless heathen in the arena, and waving his hand at them, he groaned and looked up to heaven and said: "Away with the Atheists." 3 But when the Pro-Consul pressed him and said: "Take the oath and I let you go, deny Christ," Polycarp said: "For eighty and six years have I been his servant, and he has done me no wrong, and how can I blaspheme my King who saved me?" And the Pro-Consul said: "I have wild beasts. I will deliver you to them, unless you repent." And he said: "Call for them, for repentance from better to worse is not allowed us; but it is good to change from evil to righteousness." 2 And he said again to him: "I will cause you to be consumed by fire, if you despise the beasts, unless you repent." But Polycarp said: "You threaten with the fire that burns for a time, and is quickly quenched, for you do not know the fire which awaits the wicked in the judgment to come and in everlasting punishment. But why are you waiting? Come, do what you will." And with these and many other words he was filled with courage and joy, and his face was full of grace so that it not only did not fall with trouble at the things said to him, but that the Pro-Consul, on the other hand, was astounded and sent his herald into the midst of the arena to announce three times: "Polycarp has confessed that he is a Christian." When this had been said by the herald, all the multitude of heathen and Jews living in Smyrna cried out with uncontrollable wrath and a loud shout: "This is the teacher of Asia, the father of the Christians, the destroyer of our Gods, who teaches many neither to offer sacrifice nor to worship Then they found it good to cry out with one mind that he should burn Polycarp alive, These things then happened with so great speed, quicker than it takes to tell, and the crowd came together immediately, and prepared wood and faggots from the work-shops and baths and the Jews were extremely zealous, as is their custom, in assisting at this. Immediately therefore, he was fastened to the instruments which had been prepared for the fire, but when they were going to nail him as well he said: "Leave me thus, for He who gives me power to endure the fire, will grant me to remain in the flames unmoved even without the security you will give by the nails." He looked up to heaven and said: "O Lord God Almighty, Father of thy beloved and blessed Child, Jesus Christ, through Whom we have received full knowledge of thee, the God of Angels and powers, and of all creation, and of the whole family of the righteous, who live before thee! 2 I bless thee, that Thou hast granted me this day and hour, that I may share, among the number of the martyrs, in the cup of thy Christ, for the Resurrection to everlasting life, both of soul and body in the immortality of the Holy Spirit. And may I, to-day, be received among them before Thee, as a rich and acceptable sacrifice.” Do you think Polycarp cultivated sound doctrine, moral purity, discernment, love, service, faith and perseverance throughout his life? Of course he did—this is what allowed him to be faithful to the point of death. Now compare this with the teaching of the largest church in America. At the biggest church in the country, Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, Pastor Joel Osteen preaches to some 25,000 people each week -- and sin is not on the menu. Osteen said his goal is to "give people a boost for the week." (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,110240,00.html) Now humanly speaking which would you rather do in church every week—would you rather prepare for coming persecution and suffering or would you rather get a boost for the week? Humanly speaking I would prefer to get a boost. I don’t want to think about persecution and suffering. I like to be encouraged and hear about Guidepost type stories where all of my troubles comes out OK in the end. I don’t prefer to hear about old men who were burned at the stake. But such things are necessary to develop perseverance. If you are a relatively new believer, are you planning to finish strong until the end of your life? What about if you have been a Christian for 20-30 years—are you coasting to the end of your life, or do you plan to finish strong? Rich Maurer May 23, 2004 |