Years ago, when I was a teenager, I went to a youth gathering held in Vancouver. Hundreds of Lutheran kids from all over Canada were there.
I was 15 and passionate about my faith at the time, so I attended every main assembly and every small group session. I wanted to get as much as I could out of this national youth gathering. My parents had sent me, and we had traveled from Alberta on two busloads of youth from the Camrose and Provost areas. I just wanted to soak up everything I could.
After the gathering was over, I was talking with some of the other youth on our bus, and I found out they hadn’t attended anything at all. Instead, they had spent their time exploring Vancouver. At that moment, I felt like a fool.
Two years later, I went to another youth gathering, this time in Ottawa. But this time, I was determined to be cool. So I hardly attended anything—maybe one main assembly, but no small groups. And looking back on that now, I regret it.
I think what was happening in my heart at the time was that each of us has a craving in our soul for something. And what I was craving was affirmation, or love. I wanted to get it from my peers—the people around me. I think this is true for all of us. We all have a soul craving of some kind. We hunger for something—maybe love, maybe truth, maybe wisdom, maybe power.
Each of us is looking to a particular source to satisfy that craving.
And then there’s God. Each of us has to sort out for ourselves where God fits into all of this. If we see God as interfering with the source we rely on to satisfy our soul’s craving, we will push Him aside—because we think He’s getting in the way.
The affections we hold in our hearts are incredibly important because they determine the trajectory of our lives.
Saint Clare of Assisi said, “We become what we love.”
And I believe that’s true.
And how can we be on the same trajectory as God if we’re not looking to Him for the things our soul needs?
This morning, as we reflect on God’s Word, I invite you to consider this question: How do we strengthen our love for God and keep it strong? We’re going to explore this by digging into the book of Revelation.
We’ll start at the beginning—chapter one, verses one and two—where we find the purpose of Revelation:
“The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending His angel to His servant John, who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
God gave us this book to strengthen our faith so that we can have confidence in turbulent times. However, Revelation can be a challenging book to read, so I want to help guide you through it. This is the first in a series of messages on Revelation.
The Bible reading plan we’re following this year groups the New Testament books by author. We started the year with the Gospel of John, then moved into the letters he wrote, and now we’ve arrived at the last book of the Bible—Revelation, which is also believed to have been written by John.
The book of Revelation has three main parts:
- An introduction
- A prophetic message—the message Jesus gave to John for Christ’s followers
- An epilogue
The prophetic message consists of three visions, and each vision contains seven scenes:
• Seven seals that are opened
• Seven angels with trumpets—each time a trumpet is blown, a new scene unfolds
• Seven angels with censers—these are not electronic sensors like we think of today, but vessels in which incense is burned. As each censer is poured out, another scene is revealed.
Between the second and third visions, we are told of a cosmic war between God and the dragon. This is the heart of Revelation because this battle between God and evil is the reason for the trials and tribulations we see in the world. But as the book describes, it also reveals the ultimate victory of Christ’s church.
Throughout history, there have been two primary ways of interpreting Revelation:
- A linear approach—reading it from start to finish, like a regular book.
- A cyclical approach—understanding the three visions as covering the same period of time, from Jesus’ ascension to His return.
The most popular interpretation today is the linear approach. However, as we progress through the book, I will invite you to consider a cyclical perspective as well.
Today, we’re going to focus on the seven letters to the seven churches. These letters were dictated by Jesus to John and sent to specific churches in Asia Minor—present-day Turkey.
However, all seven churches would have received all seven messages within the book of Revelation. In that sense, we can say that these letters to the seven churches are actually one letter to Jesus’ entire universal Christian Church.
And here’s the thing—when we think of these letters in that way, every Christian congregation can find itself described in one of them. We could go even further and say that probably every follower of Jesus Christ can see themselves reflected in one or more of the seven letters.
This is important for us to recognize because, in each letter, Jesus calls the churches to repent.
Repentance was important for them, but it’s also important for us. It matters because sin is serious—it has the potential to separate us from God, both now and forever.
Repentance is crucial for our own sake, but it also prepares us to receive prophetic messages from God. These seven letters are placed in the book of Revelation before the prophetic message that Jesus gives through John.
In the same way, we cannot hear what God is saying if our hearts are turned away from Him. It’s like when my wife, Susan, and I go for a walk—if she’s speaking and I’m looking in the opposite direction, I can’t hear her. Now, I’m not saying I’m getting old and deaf, but I do know that when I turn toward her, I can hear her clearly. And it’s the same between us and God.
Each letter to each church—well, most of them—contains:
- The good that Christ sees in that church
- The bad that Christ also sees
- A call to repentance, often nuanced or personalized for that specific church
- A promise that Jesus gives to all who repent
So, I invite you to prayerfully consider: Which church are you?
We’ll go through the seven churches, and I’ll share some thoughts to help you reflect.
Could you be the church in Ephesus?
If you are, you work hard and don’t tolerate evil people—and Jesus sees that.
But He also sees how you have forsaken the love you had at first.
He calls you to repent because if you don’t, you could eventually lose the spiritual light you have within you.
He calls you to return to the habits, patterns, and practices—the unforced rhythms of grace, as Eugene Peterson so beautifully described them—that you naturally lived out when your passion for God was high.
And when you do that, Jesus will meet you there and give you abundant life with Him, both now and forever.
Could you be the church in Smyrna?
If you are, your life is marked by suffering and poverty, and yet there is a richness and fullness to your spiritual life in Christ. Jesus sees that.
But He also sees that you are fearful about experiencing more suffering in the future—and suffering will come. That fear is real.
Yet He calls you to turn away from your fear of pain or loss and turn toward Him, toward the strength and overcoming victory He has for you.
And He will make sure that when the time comes for all of humanity to face judgment before God, you will not be condemned.
Or could you be the church in Pergamum?
If you are, you live in a place where you face powerful and persistent persecution—and you have remained faithful. Jesus sees that.
But He also sees that you believe you can remain faithful while still dabbling in unfaithfulness.
Jesus is calling you to repent of your tendency to play for both Team Jesus and Team Satan—because if you don’t, you may find yourself on the wrong side when He comes to bring judgment upon the unfaithful.
He calls you to return wholeheartedly to Team Jesus, and in doing so, He will declare you innocent and feed you with the bread of life.
Or could you be the church in Thyatira?
If you are, your love, faithfulness, service, and perseverance are strong—and they are growing stronger. Jesus sees that.
But He also sees that you view other religions as valid pathways to God and have allowed non-Christian teachings to mix into your faith.
Jesus is calling you to turn away from the false parts of your faith and from those who promote this mixed-up way of thinking—because He will strike down those who continue to hold to it.
He calls you to trust in Him with all your heart. And in the end, He will share His authority and glory with you.
Or maybe you are like the church in Sardis.
I hope you aren’t—because there is no good news from Jesus for the church in Sardis.
If you are like that church, you have the reputation of being spiritually alive. On the outside, that’s how it looks. But on the inside? You are almost spiritually dead.
Jesus is calling you to repent and strengthen the parts of you that are still spiritually alive—or else you will be separated from Him for eternity when He comes like a thief in the night.
He invites you to grab hold of the One who has already grabbed hold of you. And if you do, He will ensure that, at the end of time, you will be dressed in the white robes of His righteousness, and your name will be written in His book of life.
Or Maybe You’re Like the Church in Philadelphia
This is not the city with a team in the Super Bowl today, by the way. This is a different Philadelphia.
If you’re like the church in Philadelphia, you’re weak, yet you have not denied your faith in Jesus. You have remained faithful, and Jesus sees that.
But He also sees that you are weak in your efforts to reach out to the lost and invite them to enter through the door that He has opened for them into the family of God.
Take comfort in knowing that Jesus will oppose those who oppose you. He will make them admit that they were wrong and you were right. So be strong and courageous in your witness—Jesus will defend you and make you a pillar among His people at the end of time.
Or Maybe You’re Like the Church in Laodicea
I hope not, because this is the harshest of the seven letters.
What Jesus sees in this case is that we are neither hot nor cold in our faith. We cling to our material wealth, but we are blind to our spiritual poverty and brokenness.
Jesus calls us to repent because He is about to spit us out of His mouth.
He is asking us to turn away from our in-between life and turn wholeheartedly back toward Him. If we do, He will give us riches that will last forever, white robes of righteousness to cover our nakedness and brokenness, and salve for our eyes so we can see with the clarity of wholehearted faith.
So What Happened to That 17-Year-Old Who Forsook His First Love for God?
I’ll tell you what happened.
A few years later, my dad and I bought a ranch south of Coronation, Alberta, and after college, I was there running it.
I was lonelier than I had ever been in my life. There were people around me, but they were five or six miles away.
And they were married. I was single. I didn’t have anything in common with them.
Looking back, I realize that God was weaning me off my desire to seek affirmation and love from other human beings—because there were no human beings around, except for the ones working for me. And you usually don’t get affirmation and love from your employees. Sometimes, but not usually.
As I reflect now, I can see that God was preparing me.
Because in May of the year I turned 24, He put a desire in my heart to go back to church. My youngest brother and I decided to go to a church in a nearby town, but we had the times mixed up and arrived just as people were coming out.
Yet that desire remained.
When I would go home to Provost, I would attend church at my home church. That was in May.
At the end of June, I met a beautiful young woman named Susan.
And from the very start of our relationship, church was a part of our lives.
It was as if God was saying,
“Now you have been weaned off your desire for love from human beings. Now your heart has finally turned toward Me. And by the way, here’s a bonus—here’s someone to love you.”
The Good Shepherd had brought home a lost sheep.
The Challenge
The challenge I’m inviting you to consider today is this:
Read through Revelation chapters 2 and 3.
Identify which church—or churches—you may be.
Then repent of your sin, turn to Jesus, and let Him satisfy the hunger in your soul—because that is what He came to do.
Amen.
Farewell to Shadowlands 