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Well, today, it is texts and emails or some other messenger. However, imagine the day without instant messaging when the apostle John received a revelation from God, a letter to pass on to the churches in Asia (western Turkey). The letters in The book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, chapters 2 and 3, were written to churches that John knew and had visited. Think about what it would mean to get this letter and hear it read to your group of followers of Jesus. The letter was a mixture of helping see Jesus in a new and fantastic way, hearing from Him praise, and a cutting rebuke for your group. They were powerful and challenging words, straight from God. The days in which we live are not easy. Followers of Christ are not famous people; many hate us and the premises for which we stand. But Jesus is calling you to change, know Him like you never have, and fulfill His purpose for the church to which you belong. The letter was special for those churches, but it is also very much for us. It has been preserved for two thousand years and is as relevant to us as it was to them. So how do we receive this letter? In her book on Revelation, Blessed, Nancy Guthrie says: “We want to welcome whatever it is He has to say to us. What a blessing to hear the powerful, penetrating, and perfectly reliable voice of Jesus speaking into our lives.”
For a few years now, post-apocalyptic stories have been told in literature, movies, and games. They picture a world that has come apart. Those that survive are left to piece their lives together out of the wreckage of the old world. These worlds are often hopeless. And what once was good and true about the world is now irrelevant. I wonder what this says about our culture’s current state of mind about the future. Are we headed toward a hopeless future? Are the old truths and values no longer applicable in our new world? The book of Revelations is filled with blessings and hope, but maybe not in the way you think. It’s not primarily about crazy events, cataclysmic judgments, weird creatures, and undecipherable symbols but about blessings and hopes for today. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. - Revelation 1:1-3 (ESV)
After World War 2, Eisenhower sat with the Russians to review the victory. There was something that had captured their imaginations. Something had amazed them, and they needed to know more. It wasn’t battlefield tactics or the technological advancements that they wanted to know about. What did they inquire about? “It was,” Eisenhower wrote in Crusade in Europe, “to explain the supply arrangements that enabled us to make the great sweep out of our constricted beachhead in Normandy to cover, in one rush, all of France, Belgium, and Luxembourg, up to the very borders of Germany. I had to describe to them our systems of railway repairs and construction, truckage, evacuation, and supply by air. They suggested that of all the spectacular feats of the war, including their own, the Allied success in the supply of the pursuit across France would go down in history as the most astonishing.” A soldier without a consistent supply of needed equipment is ineffective and likely will lose the war. It's been that way throughout history as well as it is in the Christian life. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. - Ephesians 6:13 (ESV)
Martin Luther has long been one of my spiritual heroes. His rediscovery and brave proclamation of ‘grace alone through faith alone’ was the spark that lit the protestant reformation. Throughout his life, he was harassed, threatened, and in danger because of the truth he taught. So it’s not surprising that he referenced this struggle when he penned a hymn for the church. But he doesn’t point at the popes or kings that were his earthly adversaries; he looks beyond them. ‘And though this world with devils filled, should threaten to undo us...’ We might be tempted to see him as a pre-modern man whose understanding of the world was more magic than science. But I believe he saw the world more clearly than many of us. He better understood his true foe, the nature of the struggle, and the surety of his hope than we do. In the last half of Ephesians 6, Paul paints a picture of the Christian life as a battle. He wants us to be aware, ready, and equipped to fight. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly place s. - Ephesians 6:10-12 (ESV)
The pandemic accelerated the trend of remote work. This new gig economy means people are working from anywhere at any time. It means you may have co-workers in DC, Brussels, or Okinawa. But over the last few months, I’ve heard of multiple businesses pulling away from this wave of virtual office places. There seems to be something to those in-person human office water cooler interactions that encourage comradery and effectiveness. But I also wonder if the digital office means workers aren’t effectively completing tasks. In Ephesians 6, Paul discusses the interaction between the gospel and the ancient household by looking at slaves and masters. In some ways, this is a cultural distance and even an offensive section. Paul does not condemn the person-robbing institution of slavery. How does the passage challenge you in your dealing with others at work? Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free. Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with him. - Ephesians 6:5-9 (ESV)
hope church
1661 Balch Rd.
Madison, AL 35757
Services
Sunday 10:00 a.m.
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