Diligence and Decline in the Church
Revelation 2-3
As I mentioned this morning, tonight I'm gonna give you a few sort of mementos of my recent trip to Europe. Last Sunday, a week ago today, I was preaching in Geneva, Switzerland. Geneva, of course, is famous because of its tremendous importance during the time of the reformation. It was in Geneva that John Calvin established his great base of teaching, and from 1536 to 1564, exposited the scriptures through all of those years, with the exception of a few, and established himself, really, as the great power, the theological force of the reformation.
So last Sunday, I was in Geneva. All of the churches came together in one place. And I had the privilege of preaching in Geneva. And I thought that I oughta preach on the doctrine of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, which was, of course, the great doctrine of the reformation. So I did that. I preached on the doctrine of justification, hoping to be something of a faith echo of John Calvin, 400 years later.
In that service last Sunday, among many people was a man who for 22 years had been a Jesuit priest in the Roman Catholic Church. For 22 years, as Jesuits do, he had studied the scriptures. At the end of that message on the doctrine of justification, he confessed, "In all my years as a Jesuit priest, in all my study of scripture, I have never heard of that doctrine." And in a word, in a single testimony, he gave to me the reason why there was a reformation.
That was true, for the most part, of the whole world at the time of the reformation. Nobody had heard of the doctrine of justification by grace, through faith alone, nobody. That's why it was so monumental in 1517, when Martin Luther, a Catholic priest, who came to the knowledge of the doctrine of justification, put it into a thesis and pinned it on the door of the church in Wittenberg and launched the reformation.
About eight years before Lutheran pinned his thesis to the door of the church in Wittenberg, 1517, about eights years before that, in the year 1509, was born John Calvin, as they call him there, John Calvin. Born north of Paris, he was the son a secretary to the bishop. And he studied to be a lawyer in Paris.
In 1532, you can tell, in his very early 20s, under the influence of Luther's writings he became an evangelical. And as a result of that, he had to flee to Paris because he was accused of writing things that were insurrectionist against the Catholic Church. By the year 1536, still in his early 20s, he had completed the great institutes of Christian religion, his monumental Calvin's Institutes, as they are known. He originally wrote them in Latin and later translated them into French.
Because of the tremendous persecution that broke out in France, Calvin went to Geneva. Because in 1536, the City of Geneva had declared itself a city of the reformation and adopted reform theology, brought an end to the mass in 1536. He converted the catholic cathedral into a reformed cathedral. That cathedral is still there. I stood in that cathedral by John Calvin's chair. And next door, I stood in John Calvin's pulpit where he preached in the little chapel that's adjacent to the cathedral where he exposited the scriptures for all those years from 1536 to 1564.
Well John Calvin came to Geneva in 1536, the very year that the Genevan people had, by popular vote, accepted the reformation. He came there, not intending to settle there, but he was confronted by a man named Farrell, Giliuum Farrell, who was a great reformer. He actually outlived Calvin by a year. Farrell was a fiery man, and he told Calvin that he should stay in Geneva and do his ministry there. And Calvin said he didn't want to do that, so Farrell said to him, "If you don't stay in Geneva, I'm gonna pray that God curses all your teachings." (Laughter) Well, that was a fairly convincing speech, and Calvin stayed; (Laughter) stayed there really, until he died.
In 1559, he founded the academy, which is now the University of Geneva. According to some reports, he also established a seminary there. So many Protestants, called Huguenots in France, were leaving France under the fiery persecution of the Catholic Church. They were coming to Geneva, really, to save their lives.
When they arrived in Geneva, there was John Calvin, teaching the Word of God. He had established a seminary, and according to some reports, he trained 2,000 pastors to go back with the true message of the Gospel, 2,000 preachers to go back into France with the Gospel and the true reformation faith. His seminary became known as, "The seminary of death," because so many of the preachers he trained went back to France and died as martyrs. The seminary of death. Might be a little hard to recruit people to that today.
The effect of John Calvin's life and ministry is almost beyond description. We know his masterpiece, The Institutes of Christian Religion, completed in 1536, as I said, in Latin, and later translated in French. Book One is on the knowledge of God, Revelation. Book Two is on sin, the fall, the separation of man from God, and God for deeming activity. Book Three on faith, salvation by faith on election by which God directs our lives. And Book Four, on the true and the false church and the ordinances or sacraments of the church.
He also wrote commentaries on every book of the Bible. He came out of his constant teaching from 1536 to 1564. He wrote a commentary on every book in the Bible except Revelation. He wrote catechisms. He collaborated in the translation of the Bible into French. He was the one who instituted the public education as compulsory in the West and Europe. He developed the system of charity directed at the poor and needy. He developed a system for the regulations of loans and interest and the legal offices of the City of Geneva and the regulation of justice in the courts. He had an immense impact.
Those countries which accepted the reformation, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, and England, became the most prosperous countries in Europe. In fact, look at the history of the world. You will find those countries most strongly influenced by protestant reformation, including America and Canada, to be the most prolific, the most economically successful, the countries that enjoy the greatest freedoms in the world, largely influenced by Calvin and his profound and lengthy ministry.
You look at the impact of this man's life. You look at the impact of the reformation in Europe and how it brought the true and saving Gospel to Europe, and you wander around Europe today and you say, "What in the world went wrong?" I stood in Calvin's cathedral by his chair, and I looked up on the wall, and I was with our missionary, my good friend, John Glass, and he said, "I want you to see if you can read that. It's in Latin." And I tried to remember my high school Latin. And I kinda sorted through it and then I got a little paper that explained the words that I couldn't figure out.
Basically what it said was, "We are declaring the true Gospel. We are declaring the true Biblical faith. We are declaring that we stand against the Roman system for the true Gospel," and it goes on and on to basically say, "This is our reformation statement. And we deny the things that have been a part of the Catholic Church. We embrace the true and Biblical doctrine of salvation." It's a beautiful, big, brass plaque.
And as I was looking at it I was thinking of how strong a statement that is, how great a statement that is. And I asked John, I said, "is the Gospel preached in this cathedral?" And he said, "Oh, no." He said, "In fact, the word is that within a few years that will be taken down because it's politically incorrect." I said, "Is the man who is the current pastor of Calvin's cathedral Christian?" He said, "Oh, no."
He then took me into the basement of Calvin's cathedral in the old City of Geneva, which is still there with the walls around it and everything, just as it was in Calvin's day. We went down into the basement and amazingly, they've done archeological digs there. And as you go into the digs, you find that the site of that cathedral has been the site of a Christian church way, way, way back.
In fact, they have artifacts down there that they, even before the Christian era, as far back as 450 B.C. But they have baptisteries there that date back into the 300s. As each layer goes archeologically, you find another church with another baptistery. And by the way, none of them were little sprinkling fonts; they were all great big holes in the ground which indicates clearly that early church was engaged in immersing people. But just consistently, this was the place where the church met in 300, in 350, and all the way through the centuries, on up until Calvin's cathedral was built by the Roman Catholic Church in the 12th and 13th Century.
That was a place of early church baptisms. Then it became the place of Catholicism and eventually it became the place where the reformation found its center in the ministry of John Calvin and William Farrell. It's also something to say about -- that I think you'll find interesting -- during the time that Calvin was there, people who were being persecuted by the Roman Catholics were coming to Geneva for the protection that the City of Geneva provided them and in fellowship with Calvin. There were also scholars there, and scholastics, and great students of scripture, and students of theology there. And so it was a good place to come to refine one's theology.
One of the men that came there was a former priest born in 1505 who didn't die until 1572 when he was murdered. His name was John Knox. And John Knox came there because over in England, Bloody Mary on behalf of the Catholic Church, was also executing believers. And so Knox, under the threat of death, left England, came to Geneva in 1556. While he was there, John Knox translated the Bible from the original languages into English, 1556.
In 1559, John Knox went back to Scotland to print that Bible, 1559. He went back to print that Bible in Scotland, and also to establish the reformation, which became known as Scottish Presbyterianism; 1559 he went back. Well, took him a few years, but eventually they printed that Bible. It was the first Bible ever printed in Scotland.
And while I was in Geneva, I was getting all this history. And I was talking to John Glass and we were going over all this history, and I said, "By the way, John, you might be interested to know." He said, "What?" I said, "I have that Bible." He said, "What?" I said, "I own that Bible." "What do you mean you own that Bible?" "I own the Bible that they printed that John Knox translated and took back." "You own that Bible?" He said, "Do you know how much that Bible is worth?" "I said I have no idea who much that Bible is worth monetarily. I know how much it's worth to me."
I have a Bible that John Knox held in his hand that was printed by carving out individual letters in wood, setting them in one page at a time, rolling a roller over one page and then dumping the letters and doing it all over again for the next page. "And by the way," I said to John, "it's a study Bible." (Laughter) it has notes up and down both sides and all across the bottom and down the middle column and in the front and in the back.
And I said, "It was that Bible that motivated me to do a study Bible. I figured if John Knox could do one, I wasn't really treading on sacred ground; I could do one, too." All that just to say when you get into that environment and you feel the pulse of the reformation in Geneva -- and we climbed to the top of the tower of the church and looked over the city, as it used to be, with all the same clay tiles and the same buildings inside the Wall of Geneva, you realize that John Calvin probably stood in that place many times, concerned about the people of Geneva, taught regularly, daily in a little chapel next door. His ministry caused the reformation that really gave birth to the great revival out of which we have been born who really understand the Gospel. And you look over that same city today and it is utterly indifferent.
John Glass, pastors, the evangelic, alica evangelic in Geneva, which is the largest church in Geneva and its 200 people. The city is secular. It's a city of half a million people who for the most part could care less about the Gospel, who have no interest in anything other than the sort of ancient history of these pieces of antiquity. And you go all over Europe and you find that the church is small and it's a tragic, tragic situation.
And I've been into Eastern Europe, and I've been into Western Europe, and I've seen the picture. And I think the best way to understand what has happened there -- and it's something that we can translate into what we see in our own experience here -- is to look at Revelation 2 and 3 for a minute, just a perspective that I want to give you tonight. I'm not gonna unfold everything.
But you say to yourself, "What happened here? This is sad. What went wrong?" You have a reformation that starts in 1517 with Martin Luther and you have John Calvin with a flourishing expository teaching ministry that goes all the way through the whole Bible, as well as writing the great theology that he wrote. It goes 'till 1564. You have the printing press invented in around 1545. You have Bibles being published at that time. You have all of these marvelous influences of the reformation. You have preachers going everywhere preaching the reformation Gospel. You have the establishment of a state-reformed church in Holland, a state-reformed church in Switzerland, a state-reformed church in Germany, and going back to England with John Knox, the great Scottish reformation, and back into England the great reformation that ultimately yields the 1611 King James Version of the Bible. And you have all of this tremendous influence. Obviously, the Catholic Church maintained its power in many places, Spain, France, and Italy. But the protestant reformation had a massive impact upon England. And of course, we are the beneficiaries of that. wherever England went, they basically took the Gospel, whether it was here or whether it was Canada or whether it was other of their colonies, including South Africa, which was settled by the English and the Dutch, whether it was Indian. English took the Gospel to India, although there it was smothered by the impenetrable darkness of Hinduism.
But there was tremendous influence out of the reformation. It was not a small event. It changed the face of Europe economically in terms of civil law, in terms of society, in terms of how people lived their lives. It brought in democracy. It broke the back of monarchies. It was a tremendous movement. And yet, you go there today and the church is small and the church is weak and the church, in many ways, is defeated. To say nothing of being liberal and apostate, et cetera, et cetera. The churches that linked themselves historically with the reformation have all but on totally apostate.
And you ask yourself, "What happens? What is the sequence? How does it happen?" And it never happens on a sort of a macrocosm without happening in a microcosm. That is to say, it doesn't happen countrywide until it happens in individual churches. So it provides for us a warning, not only of what happens on the big scale, but what happens on the small scale and what we need to be aware of as a church. Because it starts in the individual churches and escalates until it takes them all down the same path.
To look at Revelation 2 and 3 is to get the answers. Satan has a five-step plan. It's a five-step plan that's to take over the church, to basically do more than neutralize it, but to run it right out of existence. And we see this five-step plan unfolding in seven letters to seven churches from the Lord here in Revelation 2 and 3.
Now the seven churches here were seven actual churches in Asia Minor. In fact, they really run in the sequence of the postal route that began at Ephesus, ran through the country all the way to Leodecia. They were the main sort of regional postal stations from which mail would be disseminated to other areas. And so this was the postal route. And on that main road, that main route, they established seven churches. Those churches were most likely established by influences from the church at Ephesus, which was the mother church were Paul had spent three years of his ministry and that church had grown strong. So out of Ephesus, the message was taken, and other churches were planted.
By the time you reached 96 A.D., this is only a few decades after these churches has been established, they're already beginning to run into serious problems, and the sort of five-step plan of Satan is beginning to show itself. First of all Chapter 2, the angel or the messenger of the church in Epasus is to be told this, "The one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven golden lampstands says this: 'I know your deeds, your toil, perseverance that you can't endure evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles and they are not, and you've found them to be false. And you have perseverance and have endured for My namesake, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you've left your first love. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first, or else I'm coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent. Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. You, as an heir, let him hear what the Spirit says to the church, as to him who overcomes I'll grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.'"
Now this letter is written to be directed at the church at Ephesus many years after Timothy's ministry had concluded at Ephesus. Remember, Paul established the church later on and Timothy ministered there. In fact, Timothy was laboring there when Paul wrote him 1 and 2 Timothy. And Timothy did his task very well. The church was strong in doctrine. He says that to them, "You cannot endure the evil men and you put to test those who call themselves apostles and they are not. And you found them to be false."
So they were pretty clear on their theology and they could measure anybody by that theology. Strong in doctrine, committed to godliness, they couldn't endure evil. They were committed to doing deeds and working hard and persevering, many good things. They endured, "For My namesake," it says in Verse 3, "and didn't even grow weary." But in spite of all these strong elements, strong doctrines, zealous for service, there was a tragedy there indicated in that familiar statement in Verse 4, "You left your first love." Ephesus, you remember was a city where the worship of Dianna, or Artemus, was centered.
And the temple of Dianna was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. According to archeologists, they had 127 pillars, each one made out of marble, given by 127 different kings, each one covered with gold and studded with precious stones. This temple was literally the center of pagan debauchery. There were unics and prostitutes and singers and dancers and flautists and other instrumentalists and all stirring people to a kind of hysteria, a frenzy that ended up in an orgy of sex and even sexual mutilation.
The church had been founded there, according to Acts 19, by Paul. And the birth of the church was so powerful that the whole church was thrown into confusion. People literally burned their idols and they burned their books on magic and created a riot in the city. So huddled in this mass of pagan vice was the church. And for three years, Paul had been their pastor. And they were the ones, really, who founded the other six churches. They later had the privilege of having Timothy as a pastor, having Aquila, and even Apollas, the great Old Testament teacher.
Through the labor of Timothy, they were drawn out of false doctrine. Through the labor of Timothy, they were drawn to solidify around the true faith. And through the leadership of Timothy, they reacted and rejected ungodly leaders, and established godliness as the basic principal of spiritual leadership and Christian living in the church. And they knew what it was to correct lies and to hang onto truth and to fight heresy and to discipline evil men and to confront ungodliness and recognize demon doctrine and even be strengthened by some persecution. So they were strong Christians.
But, even with all the commendation, Verse 4 strikes the tragic note, "You left your first love." And the clear penetrating eyes of Jesus see through see through to the heart of this church. Their hearts had grown cold. Their passion at love for Christ, their zeal for God, their deep sense of thankfulness was becoming cold orthodoxy. It was becoming perfunctory service. First love was gone. Enthusiasm was gone. The thrill was gone. The joy was gone. The honeymoon was over. And the Christian routine took over. They were in a rut.
Like the puritan who once prayed, "Oh God, I know I often do your work without your power, and sin by my dead, heartless, blind service, my lack of inward zeal, love, delight, my mind, heart, tongue moving without your help." That was Ephesus. And this is Step One. This is where it all begins. You lose your first love. You leave that fiery passion, that hot heart. And He says to them in Verse 5, "You gotta get back. You gotta get back." You get back by first remembering from where you've fallen.
Remember the precious love-filled early days. Spiritual defection comes from forgetting. "Trace your memory back to the early joys," He says. It was there at the start. "Remember," and then He says, "Repent and recognize your present state as sinful, even though you're orthodox. Confess your lack of love, your lack of communion with Christ, your lack of worship, your lack of joy." And then he says, "Repeat. Repeat the works. He did it first. Go back and do it the way you did it then."
Well, they didn't. The church failed. The light went out, never to be lit again. I've been to Ephesus; just ruins. And the City of Kuzidaci, which is just a short bus ride away in Turkey, is a city dominated by Islam. That's where the disaster begins. And I think that's where it began in Europe, when that fiery passion of the reformation became cold orthodoxy.
That leads to the second letter, and the second step in Satan's sort of five-step plan. This letter goes, starting in Verse 12. It's actually the third letter, but the second one I want to point to you. The letter to the messenger from the church in Pergamum or Pergamus, "Tell them this, that the One who has the sharp two-edged sword," that's Christ as He's described in Chapter 1 in the vision there, "I know where you dwell. You dwell," Verse 13, "where Satan's thrown is. And you hold fast My name. You didn't deny My faith even in the days of Antipas, My faithful one who was killed among you where Satan dwells.
"But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality. Thus, you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Repent, therefore, or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth. He, who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna. I'll give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it." This is Pergamus.
If Ephesus' fatal flaw was they left their first love, Pergamus' fatal flaw is compromise with the world. I'll tell you something, when love for Christ goes out, the world comes in. This church was in the middle of paganism also. In fact, the Pergamum is basically described as "where Satan's throne is." What an amazing statement. "Where Satan's thrown is." This is the headquarters of Satan's operation. Satan's thrown. Why? Because, well emperor worship was there. It was the head city for the worship of Caesar.
Also, there was in Pergamum, an altar to Zeus that was shaped like a thrown. And it was one of the largest and most renowned alters in the entire ancient world. They also were engaged in the worship of Esculapius, the god of healing. You see him depicted on the medical symbol. He's a snake wrapped around the symbol. He was the Pergumese God. He was a snake. And in the temple, snakes slithered all over the floor and people came in to sleep among them to be healed, demon healing from the prince of demons, the old serpent himself. That was a tough place for a church. But they were there.
And he says, first of all, "You hold fast my name and you haven't denied my faith." They were orthodox. They named the name of Christ. And they held onto the true faith. Even in the day of Anapest, my witness, who was a martyr, was killed among you where Satan dwells. But sadly, in Verse 14, he says, "I have a couple of things against you, a few things. First, Balamism."
You know Balam. He taught the Israelites to intermarry with the heathen, and thus to become what the heathen were. This was a failure to be separated, to get the children of Israel to marry the pagans was to get them to eat things sacrificed to idols, and commit all the acts of immorality the pagans committed. This was a seduction. This was seducing Israel to engage in pagan activity. This is exactly what was going on in Pergamus.
They were there tolerating the teaching of Balam. They were starting to compromise with the world. Same with the Nicolaitans. The Nicolaitans were some kind of a cult of sinful indulgence. Now here was a church that had taken the second step. First, you lose your first love, and when the love of Christ goes out, the world comes in and you begin to compromise with the world and you intermarry with the heathen, and the church and world start to come together, and the church become characterized by sinful indulgence. And there's no church discipline. And there's no high standard of holiness.
Even though the faith is still orthodox, even though you still believe in Christ and you still believe the truth faith, you just tolerate compromising sin and worldliness in the church and there's a failure of separation.
I know that's what happened in Europe. First, the love of Christ went out, and then next thing, the world came in. And certainly we're seeing it, even in the churches in our own nation, aren't we? Churches that would say, "Well, we're evangelical and we believe in Christ and we hold to the orthodox faith." But they kicked the doors wide open for the world to come in full force.
Well, Verse 18 introduces us to Step Three in this process. The third of the letters that I point out to you here is to the church in Thyatira, the Son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire, and feet like burnished bronze; again, drawing descriptions from him that are given in the vision of Chapter 1, referring to Christ, the Lord of the church.
He says this, "I know your deeds, your love, your faith, your service, perseverance, and deeds of later, greater than at first. But I have this against you; you tolerate the woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. She teaches and leads my bondservants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent. She doesn't want to repent of her immorality.
"Behold, I'll cast her on a bed of sickness, those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, lest they repent of her deeds. I'll kill her children with pestilence. All the churches will know that searches the minds and hearts. I'll give to each one of you according to your deeds. But I say to you, the rest who are in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they call them -- I place no other burden on you.
"Nevertheless, what you have, hold fast until I come. And he who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I'll give authority over the nations; and he'll rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from My Father; I will give him the morning sta