Be Still And Know

Revelation 3:19 [The risen Lord said:] “I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference.” This letter to the church in Laodicea was a wake-up call. They were full of self-confidence, but the Lord told them that they had absolutely no reason to feel like that. In a city that prided itself on its wealth, they were told how poor they are. In a region famed for its wool, they were told that they were naked, and there was no humiliation more terrible in the ancient world than that. In an area that was famous for its eye salve for sore eyes, they were told that they were blind. But the Lord hadn’t given up on them. Although he was appalled by their lukewarmness, and shocked by their misplaced self-confidence, he was eager for them to change. His reason for correcting and disciplining them was because he loved them. Discipline is never enjoyable, but when the words are full of love and wisdom, it is a very foolish person who ignores them. I would be intrigued to know what

Revelation 3:14 “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Laodicea. This is the message from the one who is the Amen – the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s new creation.” Nothing is more important in this life than knowing who can be trusted. It is fundamentally important within our family and among our friends, but it is also important with our work colleagues, garage mechanics, plumbers, electricians and all the people who play a crucial part in our lives. This is supremely important when it comes to our faith. Who can we trust with our lives and our eternal future? This letter begins with a firm affirmation that the risen Lord Jesus Christ is totally reliable. He is the Amen, the God of Truth, and he will never let us down. His witness is absolutely true, and he is the one who has ushered in the new creation. For all of these reasons, the Laodicean church needed to listen hard to the words of the risen Lord. What they received certainly weren’t the words they wanted to hear. Lao

Revelation 3:8 [The risen Lord said:] “I know all the things you do, and I have opened a door for you that no one can close. You have little strength, yet you obeyed my word and did not deny me.” These words were written to the church in the prosperous city of Philadelphia. Most of the seven churches were criticised for some aspect of their life, but not this one. They were probably small in number, but they had persevered in the face of opposition and been faithful. The Lord encouraged them that he had opened a door for them, and because he had opened it, no one would be able to close it. What an encouragement this must have been for them! It was clearly tough going for the Christians in Philadelphia, and the danger at such times is that we turn in on ourselves. We just try to survive. I believe that God wants us to keep our minds and hearts open to new possibilities and opportunities. God is always in the business of opening new doors for his people. I love how the apostle Paul constantly looked and pra

Revelation 3:1-2 This is the message from the one who has the sevenfold Spirit of God and the seven stars: “I know all the things you do, and that you have a reputation for being alive – but you are dead. Wake up!” I love that these seven letters to the churches are all completely different. Each church had its own history, strengths and weaknesses, and the risen Lord addressed his words specifically to each situation. The church at Sardis seemed to mirror the city in which it was founded. The city was built on a very steep hill and it was assumed that it would be impossible for an enemy army to attack it successfully. However, on two occasions, attacking forces managed to scale the precipice and conquer the city. They succeeded because the over-confident residents hadn’t felt it necessary to have any guards. Their laziness was their downfall, and now the church was being accused of exactly the same failing. The church in Sardis had a great reputation. They were seen as successful, but the Lord knew the tr

Revelation 2:18-19 This is the message from the Son of God, whose eyes are like flames of fire, whose feet are like polished bronze: “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.” This is the beginning of the letter to the church in Thyatira. It was the smallest and least significant of the seven towns which the risen Lord addressed, and yet they received the longest letter! Thyatira was a busy commercial centre, particularly famous for dyeing wool. You may remember that Lydia, who Paul met in Phillipi and who was the first European convert to Christianity, was a trader in purple cloth and came from Thyatira. There was much to praise in this church. Not only were they loving, faithful, servant hearted and patiently persistent in their faith, but they were also constantly improving. What more could you want? Sadly, they had a problem. They had allowed somebody to infiltrate the church w

Revelation 2:14 [The risen Lord said:] “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.” These letters to the churches in Revelation are wonderfully straightforward and personal. The risen Lord didn’t beat around the bush! He identified that the Christians in Pergamum had much to commend them. They had been loyal to the Lord in the face of great opposition, but they weren’t perfect. They were living in a society that was full of idolatrous practices and they weren’t standing up against them in the way that they should have been. I wonder what the risen Lord makes of your church. What would he be commending, and what might his complaints be? Your church, good as it may well be, isn’t perfect. It has room for growth, and every church needs to be willing to hear the truth so that it can come up with a plan for its development. Over the years, I have been involved in a number of consultation proce

Revelation 2:12-13 This is the message from the one with the sharp two-edged sword: “I know that you live in the city where Satan has his throne, yet you have remained loyal to me.” The city of Pergamum was famous for its commitment to emperor worship. It had three temples that were exclusively devoted to the Roman emperor. Although it didn’t have the long history and grandeur of Ephesus, Pergamum was the Roman capital of this region. It was here that the proconsul lived, who had the power of life and death. This was a supremely difficult place for Christians to live and worship, so the commendation from the risen Lord was all the more powerful. Even though Satan appeared to be in charge, they had remained loyal to the Lord. JRR Tolkien, the author of [itals]The Lord of the Rings[end itals], wrote: “Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.” It is easy to be loyal and faithful when times are good and the going is easy, but the test is what you do when night comes. The Lord looks for followe

Revelation 2:10 The risen Lord said: “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.” It’s hard for most of us to imagine living with the continual likelihood of persecution for our Christian faith. The harshest treatment we are likely to receive is being laughed at because of it. Just imagine what it would be like to live with the fear that at any time there might be a knock at the door from the secret police. For those of us who have never had such an experience, we need to be aware that there are millions of Christians in many parts of the world who live today with exactly that threat. Throughout the past 2,000 years, there has been a constant tide of persecution. The Lord told the church of Smyrna not to be afraid because there would be an amazing reward for their suffering. They would receive the crown of life. This wasn’t the cr

Revelation 2:8-9 This is the message from the one who is the First and the Last, who was dead but is now alive: “I know about your suffering and your poverty – but you are rich!” These words introduce the letter to the church in Smyrna. There was no surprise that the first letter went to Ephesus – it was viewed as the most influential of the cities. However, Smyrna was a close rival. It was a busy commercial centre with its own well-protected port. It had been founded long ago as a Greek colony, but in about 600BC it was largely destroyed by an invading army. Hundreds of years later, it was reconstructed, and it became a finely planned city with broad straight avenues and pavements. It was truly a city that had come back to life, so it was more than appropriate that they received a message from the Lord who had passed from death to life. The Lord’s message was that he totally understood where they were coming from. He knew just how much they had suffered and how grindingly poor they were. The word used for

Revelation 2:7 [The risen Lord says:] “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.” All seven of the letters to the churches end with these words. They make it clear that the letters have been written not merely to them specifically but to anyone with the ability to listen. They are the words of the Spirit, words of life for anyone who will hear them. Tuning our ears into the voice of the Spirit is vital for all of us. The Holy Spirit is the source of life and wisdom, and without him we will never be able to discern God’s will. However, his voice is only one of the innumerable voices with which we are continually bombarded. Listening to the Spirit is an activity which will only take place when we deliberately give him our attention. Most people don’t listen with the intention of understanding, but of replying. We are all looking for the opportunity to share what matters to us and often have no real interest in what the other person has to say. True

Revelation 2:4 [The risen Lord said:] “I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first!” Many of us will be more familiar with an earlier translation of these words: “you have lost your first love”. The Christians in Ephesus had done so well. They had been strong in the face of opposition but, in the process, they had lost their early passionate love for the Lord and for one another. We don’t know what had caused them to lose their first love, but we all know how easily it happens. The normal cause is simply distraction. Life gets busy, and even the most important things can be crowded out. In Ephesus, the Christians had had to work really hard to survive amid all the opposition. They had been infiltrated by false teachers, but they had tested them and found them out. The Lord commended them for standing up so strongly for their faith and particularly for the way they had resisted a group called the Nicolaitans. All of that was excellent, but along the way they had

Revelation 2:2 [The risen Lord said,] “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.” These words come from the first of the seven letters to the churches, and they were addressed to the church in Ephesus. Pergamum was the capital city of the province of Asia, but Ephesus was in every way the greatest city. It had the largest port in the area and many major roads converged on it. It was particularly famous for its religious significance. The city was home to one of the seven wonders of the ancient world – the Temple of Artemis. It was a vast structure measuring 130 by 60 metres, and with 120 columns. Ephesus was also a notorious centre for pagan superstition. In short, it wasn’t the easiest place to establish a church, and the Christians were commended for their hard work and endurance. They could so easily have buckled in the face of the challenges, but they hadn’t. The word from the risen Lord to the Ephesian church was that he

Revelation 1:12-14 John wrote: “When I turned to see who was speaking to me, I saw seven gold lampstands. And standing in the middle of the lampstands was someone like the Son of Man. He was wearing a long robe with a gold sash across his chest. His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow.” In order to understand these amazing verses, we need to appreciate that the Church at the time was very small and facing the brutal and powerful opposition of the Roman Empire. This must have been incredibly scary. It looked as if they were going to be crushed. So, it was vital for them to understand exactly who Jesus was and the reasons why they could be confident in him. This whole book told them that Jesus had won the final victory, so, even though there might be tough times ahead, they could be confident in him. The picture of Jesus that John gives us here sounds very strange to our modern ears, but what he was doing was bringing together lots of language from the Old Testament which showed that Jes

Revelation 1:10-11 It was the Lord’s Day, and I was worshipping in the Spirit. Suddenly, I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet blast. It said: “Write in a book everything you see, and send it to the seven churches in the cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.” For many years after Jesus’ earthly ministry, his followers continued to meet on Saturday, and those from a Jewish background maintained their attendance at the temple or their local synagogue. However, by the beginning of the second century, the special day for Christians had become Sunday, the first day of the week, the day of resurrection. John’s reference here to the Lord’s Day is the only time this expression is used in the Bible and almost certainly refers to his practice of worshipping on a Sunday. The first manual of Christian worship and instruction was called the Didache, and it observed: “On the Lord’s Day we meet and break bread.” Ignatius of Antioch described Christians as “no longer l

Revelation 1:9 I, John, am your brother and your partner in suffering and in God’s Kingdom and in the patient endurance to which Jesus calls us. I was exiled to the island of Patmos for preaching the word of God and for my testimony about Jesus. Unfortunately, we cannot be sure who this John was. Some people have thought of him as the disciple who wrote the fourth gospel, but that is unlikely. The writing style in Revelation is very different from that of the gospel. However, what we do know is that he was clearly a significant Christian leader and, as a result of his ministry, he had been forced into exile in Patmos, a Greek island that lies off the coast of Turkey. He had probably been sentenced to work in the quarries on the island. John revealed himself both as a brother to his readers and also as a partner in their suffering. He was not writing this book from an ivory tower but standing among them, recognising that they were part of the same family and going through similar trials. In short, he unders

Revelation 1:8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega – the beginning and the end,” says the Lord God. “I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come – the Almighty One.” Everybody is interested in the future, and the book of Revelation is designed to help us as we prepare ourselves for it. If you were looking for a map or a timetable of events, you will be sadly disappointed. What the book gives us is a vision of God, who is so powerful that however great and fierce the opposition, he will be victorious. The book of Revelation is intended not to scare us or tantalise us but to give us confidence in our God, who has the whole of history in his hands. Our verse today beautifully describes how history is embraced by God. Using the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, God is described as being the Alpha and the Omega. He was there before the dawn of creation, and he will have the final word. He is described here as the Almighty, a description that is used nine times in this book, and only once

Romans 16:3-5 Give my greetings to Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in the ministry of Christ Jesus. In fact, they once risked their lives for me. I am thankful to them, and so are all the Gentile churches. Also give my greetings to the church that meets in their home. This final chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans contains greetings to a number of specific people. It gives us a fascinating window into the early Church. We find that the Roman church was incredibly diverse in terms of race, social rank and gender. We can see in the following verses that it was composed of people from both Jewish and Gentile backgrounds. Some of the people have names that were common among slaves, but alongside them we meet people like Aristobulus who, many scholars suggest, was the grandson of Herod the Great and friend of the Emperor Claudius. Particularly notable is the fact that of the 26 people named, nine of them were women. It’s also interesting to note that six of these women are described in terms of their mi

Romans 15:30 Dear brothers and sisters, I urge you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to join in my struggle by praying to God for me. Do this because of your love for me, given to you by the Holy Spirit. It is an incredible privilege to belong to the Christian family. As soon as you become a Christian, you have brothers and sisters who are part of your new worldwide and eternal family. I treasure that moment recorded in Acts 9:17 when Ananias went to meet Saul after his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus. Ananias knew of Saul’s violent reputation and he was clearly surprised at the news that he had met the Lord, but we read that Ananias went into the house where Saul was staying, placed his hands on him and said: “Brother Saul.” What a miracle! In today’s verse, Paul speaks of how his brothers and sisters could join him in his struggle. There is no doubt of their love and respect for Paul, and I am sure that they were eager to do whatever they could to support him. Paul told them that the

Romans 15:23-24 But now I have finished my work in these regions, and after all these long years of waiting, I am eager to visit you. I am planning to go to Spain, and when I do, I will stop off in Rome. And after I have enjoyed your fellowship for a little while, you can provide for my journey. Paul’s love for the church in Rome is very clear, and he couldn’t wait to visit them. I love how he sets out his strategy so clearly. He was always looking to develop the mission of the Church, so, having paid them a visit, he then aimed to go to Spain to preach the gospel. In order to enable that mission to succeed, he would be looking to the Roman church to support him. These few verses give us an insight into Paul’s heart and his plans, but, as we all know, it didn’t work out in the way that he had hoped. His first task was to go to Jerusalem to take the money he had collected for the relief of the famine victims. He knew that it would be a potentially dangerous journey. His presence in Jerusalem was never goi

Romans 15:13 I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. Hope is a slippery word, so we need to be quite clear what Paul means by it. When we use the word ‘hope’, there is normally a ‘maybe’ in our voice – we are not confident. When I say “I hope it will be sunny tomorrow”, you know that I mean well and would love to think that it might be sunny, but I also realise that it might not be. Or if I say I hope the train will arrive on time, once again you know that I’m not absolutely sure it will. In order to understand Paul’s use of the word ‘hope’, we need to get rid of any suggestion of doubt, because he was absolutely confident that the future was secure in God’s hands. His future hope was built on the solid rock of Jesus’ death and resurrection. He didn’t have any trace of doubt that what God has promised would come true. The language of confident hope was so imp