August 25, 2019 Back from Vacation! Notes Not Edited
Great Expectations
Rev. 2:1-7
SIS: We can expect great things when we
passionately love the Lord and are sacrificially serving Him.
Those of you who are literary types will recognize I’ve taken my title
for this sermon from the classic tale by Charles Dickens, the novel, Great
Expectations. It was first published in
serial form in the publication All the Year Round[ from December 1860 to August 1861. It has been
adapted for stage and screen over 250 times. The main character is a seven years
old orphan named, Pip. The title refers
to Pip’s "great
expectations" which are many dimensional and ever-evolving. His
great expectations arrive in the form of his fortune and are embodied in his dream of becoming a
gentleman. Each of the three
parts of the novel treats a different expectation, and we watch how Pip changes
in the face of his changing expectations.
Another
famous treatment of the idea of “Great
Expectations” came from a shoe maker in England who has come to be known as the
“Father of Modern Missions.” William
Carey died at the age of 72 in India after an almost miraculous career
considering his humble beginnings as a cobbler.
The idea of “great expectations” applied to the life of believers comes
from a sermon Carey
preached in 1872. The sermon had two main points: 1.
Expect great things from God; 2) Attempt great things for God. The entire modern missionary movement to this
day rests upon the principle of “Great expectation” presented in Carey’s
sermon.
What we get out of life has a lot to do with what
we expect. In this
sense, life is mostly a “self-fulfilling prophesy of sorts.” It is possible to expect too much and be
disappointed, or expect to little and be satisfied. The latter to me seems much less preferable.
Reaching the end of a job interview, the
Technical Recruiter asked a young Engineer fresh out of MIT, "And what
starting salary were you looking for?"
The Engineer said, "In the neighborhood of $125,000 a year,
depending on the benefits package."
The recruiter
said, "Well, what would you say to a package of 5 weeks vacation, 14 paid
holidays, full medical and dental,
company matching retirement fund to 50% of
salary, and a company car leased every
2 years - say, a red Corvette?"
The Engineer sat up straight and said, "Wow!
Are you kidding?"And the recruiter replied, "Yes, but you started it."
There will never be great success—in work or worship—unless there are
“great expectations.” Great Expectations
have several ingredients.
1.
It requires lots of energy (v. 2, “works”)
2 I know your works (erga, en erga =
energy)
Ephesus was a great
church because it was a “doing church.”
It was full of “works.” Doctrine
is important, but doctrine without deeds is dead (to paraphrase the Apostle
James.” God ordained the church to “do
something.” That’s why we are called
“ministers” or “servants.” You might
even call us “do-gooders.” Pastors are
not the only ministers, or servants, in the church. We are all called to serve. Remember what God said through the Apostle
Peter,
(1 Pet 2:9) 9 But
you are a chosen race, x a royal priesthood, aa holy nation, a people for His possession, eso that you may proclaim the
praises g of the One who
called you out of darkness into His
marvelous light.
And the book of Ephesians
makes it clear that everyone called to be saved, is also called to serve:
(Eph 2:8-9) For
you are saved by grace through faith,
and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— 9 not from
works, so that no one can boast.
Now here’s where many
church members, particularly Baptists climb into the back seat to take a
nap. “We are not saved by
works!” That is certainly true,
no amount of activity will bring salvation.
But, let’s not stop so short.
Continue reading in verse 10
10 For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God
prepared ahead of time so that we should
walk [progress] in them.
We are called to be
busy working in the Kingdom of God. A
great church is full of “do-gooders” energetically ministering in the name of
Jesus. A great church is full of energy
and activity.
I remember studying microbiology in high school. One of the “signs of life” we were told was
movement. There are exceptions to this
rule, but in general living things “Move.”
It is true also for a church. A church
that is alive is always on the move. It
is full of energy and activity. Yes,
there are moments of quiet reflection, and there always should be. But, as a whole a church that is alive has
lots of energy.
The other day a lady
was driving her car on a country road and she got a flat tire. She managed to get it jacked up, but she did
not have a clue as to how to change the tire.
Fortunately, before long a man came by and spotted this lady. She was just staring at the flat. The man stopped and fixed her flat. As he was tightening the last nut, the lady
said, “I really thank you. I don’t know
a single thing about changing a tire.” The
gentleman replied as he stood up to let the jacked up car down, “We’ll Ma’am, you shouldn’t have to. This is no job for a lady.” The lady then
replied, “Oh, please let the car down slowly, my husband is taking a nap on the back seat!”
That’s how so many
church members are: they are taking a nap while people a stuck on the side of
the road in sin. This will never do! A growing, great church is full of energy and
activity. Christianity is not a
spectator sport—it is a full contact sport.
There is no time to nap in a great church. It is full of energy and activity.
2.
It requires lots of sacrifice (v 2b)
(Rev 2:2) I know your deeds, your hard work
Not all activity is
“hard work.” A lot of the activities in
church are “just plain fun.” Worship
certainly isn’t hard work. Fellowship certainly
isn’t hard work. Eating gourmet
hamburgers–that’s certainly not hard work.
So much of what we do in church is just plain fun! But, some of what we do we have to admit is just
hard work! Great churches
require great sacrifice—that’s just how it is!
Giving to support the ministry of the
church when you are barely making ends meet yourself–that’s hard work. Being
there when a Christian brother or sister goes through some great trial is
hard work. Visiting the sick is hard work. Feeding the poor, clothing the
naked, and picking up the fallen—that’s just hard work. Searching for and
sharing the gospel with lost people—well, that’s just hard work!
Being
at church for a committee
meeting when you have a thousand other “priorities”—that’s hard work. Living a
consistent Christian life where you work so that others see what difference
knowing Christ makes—that’s hard work. Being a great church filled with great
Christians takes a great amount of sacrifice. There’s no way around it. Ephesus was a great church because it was not
afraid of a little “hard
work.”
Ephesus
was a hard place to minister. It was one
of the most commercially successful cities in the Roman Empire. Along with this “material” success, as is
always the case, came immoral excess.
The city was the site of the Temple
of Artemis, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. People in the city were thoroughly
pagan. Prostitution was rampant because
the worship of Artemis included sexual indulgence and the prostitutes were considered
preistesses. The city was full of
criminals according to ancient records.
It was a safe-haven since, as a “free-city,” there was no Roman military
garrisoned there. It was a highly
successful, thoroughly corrupt metropolis.
It was a hard place to minister.
The word translated “labor”
(HCSB) (“hard work” in the NIV; “toil,” NASB; “Labor,”
KJV) is a very strong word. The root
of the original word is associated with grief, or psychological pain. It can mean “to be harassed.” It can mean “to be beaten down.” I guarantee that if you accept the
challenge of living a consistent Christian life trying to do good, and be good,
in this world, you will experience pain: certainly emotional, perhaps even
physical. Being a Christian is “hard
work.” That’s why Ephesus was a
great church. One of the ingredients in
this church was a willingness to sacrifice.
A great church requires lots of sacrifice—hard work.
Reaching Globe for
Christ will require great sacrifice—more than some people will be willing to
give. It will take great sacrifices of
our time, our talents, and our treasures.
3.
It requires a lot of determination (vv 2-3)
2b and your endurance, . . . [now look at verse 3] 3 You also possess endurance
and have tolerated ⌊many
things⌋
because of My name and have not grown weary.
(HCSB)
The Christian life is an endurance race–not a
sprint.
The success with living a Christian life—like
success in general—is not usually measured by speed, but by distance.
Do you remember the Fable about the tortoise
and the rabbit—the tortoise wins because the rabbit starts fast but tires
out. The tortoise keeps pluggin’
along. The moral of that story is: “Slow
and steady wins the race.”
Here’s Pastor Jack’s
Simple Summary Version of Rev. 2:2: “You
have stayed at your post with dogged determination in the face of great
harassment and difficulties.” The
word for endurance “to stay put in the face of imminent danger or attack.”
When you are
constantly being harassed or challenged for doing something, the human tendency
is to avoid the activity—to drop out of the race.
A man went the doctor complaining, “Doc, when I lift my arm up like
this it hurts. What should I do?” The doctor said, “Stop lifting your arm up
like that,” charged him $50 for an office
visit and sent the man home. It’s
sometimes temptingly ease to avoid pain by avoiding any action that causes
it. That never leads to greatness. When something requires hard work and
sacrifice the human tendency is to quit, to give up, to bail out, to blame
someone, to make excuses—to do anything but keep on with a bull-dogged
determination.
When Joey was born
his feet were horribly twisted upward with the bottoms resting on his
tummy. He was born with a condition
called, “club feet.” The doctors were able to comfort the
first-time parents a little by saying that with treatment Joey would at least be able to walk, but would never
be able to run. Joey spent the first three years of his life in surgery,
or wearing casts or braces, having regular massages to keep his muscles
flexible. By
the time he was seven, you wouldn’t even know he had a problem if you
watched him walk. However, he could not walk very far without his legs
aching badly. He would have to stop
often to rest. Joey’s mom and dad decided not to tell Joey
that his weak legs were the result of a birth defect—they didn’t tell him, so he didn’t know. When the neighborhood children would run
around and jump as children do, Joey joined right in. His running was more labored and awkward, but
his parents never told him
he wasn’t like the other children.
They never told him, so
he didn’t know. In seventh grade Joey
decided to try out for the cross-country
team. His running ability was not
natural like the other children so he had to work much harder—which he
did. His parents never told him that even if he made the
team, he’d always be at the back of the pack.
His parents never
told him that he probably wouldn’t even make the team. His parents never told him that even if he
made the team, only the top seven runners
could score points for the team in a meet.
His parents never
told him, so he
didn’t know.
He continued to run
four to five miles every day. Even one
day when he had a 103
degree temperature, he went to practice (against his mother’s advice)
and with sweat running down his face like small rivers, he finished his
required mileage. His parents never told him he
could not run four to five miles with a 103 degree fever. They never told him, so he didn’t know. Though he was not one of the top seven
“scorers,” Joey never gave
up. The day before the next to
the last meet of the
season, the names of the top seven “scorers” was announced for the
up-coming contest. Joey was number six on
the list. He was the only seventh
grader. The other six were
eight-graders. You see, Joey didn’t know that kids born with club
feet can’t make the track team—Joey didn’t know it, so it didn’t matter. What mattered was his determination. (adapted from Chicken Soup #3)
Don’t quit: as long
as you can limp along, you can when the race of life. Never give up—never! Determination is not
only one of the ingredients for a great church it is an ingredient for a great
life!
What are the
ingredients for a great church? They
are: energy, sacrifice, and determination. But, the most important ingredient of all is:
4.
PASSION (v. 4)
4 But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love
⌊you had⌋ at first. [literally your “first love.”]
Jesus said to this
great church in Ephesus, “You are
doing really good in most areas like doctrine and duty, but you don’t have the
same PASSION you had when we first fell in love.” You have forsaken our first love.
The word here translated,
“left” (forsaken) usually means “Willful
abandonment.” It can also mean, “long-term neglect.” The results are the same. We can
put out a campfire by willfully pouring water on it, or we can let it die out
slowly–the result is the same–no more fire!
A dream can die as surely by apathy as by attack.
It is possible
to give God our service, without giving God ourselves.
The word first comes
from Classical Greek with three uses:
1. spatially, as in front
(dropped from common use); 2. temporally, as in time of occurrence; 3. qualitatively,
as in prominence or importance. The
first use dropped out of common use. How
do these second two uses apply in this verse for our lives today?
I see this happening
every day in marriages. Many people
manage to stay married long after the passion of the first kiss is
forgotten. Though not legally divorced,
the marriage is for all intents and purposes–is dead. This
is a picture of too many churches, today: full of programs, but empty of
passion. Jesus declares this type of
churches, for all practical purposes to be, “dead.”
Like a marriage, a
great church needs passion to keep bringing more children into the family of
God. I hope we, as God’s people will
never feel there are enough “new children” in our church. I hope we will remember the passion we had
when we first became Christians.
Without a PASSION for Christ, there is no difference between
the church and any number of social clubs.
What are the ingredients of a great church? It is full of energy and activity. It is full of sacrifice and hard work. It is full of determination. But, most of all, it is full of a PASSION for
the Person of Christ. Put these ingredients
in the mix, expect a “great church” to pop out of the oven. But these are also the ingredients for a
great life. To get the right result, you
have to add the right incredients. Let
me ask you a question: “How’s your life cookin’?”
My friend, if your bread
is flat, maybe you’re missing the most important ingredient: “a passionate love for and devoted service
to the Lord Jesus Christ.” Just like
putting yeast in dough makes the bread rise, getting back to our FIRST LOVE makes
our “expectations rise. “Let’s attempt great things
for God, and expect great things from God!”
