Examining our lives in their light – Part 3

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This week we are reviewing the churches of Thyatira and Sardis. As in our former message on Thyatira, my take is quite a bit different than the majority but I can only rightly teach what I clearly see in scripture. The one advantage in this case is that both my view and the common one both reveal truth, even if it does not perfectly represent the exact situation Jesus was addressing in this church.

Both regarding Thyatira and Sardis the call was to repentance.

Thyatira was a good church who were active in all the arenas of life Paul typically addresses in his letters to the churches. They were loving God and their brethren, their faith was growing, active and producing the fruit of their union with Christ, they were living their faith in their service in kingdom work and they possessed steadfast endurance.

There could hardly be a better report Jesus could give and in addition to all of this, their most recent works were greater than their first!

The fact that Jesus had to address them should be a wake up call to all who fall short in the areas in which He praised them. Almost any church today would be well satisfied if they were living lives like these!

Then in Sardis they believed they were in the condition of the church of Thyatira – accepting the testimony of their human observers who all said theirs was an alive church. Jesus testified that they were in fact quite dead, possessing only the last vestiges of an ever weakening pulse.

Jesus goes on record as saying that what makes a church alive is their works of righteousness of which the believers in Sardis were tangibly bereft. If it had not been for the faithfulness of our Lord, they would have slipped off into spiritual death and never have noticed their final denial of Christ.

Both letters are sobering warnings against our involvement with this world and failing to address sin and safeguard against ungodly influence and teachings of the world around us. Many Christians have been tempted into deception by heeding the words of a flashy preacher or influential, self proclaimed prophet – thinking they were revealing something deeper than they were getting within the safety of their sheepfold. Paul himself said, that though he was not eloquent and captivating in speech they had never heard the gospel ever taught as clearly and accurately as they had from him.

There is MUCH to be said in favor of clear, careful exposition of God’s word!

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Old Testament Review – Deuteronomy Part 3 & Joshua Part 1

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This week we wrapped up Deuteronomy with a comparison between the blessings Jacob pronounced over his sons in Genesis 49 and those Moses proclaims over the 12 tribes before going into the Promised Land. We then read the final chapter of Deuteronomy which covers Moses’ seeing the Promised Land from afar, his death and his burial by God’s Own hand.

Then we read the 1st chapter of Joshua which sets the pace for the entire book and addressed particulars regarding the biblical account of Jericho, the city of Palms and modern archeological verifications of the biblical account.

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Examining our lives in their light – Part 2

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This week we are reviewing the church of Pergamum. This letter and the next are very similar and a little unexpected. In both, it was not those who were sinning who Jesus was addressing with the need to repent, but those who were faithful. Jesus was addressing the fact that they had failed to curtail the advancement of false teaching in the hearts of some in the church. There is no indicator that these were actually spreading their false notions, but they were FOLLOWING false teachings which was very much like that of the Nicolaitans.

We generated a simple list of 5 things every church could do in order to walk out their love for their brother and sister in Christ as well as their honor of Jesus in ways which would sidestep the pitfalls the faithful of Pergamum had fallen into.

1. Stay connected
2. Participate in “the Fellowship” and the “breaking of bread”
3. Pray for and with one another
4. Seek God’s face regarding your siblings in Christ – regarding areas of concern and for grace to impart
5. Don’t be silent and be receptive

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Old Testament Review – Deuteronomy Part 2

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Last week in our overview of Deuteronomy we covered Deut. 1, 3, 7 & 20 – Who the 7 nations were Israel was to kill all of and what 2 kings they conquered during their wanderings.

This week we are covering the rest of the book save the last 2 chapters.

Main points covered were:

• The nations God would NOT give Israel that He had already given to others.
• The reason why God gives land to nations and takes it from others
• That the time periods each nations has is predetermined by the foreknowledge and justice & mercy of God.
• The Shema
• The various idiomatic meanings for the word “destroy” in relations to the nations God called Israel to conquer.
• Moses explaining the why, when and who regarding his replacement by Joshua.
• Joshua’s inauguration and commission by God before the tent of meeting.
• The Blessings and Cursings
• The updated and amended covenant with Israel’s 2nd generation.
• The terms of Israel keeping the land which differ slightly from other nations.
• The consequences for disobedience.
• Where Solomon got the prayer he prayed at the dedication of the temple in 2 Chronicles 7-8.
• The predicted future unfaithfulness of Israel.
• The song of Moses and its prophetic scope leading all the way to the Millennial kingdom.

Next week we will cover chapters 33-34.

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Church Letters

Examining our lives in their light – Part 1

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In review and IN VIEW of examining our lives in the light of it, we are taking the last 4 months of teaching on all Jesus wrote to the 7 churches of Asia Minor. This is part of living a life ‘From Faith to Faith’, because it call upon us to examine our lives in light of scripture and look to God in trust to form Christ within.

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