Revelation 1:17-2:7; 3:14-22  - Corporate repentance: A stern warning and a delightful promise

Introduction

The story of Joshua chapter 7 of the sin of Achan is very telling in regards to corporate sin. Achan after hearing explicitly that he was not to take things devoted to God because it would bring trouble on Israel, did. We read in Joshua 7 that it was the people of Israel who “broke faith in regard to the devoted things.” Because of this the Lord’s anger burned against Israel and then in the next battle, 36 men were killed. Notice that God held all of Israel accountable for the sin of one. Why?

Israel, God’s people are a covenant people. There isn’t one covenant for Achan and another for Joshua and the elders. They are all one people before God.

Corporate guilt is very real. Though we may not have directly participated in it, we can be affected by things that happened before we were ever on the scene. We should repent for the things that were done before us that were left in an unrepentant state so that we will not continue to reap the fruit of that unconfessed and unrepented sin.

I know this sounds funny to our modern individualistic ears here in America, but it is true and it is biblical. Joshua 7 isn’t the only place we see it. In the book of Daniel chapter 9, Daniel repents on behalf of Israel of things he didn’t do personally. In the book of Ezra chapter 9, Ezra repents of things he didn’t personally do. Even Jesus in Matthew 3 enters into a baptism of repentance for sins he didn’t commit. He makes John the Baptist baptize him, and his Father even publicly declares his innocence. Corporate guilt is real and things that were not repented of in the past by the corporation must be confessed and repented over in order for God’s blessing to return.

Why is this for us as Christians? It has to do with the reality of our union with Christ. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 6, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. …Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

We are all one in Christ as Galatian 3:28 teaches us. Romans 5:12-21 teaches a covenantal understanding that we are all guilty in Adam. You might be thinking to yourself, “How is this fair?” “How can a whole community be held accountable for one man’s actions?” Well, it also teaches a covenantal understanding that all who believe are all cleansed in Christ. So, I answer this question with another, “How can one man’s work of redemption be applied to all who believe?

Now, will I be held liable for my father’s actual sins? Absolutely not, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t experience the judgment for them. For instance, if you are a child, and your dad has a drinking or gambling problem, will you be affected? Absolutely. But, if I am not a part of your family, will I be affected? Possibly. If he drives drunk and smashes into someone. In fact, there is a sense that someone’s personal sin does affect the entire corporation.

Think about an employee or government official who embezzles funds. Their sin brings shame and guilt upon the entire city or corporation. When they do this, if justice is not brought to bear, the corporation is being complicit with them and now is thus involved in their guilt. The implications of this are far-reaching. It impacts nations, churches, and families. Any institution like this that has representative leadership: mayors, elders, fathers and mothers, is duty-bound to exercise justice and mercy. When they don’t, they are complicit in the guilt and are thus held guilty before God. And quite frankly, even people and nations hold others accountable like this.

Because of this fact, and the fact that some institutions explicitly say they are led by Christ, God will discipline those, others who reject his rule are simply judged and punished. But for those who are under Christ his discipline is meant to lead them to repentance. This is what we are going to see today in our text.

Corporate entities, like the church, who are led by elders, will be judged and they will eventually be closed down unless they turn to God in zealous repentance. Jesus stands at the door of our and every church and knocks, asking us to let him come in and eat with us. The fellowship of Jesus that we experience or don’t experience and the longevity of our church is dependent upon whether we will turn from our sin and follow him.

Background

For brevity, I’m going to read verbatim the introduction from the ESV Bible by Crossway.

“The revelation of Jesus Christ” was probably written by the apostle John while in exile on the island of Patmos, off the coast of present-day Turkey. It was addressed to seven actual churches. Revelation begins with letters from Christ himself to these churches, letters that include commendation, criticism, and comfort. Then comes a long series of visions of judgment on the wicked, all in highly symbolic language. The church is depicted under great distress but is assured of the final triumph of Jesus as “King of kings and Lord of lords”, bringing to an end the rebellion of humanity and ushering in “a new heaven and a new earth”, where God himself will reign forever and ever. Revelation was probably written a.d. 95–96.

Exposition

Our passage begins with the apostle John lying in fear on the ground as if he was dead. Why? He is before King Jesus. It takes the right hand of Jesus touching him and Jesus’ words being spoken to him to take away his fear. King Jesus, the first and last, the one who was put to death but rose again on the third day defeated death and hell and now holds their keys, in other words, anyone found in Christ has victory over death and hell. In Christ we are more than conquerors.

Jesus then tells John to write everything down in this book we call Revelation…it is the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

Jesus is in and in charge of his true churches (1:17-2:1)

Jesus then gives John a sort of key to unlocking the meaning of two very important things that he will mention in this book. First, the seven stars at Jesus’ right hand. Second, the seven lamp stands.

The seven lamp stands are clearly spelled out, they are the seven churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. These were real churches in real cities with real people and real elders.

But what are the seven stars, the "angels" of the seven churches? Are these sinless angels that were put in charge of these particular churches, to watch over them? Are these a reference to the personification or the prevailing spirit of the church? Are these messengers sent by John to these churches? Though some argue these three (and other) points of view, I would say, probably not. The Greek word here angeloi, can mean spiritual beings, angels for sure, and does in most of this book, quite frankly, I don't know of anywhere it means prevailing spirit, but it can also mean messengers, or envoys as seen in the Gospels referring to John or the spies referenced in James.

In other words, these could either be literal angels, the prevailing spirit in the churches, messengers that John was sending, or the messengers that Jesus has commissioned for these churches. Since these “angels” are faulted for how the churches are going, however, my personal view is that it is unlikely they are spiritual beings, literal angels, because they would then be responsible for sin since they are told to repent. More than likely these are the pastors or elders of these churches that were sent forth and commissioned by Christ. These pastors or elders than are either faulted or approved by how the church was functioning at the time. This makes these letters make perfect sense to me anyway.

In my view then, if you look at 1:20 and 2:1 you can see that these pastors or elders are held in Jesus’ right hand. What does this mean? It is supposed to show us something. Your pastors and elders are in Christ's right hand, in other words, they are under Christ’s absolute control. They are supposed to be being ruled by Christ and executing his will for the church. And this is where the rub is. The elders and the churches have wandered from Jesus' control. They are doing some of the things that Jesus wants, but in other areas they are doing whatever they want. More on this in a bit.

But there is something else we see in chapter 2 verse 1 that is quite marvelous. Jesus walks among the lamp stands or the churches. In other words Jesus is not only in absolute control of the elders but he is present in his churches. This is why he knows what is going on there and airs his list of grievances against the churches.

Repent and turn back to loving Jesus (2:2-7)

This idea that Christ is among them should have been striking and cut the church at Ephesus to the heart since they are said to have left their first love, even Jesus. How could this church at Ephesus that had Jesus walking in their midst have left him? It is preposterous. Even though the church at Ephesus was faithful in some areas, like not being able to put up with people who are evil, discerning false apostles and calling them out, suffering for Jesus’ name, for his honor, and hating those who had false beliefs concerning God and supported immorality, they still had abandoned their love that they had for Jesus at first. In other words, their love for Jesus had grown cold and possibly for others even though their fight against false doctrine and immorality hadn't. It seems like their love may have shifted from Jesus to a love for making sure things were just right within the church, either doctrinally (which isn't wrong), or ethically (which isn't wrong). But these things for their own sake and not for Jesus' sake and for his love are a problem.

Because of this, they must repent. They must repent of their emotional coldness or lack of intensity of love toward Christ and quite possibly toward others and continue to do the works they did at first. They were to remember how Jesus was their first love, and they were to show his love to others, repent of their coldness toward him, and turn to a white hot flame of love for him as it was when they first met Christ. And live in his love toward others. They are to do the same good works out of love for Jesus not just a love for being right. In other words, don't stop holding to the morality of Scripture. Don't stop holding to the theology of Scripture. Just do both of these out of a genuine heart of love for Christ.

Jesus then gives a stern warning to them. If they refuse to repent and go back to pursuing and loving Jesus with a white hot flame of love, he will close their church down, he will remove the lampstand.

Notice how this warning is given to the minister or elder first. The elders must repent of their own coldness to Christ. They must repent of how they led and allowed the coldness of the people toward Christ to grow. The elders must repent and turn back to living as those who are held in Jesus’ right hand, who are stirring up the people to act out of love to Jesus who walks among their church.

Notice how they are commended for being in line with Jesus' hatred for the Nicolatians who were known for their pagan religion and immoral behavior. This is good, but as was just said, this isn’t enough. God’s people must be actively loving and pursuing Christ and doing all actions from this.

Jesus gives an amazing promise to the Ephesians and to us if they/we will return to their/our first love.  They will get to eat of the tree of life in the paradise of God. In other words, as they live and delight in Christ in the present, feeding upon him, they will continue to do so in heaven for all eternity. Yet, there is a very real sense that if we no longer love Christ in the present, it shows that it was never about him and we really aren't joined to him, so we won't live with him forever.

What is the take away here? Repentance is corporate. The church is a corporate entity. If the church is lethargic in its love for Jesus, the elders must repent for allowing it to get that way, and the people must join them in repentance for not keeping their love for Jesus strong even through the difficulties. You see, even if I or the Session have failed you in the past, or will fail you in the future by letting the church's love for Christ dwindle, that does not put you off the hook. Your love for Christ must remain no matter what happens around you.

Having said this, since the elders have been put in place by Jesus and are accountable for shepherding the sheep, we must lead in repentance. We must demonstrate for you that as Martin Luther said, "When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, 'Repent,' he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance." Whenever we as elders or you and I as individuals and families have been complacent or complicit in letting our love for Christ dwindle, we must repent and turn back to Jesus.

Think back on Joshua 7. And our illustration about a father’s drunkenness or gambling habit. If the elders of the church have not been zealous in loving God’s commands and following them, of teaching God’s people to do the same, and have not been vigilant in shepherding God’s people into Christ, the people will suffer, the church will suffer, and it seems from what Jesus says to Ephesus, he will close the church down. Those accountable must repent. But more than this, the sins of the past that brought us to where we are must be repented of corporately. Like Achan, there will be no success without removing the accursed thing. If elders have been harsh with our people, lax in evangelism, not listening to the voice of Jesus, not ministering to our community, or simply just failing to lead well, we must repent for this and turn back to Jesus. But, if you as people have failed in any of the same ways you must also repent and turn back to Jesus.

But we must not look at this and be depressed or discouraged. We must see, as the letter to the church in Laodicea says, that the Lord reproves and disciplines the ones he loves. As a son he disciplines us. We know we are his children when he comes to the “angels” of the churches and commands them to repent. This is a sign of his grace, his love, and his desire to use them for the future and continue to be with them.

Repentance leads to great joy as Psalm 51 is clear to show us. In other words, Jesus by convicting us is trying to give us joy. This is amazing. We should not forget this.

Repent and turn back to pursuing Jesus (3:14-3:22)

Jesus opens his letter to the elders of Laodicea proclaiming that he is the Amen, the Truth. He is faithful and true, the beginning of God’s creation. In other words, Jesus is the first fruit of God’s new creation and the one who created everything, the one who is the source of all. What he says can be taken to the bank and cashed. He never lies.

Hot waters are medicinal and cold waters are refreshing. But Laodicea is warm. Unlike Colossae, 10 miles east which had cold, pure drinking water which was refreshing, and Hierapolis, 6 miles north which had hot springs that were medicinal, Laodicea was just like the waters they were receiving from their aqueduct, tepid and contaminated with minerals, good for nothing. Jesus wants them to either be healing or refreshing but instead they are gross, like warm water.

They were caught up in their wealth and self-sufficiency. They thought they had everything that they needed, but they were impoverished because they could do nothing without abiding in Christ. They were abiding in their own strength and not in Jesus and so they were useless, empty, and worthless. They were not offering life or healing to their community because they were caught up in themselves.

A church to be a true church must be inhabited by Jesus Christ, it must abide in him. It must do nothing unless it hears its master Jesus tell it to do it. It must not do things because it has always done it that way, or because it might be better if they did it that way, but instead, it must be directed by Christ and his Spirit.

They must come to Jesus for their riches, not their own ideas or plans. They must come to Jesus for their clothing, not their own righteousness. They must come to Jesus to have their blinded eyes healed. Jesus must give sight to their eyes so they see him. Jesus is everything to a true church in which Jesus walks among them.

But this rebuke should give you courage and comfort because it shows that you are loved by Jesus. When Jesus controls his elders, reproving and disciplining them, calling them to repent and calling his people to repent it means that Jesus is actively engaged in his church. It actually shows that he loves them.

Jesus reproves and disciplines us because he loves us. And there is only one response if we don’t want him to close our doors. When he brings conviction, we must be zealous and repent. We must be intensely serious about what he says and eager to obey him by repenting.

Jesus is at his church’s door knocking, he wants to come in and sit with us and eat with us. He wants us to drink of his living waters and eat of his body. He wants to come into us, sit down with us, and eat with us. In other words, he wants to fellowship with us.

For this to happen in this church and in any church, it is going to require one simple thing, be zealous and repent. When we do, we will have conquered sin in him, and we are promised that we will reign with him in eternity, sitting with him on his throne. In other words, we are promised to share with him in his reign. What a glorious promise.

This message to the churches is coming from the Spirit of Christ. When Jesus speaks to the church through his Spirit, the church must listen and act upon what it hears.

Application

So what does this mean? First, our church, whether we want to admit it or not has corporate guilt. Whether we are comfortable with hearing this or saying this, it is true. We, as a church, are guilty of many things that have never been publicly acknowledged. Things that happened in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and over the last two decades. There is a line of people who could probably bring indictments against us. But this isn’t the biggest problem. Our problem is that we are guilty before God first and foremost.

Now, before I mention several areas of which we are guilty I want to say a few things. First, I am new here, and you might be thinking that he is just pulling out both guns and shooting all over the place. This isn’t the point, and this isn’t the spirit of what I am trying to say. However, I would like you to know that this knowledge has come from talking with elders from this church from the 90s up to the present, reading through the minutes, and engaging in many conversations. I have heard from elders long past and present, including other men from the presbytery that CPC has corporately sinned over its lifetime, which is true for any church. Really, every church should be examining itself like this. I didn’t come in looking for this stuff, but after talking with so many people, the Session and I have realized that we as a body need to corporately repent.

Even though I may not have been personally involved in any of these things, this does not mean that I haven’t been guilty of these things in other elderships and in other churches. I am not standing up here as a man without sin. I am standing up here as a representative of Christ, and I have been put over this body and am accountable for it and for things that have been done here whether I did them or not. I am not angry at anybody, I just want us to have Christ walking among us and I want him to control us. In order to do this, we must repent of the ways that we as a corporation have disobeyed God, not loving him properly, and hurt others, not loving them as ourselves.

Second, I am not saying these things in a vacuum. These things have been wrestled over and prayed over and are carefully worded by the elders. We have unanimously agreed upon these failings. And honestly, these aren’t the only ones. Next week, during our time of confession, the elders are going to publicly repent before God and you of these as well as other things, whether directly done by the members of this Session or not.

Third, quite frankly we don’t know all the sins that we or others have committed, or we and others will commit in the future. We can only repent of the things that the Holy Spirit has revealed and is convicting us of. So, we are going to confess these things next week, and we pray that the Spirit of Christ continues to convict us and gives us the heart to be zealous for repentance.

Fourth, there are sins and patterns that have been in this church since its beginning, and these sins have affected other churches and even our presbytery. We think it is important to repent over anything this corporate body has done to dishonor the name of Christ.

And so, I want to give a short list of the ways that this church has sinned against God, and I want to start this list with the first one indicting ourselves personally in how we are involved in a failure to love Christ.

First, we have sinned as a body against Jesus by abandoning the love we had for him at first. We have allowed our desires, ministry goals, cultural influences, busy lives, and many other things to distract us from loving him with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength. We have not discipled and exhorted one another to renew our love for Jesus as we should.

Now, before I continue with the next few areas where I believe we must repent, you must remember that many of these sins have been ongoing in this church since the 80s and even possibly at our inception. A letter in the 90s written by an elder, and agreed upon by John Breeding, and even recently by Dick Judkins, and Steve Magee, all long time and faithful elders concurred with the principles of some of these. And even in talking with Steve Magee this week, he agreed that these issues have been plaguing this church and he has never known them to have been publicly repented of.

Second, the Session has sinned against God and his people by being lax in our responsibility of shepherding God’s people of which the Holy Spirit made us overseers (Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 5:1-4). Whether this was from lack of training, lack of zeal, or being busy with other things that seemed important, it is irrelevant. We are guilty of this sin.

Third, the Session has sinned against God and his people by being lax in our duties of being in prayer and the word regarding issues of doctrine and oversight of the doctrine and practices of the church (Acts 6:4; 1 Timothy 4:6-10; 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5).

Fourth, the Session has sinned against God and his people by failing to exercise church discipline consistently by requiring God’s people and ourselves to obey the 9th commandment (Exodus 20:16) and by failing to diligently follow the biblical process of church discipline when necessary (Matthew 18:15-20).

Fifth, the Session has sinned against God and his people by being lax in operating as an elder-led congregation and in leading the congregation in the worship of God and exercising proper governance of it (1 Timothy 3:2-7; 4:12, 16; Titus 1:6-9; BCO 12-5e).

Sixth, the Session has sinned against God by failing to clearly distinguish between their preferences and true biblical guidance by the Spirit of Christ when reaching decisions.

Seventh, the Session has sinned against God by exercising control instead of exercising biblical authority. In doing so it has failed to utilize the gifts given to this church by the Holy Spirit.

Eighth, the Session has failed to communicate appropriately, timely, and clearly with God’s people regarding various critical things, whether they involve decisions, church discipline cases with elders, or other things.

Whether these are intentional, sins of commission, or unintentional, sins of omission, they are still sins and are vile in the sight of God.

So, what should we do?

First, the Session should repent corporately before God and this body for any complacency or complicity in any and all of these matters. We should humble ourselves before God, seeking his forgiveness for our failures and clinging to his mercy, expecting restoration and renewal. The session should then walk with the fruit of repentance and lead this church toward a deep and intense pursuit of Christ.

Second, we as individuals and families should consider where we have also failed. Maybe our walk with Christ is characterized by a lack of love for him or for lukewarmness. Maybe this wasn’t the case until some of the sins of the eldership became apparent. But this doesn’t leave us without excuse. We are responsible for pursuing God even if no one else around us does. We don’t get a sin pass just because our leadership is failing. Turn to God, look in your heart, be zealous and repent. For if we do, Jesus will make himself present with both us, our family, and if we repent as a church, our church.