Preached by Andrew Smellie, June 3, 2007

Jesus gives each disciple who overcomes his special approval! (Revelation 2:17)

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God wants us to sit with Him on His throne. Therefore, he loves us enough to call us to change. Revelation 3:19-20. But when the call to wake up comes . . . will Jesus find you faithful and grateful? Or will he find your deeds incomplete, as he did the Church in Sardis?

One of the ways Jesus calls the churches back to Him in Revelation 2-3 is by calling the disciples to hate what He hates–we can’t tolerate sin in ourselves or others and claim to love God. What “practices of the world” is God’s Word calling you to overcome today?

Sermon Outline for an incredible Bible study!
“We Shall Overcome”
Preached by Andrew Smellie
Sunday, June 3, 2007

Revelation 3:19-22
• The book of Revelation is a series of visions.
Question: When was the last time God gave you a vision of what you can do for Him in your life?
• In the book of Revelation, John paints a picture of compelling triumph to the church.
• We need to take this to heart. So often in life all we see are the trees and not the forest.
Question: Where is your vision for what God can do in your life?
• We do not usually define love that way (rebuke = love). (Revelation 3:19)
• If you do not define love like this, then you are not like Jesus.
“If you have an ear, then I pray that you are listening!”

Revelation 4:1-2
• A vision of coming before the throne of God.
Question: Does that inspire you?

Revelation 2:7
• A vision to the seven churches.
• The churches were located in what is now Western Turkey; Paul planted these churches from the work begun in Ephesus (Acts 19:8-10) despite much opposition!
• The number seven was very significant because it was the number of perfection.
• There is a lot of symbolism in the book of Revelation.
• It was a message to the entire, visible church in the first century. It is a message to us as well: don’t forsake your first love.

Question: Does it inspire you that when you go to heaven, it will be such a perfect spot to live and that you won’t be able to blow it?
Just think! “If I overcome now before God, then I will have a paradise that will never be taken away from me.”

Revelation 2:11
• This church was under a great deal of persecution.
• When you are struggling all you can do is rely on God. (Revelation 2:10)
• You got to make sure that you do not forsake your first love.
• Satan tells you: “Be comfortable; be part of the landscape.”
• This church was under a great deal of persecution - Smyrna.
Question: When are you going to die?
Question: When you die: Where are you going?
Question: What is going to happen when you die?
• You think that you have suffering, pain and problems now, but …
• The word witness means to be a martyr in the Greek language.
Question: Does that fire you up?

Revelation 2:12-13
• Apparently, Pergamum was a gorgeous city laid out around the base of a mountain and at the summit there was an altar of Zeus. Jesus knew that “Satan had his throne there,” referring to this false worship and “lifting up” of false gods like Zeus.
• The admonition is to hold to the Word of God.
• Syracuse is known for sports, but don’t people worship or devote themselves fully to sports? (Not that the Carrier Dome is Zeus’ temple, but you get the point here!)
• People get up early and wait for hours until they can get in to watch these games.
Question: Have you ever seen that happen at a church?
Question: What do you think our city worships?
Question: Do you ever feel the presence of Satan in the people around you?
Question: Do you sense Satan’s influence in the people around you?
• We forget that people out in the world are overwhelmed by Satan. (Eph. 2:2; 2 Cor. 4:4)
• We need to understand how wicked the world is and that they need to know God.
• Take comfort: Jesus understands how difficult it is to be His disciple.
• In the end, it is about the Word of God - bringing people back to the Word of God.

Revelation 2:14-16
• Balaam of the book of Numbers was a false prophet hired by Balak to curse Israel.
• Even the donkey of Balaam convinces him to the way of God. (Numbers 22:21-31)
• Balaam blessed Israel instead. (Numbers 24:10)
• Balaam incited the Moabite women to seduce Israel. (Numbers 25:1-2)
• God’s conviction about sexual immorality back then (Phinehas). (Numbers 25:6-9)
• The teaching in the church in Pergamum allowed sexually immorality to exist there.
• Today, guys have a worldly viewpoint that they have earned their manhood by how many women they sleep with.
• You are a prostitute in God’s eyes (Romans 1:26-27). God hates sin!
• They stopped obeying the Word of God and there were consequences.
• Our life and our doctrine: Watch it closely. (1 Timothy 4:16)
• There is one Bible and 450 different denominations; all are not teaching the same thing.
• God expects the same life and the same doctrine out of all of the churches.
• “Prosperity religion” … that is the teaching of the devil.
• Your nationality, ethnicity or geographical location of your birth being in the U.S. does not mean that you are saved. There is no such thing as a Christian nation.
• This is not what the Word of God says and they are deceived!
• Infant baptism at a Roman Catholic Church does not mean that you are saved.
• Praying Jesus into your heart does not mean that you are saved.
• This is not what the Word of God teaches and it is false doctrine.

Acts 2:37-38
• We must respond with a personal faith in Jesus Christ.
• Your sin put Jesus on the cross. You need to get cut about your sin!
• We have got to have a deep conviction about this stuff.
Question: Who are you teaching this to?
• We need to be fired up to teach about the Bible to other people.

• Gnosticism: it is not necessarily true but it is not necessarily false either . . . the truth twisted.
• We need to know the history behind what is going on.
• Gnostics divided their lives into two areas: spiritual and materialistic. The spiritual is ALL good and the flesh is ALL bad.
• Gnostics believed that there is a spark inside of you that wants to do what is spiritual but your flesh or your body stops it. This opened the door to people not repenting of their sin—it was the sin in me that made me do it! Aren’t you part of your flesh? “It is you, stop talking about your flesh!”
These Gnostics generally went two directions: asceticism or libertinism.

Ascetics: these people said (or say) that anything that has to do with the body or pleasure they want to have no part of, so they are the people who secluded themselves from the world. They thought that they would not be corrupted by the world this way.
• This teaching is totally devoid of the teaching of Jesus. Though Jesus sought alone times with God, He never took Himself “out of the world.”
• People revere these people who they think are spiritual because they go into the mountaintops because people think that they are not corrupted by the world.

Libertines: these are the licentious and lascivious people who said (or say):
“I can do anything, anytime, anywhere.”
• They believed this because since they had the secret knowledge of Christ (that spark of light) already, they could do whatever they pleased.
• This is what Jesus was addressing in the church of Pergamum. (Revelation 2:16)

Revelation 2:17
1. In contrast to the hidden knowledge of the Gnostics, He will give you the hidden manna (the Word of God).
2. If you persevere, then He will give your ticket to heaven (stone) except that it will be white.

Revelation 2:18
• He knows our deeds, our love, our faith and our perseverance.
• There is something in their lives individually and collectively as a church that could have stopped them from going to heaven if they did not repent.
• Scholars believe different things about who “Jezebel” was; to be sure, Jesus was not just talking about sexual immorality . . .the real heart issue was the tolerance of immorality.
• If people in the church are committing sexual immorality after they became baptized disciples of Jesus Christ, then the Bible teaches they can be dis-fellowshipped. We cannot live in sin any longer—we can’t remain unrepentant and think we will stay in the vine.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11
• He was talking to the church in Corinth.
• You’ve been justified, washed—just as if you never sinned!
Question: Does that inspire you?
Question: If we don’t call people to repent, aren’t we tolerating sin and dishonoring God?
Question: Do we love discipling where people are helping us repent or are we running away from it?
• A church leader somewhere in Great Britain said: “We do not require repentance from our mature disciples.”
• The Word of God is the scalpel.
• A church that does not lay out sin is lukewarm.
• We need to love each other enough to tell one another what we need to hear.
Question: Do you really love God?
• It is between you and God . . . and we get to be open with each other to inspire, to counsel and to perfect one another by God’s power.

Revelation 2:26-29
• If you overcome, then you will reign over the earth. (wow)
• We need to be secure in our salvation. You are a prince; you are a son of God.
Question: What can happen sometimes, when you wake someone up?
Question: Who always wakes up in a great mood?
• Realize that people don’t always love it when they are being woken up spiritually!
• We have got to get a conviction from the Word of God.
• In the Central New York Church of Christ, to lead, you have to earn the right to lead.
• We have to have a conviction on a congregational level.
• We have to have a conviction on a worldwide level.
• We cannot rest on our laurels of yesterday. It is not today. (2 Corinthians 6:1-2)

Revelation 3:4-6
• It is shown here that there are people who are not dead in the church, BUT Jesus says “you are dead.”
• This applies to churches that teach once saved, always saved.
• If you keep fighting and keep persevering, then you will overcome.

Revelation 3:7-13
• Jesus opens the door to heaven for us and that no one can shut!
• If you are weak, if you are tired or weary, then do not give up - hold on.
• We understand that God dwelled in the city of Jerusalem.
• The church is the temple of God. (Ephesians 2:21-22)
• No matter how weak you think you are; if you persevere, then you will be a pillar in heaven. You will be one of the pillars of the temple of God.

Revelation 3:14-19
• Laodecia was known for the following:
1. Gold.
2. Black wool.
3. Famous medical school (eye salve).
4. Water supplied from the city of Herapolis.
• Roman aqueducts brought water from Herapolis to Laodecia, but the water went from being very cold and refreshing to being lukewarm by the time it got to Laodecia!
• Lukewarmness makes Jesus nauseous. Does it make you nauseous?
• The thing about lukewarm water is that when you are in it you are comfortable.
Question: How do I know if I am lukewarm?
• By asking the above question (How do I know if I am lukewarm?) that should concern you!
• If lukewarmness makes Jesus nauseous, then you need to aware of it and repent of it.
• Hot: great quiet times, sharing your faith, fellowship, bringing people out to church, hating what God hates and loving what he loves (personal growth and righteousness!).
• Cold: not having quiet times, not going to midweek and Sunday Worship Services.
Question: Are you cold?
• When you cannot be pried from the fellowship, now that is fired up.
Question: Where are you if you are not cold and you are not hot? LUKEWARM
Question: How serious is it?
• God loves the lukewarm disciple, but He is going to rebuke the tar out of you so be earnest and repent.
• The promise for those who repent is awesome.

Revelation 3:21-22
• That is how much Jesus loves you. He wants you to sit with Him on His throne!!!!!

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