Be Still And Know

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

Romans 15:5-6 May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus. Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. You don’t need to be a genius to work out why Paul so often spoke about the issue of unity! He knew how hard it was to achieve. If the early Church had always enjoyed harmonious relationships, he could have kept quiet on the subject. His continual reiteration of the message of unity was because he knew that it was the demanding daily work of the Church – and it still is! It is often very small issues which cause huge disputes in churches. It’s just the same in marriage. When I’ve had the privilege of walking with couples who have encountered difficulties, almost always when I ask them to trace back to the original dispute, they fall about laughing at the absurd triviality of the issue. If a small disagreement is not resolved, it

Romans 14:1 Accept other believers who are weak in faith, and don’t argue with them about what they think is right or wrong. In every generation, there are issues on which Christians disagree. This will always be the case – the question is what to do with those disputes, particularly in relation to young Christians. Paul offers very strong and practical advice. He is desperately concerned that such issues shouldn’t be a stumbling block to those who are younger and weaker in the faith. He encourages his readers to respect one another’s different opinions and not to make a big issue of it. The two areas of tension in the Roman Church concerned food and the celebration of special days. Those from a Jewish background had some very strict rules about their food and the Sabbath. They were absolutely convinced that they were right, and clearly had no willingness to negotiate. Paul said that what mattered was doing what they believed was right before the Lord. If someone ate a particular food and another person

Romans 13:11-12 You know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armour of right living. In this life, everything is limited by time. You might want to have another day to complete your revision, but when the examination day comes, there is no more time. You might have lots of worthy things to do, but the aeroplane won’t wait for you. You may be a great athlete and keen to do some more training, but when the starting pistol is fired, there is no more time. Paul wanted his readers to have a clear understanding that their time was fast running out, so they needed to be on their toes, ready to serve God here and now, and not put it off. It would seem that Paul, in common with most of the early Christians, was expecting Jesus to return at any moment. However, whether we die or the Lord returns before our dea

Romans 13:1 Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. Our society has a high level of cynicism towards those in authority, and the media takes every opportunity to shoot politicians down in flames whenever they slip up. However, the apostle Paul would encourage us to look at our politicians with spiritual eyes and to remember that all authority on this earth ultimately comes from God. Therefore, it is vital that we pray for those in authority and play our part as good citizens, obeying the laws of the land and showing our willingness to support the community. I can hear you asking a very big question: “What should we do if the governing authorities command us to do something that is contrary to God’s law?” Paul doesn’t address this issue and it might well be because, at this stage, he hadn’t encountered any particular difficulties. The Jews had a special status of protection within the Roman Empire and

Romans 12:17-18 Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honourable. Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone. The Christian life involves a complete rewiring of the way we think and live. It involves a total revolution in our lives because when someone does something evil to us, the natural reaction is to retaliate. Everything in us makes us want to hit back. We want justice and we don’t want our attacker to think that they can get away with it. Jesus’ way is different. He calls us never to take revenge but to leave that to God. Our job is to feed our enemies when they are hungry and to give them a drink when they are thirsty. We are to go out of our way to bless them and help them, and that is tough. That’s not the way we are naturally inclined to act, but it is the way of Christ and it is the way of peace. Paul wasn’t unrealistic. His life brought him into conflict with many people and he had no illusions that his teaching would be easy to live

Romans 12:9-10 Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honouring each other. Napoleon once said: “Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I founded empires; but upon what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ alone founded his empire upon love.” It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of love. Without love there can be no Church, no blessing, no joy, no future worth having. Everything depends upon love, and here, Paul was concerned that the Christians in Rome didn’t make do with a phoney love. He recognised that it is possible to pretend to love other people. We can do it by being superficial and merely polite with others, glancing over the surface of their lives without really engaging with them and their needs. What Paul longed for was for deep, compassionate, sacrificial love which would totally transform their lives together. It is interesting that Paul

Romans 12:7-8 If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly. In three of his letters, Paul talks about the gifts that God has given to Christians, and each list is very different. Here and in Ephesians 4 and 1 Corinthians 12, he makes it clear that every follower of Christ has been given a unique gift from God which is vital for the Church, the body of Christ. God gives his gifts according to the needs of the Church, and I am quite sure that if Paul were writing today, he would be keen to add the gift of helping with public address systems and digital technology. The Holy Spirit gives just the right gifts to his Church to enable it to be effective. The point that Paul is making here is that once you have found your gift, you need to get on and