What The Spirit is Saying to the Church

By Reverend Anthony Kelley

What the Spirit is Saying to the Church is an apocalyptic view from the letters to the seven churches in the book of Revelation that begins its message to the church admonishing her to return to her first love which she has abandoned. The author contends that this first love requirement demands a redirection of priorities for the Twenty-First-Century Church-in-the-Black-Experience. It demonstrates how, for the love of Christ, she must move beyond a limited vision of just a good-looking church and satisfaction with old definitions. Christ gives a rebuke to the church and a direct warning that if she does not repent and return to her first love, he will then remove her lampstand! "Reverend Kelley's preaching is spiritually sound and intellectually stimulating and challenging, and also socially relevant. He deeply believes in what I would call a well-rounded ministry. That is to say, that ministry for him involves not only mastering the preached Word, but also taking seriously and fulfilling the roles of pastor, priest, and prophet."-REV. DR. LEWIS V. BALDWIN, PHD, RETIRED PROFESSOR OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY. "Reverend Kelley is a preacher of the Word. His ability to prepare and deliver biblically sound, inspirational and spirit-filled sermons is a gift that allows those who hear him to participate in the story of salvation at personal and social levels. He is not a closed-lip babbler who preaches to itching ears, rather he speaks with power and authority under the watchcare of an humble spirit and a disciplined mind."-REV. DR. WALTER EARL FLUKER, PHD, MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. PROFESSOR OF ETHICAL LEADERSHIP, AND DIRECTOR OF THE HOWARD THURMAN INSTITUTE, BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 25, 2017
• ISBN: 9781640288003

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What the Spirit Is Saying to the Church

A Twenty-First-Century Progressive Ministry Vision Plan for the Church-in-the-Black-Experience

Reverend Anthony Kelley

ISBN 978-1-64028-799-0 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64028-800-3 (Digital)

Copyright © 2017 by Reverend Anthony Kelley

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

296 Chestnut Street

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Unless otherwise noted, scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 (2nd edition, 1971) by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

To Nancy

and

To the faithful members of the congregations I have been honored to serve and lead as the shepherd and CEO over the course of my now more than thirty years in the pastoral ministry. I’m so grateful for the grace, as both unmerited favor and opportunity, given to me to serve as your pastor and teacher. Many of the individual relationships with members of these diverse ministry fields are still intact and provide thoughtful, provocative, and wonderful reflections of working in the Lord’s vineyard and producing fruit together. All that I am and have become is because of your willingness to accept God’s will in your call extended to me to serve and lead you into challenging and life-changing ministry.

Each unique setting allowed for my personal growth and development and understanding of the life, work, and place of the church in the context of controversy, challenge, and change in both the twentieth- and twenty-first-century society. These extraordinary congregations include King of all Nations Missionary Baptist Church, Chicago, Illinois; Union Missionary Baptist Church, Danville, Illinois; Van Buren Missionary Baptist Church, Gary, Indiana; Mount Zion First Baptist Church, Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Greater First Church Baptist, Baker, Louisiana.

As a result of serving these congregations, some have said that I have come to be intellectually sound, culturally sensitive, prophetically centered, and spiritually anointed, as the Rev. Dr. Charles G. Adams, pastor of the Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, and former President of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc., have said of a new generation of relevant and prophetic preachers who have come to themselves.¹

Description: Chapter 1 utilizes the prophetic sermonic method in the tradition of the Church-in-the-Black-Experience to emphasize the urgency and need for her to return to her unique forms of spirituality and sacred heritage that includes celebration and adaptation, along with liberation, in light of the many voices raising the question of denominational relevancy and efficacy.

Description: Chapter 2 challenges pastoral leadership in the Church-in-the-Black Experience to return to the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that inherently demands a cost of discipleship and provides evidenced-based sermons to substantiate said challenge and biblical-theological assertion.

Description: Chapter 3 challenges pastoral leadership in the Church-in-the-Black-Experience to return to the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that acknowledges that there is a cross that believers must carry and endure as a result of following Jesus and provides evidenced-based sermons to substantiate said challenge and biblical-theological assertion.

Description: Chapter 4 challenges pastoral leadership in the Church-in-the-Black-Experience to return to the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that reminds believers that there is a crown for believers who remain faithful to the cause of Christ and awarded beyond death and provides evidenced-based sermons to substantiate said challenge and biblical-theological assertion.

Description: Chapter 5 challenges pastoral leadership in the Church-in-the-Black-Experience to equip and train parishioners and lay leaders to engage in a relevant and healing ministry to make the wounded whole (i.e., to cease from being reactionary and become revolutionary in leading and serving people by addressing the social ills that affect the quality of life of churches and whole communities) and provides evidenced-based sermons to substantiate said challenge and biblical-theological assertion.

Description: Chapter 6 is a continued call for engagement by the Church-in-the-Black-Experience to take her rightful place in leading and engaging her leaders and Christian workers in the task of reclaiming and restoring incarcerated persons of color back into their communities. It focuses on overcoming the insurmountable disenfranchisement, disillusionment, and disconnection caused by the disproportionate mass incarceration of people of color, which is the most pressing problem in the twenty-first century that threatens the quality of life and survival of African Americans. It provides a model evidenced-based in-prison ministry of relevance to incarcerated persons of color in particular and others in general as they prepare to return to their families and communities (See author’s book titled How Shall They Hear: Effective Preaching to Prisoners for evidenced-based ex-prisoner reentry ministry models).

Description: Chapter 7 asserts that in the context of change in the twenty-first century, we must truthfully acknowledge that many people are looking for alternative ways and structures to share the essence of their faith and practice despite denominational affiliation, tradition, culture, ethnicity, and racial background. With this in mind, it presents a short-term and long-range progressive ministry vision plan for pastoral leadership and service for the Twenty-First-Century Church-in-the-Black-Experience. It focuses particularly on how newly called pastors should prepare to enter a new ministry field and set structures in place to build upon a legacy and raise a standard for the future.

Description: Chapter 8 provides a model-ministry resource where participating organizations use mentoring as an evidenced-based practice and reduction strategy to mitigate risk factors for boys and young men of color in at-risk situations ages six to twenty-four, which includes students who may reside in neighborhoods with high rates of crime and poverty and who may have low performance in school, children in foster care, children of incarcerated parents, out-of-school youth, and incarcerated youth to be released to target area. The intent of the project is to help boys and young men of color facing tough odds stay on track and reach their full potential by seeking remedies through networks of local faith-based, community-based agencies, as well as government agencies, to help make their outcomes more positive and productive.

Preface

This book is designed to foster conversation, cooperation, and collaboration for and within the Church-in-the-Black-Experience to develop strategies, even through rebranding herself, if necessary, in order to return to her first love, which has always been revolutionary, radical, and relevant in terms of her mission to make the wounded whole. She must return to her unique forms of spirituality and sacred heritage that includes celebration and adaptation along with liberation and find her way back to relevant, righteous, and ready leadership and service for the twenty-first century.

There are many voices that are calling for a change and redirection in the Church-in-the-Black-Experience’s denominational life, oftentimes not giving any real suggestions, but more often than not, what is seen is a surrender to a lethargic blended and multicultural religious experience, which, although truer to the biblical presentation of the church universal, focuses more on praise and worship (celebration) and ignores the call for adaptability and liberation. In my community, when you talk about blended and/or multicultural churches, what you actually see are African Americans filling congregations of what is traditionally the Church-in-the-White-Experience and abandoning the church of their ancestors.

In this context of change in the twenty-first century, we must truthfully acknowledge that many people are looking for alternative ways and structures to share the essence of their faith and practice despite denominational affiliation, tradition, culture, ethnicity, and racial background. The Rev. Dr. Charles G. Adams have said what’s appealing about the Church-in-the-White-Experience, which attracts and appeals mostly to the black middle class, is the organizational structure, logical, and practical strategic planning, and intellectual content, and have found the black preacher, who is too emotional and unorganized, unable to attract, equip, and retain them in their churches.² When praise and worship on the mountain with all of the props and presentation is over, the work of the church must continue in the valley. I remember hearing an old Baptist sainted mother of the church say, Son, it’s not how high you jump, but it’s how you live when you come down. The Church-in-the-Black-Experience must return to be that church where Jesus is truly Lord, the Gospel is faithfully and prophetically preached, the spiritual disciplines are wholeheartedly practiced, the beauty of Christian fellowship is joyfully experienced, and the people of God are highly favored.

The late Dr. Howard Thurman has a quote in his book entitled Disciplines of the Spirit that tells this allegory: An old mother duck brought her young ducklings down to what had once been a pond. Since her last brood of ducklings, the pond had become nothing but baked mud. But the mother did not realize this. She stood on the bank urging the ducklings to go down, swim around, and disport themselves on the chickweed where there was no water and the chickweed had long since disappeared. While she was doing this, her ducklings with their fresh young instincts smelled the chickweed and heard the water way up above the dam. So they left their mother beside her old pond to go to quest of other water…They said to her as they left, Mother, for you and all the generations of your ducklings before us, this may have been good water, but if you and yours would swim again, it must be in other waters."³ It should be understood at once that in responding to the inner urge, there is no intention to be destructive or irreverent. It is simply a response to a basic urge upon which in a very large sense the continuation of life depends. It is for many, if you will, the will to live, and such an inner urge must not be ignored with neither a slow response nor no response, but indeed honored. Otherwise, the beat goes on!

Introduction

According to Dr. Wilbur M. Smith, professor of English Bible, Fuller Theological Seminary and a contributor to the Wycliffe Bible Commentary, all the letters to the seven churches in Asia in the book of Revelation follow the same sequence. Each begins with a phrase descriptive of the exalted Christ who is addressing the churches. And each descriptive phrase is found in the preceding chapter in John’s account of his vision of the risen Christ. In each letter, with the exception of the ones to Laodicea and Sardis, Christ’s first words are those of commendation. This commendation is always followed by some details regarding the condition of the church, leading to a rebuke and warning, with the exception of Philadelphia and Smyrna, which received no rebuke. Each letter concludes with a promise to those believers who overcome.⁴

Also, the Rev. Dr. Nigel Turner, formerly vicar of Diseworth, Near Derby, a contributor to Peake’s Commentary of the Bible, gives his presentation on apocalyptic literature in similar terms. He indicates that there may have been a body of prophets for a time in the very earliest days of the church, one of whose functions was to receive and propound visions of things to come. John the revelator and author of the book of Revelation indeed class himself as one of them. John himself expressed this profound anointment and appointment by God when he states in verse 1:

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place; he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John.

Also in verse 10, John writes:

I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches…

There were prophets who foretold of famines, and others who revealed God’s will concerning Barnabus and Saul. Paul mentions prophecy among gifts of the Spirit. As a class they probably disappeared at about the time that apocalyptic ceased to be in vogue, thus following historically in the tradition of the Jewish apocalyptists. Their message was that the kingdom of God, in its literal and material form, was shortly to come with the signs already appearing. With great artistry, the scheme of the book is built up like a symphony in three movements: (1) Christ’s message to the churches (chapters 1-3), (2) the visions of judgment on the enemies of God and victory for the faithful (chapters 4-20), and (3) God’s Kingdom on earth (chapters 21-22).⁵

It is also noted that of all the books of the Bible, the book of Revelation is the one that certainly may be considered as the book for the end of the age. There is a remarkable relevance of the message in the letters to the seven churches of Asia in the book of Revelation to the church in the twenty-first century. This is especially true in regard to the use of the very word apocalypse. The word has come to stand for an age of upheaval, world conditions fraught with fearful consequences, the unleashing of vast powers that man seems unable to control.⁶ Just reflecting on the last fifteen years, the issues and realities of global warming and climate change, the rise of Islamic terrorist jihadists and subsequent destruction of property and human lives, threats of nuclear proliferation and use in the Middle East and North Korea, economic and financial collapse of world markets, mass killings and shootings of vulnerable and at-risk children as soft targets in America’s schools, shootings and killing of innocent parishioners in prayer and Bible study in a Church-in-the-Black-Experience, and senseless and unjustified shootings of black boys and young men by insensitive and aggressive racist white police officers on the streets of American cities and communities to the point of national outcry from all sorts and color of people that black lives matter.

It is clear from an apocalyptic standpoint that the church of Jesus Christ needs to be heard in terms of being that moral and guiding voice to make human life more human. She cannot retreat to a vision mission plan that embraces isolation and an attempt to build the kingdom of God behind her own walls under the leadership of its flamboyant shepherd with limited vision and satisfied with just a good-looking church, the length of the wheelbase of his/her car, or accumulation of commodities and cash through a prosperity message that blames the victims of discontent, disenfranchisement, disappointment, and disillusionment for their own condition. Old Testament theology argued in the case of Job that he suffered because of his sin. Let me remind you that the Bible teaches not that Ya’ll have sinned. But to the contrary, it emphatically states that "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). I’m so glad that Jesus makes it perfectly clear in his Gospel according to Mark 10:28-31:

Peter began to say to him, Look we have left everything and followed you. Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news (gospel), who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age-houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions-and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first (protos) will be last (eschata), and the last (eschata) will be first (protos)."

The Twenty-First-Century Church-in-the-Black-Experience

The Church-in-the-Black-Experience historically is that sacred round where celebration, liberation, and adaptation are unique forms of its spirituality and sacred heritage. It is the proclamation of that prophetic word from God that gives guidance, direction, and power to its soul-shaping, soul-surviving character. When speaking of the Church-in-the-Black-Experience, this character is most prominent within traditional historically African American congregations that include African Methodist Episcopal Church; African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church; Christian Methodist Episcopal Church; Church of God in Christ; Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship International; National Baptist Convention of America International, Inc., National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., National Missionary Baptist Convention of America; and Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc.⁷ Gayraud S. Wilmore, James Cone, E. Franklin Frazier, William Augustus Jones, Vincent Harding, and many others have said much about this dynamic in the life of the church for African Americans.⁸

One cannot confuse the propagation and promotion of liberation for African Americans as being anti-white as did the late great Rev. Dr. Joseph H. Jackson, president of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. In his basic theological position presented during the 91st Annual Session in September 3-8, 1971, Dr. Jackson believed then that if the "Negro church" accepts the point of view of a black theology or a black theology of liberation, then black people will become the outstanding proponents of racial segregation in the United States of America.⁹ Dr. Jackson believed very strongly, as do committed Christian believers and heralds of our faith, in the universality of the gospel of Jesus Christ and God’s plan of salvation. He was definitely right on target biblically and theologically but did not delineate or see that justice in twentieth-century America for African Americans was meted out in terms of color and could not embrace a God who sided with and spoke to the oppressed, who were in most cases African Americans. The twenty-first century bears this out with the disproportionate negative impact that mass incarceration has had and continues to have on African Americans as seen on all stages of the criminal justice system—from arrests, jury selection, sentencing, incarceration, access to in-prison drug treatment and programs, and reentry.

Historically, it has always been true that the reality of the slave was always different from the reality of the slave owner. The slave’s worldview and existential reality therefore was different in terms of how to survive and experience a quality and dignity of life that God intends for all people. For African Americans, God must be understood, seen, and heard speaking through the gospel to their predicament, norms, experience, culture, customs, circumstances, and conditions; otherwise, its content becomes irrelevant, other worldly, and non-consequential, as does a blue-eyed blond hair Jesus to African Americans.

One Church in Many Locations

I too believe that the church of Jesus Christ, announced and established on the shores of Caesarea Philippi,¹⁰ is comprised of many believers, but by her very nature (ecclesia) is one body.¹¹ Thus, it is not biblically or theologically correct to brand or label the church as being black or white. We should avoid such divisive labels and address her as she is manifested in the black or white or Hispanic, Asian, etc. community. Such an approach and acknowledgment respects and recognizes the nuances and impact of culture, custom, norms, and unique needs, which is why I make reference to the Church-in-the-Black-Experience and not the black church. We should be intellectually sound, culturally sensitive, prophetically committed, and spiritually anointed on this matter of legitimacy. Even Paul the Apostle and John the Revelator recognized the reality of local churches comprised of people based upon their race, ethnicity, history, heritage, and their sitz en leben (German for situation in society) when writing to various churches in the New Testament texts, but never referred to the Roman church, Corinthian church, Galatian church, Ephesian church, Phillipian church, Colossian church, Thessalonican church, or Galatian churches. To the contrary the church was addressed as the one church in various locations.

---

¹. Rev. Dr. Carlyle Fielding Stewart III, foreword in African American Church Growth (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994).

². Rev. Dr. Carlyle Fielding Stewart III, foreword in African American Church Growth (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994).

³. Howard Thurman, Disciplines of the Spirit (Richmond, IN: Friends United Press, 1987), 50.

⁴. Charles F. Pfeiffer and Everett F. Harrison, eds., The Wycliffe Bible Commentary (Nashville, TN: The Southwestern Company, 1962), 1503.

⁵. Matthew Black and H. H. Rowley, eds., Peake’s Commentary on the Bible (Nairobi, Kenya: Thomas Nelson and Sons, LTD, 1976), 1043.

⁶. Pfeiffer and Harrison, The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, 1492.

⁷. Member Denominations of the Conference of National Black Churches, 676 Beckwith Street SW, Atlanta, GA.

⁸. Gayraud S. Wilmore and James H. Cone, Black Theology: A Documentary History, 1966-1979 (New York: Orbis Books, 1982).

⁹. Ibid., 261.

¹⁰. See Gospel according to Matthew 16:13-20.

¹¹. See Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus, chapter 4:1-16.

Chapter One

A Return to Celebration, Liberation, and Adaptation as Unique Forms of Spirituality

Return to Your First Love

And to the angel of the church in Ephesus write: these are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lamp stands: I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance. I know that you cannot tolerate evildoers; you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them to be false. I also know that you are enduring patiently and bearing up for the sake of my name and that you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then from what you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place, unless you repent.

—Revelation 2:1-5

Ephesus was a strategic center in the Roman world. Paul established a church there (Acts 19). The city itself was in a state of decline for some centuries. It had once been a seaport, but silt from the river around which the city was built eventually left Ephesus seven miles inland from the Mediterranean Sea. Its enormous pagan temple was one of the wonders of the world. Today it is a vast archaeological dig, being gradually uncovered to reveal the ancient splendor of a pan metropolis.¹² Ephesus was the largest city in Asia and is the only one of these seven that has a triple place in New Testament literature: it is given extensive prominence in the book of Acts (18:18-19:41), Paul wrote one of his letters to this church, and the ascended Lord sent a letter. After commending the church for its labor, patience, and intolerance for pseudo-apostles, the Lord refers to one tragic defect. According to verse 4, she left her first love.

Some have related this passage to Paul’s warning to the church at Corinth (2 Cor. 11:2-6) where he says:

I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I promised you in marriage to one husband, to present you as a chase virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by its cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

In this case it would appear that the elements of first love are simplicity and purity. The love of the church to Christ is typified by the love of the wife by the husband. In this reciprocal love relationship between Christ and His church, unselfish love then typifies Christ’s love for the church, a love in which there is no single thought of self. This indeed is a mystery, for what it shows is the capacity of Christ to love us despite our inadequacies and imperfections. The church’s response of love to the mystery of love is then the submission of love to perfect love. First love is the abandonment of all for a love that has abandoned all.

This first-love requirement demands a redirection of priorities for the Twenty-First-Century Church-in-the-Black-Experience. It requires that, for the love of Christ, it moves beyond a limited vision of just a good-looking church and satisfaction with old definitions. She must first love Christ by keeping his commandments and doing the will of God, which are two principles and priorities, when examined, that serve as evidence or proof that we really love him. Jesus says passionately in John’s gospel chapter 14:21-24:

Those who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love m will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them….those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my word; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.

He goes on to say in 15:9-11:

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

Second, she must love what Christ loves and that for which he gave his life. Jesus himself proclaimed that his coming and ministry was focused and designed to reach the disillusioned, dispossessed, disenfranchised, and disappointed (Luke 4). Christ gives a rebuke to the church at Ephesus for abandoning her first love of simplicity and purity for the things of God and embracing a superficial love of self. But in addition to the rebuke, he gives a direct warning that if she does not repent and change her ways and return to her first love, he will then remove her lampstand! (cf., Rev. 1:20, 2:5). This would be devastating to the church, especially the Church-in-the-Black-Experience, for what this would mean subsequently and consequently, is that she would lose her place of influence and become impotent. The church would operate without the anointing and presence of God as manifested in having position without power or authority, structure without credibility, activity without accountability, and religion without relevancy as do some local churches now that have abandoned their first love. To avoid this scenario and prophetic apocalyptic downfall, the Church-in-the-Black Experience must redirect her time, talent, and treasure in a ministry that seeks to make the wounded whole by seeking to address all sorts and conditions of people of color in particular and all human persons in general. Otherwise, the beat goes on!

The apostle John’s view of the church is that Christians form a community of redeemed people, purchased for God from every linguistic, racial, and national group by the sacrificial death of Christ. They will be protected by the seal of God on their foreheads from the demonic plaques that will afflict the pagan world (Rev. 7:3). Under the symbolism of the 144,000 drawn in equal numbers from the ideal twelve tribes, they are pictured as the true Israel of God, which is to be saved from the eschatological woes shortly to be unloosed (Rev. 7:1-8).

In a succeeding vision the same community appears as an innumerable multitude from all nations. They will constitute the ultimate society of those who have been redeemed from the great tribulation. John prophetically beholds them praising and serving God day and night in His temple shepherded, guided, and comforted by Christ (cf., Rev. 7:9-17). They are those who have been invited to the marriage supper of the lamb (cf., Rev.19:9). In the New Jerusalem they will see God’s face, bear His name on their foreheads, and worship Him as His servants (22:3-4).

The true church for John is made up of all who have refused or will refuse to worship the statue of the Emperor Caesar. Those who suffer captivity or martyrdom are predestined to do so (cf., Rev.13:10). In fact all who will inherit the New Jerusalem have had their names written in the Lamb’s Book of Life (cf., Rev. 21:27).

In our text, John the Revelator makes it clear that he has received a commission to write to the seven churches in Asia Minor. He receives a vision while in a spiritual trance on the Lord’s Day. This letter to the church at Ephesus has both a mixture of praise and criticism. It thrills the community of faith with commendation, but also threatens the Body of Christ with condemnation. The church is commended for its vigorous action against false teachers and its fortitude under suffering (vss. 2 and 3). Conversely, the church is censured (blamed) for having lost the earlier warmth of its love—probably referring to brotherly love—and even more their devotion to Christ (vs. 4).

The church is commanded to repent and do the works that it did at first or the lampstand (church) will be removed from its place (of honor, celebration) (vs. 5). In verse 6, censure is tempered by acknowledging the hatred of the Ephesians Christians for the practices of the Nicolaitans, probably the false apostles (i.e., itinerant missionaries), of verse 2, whose special vices are condemned (cf., vss. 14-15 and the church at Smyrna). Jesus implies that we ought to hate what he hates and love what he loves. He hates sin, but loves the sinner. He hates darkness, but loves the light. He hates falsehood, but loves the truth. He hates cowardness, but loves faithfulness. He hates foolishness, but loves enlightenment. He hates weakness, but loves strength. He hates loneliness, but loves fellowship. He hates haughtiness, but lives humility! The church is reprimanded and instructed to listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches (vs. 7A).

In the gospel texts written earlier by John, he provides a doctrinal presentation on the illuminating power and specific work of the Holy Spirit. He presents him as the Spirit of truth that guides believers into all truth (John 16:13) and as the Comforter or Advocate who will replace the soon departing Jesus of Nazareth with an ever-abiding presence, not as another one who may be different, but one who is just like the Christ. And when he comes, he will convince and convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:7-9). John makes the point of listening to what the Spirit has to say to the churches because the Spirit of God too is our teacher (John 14:16). Finally, the church is challenged to be conquerors and overcomers, to receive permission to eat from the tree of life (immortality) that is in the paradise of God or the Heavenly Jerusalem (vs. 7B).

James Russell Lowell was right when he wrote this poem in 1843:

The Present Crisis

Though the cause of evil prosper,

Yet tis truth alone is strong.

Truth forever on the scaffold,

Wrong forever on the throne,—

Yet that scaffold sways the future,

And, behind the dim unknown,

Standeth God within the shadow,

Keeping watch above his own

Then to side with Truth is noble

When we share her wretched crust,

Ere her cause bring fame and profit,

And ’t is prosperous to be just;

Then it is the brave man chooses,

While the coward stands aside,

Doubting in his abject spirit,

Till his Lord is crucified,

And the multitude makes virtue

Of the faith they had denied.¹³

Horatio R. Palmer was right when he penned this song:

Yield Not to Temptation

I

Yield not to temptation

For yielding is sin

Each victory will help you

Some other to win;

Fight manfully onward

Dark passions subdue

Look ever to Jesus

He will carry you through!

II

To him that over-cometh,

God giv-eth a crown

Through faith we will conquer

Though often cast down;

He who is our savior

Our strength will renew

Look ever to Jesus

He will carry you through.¹⁴

Chorus:

Ask the Savior to help you

Comfort, strengthen and keep you

He is willing to aid you,

He will carry you through.

It’s Time to Make a Change—Self (Part 1)

Part 1: The Self

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.

—Ecclesiastes 3:1

The title of the book Ecclesiastes from the word ecclesia in the Greek version of the Old Testament scriptures (Septuagint) means assembly. The Hebrew version gohelet means one who assembles or one who addresses an assembly (i.e., a preacher or speaker). Until the nineteenth century, Solomon was believed to have written the book in its entirety.