Light on the Hill

James Kaddis: Today on Light on the Hill, we'll meet a church that was patient. That's a quality the Lord wants to see in us. When the church becomes patient, there's no stopping the church. When the church is consistent and the church continues to just be a well-oiled machine that runs and is consistent with the things that they say and they do, listen, there's no stopping the church. He tells Ephesus, you've been patient.

Guest (Male): We're glad to have you with us for Light on the Hill. Today, Pastor James Kaddis continues his series in Revelation. We begin with a look at the first of the seven letters Jesus gave to seven different churches. What do you think Jesus would say if he stopped by to visit your church? Would he commend you and say keep it up, or would he offer some words of correction? The church at Ephesus received both. Let's see what we can learn from that now.

James Kaddis: All right, Revelation chapter two. Now I do think that it is worthwhile to stop for a moment and to talk a little bit about the period that we are going to be embarking upon with respect to Revelation chapter two. Now, one of the things that I should talk about—and I talked about this last week, I also talked about it the week before when we did our introduction and we did our survey—is as we embark upon chapter two and chapter three, we are in the section of verse 19 of chapter one that talks about the things which are, right?

That is the current time period that we are in. And although each and every single church that we see depicted here—each and every one of these seven churches depicted—speak of a very specific time period, right? They represent a time period. All of them apply to us in the current age in which we are. As a matter of fact, historically speaking, we have not seen the beginning of Revelation chapter four yet. We are currently living in the age of Revelation chapter two and three. Now, there's a couple of things that I think are worthwhile bringing up and I think that they're important to bring up, right?

And that is the fact that when we speak of the seven letters to the seven churches, there is always a recognition of something good that's happening within that church. By the way, there's only one exception to that. That would be Laodicea, right? But God will stop and he will reflect upon the good things that he sees in the church. He'll talk about the works that he sees. He'll mention things that they're doing that are potentially admirable or are admirable. And then he has a rebuke for them. By the way, there's two of the seven churches that are not rebuked, okay? One of those seven churches we'll read about today, Smyrna.

Now, the other thing that we should also note is that he not only points out things that they're doing that are admirable, but he then rebukes them, and then in all of the churches, with the exception of two, right, because there's nothing they need to repent from, he gives them a solution. He says, this is what you need to repent of, this is where you need to go, and this is how you need to do it in order to obtain what I'm asking you to do. Now, this is important to us because I can bet you—and this is how I know I can bet you this—I can bet you that each and every single one of these churches can bring something to your mind and heart about an aspect of your life that you need to work on or an aspect in your life that you need to be encouraged with, right?

And I know that because in my own life I can identify the same way. So all of us can stop for a moment and reflect upon each aspect of these churches and I think that they will radically impact you. Perhaps the very first church that we read about, the church at Ephesus, is one that I can greatly relate to. It's a significant one. And so we're going to talk about this as we get into it. So those are the things I want you to understand. The other thing I want you to understand is that every single one of these churches—these letters that Jesus writes to the churches—are very applicable to you and me.

Here's the reason why they're applicable to you and me: because they're directly written to you and me. Why? He says, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches," right? Are you the church? Yes, you are. Do you have an ear to hear? Yes, you do. Even if you were legally incapable of being able to hear anything from your ears, you certainly are capable of discerning the words being given to you, whether it be through reading or whether it be through any other way of assimilating the information within your mind and heart. The reality of it is, if you are capable of being able to bring in the words that are being communicated, then you are supposed to be listening to what God is saying.

So this is something that applies to each and every single one of us for a whole series of different reasons and I think it's critical that we listen because Jesus is writing a letter to you and to me. And I think that that's very important, right? I think that there's something pretty critical about that. You stop for a moment and you reflect upon it. It's always interesting how we work as human beings, right? Because as we listen to people of great importance speak, we tend to listen. But when they turn around to speak to us directly, oh my goodness, you really, really want to listen, right? You kind of want to hear things.

I was listening to and going through some old b-roll that we had of some video when I was talking to one of Israel's highest ranking members of the Knesset, right? A part of the Likud party, Israel Katz, who right now is still a very active member in Israeli government. And I remember when I was interviewing him some of the things that he was saying directly to me. It was—some of those things I actually forgot, like I don't remember that he said some of those things because the interview was almost two years ago. And I'm listening and I'm going, "Man, that is some good advice. Why didn't I listen to that?" because we were talking about what could potentially happen in the context of war in the future.

If Israel were to see war, the context was a discussion with Iran. It wasn't necessarily with Gaza or potentially Hezbollah, but it was very applicable. It was the kind of stuff I wish I could actually play for everybody to hear, but I can't because I would break the confidence that existed. But there's things like that where you listen, it's like, well, it seems as though the more important a person is, the more you would want to listen. So how much more important is the creator of the universe, right? How much more important is the guy who created the leader in Israel that I was telling you about, right?

How much more important is it to say that the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who gave you life, the God who gave you salvation, the God who gave you breath, the God who created you, right, is talking to you. In this case, he's talking directly to you. He's talking directly to me. There's powerful communication being lobbed to us and we need to listen. So look what he says here and I love some of the things that he writes here. They're very encouraging. By the way, right off the bat, I am super encouraged by what Jesus says here in verse one of chapter two.

Look what it says: "Unto the angel of the church in Ephesus write." By the way, the angel meaning the pastor. So I'm always a little bit more attentive here because, again, we see God's model given to us, right? When God wants his people to behave a certain way, what does he do? He tells the pastors to do it first, right? When God wants his people to live a specific way, he requires it of his pastors—the people who are under-shepherding, the people who are those who are ministering to his church. We are called to live the very specific way that God wants to see the rest of his people live.

And I think that there's something very powerful to be said. So anytime I hear anything in the Bible where God is addressing pastors specifically, I want to hear it, right? And he's writing this to the pastors of these churches with the expectation that those pastors will communicate the word of God to all of the people in the church. And it's still a very stark and powerful reminder to me of how critical the obligation is set forth to me as your pastor to communicate the word of God to you, right? He gives me the message that he wants me to share with you and it's my job to give it to you.

By the way, he gives you that message directly as well. So when you hear me speak that message, you're receiving confirmation from what God has already communicated to you. And it's a pretty powerful thing. We're not in the old days where you had to have a prophet or a priest that would speak to you on behalf of God. Now you hear from God directly because the great High Priest is a part of you, right? You understand that he gave himself for you and he was sacrificed for you and now as the propitiation for us, he's the one that we communicate with directly. It's about Christ and it's important.

And you think about it when you look at the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. He functions as that critical helper, right? So he helps us understand the things that we might not be able to understand on the surface. He helps us be able to discern things. He convicts us of sin. He communicates with us. So he helps us to listen to the things that God is telling us. And when we see this, we recognize that God is speaking to us, right? So when he says to the angel of the church at Ephesus, I'm just thinking, "Man, I better listen in because he's talking about the pastor, the messenger." That's what the Greek word *aggelos* means. It means messenger, right?

So the messenger of the church at Ephesus write: "These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, and who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks." By the way, you don't have to wonder what Jesus is talking about when he says this, right? He's identifying himself. He says, "I'm Jesus. I'm the one that holds the seven stars in my right hand, and I walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks." Now some of you might wonder, "Well, what's he talking about when he talks about the stars and the candlesticks? What are they?" And I hear people listen—to this day, you can go on YouTube, you can even pull commentaries by prominent people who tell you the biggest pile of hogwash you could think.

"We have no idea who the seven stars are or what they are. We don't know what the seven golden candlesticks represent." When the previous couple of verses tells us, right? Like Jesus disclosed it to us. As a matter of fact, look at the previous verse in chapter one. Look at it. It's very easy. He said, "The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks." What are the seven stars? Here it is: "The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks which thou saw are the seven churches." By the way, translated in the Greek, the seven churches themselves, right?

So the idea here is that God holds the pastors of the churches in his right hand while he walks in the midst of the church, which, by the way, if you're a pastor, maybe that ought to be a wake-up call for you because it's a very two-edged sword. It's a two-fold thing, right? It can be really beautiful and it could be really ugly really fast. It could be a real mess around and find out moment, if you know what I mean, right? Why? Because if God is holding us as the pastors in his right hand, then that means we're untouchable, right? That means God is going to protect us as we do what he has called us to do and we communicate the message that he's asked us to communicate.

But at the same time, you mess around with Daddy's little girl or you mess around with Daddy's boy, you mess around with Daddy's children, Daddy might just take his hand and crush you, right? There's a great consequence of taking advantage of the role and the position that God has given you. So the idea here is really important and I want you to consider this, right? Jesus says, "I'm walking in the midst of the church that I have asked you to communicate a message to. It's me. I'm reminding you that I hold you in my right hand. I'm reminding you that I am walking in the midst of the church. So you better—you better be accurate in what you say and what you do. You better keep up."

And the church—he's telling the church, "Listen, you're not alone. So you better act upon what I've asked you to act upon." And not only that, it's a twofold issue. He's also encouraging you. He's saying, "Don't worry about anything around you, right? Don't be concerned. Why? Because I'm with you." I always think about this in a very unique way. Like this is—people have asked me this throughout the last few years, "James, you seem to have been fearless about the consequences of any of the sicknesses that have been going around or the government, you know, wanting to shut churches down and so on and so forth." And my statement to them is the same every single time: if I believe that Christ is walking in the midst of our church fellowship, then what reason do I have to be fearful, right?

He's with me, okay? We're keeping our doors open. We're going to sing loud to the Lord. We're going to raise our hands. We're going to be together as the body of Christ and we're going to sing out with our—just fully, we're going to sing out loud and we're going to bring glory to God and we're going to trust that God not only is walking in our midst, but we're going to trust that God is going to protect us, right? That he's going to strengthen us. God has never penalized us for doing what his word asks us to do. So I think there's a powerful message that he starts off with here. Look at what he says concerning the works of Ephesus.

And this is where it really hits home for me. Like this is where I really, really begin to get uncomfortable. I kind of squirm a little bit, by the way, when I read what he begins to write about Ephesus because it really does hit me very close to home. Look at what he says. He says, "I know thy works, and I know thy labor." Okay, so I know what you're doing and I know the intensity by which you are doing it, right? In other words, you are not lazy. You are filled with works. You are doing lots of things. Okay, so far so good, right? I don't have a lot of patience for lazy people in the ministry, right? And I certainly don't have patience for people that don't produce. You don't produce, there's a problem, right?

And that's kind of the way I think. So far so good, right? Not bad. Jesus recognizes it. He says, "And thy patience," right? I love that phrase because I can tell you this right now: the church is very impatient today, right? You know who's really patient, by the way, right now in society? Let me tell you who's extraordinarily patient: Satan and his people. They're very patient. If you don't believe me, think about this: the things that you're seeing manifesting right now in elementary schools is a result of the patience of these very hard, satanically inspired leftists, right? It started on a college campus somewhere 70 years ago.

And they kept fighting and fighting and fighting and lost fight after fight after fight after fight after fight, but you know what they were? They were patient. And they waited. And they allowed the brainwashing mechanism to continue to move forward and to do the things that are being done. And here we are today, the exploitation of our children in schools. Here we are today. Why? Because Satan is very, very patient. Do you understand that? He's patient. And that patience is leading a lot of people to be brainwashed. You see it everywhere in the country. When the church becomes patient, there's no stopping the church.

When the church is consistent and the church continues to just be a well-oiled machine that runs and is consistent with the things that they say and they do, listen, there's no stopping the church. He tells Ephesus, you've been patient, right? You—your works have been known to me, your labor, your patience. In other words, you just keep going. Look what else he blesses them over, right? "And how thou canst not bear them which are evil. You has tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and has found them liars. And has borne, and has patience," notice this, "for my name's sake has labored, and has not fainted."

I look at that and I go, "Man, that sounds really good." So far so good. And by the way, kind of sounds a little bit like what I do on a day-to-day basis and what you do on a day-to-day basis, right? We not only stand up for the truth, we basically make it very clear that we will not tolerate evil being in our midst. We have patience with the work that we do. Many of you are like me, you work your tails off, right? You are very hard-working people. You're very consistent in that. You love God with all of your heart. Come on, does it get any better than that? Here's where it really hits home with me. Look at the exhortation he gives. Look.

Let me just simply say this: God watches all the wonderful things you guys are doing on a day-to-day basis and he acknowledges it. He knows, right? But look at the condemnation he gives to the church at Ephesus. And this one is heartbreaking. By the way, Ephesus was a church that was riddled—and when I say riddled, that's probably not a good word to use. It was blessed. That's a better word, with some of the greatest elders that had ever existed in that city. Some of the most prominent elders that existed at Ephesus: Timothy, right? Timothy was an amazing guy. He spent a lot of time in Ephesus. Do you know who else was a very powerful elder in Ephesus? John the Apostle, right?

So understand, they were around remarkably brilliant people who were standing out for the truth, right? Very brilliant people. They were all doing good things. But here's the problem that Jesus brings to the—to the plate: "Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee," notice this, "because you have left your first love." He didn't say you lost your first love. Everybody talks about the fact that you lost your first love. That's not what happened here. He says you have left your first love. In other words, it's indicative of a particular action you took. You literally walked away from your first love. How many of us often times do things just like this, right?

You know exactly what this is like. Anybody been married in this room right now for more than let's just say five years? Raise your hand. Five years or more, raise your hand. Okay, yep. Yep. Okay. Five years is all it takes to understand this principle, right? You remember, husbands, before you married your wives, how exciting it was, right? You—you thought about every single way possible you could bless your future wife. Oh my goodness, there were so many aspects about your relationship that were very new to you and very exciting. And if you come from a background like me, where my very first relationship I ever engaged in was my wife, the emotion is a lot more significant, right? Very significant.

Guess what happens when time goes by? You get married, all the wonderful things happen—fireworks, kids come along, things begin to change. And pretty soon, if you're a godly husband or a godly wife, you continue laboring in the things you know you need to labor in, right? You work towards your household. You actively engage in raising your children in the ways of the Lord. You do all the things that you're supposed to do to maintain a healthy family life. Except it's very easy to walk away from your first love, isn't it? It's very easy to forget about what was special that you had in between you and your spouse.

And pretty much it becomes a working contractual relationship. Has it ever felt that way to you? I'm not going to ask you to raise your hands because you might get yourself in trouble, right? But has it felt that way at times? I think sometimes it does. I think sometimes it can. It can very easily feel that way, right? Until you stop for a moment and you begin to realize what is there in front of you and what's so special. See, these people got so busy serving the Lord that they walked away from him. There was an aspect of their relationship with him that they completely neglected. Look, I don't know about you, but that hits very close to home for me.

Because I know what it's like to labor 20-plus hours a day in the ministry. I know what it's like to do the things that we are supposed to do as pastors and get so caught up in it that you forget about the person you were doing it for in the first place. I know exactly what it looks like. That hits me hard. That to me, by the way, when I'm reading right here, is a big fat slap in the face, right? You wake up and you realize, wait, I didn't lose my first love. I literally walked away from him. And by the way, the ministry is what I walked to. I used the ministry to walk away from my love of God. How many times does that happen? It happens a lot. It happens a lot. And I'm constantly having to be reminded of this.

Guest (Male): If you've left your first love, how do you fix it? Stay tuned and find out. You're listening to Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis and part of our study in Revelation. As we go through the study of Revelation, there may come a time when you miss a message or would just like to hear a program again. If so, visit lightonthehillradio.com and click on radio or listen through our app. We have a Light on the Hill app available for iPhone and Android users. Just search for Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.

Light on the Hill is heard all around the world and it takes a team to bring these shows to the radio and internet. With your help, we're able to reach people with the truth of God's word at a time when they really need to hear it. You can donate today at lightonthehillradio.com. You can also give through our Light on the Hill app. As we're going through Revelation, this is a great time to mention Pastor James's new book entitled *The Last Book*. It will share what you need to know about Revelation, the rapture, and the end times. This guide to Revelation is part one of two, and you can order it today at lightonthehillradio.com or at Amazon.

We hope you'll join our online communities. You'll find James Kaddis on YouTube, Rumble, and Instagram. You can also hear our weekly prophecy show, *Countdown to Eternity*, wherever you get your podcasts and at countdowntoeternity.com. Now let's return to our Bible study in Revelation chapter two and see how to get back on track when we've left our first love.

James Kaddis: He says in verse five—this is how to fix it. I call it the three R's, right? He says, "Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, repent," right? "And do the first works. Or else I will come unto thee quickly and remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent." So, remember and repent, because if you don't, there's a removal that's coming. Do you understand what that means, right? Think about the picture that's being involved here. He's asking you to follow through with a very simple principle. It's this: just take a moment to stop and remember the things that you did in the very beginning, the very first days, right?

Now, look, this is not Jesus telling you to do the things that you did in the first days, right? He's asking you to just simply remember the heart and the mind that drove you to do those actions. See, I can't do some of the things that I did in the first days because if I did some of the things I did in the first days, I'd get myself in a whole lot of trouble, right? I used to remember being so in love with the Lord that just early on in my relationship with God, I would grab my old guitar that I was learning how to play, and at five o'clock in the morning, I would play it in the house, right? Because I was—I was singing worship and I just—I just wanted to play it in the house.

And my family would lose their minds. "Shut up!" you know? I mean, they didn't want to hear me say anything, right? So I'm like, "Okay, well you know what? I got a balcony." I lived in a two-story house, I got a balcony. I'm coming out on that balcony, five o'clock in the morning, put that little seat right there, and I didn't want it to be too comfortable of a seat and it couldn't have sides on it, so it was kind of like a block that I sat on. And in that balcony, I just started singing—singing worship as loud as I could. And then I had neighbors roll down their windows and tell me to shut up, right? And I'm just thinking, "This is persecution, God help me to deal with persecution." It wasn't persecution, it was stupidity, right? It was just complete stupidity, right? So I'm never going to go back and do something like that again. But I can remember the heart that I had that wanted to do that, right, on a regular basis, right? We'll save the rest of this message for tomorrow, Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis. It's a presentation of Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.