About the prospects of returning to County Road B2 in Hamlin and we aren't setting any
dates for that yet but the contractor did tell us this week that around the middle of
November we'll be able to get back in it looks like.
The building won't be quite completed then but we're not waiting for that last little
bit of dust to get cleaned up before we go back.
We're eager to get there and as soon as that is possible we will announce it to you so
that you can make your plans that way too.
Next Sunday morning we're going to take three to five minutes of our morning service to
talk to you about the ministry of Grace Church.
Some of us realize this summer that there are not a small number of us that really are
not aware of all that is going on during the week as well as in other hours on Sunday than
the ones that we attend here together in this room.
And so we're taking several weeks of the morning service to expose you via slides and other
means of some of the things happening in our ministry here and we hope that that will be
not only informative for you but also a reason for you to pray more intelligently for the
ministry that God has given us here in this part of the Twin Cities.
This is an exciting day for Grace Church because in Edina today, Grace Church Edina, Pastor
Rick Yawn is beginning his preaching ministry and then in Richfield, Grace Church Richfield
begins today with the ministry of Pastor Jim Engel.
And so we are eager to hear about what's happening in those places as well as excited about what
God is doing here.
Would you take your Bible please and turn with me to Revelation chapter one.
In a few weeks we're going to begin an expository study of the book of Acts on Sunday mornings.
Now don't be alarmed by that.
Some of you who were around for a while remember that it took us almost two years to get through
16 chapters of Romans and there's 28 chapters in Acts.
But please don't be alarmed by that because we may even pick up the pace a little bit
as we get through some of these chapters in the book of Acts.
But until then we're going to talk about the church.
We've been dealing with this subject now for several months looking at the analogies or
the pictures of the church in the New Testament.
Today we'll talk about the church, a golden lampstand.
In Revelation chapter one we have John's account of his experience on the Isle of Patmos.
In verse 12 it says, and I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me.
And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands.
And in the middle of the lampstands one like the Son of God, clothed in a robe, reaching
down to his feet and girdled or girded across his breast with a golden girdle.
In verse 20 we have the explanation of what is being seen here.
The Lord Jesus says to John, as for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right
hand and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches
and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
And so the lampstand is clearly said to be here an analogy for a local church.
The seven churches that he has in mind were the seven major churches of Asia Minor to
whom letters were written and recorded for us in chapters two and three of Revelation.
And so a local church is like a golden lampstand.
What is a lampstand?
A lampstand in that day was a stand on which an oil lamp was placed.
In order to provide for better illumination and visibility in a room.
The Lord Jesus talked about a lampstand when in Matthew chapter five he spoke about the
fact that we don't put a candle or a lamp on a lampstand and then hide it.
He says in verse 15, nor do men light a lamp and put it under the peck measure, but on
the lampstand and it gives light to all who are in the house.
So he says that you take a lamp and in those days the lamp often involved a saucer like
piece of pottery along the side of which would be placed a wick that would burn.
And that saucer of oil would be placed carefully upon the lampstand and left there so that
as it burned slowly it would give illumination to the entire room.
Jesus said you don't put the bushel over the lampstand and the light, but rather you take
it off and so the light can be seen.
The same word is found elsewhere in the New Testament, Hebrews chapter nine verse two,
where the writer records for us some of the furniture that was to be found in the tabernacle
that was built in the wilderness.
And one piece of that furnishing was the golden lampstand.
In that day that lampstand in the tabernacle weighed between 60 and 80 pounds and was made
of pure gold.
Here in the temple that Solomon built there were ten of these lampstands, not just one,
and each of the lampstands had seven lamps on it and so it produced a good deal of light.
Why is the church called a golden lampstand?
As I thought about that it seemed to me that there may be a couple of reasons why we are
described such.
Gold is that which is highly valued and so is the church.
In fact the Lord Jesus Christ shed his life's blood on behalf of the church, indicating
to us the value that he places upon this elected group called out during this age, the church.
Furthermore gold is a symbol of royalty in the Bible.
We see this for example in the vision which Nebuchadnezzar had of the image.
Do you remember that statue that he saw?
The head of it was of solid gold and when Daniel gave him the interpretation he said
you Nebuchadnezzar are the head of gold.
What was Nebuchadnezzar?
He was the most powerful sovereign, the most powerful royal figure of his day.
Gold represents royalty and so the church is royalty.
As we have studied now several months ago, the church is the royalty of God's new creation.
Those of us who are a part of the church, who believe in Jesus Christ in this age, we
are destined to reign with Jesus Christ and to share his throne and so we are royalty.
We are God's family.
Therefore we are a golden lampstand.
The lamp of course provides light and that is the meaning of that.
We are that which holds up the light.
We are not light ourselves.
It is true that Jesus in Matthew chapter 5 said you are the light of the world but he
went on to say that we are a city set on a hill which cannot be hidden.
We are not the light in ourselves but we are reflectors of the light as Paul makes clear
in Philippians chapter 2 verse 15 where describing this generation as crooked and perverse, he
goes on to say among whom you reflect the light in the world.
You are luminaries.
So we are not the light in ourselves but the Lord Jesus Christ lives in us and therefore
we are the givers out of the light.
We are the holders up of the light.
We are the stand on which the light rests.
We are the lampstand.
We see this figure further expounded in Revelation chapter 21 when our eternal home, the New
Jerusalem is described.
In reading through that description you must be taken with the fact that it is apparently
a city which is made of materials which are basically transparent.
The streets are said to be made of gold and yet it is not the gold like we have, it is
gold that you can see through.
It seems as though the purpose of that city which will be our eternal home and headquarters
will be to radiate and emanate the glory of God.
So even in eternity to come we will be the source of giving out God's glory to his new
creation.
We are that which gives out the light or holds up the light.
As a golden lampstand right now in this age the church is purposed to be a bright testimony
of Jesus Christ to the world.
That's part of our purpose in this age, to shine forth the light of Jesus Christ to the
darkness all around us.
Now it may seem that we are not very many in a very dark world, but I need not describe
for you how much difference even a small light makes in the midst of gloomy darkness.
It makes a great deal of difference.
And when you add together the other local churches, for example just in this area which
preach the gospel and hold forth Jesus Christ, we do make a great deal of difference in the
darkness of this world.
As a golden lampstand the church is purposed to be a bright testimony of the light of Jesus
Christ to a dark world.
That brings to mind a question, why is it so important that we do that?
Why is it so important that we be a witnessing church and a missionary-minded people?
I would suggest to you four reasons this morning as to why it is very important that we fulfill
our calling to be the lampstand of Jesus Christ in this world.
Number one, because it is the command of Jesus Christ that we do so.
In Acts chapter 1, Jesus said to those apostles that they were to wait in Jerusalem.
He says, the Holy Spirit is coming upon you.
You will receive power.
And then he said, you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria
to the uttermost parts of the earth.
That was his plan, his command.
You shall be witnesses unto me.
In Matthew chapter 28, Jesus said, all power is given to me in heaven and in earth.
Going therefore, make disciples of all nations.
That is the command in that verse.
Make disciples.
Disciple the nations.
And the idea is to bring them to the place of understanding who he is and bring them
into obedience to him.
It is the command of Jesus Christ that we be his lampstand, his bright testimony.
And it is our privileged responsibility to do so.
It is our privilege to proclaim him and the saving gospel about him to all men everywhere.
And that goes for all of us, not just for the missionaries that we send out or for those
who are part of the EE ministry or for those in our church who may be very equipped, vocal,
active witnesses.
But Jesus is referring to all of us in the church.
We are all a part of the lampstand.
And though our witnessing may differ in its intensity, in its methodology, we are all
to be witnesses and sharers in that responsibility to hold forth the light to the world.
And we can all share verbally in some way.
That is important.
We should all be giving our money to support the Lord's work here as well as on the mission
fields of the world.
That's the way we all participate in holding forth the light.
We live godly lives, I trust.
That too is holding forth his light to the world.
There may be practical ways in which we can be involved in holding forth the light.
For example, I know some men in one church who have organized themselves under the title
Men with a Mission.
And their purpose is to go at least once, but hopefully several times a year, to some
mission field, in home missions or in foreign missions, where they can build a church for
the missionaries or add a room onto the missionary's house or remodel the kitchen if necessary
or build a Sunday school room, do whatever is necessary in a practical way to help that
ministry along.
I don't know in what ways we are involved, but all of us are involved, I trust, in some
way in being a part of this golden lampstand.
Someone has said Jesus' last command should be our first concern, and that's true.
But what we have to be careful of is being engrossed in our own affairs to the point
that we forget his.
We need to be careful that there does not develop in our hearts a callousness toward
those who are going to hell.
But rather as our Lord's golden lampstand, we should be like him, not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
All of us need to be that way.
Now there are those who say that the church is such a golden lampstand that it will preach
the gospel to all the world before Jesus comes back.
And they usually point to a verse in Matthew chapter 24 verse 14 where it says, in this
gospel the kingdom shall be proclaimed to all the world and then the end will come.
The Lord will return.
They fail to take note of the context of that verse, which is the tribulation period, and
the specific message that will be proclaimed in that period of time of the Lord's return
to establish his kingdom.
There is in fact no commitment on the part of our Lord that the whole world will have
to hear the message before Jesus comes back.
If that were the case, then our Lord could not come back today.
He could not come at any moment.
His eminent appearing would be abolished if everyone had to hear the gospel before he
could return for the church.
If that were the case, then actually we would be losing ground because there are more people
today who have not heard than any time in the history of the world.
We are not guaranteed that everybody in the uttermost parts of the earth will hear the
gospel before Jesus comes back for the church.
But that should not deter us one bit from attempting to take the gospel to the uttermost
parts of the earth in this age.
That is our responsibility.
It is his commission, and his commission is our mission, and we must not be disobedient
in that.
The early apostles were warned that they should stop preaching and speaking in the name of
Jesus Christ.
And their response to those who ordered that was, we must obey God rather than men.
You see, it is a matter of obedience.
We are a golden lampstand for Jesus Christ.
He has commissioned us with that purpose and commanded us that both here and in the uttermost
parts of the earth, we should be active in holding forth his light.
How are you functioning in obedience to that command?
What are you doing to take his gospel to your neighbors or to those people at the office
or that person who pumps your gas or to the people on the Indian reservation in Upper
Minnesota or in Arizona or to the people in Africa or India or Indonesia?
You see, each of us as a part of the church has some part to play in this role of ours,
the golden lampstand.
We each must hold forth the light of Jesus Christ.
It's his command.
There's a second reason why we should do that, and that is because it is the only hope for
those who are perishing.
Turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter 2 for a moment.
The apostle here employs a figure which is mysterious to us today but which was familiar
to those people.
It is that of the Roman march of triumph when a general had a victory in a battle which
was significant.
He was often accorded the favor of having a triumphal entrance into a city.
That involved the offering of sacrifices and the waving of incense before him and his troops
as they come into the city along with prisoners who come at the end of the line.
Now employing that figure, the apostle says in chapter 2 of 2 Corinthians verse 14, thanks
be to God who always leads us in his triumph in Christ.
What he's really saying there is that in Jesus Christ we're on the victory side.
The victory has already been achieved by our Lord, and we are a part of his victory march.
And he says he manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of him in every place.
For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those
who are perishing.
Why does he talk here about a sweet aroma and a fragrance?
Well, I mentioned the incense of that triumph march.
As the army came into the city there would be that fragrance, that aroma of incense in
the air.
And to the soldiers who were on the victory side it was a sweet aroma.
It was a welcome fragrance because it meant they were being honored and the victory had
been accomplished.
But to those poor souls who came at the end of the line who were the prisoners, it meant
death.
It meant they were doomed.
They had been conquered.
And so what the apostle is saying is this, that as we hold forth the gospel of Jesus
Christ to the world, to those who are being saved it is a wonderful message.
We rejoice in it.
There is a fragrance and a sweet aroma about it and about us.
But he says to those who are perishing it only is the fragrance of death and damnation.
There are those perishing around us.
Do we remember that?
Do we really understand that the majority of the population around us is on the way
to a Christless eternity?
If they are going to hear how to be saved it must come through the church.
God is not going to send angels into the world to declare the gospel.
We are His lamp stand.
Therefore we are the only hope for those who are perishing.
They cannot know the gospel naturally for their minds are darkened to the things of
God.
They will not discover how to be rescued from their lostness through human made religions
for all of those religions lead only to hell.
Nor will they discover how to be saved through the apostate Christian church which has largely
turned to another gospel and to another Jesus which the Bible does not proclaim.
If those who are perishing will be saved it is through us who know the Lord Jesus Christ
and who are part of His true church in this age.
Jesus Christ is the only Savior of the world.
There are some people who back away from that with some embarrassment who say, well I think
we really should be more broad minded about that, don't you?
For surely God understands and wouldn't condemn sincere people.
Well my friend I am sorry to alarm you if that is the way you feel but the fact is that
God will condemn those outside of Jesus Christ.
How broad minded should we be?
As broad minded as the word of God and no more, we do not have the liberty to be any
more broad minded than that.
And I remind you of what Paul's attitude was, if anyone does not love the Lord let him be
accursed.
That is not exactly Dale Carnegie stuff.
How broad minded are we supposed to be?
As broad minded as saying that the way to heaven is through Jesus Christ and He is the
only way.
Jesus said I am the way, not a way.
The truth, not a truth, the truth, the life.
No one comes to the Father but by me, He said.
Now we can say that Jesus was mistaken and if He was then how do we know that He was
not mistaken about other things that He said?
Or we can say that He was deceived and if He was deceived then we are in trouble.
Or if He purposely lied to us then what kind of a Savior would He be?
The only conclusion we can make is that He was saying the truth and therefore we are
not at liberty to broaden that.
Jesus Christ is the only hope for those who are perishing and those who are perishing
will not learn the truth about Him except from His people, the Church.
The true Church of Jesus Christ as the possessor of truth is duty bound to make Him known.
Isn't that the Apostles attitude when Romans 1 verses 14 and 15 He says I am indebted?
Both to the Jew and the Greek to give them the gospel, are we not similarly indebted?
Asa Hale Grant said, I dare not go up to the judgment till I have done my best to diffuse
His glory throughout the world.
Do you realize that there are more people headed for hell than ever before?
We live in that generation.
What a privilege God has given to us to hold forth the light so that those who are perishing
can see Christ, believe in Him, and be saved.
And it is our obligation to do that.
Clay Cooper in his book Nothing to Win but the World writes of the great naturalist Huber
who noted that when a wasp finds a deposit of honey, it immediately returns to its nest
to impart the good news to the others.
Is not the lesson of the wasp obvious to us?
J.G.
Holland wrote, open your hands, you whose hands are full.
The hungry world is waiting for you, the whole machinery of divine beneficence is clogged
by your closed hands and rigid fingers.
Give and spend and be sure that God will send.
For only in the giving and spending do you fulfill the object of God's giving and sending.
God has sent His Son that people might not perish but have everlasting life, and we hold
Him forth for the same reason.
We are His golden lampstand to proclaim Him to those who are perishing that they might
see Him and not perish but be saved through faith in Him.
A third reason why it is important that we be a faithful golden lampstand can be found
in 1 Corinthians chapter 4.
It is this reason that our being a faithful witness to the world is proof that we view
life properly.
1 Corinthians 4, verse 1, Let a man regard us in this manner, says the Apostle, as servants
of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.
We need to almost constantly remind ourselves that we are but stewards of all that God has
given us.
The moment that we see ourselves as owners of what we have, we have lost the right perspective.
Life is given to you and to me as an opportunity, an opportunity for us to prove our faithfulness
in looking after our Lord's concerns and not our own.
For we are His stewards and the purpose of a steward is to look after the things of His
Master.
Now as stewards, we must be found faithful.
Clay Cooper also said, God's gifts are tools, not prizes.
The reconciled are to be reconcilers.
To regard anything in one's possession as something owned rather than loaned is to widely
miss the idea of stewardship.
Whether it be the abilities I have or the spiritual gifts I've been given or whether
it be the material things I own or even my family, all is given to me as a loan by God.
You and I will return to Him for accounting the same way we came into the world empty
handed and at that point He will be able to accurately measure how well we have handled
His affairs in this world.
What kind of a steward are you of life, of the material things that God has given you,
of the opportunities to serve the Lord makes available, of the gifts and abilities He's
entrusted to you as a steward?
I think it is when we are faithful as a golden lampstand that we begin to view life properly
and we see that we are not here to shine forth our own glory, but we are here simply as a
lampstand to lift up the light of the world, Jesus Christ, to look after His affairs so
that all may see Him and come to Him to be saved.
How wise it is to invest our gifts, our resources for eternal good.
A fourth reason as to why we should be a good, faithful, shining golden lampstand is that
it is evidence of gratitude for the work of Calvary.
Turn to the last part of 1 Corinthians to chapter 15.
The Apostle in this chapter talks about the gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection
of Jesus Christ.
He majors on the resurrection because that was a truth that was being denied by some
false teachers in Corinth.
And as he closes this chapter in which he deals with the gospel, he says in verse 57,
thanks be to God, He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of
the Lord.
What is Paul implying here?
That our thanks to God for the victory is evidenced by our steadfastness, our immovability,
our abounding in the work of the Lord.
That's proof that we really are grateful for the gospel, for the work of Calvary.
Can any person seriously contemplate Golgotha without it making a profound and far-reaching
impact in his life, without it creating a deep gratitude, without it instilling somewhere
in the heart a desire that that story, that truth be told to all?
Is it not true that when the heart becomes careless about that, that it has grown cold
regarding the cross?
I think so.
His saving work, His suffering for us in our place is the greatest motivation that we have
for living as we should.
The apostle Paul was controlled by the love of Christ.
Remember how he said that in 2 Corinthians 5?
He said, the love of Christ constrains me.
It constrains me.
And then in the next verse he says that we might no longer live for ourselves but for
Him who died for us and rose again.
Can we honestly look at the cross work of the Lord Jesus Christ and then say, it matters
so little to me that I will live for myself?
How can anyone do that?
But we do, don't we?
We do.
It is only as we live for Him and as we fulfill our calling to be His lampstand that we are
evidencing our gratitude for Golgotha.
There was an old man who visited a museum in London some years ago which had an art
gallery.
He looked at the various paintings that were displayed there and finally he came to one
that pictured Christ dying on the cross.
The man stopped and gazed at that painting for a long time and as he did there welled
within his heart a deep love for his Savior.
And he blurted out with great feeling, bless Him.
I love Him.
There was quite a crowd in the museum.
Some were embarrassed by his outcry but there were a few who came out from the crowd and
stood beside Him and they said, we too love Him, brother.
You cannot look at the cross of Jesus Christ and understand what it was all about without
responding similarly.
We love Him because He first loved us.
The lampstand in Revelation is mentioned once more and that is in Revelation chapter 2.
It's important that you turn there and look at that.
This time it is in regard to the church in Ephesus.
One of the seven churches mentioned in chapter 1.
In verse 1 of Revelation 2 it reads, To the angel of the church in Ephesus write,
The one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven golden
lampstands, says this, I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot
endure evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles and they are
not and you found them to be false, and you have perseverance and have endured for my
name's sake and have not grown weary, but I have this against you, that you have left
your first love.
Enter therefore from where you have fallen and repent and do the words or deeds rather
you did at first, or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its
place unless you repent.
Would you notice that there is a warning by our Lord to the church at Ephesus?
It is a warning to that church that it would lose its ministry, its witness, its testimony.
Why?
Not for its lack of orthodoxy.
It had even tried those who were false teachers and branded them false.
It had stood for the truth, it had persevered and endured against evil.
Why then did Jesus give this warning?
Not because it was lazy in its works, because it was busy in its ministry.
They toiled to the point of exhaustion and agony for the sake of Jesus Christ.
Why then did Jesus give this warning?
It was because of its loss of its first love, its first love.
You see they had a love for him, but it was not a first love.
What does that mean?
I think one way to describe it is it was not a love that gave him priority.
There was a love for him, but it was not the kind of love that put him first, a first love.
John Stott puts it this way, their earlier devotion to Christ had cooled.
They had been in love with him, but they had fallen out of love with him.
So the bridegroom seeks to woo his bride back, back to her first love.
The divine lover still sorrows when his love is unrequited and pines for our continuing,
deepening, maturing adoration.
Love then, writes Stott, is the first mark of a true and living church.
Without this love, the church's work is lifeless.
You know it's hard to measure the love of a church for Jesus Christ.
Ultimately, only he can do that, and he does, for he stands in the midst of the lampstands
today, the church is today, and he examines us.
But you and I can examine and determine the measure of love that we have for him personally.
How warm is your love for Jesus?
How real and vital is it in your life?
Jesus said, he that loves me keeps my commandments.
In other words, obedience is the real test of love.
We can say the words, but it's whether we do what he says that counts.
And that is not a cold, legalistic obedience that Jesus is speaking about, but he's talking
about an obedience that comes from a heart of fervent devotion and grateful ardor for
him.
Do you love him?
How much?
How does it show?
Jeanette Lockerbie tells the story of four-year-old Martha.
Little Martha came to her mother one day with a doll around each of her little pudgy arms.
She walked up to mother and she said, with a wistful look on her face, I love them and
love them and love them, but they don't love me back.
Jesus said, I love you.
I said, Lord, how much do you love me?
And he said, this much.
Let's pray.
Lord Jesus, thank you for stretching out your arms one day.
We recognize that as they were nailed to the cross that you were embracing us.
For therein is love, not that you loved us when we were good, but when we were sinners
and you died in our place.
But I'm afraid, Lord, a lot of us today have to be honest and tell you that while we love
you, perhaps even with a love of affection, it's not a first love.
It's not the kind of love that gives you priority in our plans, in the use of our money, the
places we go, the things that we give our time to.
It's not a first love.
And therefore we recognize that this warning to Ephesus applies to us that unless we repent
of that, you will remove our lampstand and we will no longer have a ministry.
And so today we come to you and pray that you will give us hearts of genuine repentance.
Forgive us of all the selfishness, the self-centeredness.
Forgive us for loving the world.
Forgive us for putting things and even other people before you in our lives.
I pray that as we close this service, Savior, that each of us may be able to somehow personalize
this message and within the throne room of our own hearts meet with you and give you
ourselves a fresh and anew.
Claim us, we are rightfully yours, and claim all of us.
Amen.