With Revelation 4, we are granted a glimpse into the heavenly throne room, a sight that is too wonderful to describe, too great to comprehend, yet so necessary to ponder and hold onto in our daily church life, in the life of the church in the end times, the time between ascension and return. We have just pondered the seven epistles dictated and written by Christ to the church of all times and places. These letters reveal that Christ knows the church in all its facets. The prevailing image is one of tension, turmoil, struggle, suffering, temptation, and lack. In Ephesus, the first love was forsaken, and the church was called to repentance. It is a church where there is devotion and works, but love is lacking. But what are we without love? In Smyrna, there was tribulation and persecution from without. There was bitter suffering emanating from the devil, yes, from Satan's synagogue. In Pergamos, some had fallen to the temptations around them and compromised with the world. In Thyatira, there was tolerance for those who lived utterly worldly lives. The church did not practice discipline and was not pure and clean. In Sardis there was deficiency before the LORD, weighed, and found wanting. The church there is dying. The word has sounded and is heard, but it is not kept. The church there wears stained garments. At Philadelphia, they did not keep what God had given in their little strength. At Laodicea, there is a very complacent and disgustingly mediocre congregation. She thinks she has everything, but she has nothing.
That is the picture of the church in the end times—a picture of tension, turmoil, struggle, suffering, temptation, and lack. It would make you despondent. Oh yes, the Lord also praises the good in the churches and gives counsel, but in the meantime, the picture of the church also shows so much tension, turmoil, struggle, suffering, temptation, and lack.
How does the church endure in everyday life? We can become despondent with struggle and temptation. But isn't this recognizable in the church's life today and in our personal lives? There is, thank God, still much good in the church, but there is also so much struggle, lack, and failure. What worldliness, a lack of purity and discipline, a lack of love and devotion, what sins, and there is complacency.
But if we stay closer to ourselves, isn't this image also recognizable? Faith is not always in the bag! There is the battle with sin, and certainly not always victories are won there. There is suffering with sickness, grief, and mourning. How are we holding up? Are we headed in the right direction?
However, the epistles also teach us that God is faithful and reigns! The church is His work. And despite all the shortcomings and weaknesses, He is faithful to His church and to all those local congregations. God has a plan with this world, with His church, and with His people.