Message to Pergamum

Pergamum was the capital city of Asia for about 250 years. This city was well known for sins, false religion. This city was known as sin city.

Revelation Chp 2  verse 12 we get to know the writer is Jesus because it says the message is from the one who as sharp tow edged sword( Heb 4-12) When Jesus speaks it is powerful because it is a living word. When Satan comes in our life we can use the same Jesus's sharp sword to attack Satan. Jesus knows all our activities, activities of our Church, family and ourselves so do Jesus knew the activity of Pergamum Church thou this church was in the sinful city but Jesus knew the activities of this church so in verse 13 Jesus commendations: I know you are true to me and you did not abandon me. Antipas was a faithful person in the city of Pergamum. Antipas was against all those things which did not belong to Jesus so today Jesus want us to be like Antipas, later due to his faith he had suffer. He was bonfire under its belly because Antipas refused to renounce his faith in Jesus.

                                          Jesus brings different times in our life just to make us strong in Him, in verse 13 "Satan" names comes twice and this proof how sinful city Pergamum was. In our today's world we see so much sexual immorality around us  killing each other and so many unclean things goes around us. An flame of light never complaints of darkness instead a flame of light shines up in darkness exactly today we are in sinful city(darkness) and we should shine like the lampstand, today our lampstand should be full of oil so that we cab burn. We should not feel scared of sin(darkness) where Jesus as placed us we should shine like lampstand because Jesus is with us

                                        In verse 14 Jesus expresses his Concern following the teaching of Balaam. In numbers Chp 24 and Chp 25 we can read about Balaam - Barawk. Today Jesus as concern of sexual immorality, lustful desires, lustful thoughts. We don't worship idols but we make few people our idols to follow.  

                                      In verse 16 Jesus Commands: Turn from your sins if you don't than I will come to you soon. Today Jesus is telling us to repent, repent from sexually immorality, sexual desire, from all of our sins we should turn to God and repent make ourselves humble or else Jesus will come to us and fight with us with his swords. People in their sins are so firm that they don't repent. John 12-48 Whoever rejects me and does not accept my message has one who will judge him. The words I have spoken ill be his judge on the last day.

                                     In verse 17 Jesus gives Counsel: Listen if you ... In Exodus Chp 16 verse 19-20 and 35-36 Jesus will give us fresh manna. When you and I will overcome our sins and keep ourselves humble and in God's fellowship, when we are with God in his holy presence we will always remain fresh and we will be like burning lamp. Do not compromise with the world if we do we will be separated from Jesus. White Stone: It was Jewish law if you are find no guilty they would give white stone when we are freed from our sins and when we accept Jesus, Jesus gives us white stone which can be considered as a engagement ring which is a sign that we are one with Jesus we are his bride and Jesus is our bridgegroom. Jesus writes a new name that no one knows except the one who receives it for example certain things are very secret between husband and wife exactly the name which Jesus will write will be known only to that person.

                                 Before the world kill us we should kill the world along with Jesus and than in proud we can say we can conquer anything in Jesus name. Amen

Prayer: Thank you Lord for full filling our needs. Lord help us with the sword which is nothing but your powerful words that whenever we are tempted by Satan to do evil things or lustful things outside your choice we should defeat those things by using your powerful words. Amen 

                               

Message to the church of Smyrna

Introduction: Jesus was knowing about the three problems that Church of Smyrna was facing Trouble, Poverty and Bittching.. Smyrna is derived from myrh which is perfume ( Psalm 45-8) root meaning is bitter.Smyrna was a persecuted church suffering hence Jesus as no correction for them. We are moulded when we are in suffering through Jesus.

Again the writer of this letter is Jesus in verse 8 it says this is the message from the one who is the first and the last, who died and lived again.

In verse 9 Jesus gives commendations to them: I know your troubles, you are poor but you are rich and the evil things said against you. Tribulation is a blessing and tribulation is a part of Christian Life. Philippians 1-29 For you have been given the privilege of serving Christ not only by believing in him but also by suffering for him. Worldly things are perishable but heavenly things are non perishable thou we are poor in comparison to the world but we are rich in Christ name. James 2-5 Listen my dear brothers! God choose the poor people of this world to be rich in faith and to posses the kingdom which he promised to those who love him,. If we run behind money we do evil things and miss on from the spiritual blessings 1 Timothy 69-10

Verse 10 Jesus gives command He say don't turn yourself from Jesus no matter how much you suffer, no matter even if you have to go through death we should always trust in Jesus finally victory will be of us in Philippians 4-9 God who gives us peace will be with us. We also have example of Daniel because of his strong faith He was saved from the lion's pith 

In verse 11 Jesus gives them counsel if you have ears the listen ....

Prayer:Thank you Father for taking care of our needs, Lord please give us strength that no matter how many problems comes in our life no matter how much worst situation we are going through in life at any given point we should not loose hope and faith in you instead we should fight against the hard situations in our life by using your scripture as a sword against those problems because at the end victory belongs to us Amen

Message to the church of Ephesus

Revelation CHP 2: Message to the church of Ephesus.

Characters: Writer is Jesus and receiver is Ephesus church, stars are like elders of the church, seven gold lamp stand are like congregation of the church

Jesus always looks for good qualities in us, He appreciate our good work. in chp 2 verse 2 Jesus gives Commendation to the Ephesus Church: Jesus says I know your hard work, your patience, testing against false apostles and not standing by evil men.. When a school teacher takes the class or teaches any lesson. a teacher always uses the blackboard a board is always black and chalk is white so whatever teacher writes can been seen easily similarly Jesus writes his concerns to the church of Ephesus in verse 4 You do not  love me as you loved first. Today most of us do the same thing as a Church we all sit in the same worship but we abuse one another during  the service if we do not like the particular person we don't seat on the same bench. We just say oh I love Jesus this pastor speaks so good we are Holy in the church after that we are back into our old life. When we will face Jesus He will question us on " WHY" rather " WHAT"

In verse 5 Jesus Commands: Turn away from your sins and do what you did first. In Acts Chp 19 we get to know Church of Ephesus was form with lot's of reward, but later they were interested in external things they gave priority to external search. God say first search Kingdom of God. whatever you do do with Christ's motivation of love when you pray, pray with love, holy Spirit will come if you sing, sing with Christ love .

Again in verse 6 Jesus gives commendations You hate Nicolaitans as much as I do, In verse 7 Jesus counsel If you have ears than listen. Tree of life first Tree of life was on earth ( Genesis ) 2nd Tree of life is in Heaven. Adam missed on eating fruit from the tree of life because of his sins, so Jesus says in 1John 54:5 Overcome and repent from your sins so you can eat fruit from the tree of life.

Amen

" Father forgive them for they don't know what they are doing " Luke 23:34

Introduction: You can see eroded into the limestone tow sockets for the eyes, a place for the nose and maybe a place for the mouth. Skull Hill, they called it Golgotha. It was the place where the Romans did their killing. The soldiers were ready to do their dirty work. They were Roman soldiers. They weren’t followers of the law. They were simply soldiers who had a job to do.

So it’s nine am and up the road comes a group of people. The soldiers know that tow of the men being crucified are just average, ordinary criminals but the third man the one from Nazareth his case is different . They don’t really know who he is. They know it’s important because they sense the buzz in the crowd.  The people of Jerusalem at least some of them loved to come out and watch the crucifixions but today there were more people than usual a bigger crowd, noisier, waiting for action to begin.

Up the road comes a parade of people led by a man carrying a cross half a man, half a creature from the worst sufferings of the previous night. He had been beaten within an inch of his life. His face was swollen and on his head a crown of thorns. a man already more dead then alive. They laid the cross on the ground and they laid the body of Jesus on the cross. One hand over here, one hand over there. Wrapping rope around this arm and around that arm rope around the legs.  With the ropes in place they began to pull the cross up. They lowered it carefully and it fell into place with a thud. And there was Jesus naked and exposed before the world. “ Get the dice.” Someone said.” Lets roll dice for his clothes.”

What Did Jesus Mean?

What happened that day at Skull Hill was unforgiveable. When you crucify the Son of God you have done that which is beyond forgiveness and yet Jesus said in his first words from the cross “ Father forgive them for they know not what they do” Luke 23:24 Jesus offered forgiveness to the men who was murdering him. Jesus asked His righteous and holy father in heaven to forgive his murderers while they were murdering him.

Its’ helpful to understand how Jesus responded to his crucifixion

·         He doesn’t offer a word in his own defense

·         He doesn’t condemn Herod or Pilate or the Jewish leaders

·         He doesn’t not proclaim his own innocence

·         He doesn’t turn against God

·         He doesn’t not attack his attackers

·         He doesn’t attempt to save himself

·         He doesn’t blame anyone though many were to blame

Instead he prays Isaiah 53:14 explains the significance of this cry from the cross.’ For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.”

Exactly what does it mean to forgive the unforgivable? That’s the problem posed by Jesus’ first cry from the cross. Our God is forgiving God.” The Lord, The lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin” Exodus 34:6-7

As I study the remarkable words of Jesus tow things come to mind that will help us understand how to forgive the unforgiveable

1: We must give up trying to force people to understand how much they hurt us.

I was once deeply hurt by my friend and I said something like this in my mind” I would be willing to forgive him only I thought he knew how badly he hurt me. But again I thought it’s impossible because as long as I hold to it I will never forgive my friend for years

If you are going to forgive you must give up all the bad memories of that particular person . Until we do that forgiveness will remain a distant dream. Always remember what Jesus said” father forgive them because they do not know what they are doing.”  The soldiers knew that they are killing the man named Jesus but they don’t know who he really is they don’t understand his true identity .

Sometimes we refuse to forgive people because we want the other person to feel what we felt when they hurt us so badly. But if you make your pain the price of forgiveness you will never forgive because no one else can ever pay that price.

You do not forgive because they deserve forgiveness

You do not forgive to gain personal advantage over them

You forgive because of God’s grace

You forgive because that’s what Jesus did for you.

2  We must remember that God forgave us when we were unforgivable

This is where the words of Jesus become very personal. We are included in his prayer. “ father forgive them …. Who was included in the word them? The soldiers, the mob, the women, the disciple, Pilate, Gaiaphas, Caiaphas, Annas and the Jewish leaders but also you and me were included He was praying for you and me too

Would you like to become like Jesus? I suggest we should start forgiving people who have hurt us. To forgive us Jesus had to give his life and to forgive others we will have to give up our anger, turn away from bitterness. We all have reserved a room in our heart a hidden storehouse of hatred and revenge It is a dark room filled with pain and anger and we keep it locked . It is room that God will not enter without our permission. But I ask you to open the room and invite the Lord. Today with happy hearts lets open the door and invite the Holy Spirit and say Come in and do your work in me.

Prayer: Thank you Father for taking care of my needs until this hour and also thank you Father for taking care of all those people who are reading this message now. Father forgive us for not forgiving others. In Jesus’ name I pray Amen.