There’s only one place you would go with that assignment in the Bible because there’s only one place in the Bible where Christ actually calls His church to reformation and that is in the opening chapters of the book of Revelation, and that is why I wanted to read those to you, or at least a portion of it, chapter 1. His call get specific to His church in chapters 2 and 3, and I will confess to you that the more familiar you are with Revelation 2 and 3, the more you’ll be able to track with me as I speak to you, because we’re not going to go down into those chapters and into those seven letter specifically, but rather to look at them in general; and I think it’ll be very helpful for us.

Christ spoke to His church. He spoke to seven churches, specific churches in specific cities in Asia Minor, which is Modern Turkey. They were actual churches with actual conditions that He addressed. The uniqueness of His letters to these churches is that they all include an assessment that leads either to a commendation or a threat. I don’t know that we really think much about the Lord threatening the church. We do think a lot about the Lord threatening the world with judgment, threatening unbelievers with judgment. But here in the book of Revelation we have the Lord of the church threatening His church with severe judgment.

I think most people who go to a church, and I would probably ascertain that most pastors, think the church is about the safest place you could be when it comes to threats from Christ; but that’s not true. Very strong, very direct threats are made against churches, and they’re found in this section. That is not something that is very often discussed. It’s not acknowledged, but it’s critically important. You have only this passage where Christ actually addresses specific churches and calls them to repent and reform.

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