Sermon25-35 Rev3 Guide

Rev 3:7-22 theme verse Rev 3:10

The praise and honor and glory be to our heavenly Father who seeks true worshipers who worship Him with the Spirit and truth.

In this thirtieth Sunday of 2025, on Pentecost Sunday, I pray that His grace of the application of all the benefits which Jesus earned for our salvation and also the glorious ministry of the proclamation of His kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit may be full in our life. Last week, we looked at what the obligations of the Saints in church, yet this week, we would like to look at what the marks of true church are together.

1)    First, to look at the context of today’s text, the Book of Revelation is the last Book of the New Testament and was written by the Apostle John to the seven churches scattered in Asia Minor, which were severely persecuted under the Roman Empire, from the island of Patmos where he was exiled, around AD 96-96. It‘s theme was that a) Since God is the sovereign of history and Jesus has already triumphed over Satan and the world, b) Although Babylon, which symbolizes Rome, and two beasts which symbolizes, the political and religious powers of the world, will oppose God and His people, c) since Jesus already got the victory over them, relying on the sovereign God and the victorious Jesus Christ, His saints were exhorted to overcame the battle and to receive eternal rewards in the new heaven and new earth. And in Chapters 1-3, John was talking about what was happening at that time in the seven churches in Asia Minor with the diagnosis of their spiritual reality with that praise and rebuke. And then in Chapters 4-22, John was talking about what will happen in the future, saying His church will ultimately win even through the suffering from Satan and the world.

2)    And then to summarize the words spoken to the seven churches in chapters 2-3, the church in Ephesus was praised for carrying out many ministries, working hard, and persevering while keeping the word of truth, while being rebuked for losing their first love so that the Lord encouraged them to restore their first love, and promised that He would give the fruit of life in the kingdom of heaven to those who overcome. And then He praised the church of Smyrna for overcoming the persecution of the Jews and not bowing down to the Roman Empire despite their poverty. While He praised the church of Pergamum and the church of Thyatira for their faith, love, and perseverance, rebuking them for their compromising the word of truth and holding the teachings of Balaam, the Nicolaitans, and Jezebel, so that He encouraged them to fight against false teachings with the sword of truth, that is, the word of God, to overcome them and promised that He would give the authority to rule over the world to those who overcome. And then regarding the church of Sardis who seemed alive yet was actually dead, He severely rebuked them, but since there were few in the church of Sardis who walked with the Lord, He encouraged them to repent and return, taking them as a lesson. And then He continued to speak to two churches in today’s text. First, He praised the church of Philadelphia for keeping the faith despite their small ability, and promised that He would not only show them that the Lord loved them by leaving an open door before them and making the synagogue of Satan bow down at their feet, but also that He would lead them through the final trial and make them pillars of God’s temple. And finally, He rebuked the church of Laodicea for their pride in claiming to be rich and knowledgeable about the truth, and the Lord encouraged them to repent, accept the Lord as the master of their hearts, and follow the Lord.

3)    By the way, when we look at these seven churches, I think we can find the mark of the true church. I mean, it is true that true church is built on the words of Jesus and Christians in that church have to strive to live by those words. Yet, regarding this mark of true church, there have been many discussions among Reformed theologians. Beza, Alsted, and Amesius argued that the church has only one mark, the preaching of pure gospel doctrine, while Calvin, Bullinger, Jancius, and Maastricht argued two marks, I mean, the pure preaching of the word and the proper administration of the sacraments. But, Ursinus, Heidegger, and others added the faithful practice of discipline to these two. Yet these three actually have one root, I mean, they are all founded on the pure word of God.

4)    Regarding the need of such marks, Louis Berkhof says in his book “Systematic Theology” that “Little need was felt for such marks as long as the Church was clearly one. But when heresies arose, it became necessary to point to certain marks by which the true Church could be recognized. The consciousness of this need was already present in the early Church, was naturally less apparent in the Middle Ages, but became very strong at the time of the Reformation. At that time the one existing Church was not only divided into two great sections, but Protestantism itself was divided into several Churches and sects. As a result it was felt ever increasingly that it was necessary to point out some marks by which the true Church could be distinguished from the false. The very fact of the Reformation proves that the Reformers, without denying that God maintains His Church, were yet deeply conscious of the fact that an empirical embodiment of the Church may become subject to error, may depart from the truth, and may totally degenerate. They assumed the existence of a standard of truth to which the Church must correspond, and recognized as such the Word of God.”

5)    Yet, regarding the second mark of the “pure administration of the sacraments, we need to understand the context of those days. I mean, at the time when our confession was written, this point was vital because both Rome and the Anabaptists had very unbiblical views of the sacraments. Rome taught there were seven sacraments: baptism, the eucharist, penance, marriage, anointing of the sick, confirmation, and holy orders, coupled to all of the unbiblical ceremonies and pronouncements which accompany them, while the Bible clearly teaches only two sacraments–baptism and the Lord’s Supper. And then there were the Anabaptists, who while having no official view on the Lord’s Supper tended to regard it as a mere memorial. Yet the real issue with the Anabaptists was the rejection of the universal practice of the church for its first fifteen hundred years, I mean, the infant baptism for the children of believers. Therefore, since the sacraments are so important, our confession devotes even three articles to them as we will cover these matters in some detail later on.

6)    As such, regarding the marks of true church, Belgic confession article 29 confesses that “We believe that we ought to discern diligently and very carefully, by the Word of God, what is the true church for all sects in the world today claim for themselves the name of "the church.” We are not speaking here of the company of hypocrites who are mixed among the good in the church and who nonetheless are not part of it, even though they are physically there. But we are speaking of distinguishing the body and fellowship of the true church from all sects that call themselves "the church.” The true church can be recognized if it has the following marks: The church engages in the pure preaching of the gospel; it makes use of the pure administration of the sacraments as Christ instituted them; it practices church discipline for correcting faults. In short, it governs itself according to the pure Word of God, rejecting all things contrary to it and holding Jesus Christ as the only Head. By these marks one can be assured of recognizing the true church and no one ought to be separated from it. And as for those who can belong to the church, we can recognize them by the distinguishing marks of Christians: namely by faith, and by their fleeing from sin and pursuing righteousness, once they have received the one and only Savior, Jesus Christ. They love the true God and their neighbors, without turning to the right or left, and they crucify the flesh and its works. Though great weakness remains in them, they fight against it by the Spirit all the days of their lives, appealing constantly to the blood, suffering, death, and obedience of the Lord Jesus, in whom they have forgiveness of their sins, through faith in him. And also as for the false church, it assigns more authority to itself and its ordinances than to the Word of God; it does not want to subject itself to the yoke of Christ; it does not administer the sacraments as Christ commanded in his Word; it rather adds to them or subtracts from them as it pleases; it bases itself on humans, more than on Jesus Christ; it persecutes those who live holy lives according to the Word of God and who rebuke it for its faults, greed, and idolatry. These two churches are easy to recognize and thus to distinguish from each other.”

7)    Here, as the Belgic Confession confessed that “By these marks we can clearly recognize the true church, whether everything is run according to the pure Word of God, whether everything contrary to that Word is rejected, and whether Jesus Christ is acknowledged as the only head of the church,” the most important mark of the church is the Word, as Luther said, the church is “the creature of the Word,” because the Word gave birth to the church and makes her grow and being operated, the church itself is grounded on the Bible, as Calvin said, which means that the doctrine and life of the church should be under the control of the Word of God.

8)    Therefore, I hope that we could submit ourselves to the Word of God in everything in our lives, as the Belgic Confession says, acknowledging Jesus Christ as our only head and living only in obedience to Him. In that sense, that’s why, when the Lord was tempted by the devil in Matthew 4 after being hungry for forty days that “if you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread,” He overcame the temptation by saying, “Human shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” So I pray that we all will submit to the Word of God this year and follow Christ, the Word.

Key Questions as Small Group Activity

Q1 Through today’s text, we became to know that the marks of true church are pure preaching of the Gospel, proper administration of the sacrament, and faithful practice of discipline. So, meditating on these marks and whether we are living in them, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Q2 And, also the most important is pure preaching of the Gospel as the foundation of all. So after reviewing if we live in the Word, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Love you. Thank you. God bless you.

Prayer Note

Dear ( God’s attribute which you found Today ) God!

Thanks for ( something you received through the sermon or  even during the week )

Praise, gratitude and glory be to You, Lord!

Today, I realized my sin (pains) that ( the sin God reminded through the sermon ),

please forgive (or heal) me and help me not to repeat ( the sins you recognized   ).

I learned that ( something you learned through the sermon                                    )

Please help me to live in that (  learned way of life                                                )

I pray in ( Jesus’ attribute you find ) Jesus’ name. Amen.