Dearest family,
Last Sunday we looked at the first of the letters to the churches in Revelation, the one to Ephesus. I spent quite a bit of time looking at the question: how and why does love grow cold? But for the purpose of this week’s pastoral letter, I want to reiterate the refrain that ended the letter, which will be repeated in all the others, though each one will contain a different promise. “He who has an ear to hear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” (v7) This is what is left ringing in your ears. This is a deliberate repetition of the same words with which Jesus began his ministry as recorded in the parable of the sower and the seed.
Our text and series raises huge questions about the quality of the church’s hearing. The Bible has so much to say about hearing, both good and bad.
About good hearing:
• There is that lovely listening ear that Isaiah speaks about: “He wakens my ear to listen morning by morning.” (Isa. 50:4) It says this is the word that sustains the weary, that teaches us.
• There is an ear that is shut to evil (Isa. 33:15) This is the one who walks righteously.
• There are ears that are simply described as “opened by the Lord” which saves the hearer from rebellion and drawing back. (Isa. 50:5) “My ears you have opened” (Ps. 40:6) Response is “Here I am!” “Speak for your servant is listening.” (1 Sam.3:9)
• There is the ear that hears and receives reproof and correction (Pvbs. 15:31)
• There is the attentive ear. “They hung on his words.” (Lk. 11:48) “Lydia attended” (Acts 16:14) The fruit of that attentiveness was: her household, a church, barbarian Europe were reached from Philippi!
• There is the obedient ear that Jesus blessed.
• We are exhorted to be “swift to hear” (Jms.1:19)
• We are taught how to hear: carefully, diligently (Dt.15:5; 11:13)
• So many encouragements in scripture to good hearing: incline your ear (Pvbs. 2:2), bow your ear (Ps. 5:1), apply your ears to instruction (Ps. 23:12), open your ears to the words of his mouth (Jer. 9:20) let these things sink down into your ears (Lk. 9:44) go near to the house of God to listen (Eccl. 5:1) faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Roms. 10:17)
• We are invited to take responsibility for how we hear and to ask for good hearing: “I will incline my ear”(Ps. 49:4) “Let me hear thy voice…for sweet is thy voice.” (Song of Sol 2:14) Good hearing is the response of love.
• Do your own study on the fruits of good hearing: faith I’ve already mentioned, also instruction and wisdom. When we hear rightly God is glorified (Acts 21:20) Both blessings and cursings are utterly determined by how we listen. (Dt. 28)
About bad hearing
• heavy, dull ears that will not understand ((Isa. 6:10)
• ears that have not been opened (Isa. 48:8)
• ears that are deliberately stopped to anything they don’t want to have to deal with (Pvbs. 21:13) Stopped to injustice’s cries (Zech.7:11)
• ears of fools that do not hear (Jer. 5:21)
• Jeremiah talks about the uncircumcised ear that finds the word of the Lord offensive, that reacts against God’s commands. Stephen quotes this in his final sermon and he tells them that the mark of an uncircumcised ear is resisting the Holy Spirit. (Acts 7:51) Six verses later they can take no more and his condemnation of their hearing literally gets him killed. It says “they covered their ears” proving what he said about their hearing was right!
• Ears that choose not to be attentive to the Lord produce bad results: stubborn inclinations, go backward not forward (Jer. 7:24)
• Ears that resist correction – truth perishes (Jer. 7:28)
• Ezekiel struggled with an unlistening audience in the face of calamity. “Ears to hear but do not hear.” (12:2) There is a terrible symmetry a few chapters later when it is prophesied that the enemy will overcome them and cut off their ears. (23:25)
• Paul talks of the great dangers of an “itching ear” influenced by personal desires, wanting to hear what they want to hear. (2 Tim. 4:3) ears that turn away from the truth. (v.4)
• Israelites actually said at Horeb “Let us not hear the voice of the Lord.” (Dt.18:16)
• Ears of the scorner, the cynic (like Sarah laughing) Pvbs.13:1
• Romans talks of those (Israel) who cannot hear because there is a spirit of stupor on them (11:8)
• The gospels identify those who did not hear because they chose to be offended.
• It’s interesting but you’ve only been reading the Bible 5 minutes and you encounter man’s first responses to hearing: wrongly (to the serpent and sinning) and wrongly again to the voice of God – they heard…they hid. (Gen. 3:8) The history of hearing that begins in Genesis ends in Revelation 22:17 “Let him who hears say Come”
If ever there was a day to listen and hear what the Spirit is saying to the church this is it. We’re in the book of Revelation as the world falls apart, the same book that prophesies in the end times that there will be a globalization of the economy, of government and of religion. If you don’t believe or perceive how far we are in to that inevitable process then you are not only not listening but not looking. So let’s take heed to what this word teaches. From beginning to end, it gives reason after reason why we either don’t listen or cannot hear: pride, untruth, self-satisfaction, rebellion, disobedience, idolatry, unbelief, cynicism, shame, unconfessed and unrepented sin, unteachableness, distraction, loving the sound of our own voice more than his, unbelief, willfulness, stubbornness, offence. Our text is telling us to hear what the Spirit says, so we cannot afford in these days to be dull of hearing for any of these reasons.
There are three things that would be good for our ears:
1. In Ex. 21:6 and Dt.15:17 we read of a practice that was the piercing of the ear. It’s the root of the idea of an “earmark” that simply signifies ownership. Has your ear been spiritually pierced? Are you unquestionably the Lord’s servant who will not, cannot hear and entertain any other offers for the stewardship of your life? Are you vulnerable to other voices (Did God really say?) Do you have ears for his voice only? Is your hearing consistent with your confession of his lordship?
2. In Ex. 29:20 we read of another practice related to the ears. Blood was put on the ears of the priests. We are all a royal priesthood. It signified consecration, being set apart to hear and obey whatever the Lord said.
3. But what if you’ve hearing loss? What if you’re deaf, if not totally, partially to certain frequencies of His love and his commands. What if there are things that you will not or cannot hear but you should? If there’s one thing Jesus specialized in it was deafness. Remember the healing of the deaf mute for example? By the way, spiritually, our lack of hearing always results in a lack of speaking. We speak those things that we have heard. Where little has been heard from the Lord there is little to share. Where there is no listening there is no learning. Maybe you need the Lord’s fingers in your ears as it were. Maybe you need to hear just one word: “Ephphatha!” (Mk.7:34) Be opened! Maybe you need to pray afresh with the psalmist, “Cause me Olord to hear your loving kindness.” (Ps.143:8)
Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear!
Pastorally yours,
Stuart
https://www.christourshepherd.org/pastlet.htm (and follow links to download MP3 audio of sermon)