Patmos.

Calvary Church. Charlotte, NC.

This was my home church growing up. 5301 Sardis Rd. This was a very formative place in my life. My mom played the piano in our services. My dad was an elder. I was very involved in the children's and student ministries. My pastor was Ross Rhoades. I honor Jesus for the way he used Dr. Rhoades in my formation in the early years of my life. I still have one of his sermons on my iPod. I weep every time I listen to it. I remember Dr. Rhoades coming down to the front row on Sunday nights before the service began. He would ask me and my friends what hymn we wanted to sing that night. Most times, he would include that hymn in the singing for the evening service on the spot. I met my youth pastors Tim Tinsley and Jimmy Wade in this place. They were used by God to whisper a student ministry calling over my life. I stood on the left part of that very stage pictured above with my dear friend Jimmy Davis during "Joseph: The Dreamer" musical rehearsals in our senior year of high school. We decided together on that stage to room together at Bryan College during a rehearsal break one night. He remains my dear brother to this day. I would return to Calvary in my summers during college as a student ministry intern as God clarified my pathway into student ministry. These are rich thoughts for me to consider.

It's interesting how certain things can attach in your memory. If I were to tell you one of the least likely things that I could imagine imprinting the mind of a child and then young man, it would be the descriptive byline on the front of a church bulletin. It's almost silly to mention. It's a throw away right? Interestingly, the byline that I saw on the bulletin of my home church over all those years has deeply impacted my life to this writing. Sunday after Sunday, year after year, new bulletin format after new bulletin format, the words "For the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ" appeared on our church bulletin. They are words from the Bible book of Revelation, chapter 1, verse 9. I did not fully know what the context of those words really meant, but as I became aware of what these words are communicating, it has impacted me ever since.

Here is what the whole verse says. "I, John, your brother and partner in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ."

John was most likely the last living apostle. He is receiving from the Spirit of God the final revelation of Jesus Christ to be recorded in our Scripture. He is living under the rule of Domitian, who in an insecurity complex, is requiring everyone to worship him as Lord and God and say it out loud. People had to say it when they went into the temple. But John can't do it. John would only bow to One. His beloved Lord Jesus. And so as a result of this refusal, he is banished to the island of Patmos. A small island in the Aegean Sea off of modern day Turkey. Rocky terrain. Few trees. Desolate. A place to be banished to, not a Christian retirement village. It was a place you were sent to be forgotten and rot. It was meant to be penal.

Just put the man on Patmos and shut him up. He'll be done. How is God's kingdom being fulfilled in an outcast who has been banished to an island to rot? Did you hear what is stirring in John as he is there? He is telling us. "I am your brother and I am your partner". He does not feel isolated and alone. He senses connection because of the work of Jesus. And the substance of his connection is so stirring to me. "Your brother and partner.... in the suffering, in the kingdom, in the patient endurance...". This is so hard and so beautiful all at once. Think of all the shallow, trite garbage that is bantered around on our airwaves and in our heartwaves on a daily basis. This is so not that. This is dripping with substance and invitation. Who really wants the suffering? Who really wants needing patient endurance? But these are parts of the kingdom that are ours IN JESUS. That's what John tells us. We GET to share in these things when we are in Jesus.

So. Keep it real. We make our decisions about that. Do I really want the suffering to be mine? Do we really want the suffering to be ours? Do I really want the patient endurance to be mine? Do we really want the patient endurance to be ours? John is saying with confidence that these are the things that are ours in Jesus. And then he detonates his reason why he is there.. This brother and partner in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance says, I "was on the island of Patmos...." Yes. Tell us John. Tell us the circumstances of how you ended up on this hell whole of a place. I "was on the island of Patmos... because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ."

Not Domitian.

Not Caesar.

Not preference.

Not chance.

I have been banished to this island because of my connection and desperate reliance on the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. That's why I'm here. Make no mistake about it. Give credit to the real reason. He's not cocky, but he is resolute. He knows why. And it marks him. AND IT IS ALIVE IN HIM!

How is God's kingdom being fulfilled in an outcast who has been banished to an island to rot? The intoxicating power of the Word of God is alive in him and he pulses with perspective and possibility in the suffering and the kingdom and the patient endurance that he is declaring are his IN JESUS.

Calvary Church. Charlotte, NC. Words of a bulletin byline impacting a then grade school boy.

And today.

There's more.