We are continuing with our study through the Book of the Unveiling of
Jesus Christ, John’s letter, The Revelation. We’ve looked at three of the letters to the
churches, and today we come to the last four letters.
The POLLUTED Church in Thyatira
“Write this letter to the angel of the church in
Thyatira. This is the message from the
Son of God, whose eyes are like flames of fire, whose feet are like polished
bronze: “I know all the things you do. I have seen your love, your faith, your
service, and your patient endurance. And I can see your constant improvement in all
these things. “But I have
this complaint against you. You are
permitting that woman—that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet—to lead my
servants astray. She teaches them to
commit sexual sin and to eat food offered to idols. I
gave her time to repent, but she does not want to turn away from her immorality.
“Therefore, I will throw her
on a bed of suffering, and those who commit adultery with her will suffer
greatly unless they repent and turn away from her evil deeds. I
will strike her children dead. Then all
the churches will know that I am the one who searches out the thoughts and
intentions of every person. And I will
give to each of you whatever you deserve. “But I also have a message for the rest
of you in Thyatira who have not followed this false teaching (‘deeper truths,’
as they call them—depths of Satan, actually). I will ask nothing more of you except
that you hold tightly to what you have until I come. To
all who are victorious, who obey me to the very end, to them I will give
authority over all the nations. They
will rule the nations with an iron rod and smash them like clay pots. They will have the same authority I
received from my Father, and I will also give them the morning star! “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to
the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. Revelation 2:18-29
Jesus told the folks at the Thyatira congregation;
I know all
the things you do. I have seen your
love, your faith, your service, and your patient endurance. You know
this phrase “patient endurance”. It pops
up in the Bible every so often…it’s hupomone in Greek, and it means
cheerful endurance. It means when the
times got tough, they didn’t stop doing their works. As a matter of fact it says the folks at
Thyatira increased their works.
There’s a message in that for people who have
just come through Covid-19 troubles in the 21st century.
Now here's a church that has all sorts of
commendation from Christ. He says, I
know your works and charity...you reach out into the community. I know your service and your faith...you
minister to one another. I know your
patience, your super-abundant patience; and you’re doing more now than ever. I know you're being progressive in serving
Christ, but I have this against you...in
your heart of hearts, you're moving away from serving Christ as a priority,
because you’ve decided to include being worldly, but still trying to be part of
the church. This church was making compromises
in their hearts over their Christianity.
That never works!
When we come to the Lord's Supper Table, what is
it that we see about the bread. You cannot
break any part of that bread, without breaking all of it? You can’t drink any of that cup representing
the blood of Christ without spilling some of it? Why?
Because the “one” is the “whole”.
The church at Thyatira was being condemned by
Jesus because their hearts were not pure – not all together under the one body
and blood of the Savior; they vacillated between being Christ’s disciples, and
the culture’s citizens.
Jesus demands a choice; you cannot have one foot
in the church and the other in the world.
Their hearts were absent from the work. They may have met for the worship; they may
have had some pretty good programs going on; it may even have been exciting…it
may have been a pretty good place to be.
As a matter of fact, they may have had every seat filled in their
church. But all that amounts to is
popularity, and that is entirely possible when serving your own preferences and
agenda…but not serving God. The only
problem is it won’t please God at all!
The church at Sardis was dying amid a flurry of
church activities, and it was because they were letting Jezebel teach false
doctrine.
The PROUD Church in Sardis
“Write this
letter to the angel of the church in Sardis. This is the message from the one who has the
sevenfold Spirit of God and the seven stars: “I know all the things you
do, and that you have a reputation for being alive—but you are dead. Wake
up! Strengthen what little remains, for
even what is left is almost dead. I find
that your actions do not meet the requirements of my God. Go
back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly. Repent and turn to me again. If you don’t wake up, I will come to you
suddenly, as unexpected as a thief. “Yet there are some in the church in
Sardis who have not soiled their clothes with evil. They will walk with me in white, for they are
worthy. All who are victorious will be clothed in white. I will never erase their names from the Book
of Life, but I will announce before my Father and his angels that they are
mine. “Anyone with ears to
hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the
churches. Revelation 3:1-6
The city of Sardis was built on the top of a 90° cliff that was totally inaccessible from three
sides. There was only one gateway into
the city. The residents felt safe. They were prosperous, and lived in an
impregnable fortress. However, the city
was conquered and destroyed twice in its history.
In BC 549 the Medes under Cyrus came right
through the front gate while the guards slept.
The very same thing happened in BC 218.
Antiochus the Great caught the guards napping, and waltzed right in the
front door.
This ancient city had a reputation for being
impregnable to military conquest, but it went to sleep, and the fall was more
than costly!
In the same way, Jesus speaks to the fellowship
of Christians at Sardis, a group without financial hardship, or persecution, a
church of successful people, and he says, Your reputation is that of being strong, impregnable – you are badly
mistaken, and you’d better wake up!
If you have ever "pulled guard duty" in
the Army, you know it requires considerable effort to keep the eyelids in the
function position for the whole four hours.
There's just something about someone saying Stay awake that just makes you want to immediately go to sleep.
The sense of the message to the church at Sardis was
that their ongoing vital ministry on the hilltop had waned; it was fading fast, and would soon die
altogether. Jesus cautions to shake out
of that lukewarmness, and turn around.
If you had a missionary zeal, rekindle the fire! If you were evangelistic and soul-winners,
get busy in the neighborhood knocking on doors.
Don't let the ministry die!
It is a scary thing to envision a large,
powerful, affluent church with all the latest techniques and technology, and
only a few saved people in the bunch with enough heart for God to work while
the masses were sound asleep.
What does that look like in our day? With over 90% of churches in America plateaued
or declining in membership and attendance, there is example after example of
this kind of problem…hardly anyone cares enough to do what
it takes to win the lost to Christ.
The kind of wake-up call
Jesus was talking about includes a response of gratitude for what God has done
for us.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his
benefits. Psalm 103:2
Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. 2 Corinthians 9:15
It is amazing what being thankful will
produce. When Carrie, our youngest
daughter was in 2nd grade, I accompanied her class on a field trip to a nature
preserve. It was a rugged
experience. As a chaperone group leader
I had charge over six eight-year-olds. (In
Charge? Really?
Who am I kidding?)
One of the children was a little girl named
Phinnie. Phinnie was my shadow; she
talked without ceasing. The week after
the trip she wrote me the following note:
Dear Mr.
Brownworth, Thank you for coming with us
to Camp Crystal. I really enjoyed having
you with us. I'm sorry you had to walk
in the mud. I hope you enjoyed it. Your friend, Phinnie
Mud or not, to this day Phinnie could have
anything she wants from me. I
appreciated her thankfulness. God
appreciates our thanksgiving, (worship) too.
We may not be any better at expressing it than Phinnie was, but we can
get better at it. If there is anything
that will shake us from lukewarmness, it will be expressing warm praise and
worship to God.
The POSITIONED Church in Philadelphia
“Write this
letter to the angel of the church in Philadelphia. This is the message from the one who is holy
and true, the one who has the key of David.
What he opens, no one can close; and what he closes, no one can open: “I know all the things you do, and I
have opened a door for you that no one can close. You have little strength, yet you obeyed my
word and did not deny me. Look, I will force those who
belong to Satan’s synagogue—those liars who say they are Jews but are not—to
come and bow down at your feet. They will acknowledge that you are the ones I
love. “Because you have obeyed
my command to persevere, I will protect you from the great time of testing that
will come upon the whole world to test those who belong to this world. I
am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take away
your crown. All who are victorious will become pillars in
the Temple of my God, and they will never have to leave it. And I will write on them the name of my God,
and they will be citizens in the city of my God—the new Jerusalem that comes
down from heaven from my God. And I will
also write on them my new name. “Anyone
with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to
the churches. Revelation 3:7-13
The word here is an open door.
In Greek it’s always entryway (never an
exit)! And the door, Jesus says, cannot
be shut. This is an invitation if ever I
heard one! What does Jesus want? He wants us to walk through. How do you do that? What is required? There are three things Jesus is waiting for
in any church:
1.
Allegiance – Jesus wants His followers to "come out of
the closet." We simply need to declare our allegiance.
2.
Diligence –John Calvin said, our faith alone saves us, but
faith that saves is never alone! We are
to diligently put our time, talent, and treasures to work for Him.
3.
Willingness – Walking through open doors is a matter of
lifestyle. You must want to do it, or you won't do it. The invitation to follow Christ through open
doors is a simple trust that He will open them, and He wants you to walk
through them.
Imagine for a moment a homeless man living on the
streets. He is hanging out near the mall. He sleeps on one of the benches near a
bush. On a January evening the
temperature dips to 28° with wind-chill down to ten below. He is freezing to death. He is miserable.
Across the way people are walking up to the Main
entrance, and pop - the door opens – automatically! The people walk in; some walk out. Others approach, pop goes the door! In and out, open and shut go the doors. Outside are cold, misery, and hunger. Inside there is warmth, laughter, and
food.
A passerby says to the man, Hey buddy, go on inside – warm up – here's $5,
get yourself a burger.
The man says, No, I can't. The doors are
shut. I can't get in.
The stranger pleads, Just go near the door, it'll open.
It opens for everybody who goes near!
Do you see?
Jesus wants willing disciples who will come out of the closet, get off
the sidelines, get near the doors and believe Jesus will open those doors.
We have some open doors in this town. There is no law against sharing the
Gospel. There is that reality that the
Gospel is true. Even when people
criticize Christians for witnessing, the testimony of God's Word still rings
true. There is something deep down – in
even the demons, who tremble – there is something that reverberates with the
truth of the Gospel. That is an open
door!
Our church faces multiple open doors in this
community. There are hundreds of
unchurched children who would respond to the kind of ministry we can do
here. And many of them are from homes
devastated by drugs, divorces, and the diverse problems of our hostile
society. All Christ wants is for us to
go near these open doors of ministry, and be ready to walk through.
What is it
like to walk through doors? It means that someone will see the door
standing open and sound the alarm.
·
People who see children hurting and without Christ
will figure a way to walk through that door.
·
People who see the homeless will figure out a
way.
·
People who have known the devastating effects of
substance abuse will walk through open doors to minister to the recovering
addicts.
·
Those whom Christ has healed from nasty divorces will
find ways to minister through the open doors.
Our church has physical doors with empty
rooms. We have people with hearts filled
with the compassion of Christ. We can find
ways to walk through the open doors of opportunity in this neighborhood. Just go near them, and pop, they'll open
like the automatic doors in the mall.
The PASSE’ Church in Laodicea
“Write this
letter to the angel of the church in Laodicea. This is the message from the one who is the
Amen—the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s new creation: “I know all the things you do, that you
are neither hot nor cold. I wish that
you were one or the other! But since you are like
lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched
and miserable and poor and blind and naked. So I advise
you to buy gold from me—gold that has been purified by fire. Then you will be rich. Also buy white garments from me so you will
not be shamed by your nakedness, and ointment for your eyes so you will be able
to see. I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your
indifference. “Look! I stand
at the door and knock. If you hear my
voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as
friends. Those who are victorious will sit with me on my
throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne. “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to
the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.” Revelation 3:14-22
The self-sufficient church at Laodicea takes no
stand (they’re not worried about anything), and it receives the strongest
rebuke for not doing anything, either for or against Christ.
The problem with a church or a person imagining everything
is OK because the budget is met, programs are running, and life is arranged to
suit us, is that being all about us; it’s not what a disciple’s life is
designed to be. These imagined strong
points, financial independence, smooth sailing, will be at the very center of
what causes that so-called “life” to crumble and come apart like a house of
cards.
A disciple, by very definition, learns from a
Master in order to serve the Master’s wishes, not create a comfortable life for
the student. Complacency, and a lack of
commitment to something greater than pleasing our own preferences is a death
sentence to genuine life.
Bottom Line
Seven letters
to seven churches, and only two of them receive no bad grades on the report
card – the poor church, and the persecuted church. But it wasn’t because of their
circumstances…it was because they kept faithful in everything no matter how the
circumstances changed.
Today Jesus
still calls softly and tenderly to be like Philadelphia and
Smyrna, loving and faithful. We should
heed that calling.
