Rev 2:18-28
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Revelation 2:18-29, A Jealous Lover
Revelation 2:18-29, A Jealous Lover
Vote:
I’ve had a few people reach out to me really worried because, next week the church membership votes on me.
So I thought I’d de-mystify this process for you a bit
First, We are part of a larger structure called the Wesleyan Church.
Within that structure, Every pastor is called to a church for two years and then that calling gets confirmed again every 4 years by the membership of the church
In our governing structure there is accountability baked in, and the pastoral vote is part of that accountability.
So this is not a bad thing, its an extremely common thing. I realize in the world of presidential elections that this might feel odd or it might signify that there is something wrong. But in our system this is very common
The vote is designed to keep pastors connected with their congregation…
The vote is designed for accountability of pastoral leadership
And the vote gives the pastor a mandate for leadership
So next week we will take a vote after church, and if you’re worried about it, don’t be. It is just simply a very normal part of the process
Week 5 Thyatira
Before we dive into the book of Revelation today I want to tell you a story that the first century church would have known really well.
It is a story that every Jew and likely every christian would have just known and this letter to this church will make a lot more sense when you know the story
Jezabel
I want to recap the story of Israel with you because at it turns out, One of Israel’s worst King & Queens are at the center of what we are going to read today:
King David was the best king that Israel had ever had. He united the tribes of Israel into the kingdom of Israel
His son Solomon built the temple In Israel and this was the height of the Jewish kingdom…
While Solomon made the kingdom the greatest it had ever had been, he also began its downfall with his own sin
After his death there would be a schism that would result in separating Israel into two, the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom
In 874BC, That is 874 Years before the birth of Jesus there was a person named Ahab that became king of the northern portion of Israel
Ahab would be known for creating the most wicked empire of all time, he is really described in opposite terms of King David
And in this time, Israel had a lot of enemies and was descending into idol worship
Well there was a really big enemy to the north, and this enemy was called Assyria
So what do you do if you are a king? You form alliances…You dont want to get invaded by the forces of the north so you marry another kings daughter
And that is what King Ahab did He married the daughter of the king of Sidon and her name was Jezabel
Now Ahab was already a bad king who worshiped false gods…But
Jezabel & Ahab together became this unholy alliance that butchered prophets of Yahweh
They set up these things called Asherah poles and Alters to the god Baal These were the
Asherah was a Canaanite fertility goddess, people would go to the base of these poles and have sex in front of Asherah as a form of worship and
Baal was the storm God the bringer of rain, He was also known as the chief of the Canaanite pantheon…top god
Both of these gods had sexual rituals that you had to perform but Baal was also sometimes known to have child sacrifice practiced…
And while Ahab was a bad king before marrying Jezebel, She was the one who brought in the idea that you could worship Yahweh but also have all of these alters to Baal and Asherah in Israel
Jezebel is known as the catalyst that took Israel down a road of compromise.
This was so destructive to Israel that the way that God gets his people to stop worshipping Baal and gets them to worship the Lord is through something called the Babylonian Exile
So in Israel the name Jezebel is infamous with compromise…
It is infamous with this idea of poisoning the well
lets get into our text this morning
“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.
“ ‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.
Why say Son of God?
Apollo was the patron God of protection and supposedly the protector of the city,
and Apollo was the son of Zeus…So Apollo is the “son of God
But also: The Roman Emperor Domitian considered himself a son of the divine
and Thyatira was called the city of the son of God…
and here Jesus is again saying…Look your city claims to be your savior, but it is not!
This is a warning that they would have gotten…False gods constantly want your attention and your worship!
Then Jesus borrows language from the original revelation of John, in Rev 1
His eyes were like blazing fire:Eyes are an ancient symbol of wisdom… Jesus was not only pure, he was purifying. His wisdom and his truth sees all falsehood.
The eyes of the Lord not only look at us but look through us.
They burn away the facades we put up…What Jesus is saying is I see how fake this town is…I see the falseness of people in my church…
Ouch right…Imagine if Jesus was speaking to us today and he said…I see you! Every inch and fiber of your being and thoughts…OUCH!
His feet were like burnished bronze
Thyatira was known for its commercial trade. It was prosperous…
So, an important fact that is crucial to Jesus’ burden for this particular church is that Thyatira was famous for the number of trade guilds it had
These were like really early Unions but a little different in that these would have incorporated the religion of the empire in them
One thing to note, just as you read the bible and try and understand what Jesus was saying…Everything about early Roman life was religious…Literally everything had to do with the god’s…
They had guilds for
Wool workers
Linen workers
Makers of outer garments
Dyers, tanners, leather workers
Potters, bakers, slave traders
Bronze smiths, shoemakers
This city really got the value of networking these trade guilds and bonding together for economic advantage…and it worked
Just about every industry in this town had a guild. You would have an impossible time living in this town and not being in a guild…to not be in a guild meant you were risking financial ruin…
And this was a major problem for Christians, because membership in these guilds required you to participate in the social functions of the guild.
These guilds had common meals together…The meals would begin and end with a cup of wine being poured out as an offering to the gods of the city. Wine is referred to in the bible as the blood of the vine….So this was very much a blood sacrifice…
These meals would follow a sacrifice to the gods of the guilds. Literally eating that meat was not just food, it was a public act of worshiping a false god…On top of that, it was quite frequent that these guilds would march in temple prostitutes and to demonstrate you allegiance to the guild and the god you’d go into the back room and have sex with a prostitute…
All of this the guilds did on a regular basis…
Could a Christian be a part of this? Absolutely not…
Yet not joining a trade guild meant financial disaster…so what do you do?
Well, you just dont join!
But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.
You tolerate this woman Jezebel
Now there probably wasn’t a woman in the church named Jezebel but just saying that is supposed to bring you back to this idea that Jezabel was a toxic queen for israel
She was the picture of a person who said yeah of course worship God but, its okay just worship these gods too
The chief sin of Thyatira is that their tolerance of wickedness
The chief sin of Thyatira is that their tolerance of wickedness
In our culture the only real value is tolerance and the only real evil is intolerance, you hear it all the time!
You have heard it so much that you might be thinking, is pastor Dave really preaching that intolerance is a good thing? This doesn’t seem right
But the main criticism of this church is that they are tolerant when they should have been intolerant
This seems so backwards in our world today but scripture is clear that God wants our allegiance
And there is a woman in this church, probably not named Jezebel…But a woman who is teaching the same thing as Jezabel
she acted like a Jezebel.
She taught people that yes come here and worship God of course, but hey being in the trade guilds is juts a matter of practicality
She taught that both were okay
Giving a Pass
See and the real problem is that because the church tolerated this, they were giving a pass to sin and I want to talk about this for a minute because I think its impotrant
When you give a pass to people’s sin then it shows that you fear people
When you give a pass to people’s sin then it shows that you fear people
Now I am not saying that you walk into work tomorrow and just start calling everyone out…You go to your bosses office with a bull horn…I’ve been giving you a pass on sin for too long!
This is not that context…
The context is among the church
Among believers
But in the church we better ask ourselves what we give a pass to…
Now in the same way that when you give people’s sin a pass it shows you fear people, when:
When you live in an uncompromising way it shows that you fear the Lord
When you live in an uncompromising way it shows that you fear the Lord
And this is what is going on…
Its like, hey church remember the road that Israel went down with Ahab and Jezebel that lead to exile and the destruction of a nation
It started with the leadership giving a pass to sin
I think that it is impotrant that as a church we are loving toward everyone but because of the fact that we love them and care for them, we do not give a pass to sin.
When a church gives a pass to sin I want to give you a sense of the theology that is being re-written
When you say, hey its okay everyone does it, that it is not sinful.
And when you say that sin isn’t sin then what on earth did Jesus die for?
When sin is re-defined as not sinful then all of the sudden you bring question to the doctrine of the atonement…If we are not going to say that sin exists then what did Jesus die for?
Jesus is not a fan of the church that tolerates sin or re-defines it…I mean he tells the church that this tolerance will get you sick! Jesus reminds them that if they don’t repent he will come against his own church.
This is not an idle threat, much of Jesus’ ministry was done in the shadow of a system that was designed to look for the Messiah but instead crucified him
Jesus is saying, I am coming back, dont let me find you compromising your faith
Revelation reminds us, that there is a greater spiritual reality at play…Hold on to your faith, dont buy the lies of the prevailing culture!
You are called to be shaped by the King! Stop letting your culture shape you!
I love what Dietrich Bonhoeffer says,
“The human heart has the capacity for only one all encompassing, all embracing allegiance”
and of course, Bonhoeffer was writing this in the midst of Hitler taking over the German church…doing the same thing, Hitler replaced the crosses in churches with the swastika, he replaced bibles on the alters with Mine Kompf.
saying you can have Jesus in your heart and exterminate Jews, there is no conflict there!
And even though may German christians rebelled against Hitler for this, there were still many who went along with it, because their allegiance to the state was greater than their allegiance to Jesus!
So what Jesus is saying to the church is that you can’t have it both ways…
You cannot claim to love me and then attend these trade guild meetings and worship the false gods….
That is spiritual adultery, and I will not tolerate that!
Jesus is a Jealous lover! He loves his church too much to see it sell out!
Look, we have talked about compromise before and this is really the spirit of what Jesus is dealing with in these seven churches….In the churches where there is compromise happening it is happening in the area of some activity that is worshiping a false god
And I want you to know that my job is to shape you into the kind of people who will last and endure in Christ
So I want to encourage you to ask yourself….Where in my life do I give a pass to sin? Just in your own life! Do what Jesus said and look at the log in your own eye before pointing out the speck in someone else eye
You know exactly what I am talking about
Jesus is saying, I am coming back dont let me find you compromising
The spirit of Jezebel is the spirit that says,
“Look I know you are a Christian, but things just don’t work that way in the real world…”
It’s the spirit of Jezebel that says
“look man you need to be balance in life, you can’t be all Jesus all the time”
It’s the spirit that says
“Keep your religion out of business…keep it out of your politics”
as if Jesus can only be contained to one sphere of life…
It is the spirit of Jezebel that says, “you just do what you have to do to make it”
Every time you compromise spiritually you get spiritually sick until eventually you die
Every time you compromise spiritually you get spiritually sick until eventually you die
English Standard Version Chapter 2
22 Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works
This is what the scriptures say
I heard a story once…This guy would travel for work a lot in South East Asian countries where “hospitality services” included much more than turning down your bed or carrying your luggage to your room…
He would carry a picture of his wife in his wallet and when these sex workers would approach him, he’d take his wallet out, show them the picture and say, “I belong to her”
We need to be doing the same thing with Jesus…I belong to him
Maybe it is simply in your prayer life, you declare, Jesus I belong to you….
Jesus also says…
I will give to each one of you according to your works
Your works reveal your allegiance (Revelation 2:23)
Your works reveal your allegiance (Revelation 2:23)
Or another way to say this “I will repay each of you according to your deeds”
Our works reveal the true nature of our allegiances…
This is not justification by works…
But what Jesus is saying is that the way you live Monday – Saturday reveals what you really believe…
The way you live reveals your true allegiance…
Jesus gives Jezebel time to repent…he is merciful even to her…SIT with that for a second…
Let’s move on to the rest of this passage:
But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. Only hold fast what you have until I come. The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
I love the promises that Jesus gives to the church here…
Remain faithful…Do my will to the end…
Live in an uncompromising way
Don’t tolerate sin
And I will give authority over the nations…So if you let Jesus reign in your live now, in the age to come, you will rule with him!
Psalm 2 envisions and looks forward to the reign of the messiah…
And Jesus shares the reign of the nations with his people
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
God is saying…Look those of you who dont tolerate this compromise…You are going to rule with me!
And then he says I will give this person the morning star
What could that mean? Well in the end of Rev 22:16
“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”
Jesus says I am the bright morning star
The morning star is a start that shows in the early morning hours and to the ancient people the morning start was the reminder that the sun was coming…
It was a reminder that daylight was breaking through shortly
It was a reminder that the darkness has not won…
With Jesus saying that he is the morning star, he is saying, it won’t be long now, the kingdom is coming!
Be ready for my return
So as we begin to walk toward communion
There are two people people groups that are talked about in this
There are some of you here who are tolerating sin un such a way that you have redefined it as not sin and therefore Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross means nothing… No one likes to be told this, but this is the Jezebel deception, Repent, there is still time!
There are some of you who are remaining faithful to Jesus and sometimes it hurts, because it means you can’t participate in some things, it means that you live a different kind of life than others
Galatians 6 reminds us to not grow weary of doing good because we are going to harvest
And there is another people group…
Those who will redefine sin into goodness
It is in this context that I want to invite us to participate in communion.
Maybe your response today is Jesus, I have remaind faithful even to the point where it hurts, continue to use me
Lord I’ve compermised, forgive me, give me a high view again of your word
Communion
And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
Who do you fear?
The Culture or Jesus
Maybe there needs to simply be a time of prayer where you confess…Jesus I am more concerned about what my culture thinks about me then what you think about me. help me to repent!