Revelation 3:7-13 To the Church in Philadelphia

 

Jesus is writing to the church in the city of Philadelphia, which means ‘brotherly love.’ The city was named Philadelphia to honor Attalus II who was honored for his loyalty with the nickname Philadelphos, literally one who loves his brother, by his elder brother, Eumenes II, king of Lydia. Philadelphia was founded in 189 BC along one of the major trade roads that led to the east.

In 133 BC, the Romans conquered the city. During the centuries before Jesus, Jewish families settled in the cities of western Asia Minor. Later on, Philadelphia is one of the cities St. Ignatius visits on his trip to his martyrdom in Rome and which he sent a letter. Philadelphia was built near the Anatolian fault lines, and suffered from earthquakes. An earthquake in the year 17 AD was so devastating that the Roman emperor Tiberius relieved the city of paying taxes. That’s how bad the destruction was! Philadelphia remained a prosperous city into Byzantine times. Now Jesus sends the church a letter praising them for keeping his word and not denying his name.

Jesus introduces himself as the one who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. Holy and true is easy to understand as Jesus is God and holiness is just who and what he is, and if you’re seeking to find out the truth about life, about who God is and who we are called to be, turn to Jesus and his life and teaching. It’s that reference to the key of David that sends us looking to the rest of Scripture to see what its importance is. Earlier in chapter 1 we read, “I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:7–8, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” After Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, Jesus tells him in Matthew 16, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Jesus’s words echo back the angel’s words in Luke, ^“He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end,” As we read this letter, we can see this key of David is connected to the kingdom of heaven. Now this is a church made up of Jews and Gentiles. This wasn’t always an easy relationship, but it’s working here. We also hear that they’re not a strong church and still they remain true to Jesus instead of being overwhelmed by the culture around them.

Jesus knows them, knows their hearts and commitment to him. This is why he’s placed an open door before them that no one can shut. Jesus, through his death on the cross for our sin and resurrection from the dead, shows his power over Hades and death, and has opened the door to the kingdom of heaven for both Jew and Gentile. This echoes God’s blessing to Abraham in Genesis 12, that he’s going to make Abraham’s descendants a blessing to all nations. The blessing God is talking about is the welcoming of the nations into the kingdom of heaven!

How are the nations invited to come through the open door into the kingdom of heaven? Charles Spurgeon writes about the believers in Philadelphia, “What had these Philadelphian believers done that they should be praised? What they did was this— they kept the word of God: “Thou hast kept my word, and thou hast not denied my name.” They’re not ashamed of following Jesus, they’ve not fallen sleep, lost their first love for Jesus, or followed different teachings. They’re keeping Jesus’ word, working at living out his teaching and imitating his life to become more like Jesus. They’re not ashamed of Jesus’ name. The believers heard Jesus’ warning in Luke 9 and take it seriously, “Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”

This open door cannot be closed again because Jesus has opened it. Those who are of the synagogue of Satan are likely Jews who are against the Gentiles being welcomed into the blessing of Abraham. This goes against everything they’ve believed about themselves for thousands of years; that they’re God’s chosen special people. They find it hard to understand that God chose them to open up the kingdom of heaven through being the blessing God has called them to be; that God so loves the world that he gave his son Jesus so that whoever believes in him shall not perish. God’s focus has always been on inviting the entire world to come through the open door into the kingdom of heaven.

This comes at a cost to the church, they’ve endured patiently, so Jesus promises to keep them from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world. It’s not always easy to be a follower of Jesus, they have little strength, Jesus says. Perhaps Jesus is saying this because they’re a small congregation, or perhaps because there are many new believers who haven’t experienced persecution and so find themselves sometimes wavering in their faith, perhaps it’s because the persecution is so strong that even if you’re strong, your own strength won’t be enough to stand against it. We hear an echo to Jesus say to Paul in 2 Corinthians 12, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

Throughout the history of the church, people have marvelled at how regular people could stand extreme pain, torture, and persecution and still not turn their back on Jesus. In many cases they became stronger the greater the suffering. Often faith grows deeper as people suffer the pains and sorrows of life when they lose loved ones, experience great losses, they still turn to God and place their lives in his hands. They hear the Word of God and love it. They listen to the teachings of Jesus and they believe it and live it out. They confess Jesus’ name, guiding people to the open door of the kingdom even when it costs them. There are stories of believers who suffer greatly in Palestine, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa tells stories of great forgiveness by Jesus followers, similar stories come out of the Rwandan massacre and its process of healing.

How we live is part of our witness; how we respond to hard times, to painful times. Do we respond by relying on our own strength and trust in our own wisdom and abilities? This can lead us to become proud, which leads to less compassion and empathy for those around us who are struggling. Or do we grumble or complain about the unfairness of life, are we self centered in our suffering and hard times? This leads us to think that we’re owed a better life, that others have an obligation to take care of us and make us happy and do things our way.

Or do we show our faith in Jesus, trusting that he’s with us in whatever we’re going through when life is hard, looking to recognize Jesus’ presence, and confessing our need for him in our weakness? This leads us to stand with the psalmist who often praises God even though he or she is suffering, seeking God’s help while living in a spirit of gratitude and trust in God and Jesus. This is not always easy, but we keep our eyes and hearts God focused, keeping our lives focused on Jesus, seeking out companions on the road through life who will support us in the hard times by pointing us to Jesus, but who also count on us to do the same in return. The church Jesus is writing to is called Philadelphia, brotherly love. This is the kind of love that drives us to share Jesus with others, offering them the invitation Jesus offers all of us to come to him when we are weak and heavy laden, when we are weak and tired and he will give us rest. This love invites us to enter the door Jesus keeps open to the kingdom of heaven.

Hold onto Jesus; he has written on us the name of God and his own name, claiming us as his own. Keep Jesus’ word, follow his way and confess his name wherever God places you this week and may you experience his strength and hope.

 

Revelation 3:1-6 To the Church in Sardis

 

The video calling us to wake up from our sleepiness reminds me of Sardis. Sardis had an interesting history in Jesus’ lifetime. Sarah Porter writes, “Recent archaeological research has unearthed a healthy city that collaborated effectively with the Roman imperial regime during the time of the apostles. Sardis recovered well from a devastating earthquake in 17 AD through tax breaks and imperial investments, demonstrated by new monumental architecture like a massive bath-gymnasium complex, the largest known Roman arch, an imperial cult temple in the town center, and second-century AD renovations to the Temple of Artemis.”

By the time of Jesus, there’s a strong Jewish community in Sardis well connected in the city and with government leaders while still keeping their Jewish identity and culture. The historian Josephus talks about how Emperor Antiochus III forcibly resettled some Jews in Asia Minor during the third century BC. There’re a number of religions found in Sardis: a temple dedicated to Caesar, another temple to the goddess Artemis, a thriving synagogue, and at least one church. The worship of the mother goddess Cybele was also influential. These different faith groups worked alongside each other, even invested in each other when it was good for them, competed for influence, while keeping their religious independence and identity separate from each other. It reminds me of the interfaith group I was a part of in Montreal. It’s a group of faith leaders from all the major faiths in Montréal working together to address moral issues and social needs in the neighbourhoods and cultural communities in the city.

Life’s good in Sardis. It’s a wealthy city filled with people who work hard and enjoy many of the luxuries in life. They’ve come through the earthquake and rebuilt better than before. They’ve a lot to be proud of. Yet the wealth, the influence of pagan temples, especially that of Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, the moon and fertility, and the luxurious lifestyles adopted by many in Sardis, lead many of the wealthy and powerful people in the city becoming soft, apathetic, and immoral. Barclay writes, “that even on pagan lips, Sardis was a name of contempt. Its people were notoriously loose living, notoriously pleasure-and luxury loving. Sardis was a city of the decadence. In the old days it had been a frontier town on the borders of Phyrgia, but now it was a byword for slack and effeminate living.” This is the setting for Jesus’ letter.

Jesus writes to the church in Sardi. Jesus identifies himself as the one who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. Earlier Jesus let us know that the seven stars are the angels who are assigned to seven churches that he’s writing to. The seven spirits Jesus mentions here are mentioned later in Revelation 4:5, “From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God.” Earlier on in Revelation, the seven churches were described as seven lampstands, so Jesus is telling the church that he holds the churches and angels in his hands, an image of strength and power, and of closeness and protection and belonging. But it also tells them that he knows who they really are. One of my favourite images in the Bible is that of God holding us in his hands and that our names are written on his hands. We find these images in Isaiah 49:16, “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands,” and John 10:28–29, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.” We see Jesus’ commitment to them.

Yet Jesus is also frustrated with the church here in Sardis. John is receiving this letter as part of the vision Jesus is giving him. I wonder how John heard this call to “Wake up!” Was there a loud clap of thunder to shake John up? The church in Sardis looked good on the outside, working with the other faiths and organizations in the city, gathering together for worship, likely taking care of their own members well; doing church stuff. But Jesus gets real with them, commanding them, “Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God.” Jesus goes on and commands them to, “Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent.” There’s a dry rot happening inside the church that’s not seen from the outside, not until you dig into the church a little bit.

Calvin Seminary has many students who had come from Korea and Africa. They marvel at the resources and programs that the average church in Grand Rapids has, yet it was always amazing and sad to see their disappointment after they’d been in North America for a year. Many of them felt too many followers of Jesus in our churches were sleep walking through life and their relationship with Jesus. One young man studying to go back to Uganda asked me why we allow our church members to remain so shallow in a self-focused faith. At that time, I didn’t know what to say, and even now, it would be a difficult conversation.

The church in Sardis did good things, but there was no passion for Jesus; they didn’t feel the push of the Holy Spirit to follow through on the Great Commission and share the good news of Jesus, no deep love of their neighbour where they wanted them to know Jesus. They’d forgotten God’s words to Abraham that he was calling a people to follow him and be a blessing to the nations; a witness to who God is. Jesus has trusted the gospel news with us to spread throughout the nations, not keep it for ourselves. Christianity is a giving faith, offering the world the greatest gift ever: the gift of Jesus, the gift of new life and salvation, the gift of belonging to God.

Pastor James McCord writes about the church in Sardis, which I believe often applies to the North American church, “It has been corrupted by ease. It has simply fallen asleep. It’s a church that has always been tempted to play it safe. Don't take your religion too seriously. The form and the ritual go on through with it. It is aesthetic, beautiful, everyone likes candles, soft organ music. It gives you time to idle your mind, to rest your spirit. You can even mouth the prayers that are said in common without any fear of their rising any higher than the ceiling, and you can be sure they will stop there. You will take no side on any particular issue, least of all will you become enthusiastic.” It’s an easy faith, being content with what you’ve done, sitting back and letting others carry the gospel to others. Life’s easy and good, so why do uncomfortable things like talk about Jesus. Why talk about Jesus with others if it’s going to make you look foolish for what you believe?

Jesus calls the church to remember: to remember who God is, who he is, what he’s done for us on the cross and the forgiveness and grace he shows us, to remember our need for new life and how God, through Jesus, gives us exactly these things and more. Jesus calls us to wake up and experience a full life, a life rooted in him. We’re wealthy and we’ve been blessed with so much, yet stuff doesn’t make a good life. For a good life that’s full of meaning and purpose, a life that makes a difference in our community, and the lives of those around us, it comes from being awake to what Jesus is already doing here and then joining him in doing it. We’ve been entrusted with the responsibility and privilege of introducing Jesus to those in our lives, to invite them to join us in walking the path of Jesus together, to grow more like Jesus, to build the kingdom of heaven here on earth; a kingdom shaped by repentance and Jesus’ love and grace.

Thankfully, Jesus lets us know that there are those who haven’t soiled their clothes, who are walking closely with Jesus and engaged in his mission to bring the gospel to the world, beginning in our neighbourhoods. For those who are looking to walk deeper with Jesus in order to share the gospel and your faith well with others, I will be leading another small group discipleship group beginning this fall, info’s in the bulletin. You can also be trained to share your faith through the 222 Discipleship program; both Henry Eisses or myself are able to train you in leading others to know Jesus and our faith deeper.

This letter must have impacted the church in Sardis. Bishop Melito of Sardis, who comes about 50 years after the Apostle John, is known for his piety and learning. Tertullian refers to Melito as an esteemed prophet who also wrote an Apology for Christianity to Marcus Aurelius. The church in Sardis woke up and became a strong defender of the faith and proclaimed Jesus as Lord to the world and its leaders. How about us?

 

Revelation 2:18-29 To the Church in Thyatira

 

This summer we’re taking a look at Jesus’ letters to seven of the churches in the area around the Mediterranean. These are all churches that were planted and started by Paul and others who travelled through the area bringing the good news of Jesus Christ. Religious, cultural, and government leaders felt threatened by this new faith in Jesus; a man crucified, buried, and then raised from the dead according to his followers, a man who claims to be God and is coming back again to claim this world and the entire universe for his kingdom. This often led to persecution and the rise of false teachers who mixed the teachings of Jesus with the practices and teachings of other faiths.

Jesus, through a vision to John who’s exiled to the island of Patmos because he refuses to stop worshipping Jesus, writes a number of letters to encourage and challenge these seven churches. This is a vision of hope. We come now to Jesus’ letter to the church in Thyatira. This is a city based on manufacturing and trade which lies close to the city of Philippi. Paul meets Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from Thyatira, in Philippi. It’s also likely that Lydia had an influence in bringing the Gospel news of Jesus to Thyatira.

Thyatira also has a temple to the god Apollo. Apollo is Zeus’, which explains why Jesus identifies himself as the Son of God, the only time we hear Jesus identified as the Son of God in Revelation. Zeus is the father god, controlling the weather and hurling lightening bolts at his enemies. Jesus’ words are a challenge to these Greek gods using images of power and strength to show who he is, “These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.” Jesus is the only true Son of God; Apollo and Zeus are imposter gods. 

Jesus begins by praising the church, “I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.” There’s good stuff happening here! Love and faith and service hearts all coming together during times of persecution and stress reveals that Jesus’ teaching and way has really shaped them. There’s some really healthy faith life growing going on here and Jesus acknowledges it. Their first love is strong and they’ve embraced James’ teaching that faith without deeds is dead by living out their faith in deeds and service. Reminds me of Bethel in so many ways.

Yet, there are some big issues that Jesus has with this church, “You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.” Jezebel is leading people in the church down a different path than the one Jesus has called us to walk, a path based on his teaching, his life, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Jesus warns them about tolerating the prophet Jezebel whose teaching is leading them to participate in pagan practices, including sexual immorality and eating food sacrificed to idols. Hearts are being pulled away from Jesus. There’s a desire to embrace the cultural stuff that goes against the way of Jesus and hurts our faith. Members of the church are trying to fit into the culture around them while also trying to follow Jesus at the same time. If we’re honest with ourselves, many of us wrestle with these same impulses at times, wanting to fit in with our culture while also following Jesus, even if it means that we sometimes try to change Jesus’ teaching to fit our culture.

W.J Harrington writes in his commentary on Revelation, “The livelihood of Christians in Thyatira depended on membership of the trade-guilds, and therefore pagan association. Already, in Corinth, Paul had had to deal with the problem of guild-feasts and the purchase of meat that had been offered in pagan temples. John took a radical stance: there can be no compromise…. At stake was the question of assimilation: to what extent might Christians conform to the prevailing culture for the sake of economic survival or social acceptance? For John the only answer was: Not at all.… John was profoundly concerned that the communities be steadfastly united in face of the all-out persecution he felt sure was at hand. This was no time for internal conflict.” Jezebel is teaching that they can participate in the feasts and temple prostitution even while following Jesus. Jesus tells them that it doesn’t work that way. When we commit to Jesus, he claims every part of our life and loyalty.

The name Jezebel echoes back to a time in Israel’s history where a foreign queen led the nation of Israel far from God. We find her story in the Old Testament book of 1 Kings 16. Jezebel marries King Ahab of Israel and she brings her gods Baal and Asherah with her to Israel and they prove so popular with the Israelites as they mix worshipping Baal with worshipping their own God Yahweh, that at one point, the prophet Elijah cries out to God, wondering if he’s the only one left in Israel who is still worshipping God alone. Baal was a god of the fields, a fertility god so as part of worshipping Baal, Israel was drawn into sexual immorality and celebrating Baal with feasts, including food sacrificed to Baal. The echo in this letter to this Jezebel is strong and why Jesus comes out so strongly against her.

You can’t serve two gods at the same time. Jesus warns us in Matthew that we have to choose who we will follow: we can’t follow both God and Mammon at the same time. Jesus demands 100% loyalty. I’ve been told that Jesus is asking too much from us, but “How much non-Jesus stuff can you let into your mind and heart before it becomes so normal that you don’t even recognize that your loyalties have changed?” Isn’t Jesus’ death on the cross for our lives reason enough to give him our complete loyalty? Jezebel wouldn’t die for you. The Bible warns us to watch out for false teachers, for people who will come and teach a different way than Jesus. In the early church there were the Gnostics who taught about secret knowledge that they had about God that only they knew, here Jesus mentions Satan’s so-called deep secrets. Not sure what these deep secrets are, but they’re not healthy.

I mentioned Tertullian a few weeks back; even this great Church Father was led astray from orthodox Biblical teaching by the Montanists who had some strange ideas about the Holy Spirit. One way to test any teaching is asking, “Does this teaching make Jesus less and something, or someone else more; does this teaching help us walk in the way Jesus taught?” Knowledge and education are important and a beautiful gift from God; good and wise teachers are precious and valuable, but knowledge and education always come through someone else, and their beliefs and ethics will shape how they teach and interpret what they teach. This is why it’s important that our ethics and morals are shaped by Scriptures and Jesus and that what we hear and learn is taken in with a good knowledge of Jesus and Scripture. Any teaching that makes Jesus less important and the teacher or group more important is leading you down a wrong path.

Jesus gives Jezebel opportunities to repent, but she refuses. Jesus warns that he’s going to allow Jezebel to suffer the consequences of her actions because leading people away from Jesus has eternal consequences, “So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. I will strike her children dead.” One of the most intimate images of our relationship with Jesus is that of marriage and there are echoes of this image in Jesus’ punishment of Jezebel and those who accept her teaching. Jezebel will find herself on a bed of suffering rather than a bed of love and faithfulness. Those who accept Jezebel’s teaching have rejected Jesus, and they will also be punished. There are consequences for those who tolerate false teaching and practices that lead people away from Jesus.

Jesus ends his letter with encouragement to keep focused on him and he will reward them, “To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations… I will also give that one the morning star.” I love the promise of the morning star, a promise that Jesus will give us himself. Jesus’ last words to the church in Thyatira is to listen and hear what the Spirit says to the churches, a reminder that the Spirit has been given to us to point us to Jesus and to remind us to all that Jesus taught. This helps us to figure out true teaching from false, to grow in Jesus and become who Jesus has called us to be. Learn, grow in knowledge, study hard because Jesus calls us to work in all areas of life, but be aware of who your teachers are and what they believe and test it always with Jesus and his teaching and life.

 

Revelation 2:12-17 To the Church in Pergamum

 

This week we’re at the third letter of Jesus to the seven cities of Revelation. Pergamum was the home of the second largest library in the known world at the time. It was a city where knowledge and influence were important, an educated city. Learning was really important here, but it was also a city of industry with a number of workers’ guilds holding great influence and made their money making and selling objects related to the library and temples. Pergamum was also home to 5 different temples, one of which was the temple to the god Aesculapius, the god of healing and a serpent was his symbol. This educated setting is important as we seek to understand this letter of Jesus.  

Jesus unexpectedly states that Satan’s throne is in Pergamum. Those who believe in Jesus faced times of persecution, but what made Pergamum the place where Satan would have his throne? It wasn’t an easy place for followers of Jesus to live. They were surrounded by all kinds of influences: pagan religious influences, but also the attraction of knowledge and philosophy in the traditions of Greece, Rome and the East. Persecution was real; Jesus praises the Christians for “remaining true to my name. you did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness who was put to death in your city, where Satan lives.” Antipas was a follower of Jesus and martyred by being put inside a copper bull which was then heated up until he died. With such strong faith, what could Jesus have against them?

Yet Jesus does have some things against them, “There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. Likewise, you have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.” We first come across Balaam in the book of Numbers in the Old Testament. Israel is wandering through the wilderness and Balak is a king who hires Balaam, a prophet, to curse Israel. God interferes with Balaam, making him bless Israel instead of cursing them, getting Balaam in trouble with Balak.

Balaam then takes a different approach and advises Balak to seduce the men of Israel with the women of Moab, and to turn Israel to Baal away from God. This story is told in Numbers 25 through 31. Balaam gets mentioned a number of times in the New Testament because his advice in how to turn people away from God and Jesus is still powerful today. Peter writes in 2 Peter 2:15, “They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness.” Balaam’s way’s all about money and wickedness. Jude rebukes certain godless men in the church, “Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.” We’re reminded that Balaam’s “error” is ultimately about money and greed. He’s paid because he seduced Israel to become like the nations around them.

The church in Pergamum stayed strong and true to Jesus, even though it led to persecution and death, like Antipas. Yet they were starting down a dangerous faith road. They wanted to be part of the world around them while following Jesus. They want to be accepted by those outside the church by being like them. Balaam’s way is about compromising our faith beliefs in order to be accepted by the world around us. Jesus calls us to a different way of living, a harder way of living by his way. Jesus is focused on shaping us into his image; a way of living that many people don’t understand.

The temples hosted regular festivals. Eating food sacrificed to idols was often part of the festivals and culture in the cities and part of the social life of the people. Festivals are fun, when we lived in Montreal, the festivals were a great way to spend some relaxing time with friends: the Jazz Fest, the fireworks festival every Friday night in the summer, the various cultural festivals where you would hear great music and eat amazing food. It’s all part of the social culture of Montreal. Yet there was a darker part of the festivals in the time of John, and many of our festivals today as well, many of them included prostitution, along with excessive drinking, and wildness. Since everyone else was doing it, it was easy to justify joining in. Balaam’s influence led to the thinking that “a little sin won’t really harm us.”

Libraries were places where scholars came to do research. Lauren Young writes in the Atlas Obscura, “The Library of Alexandria, Egypt was a research hub of high prestige. But while certainly the largest of its time and the most famous, the Library of Alexandria wasn’t the only institution of its kind. Libraries throughout the ancient world competed to be the best Greek library, ... Gaëlle Coqueugniot writes, “The library was a means [for the kings] to show off their wealth, their power, and mostly to show that they were the rightful heirs of Alexander the Great.”

The study done in these libraries shaped the values and morals of that world, and impacts western culture still today. It’s from this philosophy that we get the idea of an impersonal God who has a hands-off relationship with humanity, which contradicts who Jesus is; we get the idea that we create truth, which contradicts Jesus who calls himself the truth; it separates the body and soul, which means that whatever we do is less important than what we think or believe and this makes Jesus becoming human unimportant and that we do with our bodies doesn’t really matter; and there’s more. Non-Christian philosophy works to make God smaller and people greater. Many of the moral issues we wrestle over today have been shaped by scholars and teachers whose scholarship teaches us a different morality and ethic from the Bible.   

Can we be just like the world and still serve God? Balaam encouraged compromise, wanting us to forget we’re called to be separate and holy. Compromise makes us look just like everyone else so that our light fails to shine into the world. It’s the belief that “a little sin” doesn’t hurt, especially if there’s financial or personal benefit involved. It’s the view that Christians can compromise their convictions for the sake of popularity, money, sexual gratification, or personal gain and still make Jesus happy. This is what Satan wants, this makes Satan happy.

Pergamum focused on health, body, soul, and mind. They had doctors for the body, temples for the soul, and scholars for knowledge. Knowledge is good, God wants us to know more about the world we live in, to know and learn about how our minds and bodies work, to understand how people relation to each other, but knowledge is not morality or ethics, those come from elsewhere. Knowledge can be used to please and honour God and guide us in the way of Jesus, or it can be used to justify doing our will instead of God’s will. Balaam used his knowledge of people for his own personal benefit; using his knowledge of faith and people to lead people away from God’s way and to benefit himself.

Jesus is our wisdom and truth, he’s the one who can heal, not just our body, but our souls as well. If you’re going to listen and grow from anyone’s teaching, turn to Jesus’ teaching that he is the Son of God who has come to take away the sin of the world through the cross, who is raised to new life so we can have new life, and now calls us to share the good news and make new disciples. Turn to Jesus’ teaching on how to live life based on grace, forgiveness, and mercy; a life based on his life, the kingdom of heaven, and eternal truth and you will find healing for your soul.

Jesus’ teaching guides us into a life of wisdom that leads to self-sacrifice and generosity, an outward focused life that focuses on discipling others as a disciple of Jesus. We’re called to live as light in the world, shining hope and truth into the hearts and lives of our community. We are called to stand up for truth, righteousness, and goodness, whether it’s what others want to hear or not. We’re called to lead them to the one who died for humanity so that we can experience new life and a renewed relationship with God our Father.

The white stone is a reference to brave gladiators. There were times in the arena where a gladiator would do something so special and amazing that the official at the fights would give him a special reward; a white stone with special letters on it that allowed him to retire and be provided for. Jesus is calling us, his followers to be brave, to hold true to his teaching and way, and he will give us his white stone and the promise that he will protect and provide for us.

 

Revelation 2:8-11 To the Church in Smyrna

 

Jesus, in a vision to John who’s exiled on the island of Patmos because of his loyalty to Jesus, writes a number of letters to different churches. Jesus reveals himself through images from the prophet Daniel; he’s dressed in radiant robes, head and hair white as snow, eyes like blazing fire, holding seven stars in his hand, a sword coming out of his mouth, his face shining like the sun. It’s all about power and holiness. Jesus is walking among seven lampstands which represent the churches; showing he’s with his people.

The second letter Jesus sends is to the church in Smyrna. This is one of two letters where Jesus doesn’t say he has anything against them. This is a letter of encouragement that holds a promise of life in the face of death. This letter’s all about persecution and not giving up. There’s a smell and taste of death all through this letter. The name Smyrna means myrrh, which is used in embalming dead bodies. Even the city’s name points us to the image of death.

Jesus calls himself the “First and the Last, who died and came to life again.” Jesus died for our sins, but he also rose from the dead. Jesus reminds them that death’s not the end of the story because he is the first and last, and is victorious over death. We don’t have to fear death because we will be raised up from the dead through Jesus. Revelation is a story of hope, even in the middle of persecution and suffering. The Bible reminds us that Jesus understands suffering and death and knows what we need to make it through. In Revelation 12, we’re given a picture of Jesus being pursued by the dragon who is trying to destroy Jesus. The dragon is part of the unholy trinity you find in Revelation, made up of Satan, the beast and the dragon, and they’ve set themselves up against God’s people. Through the Holy Spirit in us, Jesus experiences our pain and suffering with us and through us and gives us strength. He says we will face persecution for 10 days, a Hebrew way of saying it will be for the proper amount of time.

Smyrna was a place of beauty and contained a temple built to honour the emperor Tiberius and was a center of emperor worship. Titus Kennedy writes on his website, Jesus’ letter to Smyrna was “written during the time of Domitian and Christian persecution, the church at Smyrna faced even more opposition than most, due to the strong influence of emperor worship in the city, which at that time was required by law and punishable by imprisonment or death. An interpretation of the reference to the “synagogue of Satan” is tentative, but it may refer to Jews who not only opposed Christianity, but also participated in the imperial cult.” Calling Jesus Lord made you a traitor to the emperor. This was the charge Jesus faced and which led him to the cross.

How does that work today? We don’t have an emperor cult, or do we? Look at politics today There are more similarities to emperor worship today than we want to admit. The Bible reminds us, don’t put your trust in princes. All our leaders have clay feet and will disappoint us. Politics has taken on a religious fervor and passion over the past few decades. If you don’t believe exactly as the leader does, then you don’t belong. Their beliefs have become the new moral and ethical compass for people to be judged by. Denmark is looking to enact laws to make all religious leaders submit their sermons in Danish to the government to be monitored. Other European countries are watching and Canada is slowly moving in that direction with certain laws being considered in a number of our legislatures.

Should that lead to persecution, Jesus tells us to rejoice in it. Matthew 5:10–12, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Jesus tells us that we should expect persecution, and to rejoice when we do. I find it hard to imagine the North American church celebrating the prospect of persecution. North Americans fear suffering, all kinds of suffering. This is why medically assisted dying has become so acceptable. We use all kinds of things to escape pain, whether physical, emotional, mental or even spiritual pain. Television, the internet, entertainment, porn and other distractions are so popular because it helps us escape our pain and lose ourselves in someone else’s lives for a brief time.

Persecution happens regularly in the world today. Suicide bombers injured at least 19 people in a terrorist attack at a Roman Catholic church in Makassar, Indonesia right after Palm Sunday mass this year. “Thank God that no Christians died in the attack,” the Open Doors’ coordinator in South East Asia, said. “But some believers have been severely wounded, and all present have been traumatized. Their lives will never be the same. We ask the worldwide Church to pray for their brothers and sisters in Makassar.” Those in the churches in these places in the world are not asking to be rescued out of the persecution, but are asking us to pray for strength to stay true to Jesus and their faith. Their desire is to be a testimony for Jesus in their suffering, through how they suffer for Jesus.

Imagine that part of raising your children is to prepare them for the day you’re taken away because you are Christian? A mother in Iran shares how she prepared her daughter. She told the Open Doors coordinator, “I knew the day would come … the day they would knock on the door and take me and my husband to prison. Although everyone around me thought I was a housewife, I was, in fact, involved in full-time ministry. The authorities were bound to find out. We started preparing our daughter Lily* for persecution when she was still in primary school: “When they come and take mom and dad away, don’t worry,” we told her. “The Bible tells us it is normal to be persecuted as believers. They will take us to prison, ask us some questions, and hit us. Then we will come back.”

Then one day the parents were taken away by the authorities. The mother says, “On the way to prison, I thought about Lily and how she would know what to do when my sister picked her up from school and told her—Lily would pray for us. And when she was afraid, she would pray more. Not long after, I was released, as was my husband … through tears, I saw my Lily’s face again. She told me that she had been praying a lot for us. Spending these times in prayer and trusting the Lord in everything was a completely new experience for her. In hindsight, Lily says that she never grew more in her faith than during that time we were in prison. I prepared my Lily for what would happen when her parents were taken away. And I learned to put my Lily in the hands of the Lord, and He took care of her in miraculous ways.”

We don’t face persecution here in Canada. Yet Jesus warned us that following him cause people to hate us. Luke 21:16–19, “You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. Everyone will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your head will perish. Stand firm, and you will win life.” “Why would people hate us for living out our faith,” a young man asked me once. We talked about what would happen if we truly did justice, loved mercy and walked humbly with God, if we lived out the sacrificial life found in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew where Jesus calls us to a radical faith. We decided that by living this way we would threaten our political leaders’ power, along with the centers of financial power. They would attack us because ultimately, Jesus’ way is radically different and calls us to give Jesus our first love and loyalty. Jesus died, to save us from our sin, and to transform us so that we think, live, feel, and believe like him.

How should we react to persecution, or to being rejected because we choose Jesus? Don’t be afraid, Jesus tells the church, he is walking among the churches, he is there with them. Faithfulness, to remind ourselves who Jesus calls us to be, how Jesus calls us to live as his followers, to let our lives be a witness to Jesus’ love and grace. Pray, when Peter was put into prison for confessing Jesus as Lord, the believers gathered together to pray, so pray for the persecuted church. Love, Jesus calls us to love our enemies and those who persecute us. Praise Jesus and rejoice, Jesus tells us in Matthew 5, not just in the good times, but also in the hard times. Persecution has the power to reveal Jesus to our community by how we react and live into it. Jesus says in Luke 21:12–13, “But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. And so you will bear testimony to me.”

Revelation 2:1-7 To the Church in Ephesus

 

This summer we’re taking a look at Jesus’ letters to seven of the churches in the area around the Mediterranean. These are all churches that were planted and started by Paul and others who travelled through the area bringing the good news of Jesus Christ. The churches grew and multiplied quickly, so quickly that religious, cultural, and government leaders felt threatened by this new faith in Jesus; a man crucified as a rebel and traitor to Rome and his own Jewish faith, who was buried, and then raised from the dead according to his followers, a man who claims to be God and is coming back again to claim this world and the entire universe for his kingdom. This often led to persecution and the rise of false teachers who mixed the teachings of Jesus with the practices and teachings of other faiths, often eastern mystical faiths.

Jesus, through a vision to John who’s exiled to the island of Patmos because he refuses to give up his loyalty to Jesus, writes a number of letters to encourage and challenge these seven churches. Jesus reveals himself through images from the prophet Daniel, dressed in radiant robes, head and hair white as snow, eyes like blazing fire, holding seven stars in his hand while a sword comes out of his mouth, his face shining like the sun. This is an image of power and holiness. Jesus is walking among seven lampstands which represent the seven churches; showing he’s close to his people, among his people. This is a vision of hope.

Jesus addresses the church in Ephesus first. He begins with praising the church in Ephesus. They’ve done a lot of good; Paul refers to what this church is like in his letter to them, Ephesians 1:15, “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people,” and Ephesians 2, “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” This is a church that knows and engages in doing good works, knowing that they’re God’s good work designed to do good works.

In Acts 19, we discover that Paul spends two years in Ephesus. Many accept Jesus as their Lord and saviour, but Paul also runs up against all kinds of opposition, from both Jews in the synagogue and from the Gentiles who lived there, especially the craftsmen who begin lose money as people begin to follow Jesus instead of Artemis. One of the craftsmen, Demetrius actually leads a riot against Paul. The city clerk calms things down, but Paul decides it’s time to move on. But while Paul is there, God does mighty things through him, “so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.”

Paul’s letter is filled with teaching and encouragement. His goal is to grow a church filled with mature followers of Jesus who live as children of the light, who live well in committed relationships with each other, who imitate God, and live holy pure lives. Paul grows really close to this church and when he’s on his way to Jerusalem, Paul calls the elders from the church to be strong and faithful to the truth of Jesus because wolves and false teachers are coming. He encourages the elders to help those who are weak, reminding them of Jesus’ words, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

There’s a willingness to sacrifice in order to honour God, doing good works for others. This is a church that’s really focused on cleaning up their lives and being true to Jesus. This is why Jesus praises them in his letter. Then comes a surprising claim by Jesus, “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen!” It is also translated as, “You have forsaken your first love.” When you study church history, this may not be quite as surprising to you as it must have been for the Ephesians. Jesus talks about this in Matthew 24, “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.”

When John receives this vision from Jesus, it’s during a time of persecution, something the church has gone through a number of times already. Nero and Caligula are two of the Caesars that you think of when it comes to persecution, but they weren’t alone in persecuting the followers of Jesus. In the early church, after times of persecution, the church faced a dilemma, there were Christians who had turned away from the faith in order to save their lives or families, but when it was safe to follow Jesus again, they came back. Church leaders wrestled over what to do with these fallen followers who returned, “What to do with them? The historian Justo Gonzales writes, “the issue was whether purity or forgiving love should be the characteristic of the church.” Some followed the Church Father Tertullian who believed that the “church was to be a community of saints, and the idolaters and apostates had no place in it,” while others “thought that the lapsed should be readmitted directly, with no other requirement than their own declaration of repentance.”

In these church battles, because of the persecution the church had gone through, the love of God and neighbour, the focus on loving God and neighbour which had shaped who they are, sometimes got lost. This happens in Ephesus and Jesus identifies it straight on here. Vision leaks. Churches start because people fall in love with Jesus. They hear his call to repent and believe as he reminds us that God who loves us so much that he sends his only begotten son to take the punishment of sin on himself so we’re made right with God. They hear Jesus call them to a new way of living focused on love and self-sacrifice for others, a call to give their lives for the life of the world so people from all nations can come to know the love of Jesus, the acceptance and grace of the Father, and receive the power of the Holy Spirit.

But we get distracted from Jesus’ call to love God with everything thing we have and are and to love our neighbour as ourselves. Our first love gets forgotten or placed on the back burner. During COVID, we got distracted by mask mandates, fears of losing our freedom, constitutional issues, and conspiracy issues and we sometimes forgot our purpose as a church is to love God and neighbour and to share the good news of Jesus to our neighbours as we help them out through their hard times; doing the good works God has blessed us to do, and being who he’s called us to be here in this place and time. Our first love is Jesus, and, as he reminds us, if we love him, we will keep his commands to love, and we do this through word and deed.

Elders and deacons, on a day when we’ve installed new leaders, know that one of your main tasks as leaders in Bethel is to ensure that we do not forsake our first love and that the love of Jesus is reflected in all our ministries and relationships.

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 Self-Control

 

We’ve been on a journey this spring with Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control,” as our guide. We’ve talked about and reflected on how love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and gentleness shape our hearts and souls as the core of our Christian character. It’s challenged us and, at least for myself, there have been “ouch” moments where I’ve seen a lot of areas in my own walk with Jesus that I still have a lot of room to grow. The last year and a half have been difficult at times and I have not always lived out the fruit of the Spirit as well as I should have, and if some of you have felt hurt at times because of that, I apologize. This is why self-control is so important.

Self-control is the part of the fruit that provides a foundation for the rest of the fruit. Paul’s wise in ending the description of the fruit of the Spirit with self-control. Someone asked this week about the fruit of the Spirit, and that if it comes from the Spirit, then the Spirit must produce it. They were wondering how that happens. Self-control’s a good time to reflect on that a moment. The Spirit does produce the fruit in our hearts and lives, but like with many gifts from God, the fruit is given to us and then, through practices such as the spiritual disciplines like scripture reading, prayer, meditation, serving others, confession, silence, generosity, and others, we nourish and grow these seeds of the fruit of the Spirit so they shape and feed our hearts, souls and lives more into the image of Jesus.

Paul’s writing to the church in the city of Thessalonica. Here, near the end of the letter, he’s encouraging the people to live life in such a way that they’re always be ready for Jesus coming back. As Jesus said, even he didn’t know exactly when he’s coming back. As a number of his parables warned, his return will be like a thief coming in the night, unexpectedly. Just before this, Paul was talking about when Jesus will return like a king coming to inspect his city. Before his arrival, the city cleans everything up, white washing the buildings so that when the king arrives at sunup from the west, the sun will shine over the city, making it glow brightly. Watchers were placed outside the city to let everyone know when they see the king arriving and then the entire city goes out to escort the king to his city, this is the only time the word rapture is used in the Bible, to describe the people going out to escort the king into his city. This is the image of Jesus’ return. This is why Paul is telling the people in the church here to keep watching for Jesus, to not fall asleep or get distracted and miss out on his return. This takes self-control.

Thessalonica was a bustling city, which is why Paul’s ends the letter with a warning to not get sucked into the ways and values of the culture of the city. Pastor Amy Peeler tells us a little about what Thessalonica was like, “In the first century world, many of the religious options of the day included nocturnal celebrations that included alcohol and sexual promiscuity. Dionysus, the god of wine, was worshipped in Thessalonica, and his nighttime celebrations had the reputation of being frenzied, ecstatic, carousing events. The Thessalonians, being called from the worship of dead idols to serve the living God, no longer should participate in such events. Instead of being unclothed they are to put on the specific clothing readying them for battle.” Night times were filled with these wild parties, which helps us understand why Paul calls the people “to be awake and sober.” The word Greek word for sober ‘nepho’ also means self-control, but because of Dionysus, Paul goes with sober, but the idea is staying in control of yourself when everything else is crazy around you.

As one commentary mentions, Paul’s calling them to be who they are, “children of the light and children of the day.” Since they’re children of the light and day time, it makes sense that they’re not going to sleep, that they’re awake and alert, unlike the followers of Dionysus who sleep during the day because they’re getting drunk at night. The word “sleep” was often used for being dead, but here, when Paul uses the word “sleep,” he’s talking about moral dullness, about having minds so dull and slow that they no longer even have a sense of good or bad, of what’s healthy and what’s unhealthy for them morally, spiritually, and even physically. It’s easy to slip into this way of thinking and living life when all we hear and see all around us is to do what feels good, and it doesn’t look like anyone is really getting hurt, at least not that badly. It even looks like a lot of fun and like many people, deep down, a lot of us do believe that following Jesus means that we have to give up having fun like our friends and everyone else.

Yet, in the long run, this kind of lifestyle of the Thessalonians hurts them and the different relationships in their lives. I’ve unfortunately seen way too many marriages, friendships, and families break apart because of similar life style choices. It hurts to see people you care about hurt themselves and the people around them, all the while thinking that they’re living the great life while using each other to forget how meaningless their lives really are. Paul and God want better and more for them. This is why Paul encourages them to protect their heads and hearts by putting on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet of salvation. Pastor Amy Peeler writes, “With the vital organs protected, the Thessalonians could live with emotions protected by faith and love, and thoughts shielded by the hope of salvation. Again, Paul is only encouraging them to continue practicing what they are already doing, as he has expressed prayerful thanksgiving for their faith, love, and hope.” 

Paul believes Jesus is coming back soon and he wants as many people to come to know Jesus as possible before Jesus returns. Paul tells the church to practice self-control and to live lives that are different from the people around as a witness to their faith. What we really believe and value does show up in how we live our lives and the people around us notice. The early church grew because they sought out ways to show God’s love to their communities, building hospitals, schools, and taking care of the poor, the orphans, and those who were hurting. The Roman Empire had a hard time stamping out these followers of Jesus because they made the Empire look bad by taking care of its poor and sick when Caesar didn’t care. This is why the church grew so quickly among the poor and the slave class.

It takes self-control to be different, to live out the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. Shaping our minds and hearts on the parts of the Spirit takes self-control, choosing to approach life and people with the Holy Spirit shaping how we see and interact with others, whether they are people we like, or people whom we may dislike. We choose to shape our lives around who Jesus tells us we are to be. We control our thoughts, our feelings, our perceptions and beliefs, always centering them on Jesus; on who Jesus is, how he lived his life and who he taught us to be as his followers. We put into practice the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, practicing it over and over again, like an artist or athlete, so it becomes a natural part of who we are.

When love is hard to do, we remember how God chose to love us and we act in love until our heart catches up with our head. When we get tempted to see only the negative and brokenness in the world, we train ourselves to look for where God is at work and celebrate as we join God in what he’s doing. When there is conflict, we work to bring reconciliation and peace rather than add to the brokenness. When the world feels harsh, we seek out ways to be kind and gracious, when selfishness seems everywhere, we focus on deliberately finding ways to do good. When it seems that faithfulness has disappeared, we remember that God is faithful to us and we recommit ourselves to being a blessing and remain faithful to Jesus and his call to build his kingdom here and be an encouraging presence. We do all this with a spirit of gentleness and love, caring always for our neighbours and brothers and sisters, even ahead of ourselves because we recognize the image of God in them.

Loving God with everything we are and have, loving our neighbours as ourselves, loving them so much that our heart desire is to share the gospel news of Jesus with them and invite them to join us in following Jesus. We’re called to live as if Jesus is coming back today, while at the same time, planning and doing ministry to make disciples for Jesus so, that when he returns, there will be a multitude to accompany him as he comes to claim his kingdom here.