Hear what the Spirit says to the church 5/28/23 Revelation 2:18-29
Ben
Sloan’s sermon Eastminster in Columbia SC USA
Today is an amalgamation of metaphors. Today is
Pentecost- considered the birthday of the church; Today is Memorial Day- we remember the
sacrifices of those who died in service to our country. In our broader community we remember the
fallen firefighter ,
Michael Muller, who died putting out a blaze this weekend. Today is also considered the kickoff of summer-
where pools start opening, school starts winding down, and we start getting
ready for vacation.. So here is a bad
dad joke to kick off summer. Where do
sheep go on vacation? To the Baa
hamas. Now that I’ve said that bad
joke, I hope you’ll remember Eastminster is sending a group of youth to the
Bahamas not to relax as much as to rebuild from Hurricane Dorian. They still have tremendous need there. Then we will send an adult group in November
to continue the work. Next week we will
begin our study of Revelation in earnest, but I wanted to give you a foretaste
by focusing on the longest letter to the seven churches- to Thyatira. Thyatira- small town known for its industry-
bronze and copper furnaces that made idols and coins. One coin found there referred to the “Son of
God” as the emperor of Rome. There was
much paganism there- which involved idolatry and sexual immorality. Rev.
2:24-29;
18To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like a blazing fire and whose feet are like polished bronze.19I know your deeds—your love, your faith, your service, your perseverance—and your latter deeds are greater than your first.20But I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads My servants to be sexually immoral and to eat food sacrificed to idols. 21Even though I have given her time to repent of her immorality, she is unwilling.22Behold, I will cast her onto a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her will suffer great tribulation unless they repent of her deeds. 23Then I will strike her children dead, and all the churches will know that I am the One who searches minds and hearts, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.
24But I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned the so-called deep things of Satan: I will place no further burden upon you. 25Nevertheless, hold fast to what you have until I come. 26And to the one who overcomes and continues in My work until the end, I will give authority over the nations. 27He will rule them with an iron scepter and shatter them like potterya —just as I have received authority from My Father. 28And I will give him the morning star.
29He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
It is not an accident that the very last book of the
Bible has Jesus speaking and the Spirit of God speaking and the Father on the
throne in heaven. God is not dead nor is
He static. He still speaks to the church
and He still speaks to you.
I have a friend who has a hearing problem. They have had it for years= over a
decade. She has had a lot of frustration
asking “what”, to the point that she just tries to read lips and stops asking
“what” much. She tried hearing aid after
hearing aid. But one day she went all out and bought the very best hearing aid
out there- and her world opened up to her.
She admitted that it was like being set free. She was not frustrated any longer by what she
couldn’t hear. She could hear the birds,
the TV, the radio clearly- all of which was muffled and frustrating
before.
7 times in the Book of Revelation, it says, “He who has ears let them hear what
the Spirit says to the churches.” How do
you get ears? How do you get this
special set of devices in order to hear God speak?
Isaiah spoke of it, Jesus spoke of many of the people of His day as having ears
but not hearing. The organ to hear and
the device to hear is working, but people don’t want to listen. It comes when you come to God and really seek
Him. You can hear God only when you are
alive to Him. You have to turn onto God-
get on His frequency. Wireless
microphones are great devices. But if
for example, don’t turn them on, I will look like I am miming my words. If I am on the wrong frequency as the
receiver and amplifier, it won’t matter how much I speak- you won’t hear me-
especially online. Jesus longs for us to
listen to Him- to listen to the Spirit of God.
To do that, we must tune our hearts to His. We should say, “Lord, I’ve been going my own
way and now I want to go yours.” We want
to say, “Lord not my will but your will be done in me.” The motto of John Calvin, the founder of the
Presbyterian Church was, “My heart I offer to you, Lord, promptly and
sincerely.” If you want to have ears to
hear, then have a heart that goes after God’s heart- that is listening on His
frequency. RCA has a mascot- a dog named
chipper who is sitting by a stereo- we would say today-a Bluetooth speaker-
listening for and to His master’s voice. It is funny how sheep and pets know
their person’s voice. Isaiah (1:3) says,
“The ox knows its owner, the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know
– my people do not understand.” Are you willing to listen- to stop and come to
worship and listen to the One who promises to come when two or three are
gathered in His name.
The other thing is we must be willing
to listen whether it makes us comfortable or not. The Spirit, the Bible says, convicts us of
sin- that is not comfortable. Conviction
is like a sword piercing our hearts. The
Bible says of itself that the Word of God is living and active- like a double
edged sword penetrating the heart. The
Spirit of God’s job is not just to make us feel good. The Spirit, wants us to glorify God and enjoy
Him forever. Sometimes that means-
husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for
her- that is not comfort, that is sacrifice.
Sometimes the Bible calls us to come and die. Jesus said, “If anyone will come after me,
let them deny themselves, take up their cross daily and follow me.” Certainly the Spirit told the people of
Thyatira uncomfortable words. I hold
this against you. Sometimes- the best
thing we can do is leave our comfort zones- go help the homeless, go feed the
hungry, go build a house or take a church on a mission trip, or go on a
challenging but educational trip to the Holy Land. We have
been unable to do much in 2020, 2021, and into 2022. But now, I believe, the Spirit is calling us
to get out there.
In most of these letters to the
churches, the Spirit says something positive, something negative, and then a
promise to those who overcome and listen to the Spirit. In this passage to Thyatira, God says, I know
your deeds- your love and faith and your actions- doing more than you did
before. It was an active church. It was
a loving church that had faith in God.
But it had in it the false teaching of Jezebel. In the Old Testament Jezebel was the queen consort
of Ahab who encouraged the worship of Baal the fertility god. They believed the practice of sexual
immorality with Temple prostitutes would bring rain, good crops and blessing. Jesus was saying this is not my way. Now what were the people who were faithful
and listening to the Spirit to do when they heard this teaching? The word translated “the rest of you” is
“loipoi” which means remnant- the ones left.
Were they to leave and go start another church down the road? Were they to migrate to the next church
over? I would challenge anyone to show
me in scripture where it is right and we are encouraged to leave and divide
churches over disagreement. The stunning
thing is Jesus- and the Spirit says something we may not expect. He says, only do not hold to the false
teaching but hold on to what you have until I come. This is similar to the parable of the wheat
and tares and the parable of the nets found in Matthew 13. Don’t separate the wheat from the weeds-
that’s not up to us. Don’t separate the
good fish from the bad- we are not called to be the judges and separators even
when we see evil. The amazing thing is
the Holy Spirit calls us to value unity and love above putting ourselves in a
position that we think is pure. Unfortunately,
we live in a world today that elevates our consumer desires and our own comfort
ahead of love. Jesus said He will take
care of the Jezebels. Of course, What we
do matters. What we believe
matters. But our job is not to judge and
it is not to get mad and leave. Our job
is to stay in, hold on to what we until He comes- to persevere. The Greek word
is “krateo” which means hold tightly or firmly to the faith- especially in the
midst of pagan mores and pressure to compromise. Similarly Jesus said (Mt.
24:13) “the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.” Now this is not easy. We don’t hear this often- in fact you may not
have ever heard this- but here it is: Choose love over judgmentalism. Value
perseverance over division. Never in
scripture does it encourage us if we don’t like one church or what is taught in
one church or how it is taught to go to another church. There is a place to move to another church-
starting new churches, having to move, but Jesus, Paul, and in Revelation are
all about love and perseverance. In fact
1 Cor. 13 says “Love perseveres.” Hold
tightly is good advice most of the time when you disagree- hold tightly to your
parents, your spouse (when you disagree- and you will), to the church and each
other. When we don’t persevere in church
it hurts the church, hurts our own souls, and hurts the witness of Jesus. No pastor likes church hoppers. I called one pastor about one of his members
who was coming to my previous church. He
said, yeah- she’ll stay with you for awhile and then stir things up, get mad
and leave. He could have been a prophet
because that is exactly what happened. Jesus
said, “They will know you are my disciples by their love”- NOT by how many
times they get mad in the name of finding a pure church.” We know there were multiple churches in
cities like Ephesus, Corinth, and Antioch. Some may accuse the people of
Thyatira of being in that “Jezebel church.”
Some may not hear what the Spirit says to persevere and love the
imperfect church for Christ’s sake. There
is no perfect church. There may be a
church that gets 5star reviews from its adherents, but no church is
perfect. What He promises them is that
those who persevere, who are the remnant, who overcome will win in the end- and
triumph. He but also promises them the
Morning star. Now the Morning Star is
the first sign that the night is almost up- and that morning is coming. Christ Himself is called “the bright and
morning star” (22:16). It’s as if Jesus
says, “If you are faithful to me where I place you, you will have more hope and
I will be with you.” I remember Charles
Stanley, a prolific pastor of First Baptist Atlanta who just died last month.
He had a kind of funny style. He would
stop several times in his sermon and say, “are you listening?” So I am asking you- do you have ears to hear
what the Spirit is saying to you- what the Spirit is saying to the
churches.
On
this Memorial Day weekend we give thanks for those who sacrificed for us to
preserve our freedoms- including the freedom to speak to pray and to worship as
we please. Since the Revolutionary War Over 1.1 million have died in service to our
country. They persevered unto death for
our country. We should seek to
appreciate the sacrifices of those who have gone before us. I remember the movie, “Saving Private Ryan.”
A movie about soldiers sacrificing themselves so that the last remaining son of
a mother would make it home to her. He
stood at the graves of his comrades who died that he might get home saying, “I
hope I have lived my life in a way to have earned what you all have done for
me.” All of us here rest on the
shoulders of those who have gone before us both in the military and
otherwise. Here at Eastminster there are
no charter members left from 75 years ago.
It takes great perseverance to start or build a family- a church. It takes a thirst for doing God’s will. We do not earn their sacrifices. But we appreciate them. We want to pass on the torch of the Gospel
light to the next generation.
Some say the church in America, like the church in Europe is dying. Crazily, the places with the greatest
hardships are growing churches. They
have learned the secret of perseverance. But here many are not persevering in the
faith. We are not holding on until He
comes. But on this Pentecost Sunday that
coincides with Memorial Day- we can pray that the Spirit will begin to move-
even in us- to bring this nation back to the God who has blessed us in the past
and can bless us again. I pray that the
Spirit who called the first 171 people to gather to worship in this place is
once again at work in your heart to give you ears to hear and a heart to
respond to the living God. I want to
close with the words from Rev. 22:17- The Spirit and the Bride say come. And let the One who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let whosoever will take
the free gift of the water of life. After
we have come, let us hold firmly to the faith until we see Him face to
face.
[BS1]Ichael
