Letters from Jesus -  Part 2

Revelation 2:12-29 - Riley Boggs

I want to start off this morning by reading you a quote you’ve probably heard before. It originated with a philosopher in the early 1900’s, and then was made even more famous when Winston Churchill used it in one of his speeches. The quote is this. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” I think that statement is true. And the reason that I think it is true is because history is one of our greatest teachers. When we look back through time and see what has happened, we learn all kinds of things. We see errors that those before us committed, and we try to avoid committing the same errors ourselves. We see good things that have been done, and we try to mimic those good things. I would argue that one of the more important things we can do as Christians is look back at history so that we might learn. And, as the quote goes, if we neglect to look back and see what has happened before us, then we will certainly be more prone to make the very same mistakes.

This is our third week in the book of Revelation, and it is our second week looking at some of these letters from Jesus. Now if you haven’t been here the past 2 Sunday’s let me just clarify what I mean “letters from Jesus” really quick. In chapters 1-3 of this book there are seven letters that are written to seven churches in Asia Minor. Your Bible likely has seven headings where you can see the name of each church and underneath that heading is the letter addressed to each of them. And if you’re unfamiliar with this book, you might be tempted to think that these letters are no different than the other letters we have in the Bible, such as the letters to the Ephesians or Philippians. But, as we talked about the past 2 weeks, these letters are quite different.

The reason that these letters are different is 2-fold. First, these letters are not just to these seven churches, they are to the church at large, to the whole church. The number 7 in the book of Revelation is not intended to be interpreted literally, but symbolically. And symbolically the number means complete, or full. And so these letters are not just to these seven churches, they are to the complete church. They are written to the church specifically that is awaiting the second coming of Christ, and because of that, they are written to us. This is different from the other letters we have in the Bible. Other letters, such as the letters to the Ephesians or Phillipians, are not written to us. That doesn’t mean that they aren’t for us, they are. But the intended audience when Paul penned those letters was the church in Ephesus and the church in Philippi. And so, rather than saying they are to us, we say that they are for us. These letters found in the first 3 chapters of the book of Revelation are different in that they are actually written to us. The intended audience of these letters are not just these churches, but the whole church.

  The second reason that these letters are different is because they are written by Jesus Himself. They are literally letters from Jesus, to His Church, as we await His return. As I just mentioned, other letters in the Bible are penned by authors, such as Paul. Of course they were divinely inspired by God and as such are considered the Words of God. But these letters are a bit different in that we are reading the very words of Jesus directed towards us specifically. That doesn’t mean that this book is more important or more weighty or anything like that. It just makes this book unique in its own way, and I think it is one of the things that makes this book so especially encouraging for us. Jesus Himself saw to it that we might hear from Him in these very letters.

Now back to the history thing. The reason that I wanted to begin by mentioning the importance of learning from history is because Jesus makes reference to Israel’s history in each of the 2 letters that we are going to be looking at. And I think He does so because He wants us to learn from those things. The whole point of this book is to teach the church how we ought to live in the time between Jesus’ first and second coming. That is the reason we are receiving these letters. And in these 2 letters specifically, He is teaching us how to live by calling us to look back at these events and characters so that we might not fall into the same traps that Israel fell into. He wants us to persevere in holiness and obedience. He wants us to grow and be strong in Him. That's what He desires for us and He has given us these very letters so that we might do just that.

And that right there is really why history is such a good teacher. Because though circumstances and situations change throughout history, humans are still prone to the same temptations. It does not matter where or when, people will find a way to fall into the same traps and schemes of the devil. If you were to hop in a time machine and travel back to the 2nd century, you would find people dealing with the very same things that people are dealing with right now. It would have a different shape or form, but at the root, it would be the same. The human heart isn’t all that creative. It’s drawn to the same old lies over and over again. Of course Jesus knows this, and so He intentionally calls us to look back at how these stories played out, so that we might learn. So that our hearts and minds might be less prone to believe the lies, and more inclined to trust and obey Him, ultimately giving Him the glory and honor that He deserves.

Each of the seven letters in chapters 1-3 follow the same basic structure. It begins by telling us who the letter is addressed to, followed by an identification of Christ. You can see that in verse 12 here. We can see that the letter is addressed “to the angel of the church of Pergamum”, and then Christ is identified as the one, “who has the sharp two-edged sword.” After this, in each letter, Jesus demonstrates the knowledge and understanding that He has of these churches. He always uses the phrase “I know” and then begins to evaluate the church, which is really the rest of the letter. It’s this commending and rebuking, promising and warning, and then an exhortation and encouragement. That’s the basic structure that each of these letters follow. 

And in the first letter specifically, Jesus demonstrates His knowledge of the church in Pergamum by saying, in verse 13, “I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is.” Now let’s just go ahead and pause there and try to make sense of this. I think what Jesus is communicating here is incredibly important for us and really sets the stage for the other points I want us to see this morning. If you were to roll up into Pergamum at this time and ask the townsfolk where Satan’s throne was, they would probably look at you very confused. There was no literal throne with “Satan” inscribed above it. As a sidenote, for some reason during my study every time I read of Satan’s throne a quote from the movie Elf would pop in my head. It’s that scene where the Elf gets angry at Santa sitting in the chair in the store. And he looks at him and says, “You sit on a throne of lies.” That has literally nothing to do with the sermon, but I couldn't get it out of my head, and now you probably can’t either. 

Anyway… If you did show up to Pergamum in this time, you wouldn’t find Satan's literal throne, but you would find something else. You would find it to be a city that is littered, through and through, with the worship of false gods. This city was a hub for idolatrous worship. There were temples and places of worship dedicated to all sorts of mythical gods and governmental leaders. It was a city wrought with worship directed in seemingly every direction except the one place it should be directed, the One True God. It was a city where you might say Satan himself has a throne. The enemy had more than a foothold, he had a throne, and it was evident. And if the idolatrous worship wasn’t proof enough, we see that evil was being done to those who followed Christ. Jesus commends the church for holding fast to His name and not denying the faith, even when Antipas was killed for his faith. It was an evil place.

And yet, despite the fact that these Christians were dwelling in an utterly evil place, Jesus calls them to press on in faith. That’s actually the first point I want us to see this morning…

1.) Our call as Christians does not change with our circumstances

It is tempting to read the description of this city and think, “Man. It’s probably best for the Christians there to hunker down and take it easy for a while. I mean if there is so much evil going on there that you could say Satan’s throne is there. Maybe it’s time to just lay low.” But as much as we might be tempted to think that, Jesus is actually calling this church to do the very opposite. Yes, He commends them for their faithfulness in light of the evil and persecution that surrounds them. They have held fast to His name and they have not denied the faith, even though they may have been tempted in the face of evil.

But that’s not all Jesus has to say, is it? No. Though they are in the midst of evil and are in what we would all call a very trying situation, He still calls them to further faithfulness. He calls them to go deeper and further. And He does so by rebuking and warning them for some of the errors that have found their way within the church. This is where we get the first callback to an event in Israel’s past. Starting in verse 14 we read, “But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.”

Some of you might remember the story of Balaam, but if not, let me remind you. In the book of Numbers there is a king named Balak. He was the king of Moab, and he feared the Israelites, and so he decided that he would try to have God curse the Israelites. He offered Balaam money to curse them, and so Balaam tried to do so. But what happens is that every time Balaam tries to curse Israel, the opposite happens. Instead of cursing leaving his mouth, blessings come. And this happens time and time again, and it seems as if Balaam had lost. And for the time being, he did.

However, if you keep reading in the book of Numbers then you’ll see that Balaam came up with another plan. It seems that Balaam had the idea that he would send Moabite women over to Israel and have them tempt the Israelites into committing sexual immorality with them as the means to lure them into false worship. And this plan, unlike the first, works. The Israelites give way to the temptation, worship false gods, and the Lord brings His wrath upon them. 

And so now, in the city of Pergamum, it seems that history is repeating itself. Some of those in the church had begun to hold this very same false teaching, and other teachings similar that were held by the Nicolatians. In a city where temptation seemed to be an ever present reality, there had been some who had given in. And to those people Jesus has one simple command. You can see it in verse 16. He says, “...repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.” Now there is certainly something to be said about the danger of sin, which we will look at in a minute. For now, I just simply want you to see that standard has not changed. I think this is why Jesus has given us this letter. It’s so that we can see that no matter what our circumstances might be, our call as Christians does not change. 

Whether we live in a culture where Christianity is well-thought of or a culture where it is violently hated, our calling does not change. We are still called to love God with our heart and soul and mind. We are still called to love our neighbor as ourselves. We are still called to hold fast to the truth, to share the Gospel with a dying world, and to daily repent for our failures. Over and over again, that is what we do no matter what happens around us or to us. I have seen people justifying sin or a lack of obedience because of this. They say, “But you don’t know how difficult my situation is.” We can be tempted to do the same thing. And if we are tempted to lower that standard and think we are exempt from obedience because of the difficulty of the situation, we should call this letter to mind. This church is being called to faithfulness and repentance in the city of satan. And we too, by this letter, are being called to faithfulness and repentance in the cities where we dwell.

This can look many different ways. Maybe in the “Bible-belt” there is the unsaid assumption that everyone here knows the Gospel already so it seems kind of pointless to share it. Or maybe you work a job where you know the Gospel will be incredibly offensive to your coworkers who love their sin. In those situations, and basically all other situations, there is the ever present temptation to sort of move the line of what we are to do a little bit closer in. We know what we have been called to, but we justify our lack of obedience to that calling because of any number of things. And so we sort of walk back what it really means to hold fast, share the Gospel, and so on. The reality is that in all circumstances, our call remains the same. I think that is part of what we are supposed to learn from this first letter. We’ll circle back for the final point to see the other things. For now, I want to draw your attention to the second letter.

This letter, the 4th of the 7, is the longest of them all. And what makes this interesting is that commentators agree that the city of Thyatira is the smallest and seemingly most insignificant of them all. And yet, Jesus has the most words for the church there. The letter starts off like all the others in verse 18 by telling us who it is written to and then Jesus identifying Himself as, “the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.” Then, in verse 19, Jesus commends the church for many things. He commends their works, their love, their service, and their patient endurance. They have done many things well, and the Lord knows it, and He makes it known to them.

But then, in verse 20, we see that Jesus has something against the church here as well. He says, “ 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.” Now unlike the other letter where the teachings of Balaam had resurfaced, I don’t think there is actually a woman in Thyatira whose name is Jezebel, who is teaching false things and leading people into wickedness. Rather, I think Jesus is saying that there is someone in this city who is doing a very similar thing to what a woman named Jezebel did in Israel’s history. Here we have the second reference to the past.

You can find the story of Jezebel in 1 and 2 Kings. Jezebel was married to King Ahab, and as such was a queen. And she desired that pagan worship be brought in and practiced among Israel. In some ways she did in fact succeed in bringing in false worship, but thankfully she ultimately did indeed fail. Nonetheless, she was an evil woman who tried to draw worship away from God and onto false gods. Now one important thing to note is that she didn't necessarily want to stop all worship to God, she just wanted to also add in false worship. And this is why it was so dangerous. Many christians in Thyatira had seemingly fallen prey to a similar tactic in this area, where they have sort of shrugged their shoulders and said, “Well, it’s not that big of a deal” and lumped in false worship with true worship. They had tolerated Jezebel. They had tolerated sin.

I think the lesson that we are supposed to learn here is this, our second point…

2.) Tolerating sin leads to destruction

In our culture Christians are often called intolerant as an insult. But, if we are to take Jesus for His Word here, and we should, then maybe being intolerant isn’t so bad. The very reason that Jesus has this rebuke for the church in Thyatira is because they have been too tolerant. That’s the word He uses. And it seems that because of this continual toleration of this woman and her false teaching, many had fallen prey to these evil things. Her teaching and promiscuity had led christians to places that they should have never gone. They had participated in all kinds of acts of worship dedicated to false gods. 

And Jesus’ words about this Jezebel character and those who are following her ways are no joke. He doesn’t mince words at all. He says, starting in verse 21, "I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. 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,23 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.” Put very simply, Jezebel and those who follow in her ways are on a path that leads to destruction, unless they repent.

Now, I want us to zoom out for a minute and consider what this means for us. Remember this letter is to the whole church in between the first and second coming of Christ. And what this means is that Jesus is saying that in every time and place, there is a Jezebel type figure that exists that Christians are going to be tempted to tolerate for too long. And if they do, then they will find that in tolerating her and her false teachings, many will be led down a path that ends in ruin. So what is it in our time and place? Well I think it can be many things, but as I was preparing one in particular came to mind.

The danger of being overly empathetic. I think this is a practice that many Christians have taken up, and as a result it has led to an acceptance of sin. Now before I say anything else, I just want to be clear and say that I do not think that empathy is a bad thing. In fact, I think that empathy can be a good and important thing to have as Christians. That being said, I think there is a particular danger in our day and age with being overly empathetic. Let me try to explain what I mean. When you practice empathy, you are trying to step into the shoes of another person. You are trying to put yourself in their place so that you can think and operate from their perspective, with whatever that entails. For example, if you have a friend who comes to you and tells you that they just lost their job and they are clearly overwhelmed. If that happened and you wanted to respond with empathy, then you would try to imagine yourself in their situation and then say something like, “I’m sorry, I can imagine how worried you are.” You are trying to enter into their situation and comfort them by saying, “I understand.”

Now that alone isn’t wrong, and as I mentioned, I think there are appropriate times for that, especially when you have actually experienced whatever they are experiencing. It’s actually one of the beauties of the church. We are a community of people who have experienced a lot of sin and brokenness, and so we can relate and encourage one another in very meaningful and personal ways. However, there is a line that we cannot cross. And that line is when we try to become so empathetic that we actually blur our own vision of what is right and wrong in the name of love. We try to imagine and understand someone’s situation to the point where we ourselves lose sight of what is true. 

Let me give you a personal example of how I almost did this. After college I had a friend who reached out to me and wanted to meet up and talk. And so we met up and began to talk and he started to tell me that he was disappointed in my stance on whether or not homosexuality was a sin. He told me that he knew that I thought it was a sin and that he was hurt by that. Now the reason he was telling me this in particular is because early in college he had told me a handful of others that he was struggling with this same-sex attraction. He had confided in us and we encouraged him to deny those feelings, flee from them, and to pursue obedience to Christ. Time passed and he had come to think of those feelings as being not all that bad, and now he wanted me to know it hurt him to know that I thought he was in sin for pursuing those feelings.

And there was one thing he said in particular that I won’t forget. He said, “But Riley, it’s easy for you to say that being gay is a sin. You’re married. You get to go home to someone who loves you and who you love. You get to have an intimate relationship with someone. Because of who I’m attracted to, I can’t ever have that.” He told me, “Just think about my position. You’re telling me that my only 2 choices are either to sin against God or to be lonely for the rest of my life. Think about if you felt the way I do.” He was wanting me to be empathic, to put myself in his shoes. I remember that I tried to imagine being in his situation, and feeling the difficulty of it.

Maybe you’ve experienced something similar. Or maybe as you hear that, you sense that difficulty as well. Maybe you’re even tempted for a moment to question how hard of a line you should draw when it comes to homosexuality being a sin. There lies the danger of being overly empathetic. Sin is a blinding thing. It distorts reality and makes you believe that your options are much more limited than they really are. For my friend, he saw only 2 possibilities. Either he sins or he is lonely for the rest of his life. And if you try to be too empathic, you might think those are the only 2 possibilities as well. The truth, however, is that there is another option. He can pursue Jesus in obedience and trust His ways are always. He can trust that Jesus will comfort and care for him, and not allow him to live in loneliness. He can cast his worries and anxieties on Jesus and trust that He will give him a peace and joy that surpasses all understanding.

Oftentimes what people need is not someone to enter into their situations so that they can feel and experience what they are feeling and experiencing, but rather they need someone who loves and cares about them deeply to point them to the truth that they are having a hard time seeing. They need someone to lift them up, point them towards Christ, and walk alongside them.

There are all kinds of situations where I think we are prone to being overly empathetic in our culture. And as a result, we end up tolerating sinful things. We end up overlooking sinful beliefs or actions because we want to come across as loving. But tolerance is not love. It’s actually very unloving. If I would have changed my mind and told my friend that I understand and he should just be in a relationship with whoever makes him happy, then I would have been incredibly unloving. By God’s grace I didn't do that. Instead, I pointed him to the truth. I told him I cared about him and wanted what was best for him, and that the best thing was to turn from his sin and follow Jesus with other believers. I think that was the most loving thing I could’ve done, and yet his response didn’t make it seem like it.

In the church of Thyatira a seemingly small toleration of sin led to a toleration of more sin. The same is true in every day and age of the church. What Jesus is telling us is that we need to take sin seriously. We need to treat sin like the hostile threat that it is. And that doesn’t mean that we immediately bring judgment on those who are in sin. Jesus even tells us in verse 21 that he gave this Jezebel character time to repent, but she didn’t. And then in verse 22 He says that judgment will come on all those who follow in her ways, unless they repent. Not tolerating sin means that we are continually pointing one another to turn from sin and to receive the forgiveness that Jesus is ready to pour out.

And so let me just say that if you are here this morning and have found yourself entangled in sin, even serious sin, today is the day of repentance. Don’t delay it. The more you tolerate sin, the more it will grow. Like a snowball rolling down a hill, it will continue to get bigger and bigger. No matter the depth of your sin, if you confess to Jesus, He will forgive you. Let this letter from our Lord be the thing that pushes you to repent this morning.

The last thing I want us to see this morning is this…

3.) We must hold fast to what is true, remembering the promises of our Lord

I love what Jesus says in verses 24-25. It’s one of my favorite things in maybe all of the book of Revelation. He says, “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. 25 Only hold fast what you have until I come.” The reason I love it so much is because of how simple it is. We’ve just read about this Jezebel character and the destruction that he and her false teachings have caused. And in these verses Jesus ramps it up somehow even more by calling those teachings “the deep things of Satan.” I read that and I’m like “Good grief. Tell me Jesus, what should we do?” And it’s just so simple. He says, “I do not lay on you any other burden. Only hold fast what you have until I come.” In other words, He is saying, you have all you need. You don’t need to do anything else. You don’t need more commandments. You don’t need extra obedience in ways I haven’t commanded. There is no other burden, just hold to what is true until I come for you.

At the end of the day, it really is that simple. Our task as the followers of Jesus is to hold fast to what is true and remember what is ahead of us. It’s so beautifully simple that it almost seems not fit for the task. There’s seemingly a million traps to fall into. There’s an enemy seeking to devour us. Our own hearts and minds are prone to stray. And yet, all we have to do is hold and teach what the Word of God says, and cast our minds on the promises our Risen Savior has made to us. Jesus gives us some of these promises in all of these letters, particularly addressed to “the one who conquers.” In the first letter we looked at he says, “To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’ Jesus is using symbolism to promise us that He will nourish us and claim us as His very own. 

In the second letter he says, “The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, 27 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. 28 And I will give him the morning star.” Here He is promising that we will reign with Him in eternity, and that He will give us the morning star. I want to close this morning by showing you exactly what morning star is. Turn all the way to the end of the book of Revelation to chapter 22. 

In chapter 22 we see this final reminder that Jesus is indeed coming for His church again. He’s reminding us of what we are to do and the promises that are ours. And then, in verse 16 He says this, “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.” Did you catch that? Jesus Himself is the morning star. He is promising us that if we persist in faith, at the end, He Himself will be ours. In all of His beauty and majesty and splendor, He will be ours

This morning we are being called our Lord to press on in faith and obedience. We are being reminded that the task before us does not change with our circumstances. We are being reminded of our own need for repentance and the importance of taking sin and false teaching seriously. We are being reminded that we are to hold fast to what is true and remember the promises made to us by Jesus. Let us be a church who walks in obedience and faith as we await the return of our glorious King. Amen.