Jealous Lover

“Jealous LoverAuthentic Worship”
 Message @ Jericho Ridge– Sunday, Oct 1, 2017
Text: Revelation 2:18-29 // Series: Reclaiming Revelation

Good morning, friends. My name is Brad, it’s a pleasure to have you along for our journey through the fall as we seek to Reclaim the book of Revelation.

Why do we need to reclamation this part of the New Testament? Well, I suspect that if you have hung around church for any length of time, you have experienced discussions of things like end times prophecy and sometimes it gets weird or scary or bizarre…  None of which The Apostle John envisioned when he wrote this Spirit-inspired letter, this prophetic apocalyptic vision from prison to a group of 7 churches in what is now Turkey.  He wrote it down to help them know what it means to live with their eyes fixed on Jesus in complicated & challenging times.  Times that are perhaps not unlike ours, as we’ll see today.      

Many of the messages to these groups of followers of Jesus have significant overlap, and last week Pastor Wally covered two churches Smyrna & Pergamum, next week we’ll finish off the letters in chapter 3 and move on for EPIC Sunday to some of the cataclysmic and cyclical imagery that emerges in the middle portion of the book.  You’ll want to stay tuned… it gets really, really interesting very fast!

Today we dive into the longest letter to these 7 churches, found in Revelation 2:18 written to the smallest church of the bunch.  And you might remember the structure of John’s instruction to these churches: like a sandwich. Opens with commendation, what are they doing well?  Then he highlights areas of concern: things they need to improve on or pay attention to.  And then he finishes with an invitation to consider what Jesus is inviting them into.  So let’s jump in and see where this group is on track, where they are off-base & what it means for you and I and for Jericho Ridge as a community here today.     

Turn with me in your Bibles or on your devices to Revelation 2:18-19, I’m reading from the New Living Translation.   

Look at the amazing words of commendation!  They are knocking it out of the park like to no other church!  Warm, warm commendation from Christ.

1. Deep Love
2. Sincere Faith
3. Acts of Service
4. Patient endurance in suffering
5. Constant improvement in all areas

Where Ephesus has lost its first love, these people have grown it. Where Pergamum was in danger of giving in to persecution, this tribe was faithfully persevering. Faith that is vibrant, service that’s notable… What’s not to love?!

Let’s keep reading and we’ll find out that while they receive the highest commendation, they also have perhaps the most dangerous challenges:

Revelation 2:20-21

What we see immediately is a few significant challenges that Jesus, as a properly jealous lover of His church identifies.  The first challenge is this woman Jezebel.  We don’t know if that was her real name or not, in some ways that isn’t important. What is likely happening is that this name is being invoked because the woman who was causing trouble in the church at Thyatira is exhibiting the same character traits as her namesake back in the Old Testament.  If you were with us this summer, we walked through the life of Elijah and we came up against the wicked, evil and generally not very nice Queen Jezebel a few times.  She married King Ahab and led the entire nation of Israel away from mono-theism.  She personally financially sponsored 850 false prophets to lead people into worshipping false gods like Baal.  Anyone who disagreed with her she had executed.  The biggest problem was that she advocated strongly that you could worship God right alongside of worshipping any of the popular foreign deities at that time in Ancient Israel, Baal or Asherah.  She was a proponent of a “both / and” kind of spirituality.  Her mode of operations was to suggest “Oh, sure. Worship God. Follow Jesus.  That’s all fine and good. But don’t forget to ALSO do a bit of other spiritual stuff.  For sure go to church on Sundays, but maybe also practice free masonry.  A little bit of Eastern Mysticism couldn’t hurt.  Sure, keep reading your Bible, but I would play the filed a bit, you know, just to be safe”

In other parts of the world, this is a bit more stark.  In East Africa, for example, it’s a real problem that people who call themselves Christians still practice witchcraft. We call this blending of core allegiances “syncretism”.  And we like to think we are immune from it here, but when God says in Exodos 20:3, you shall have no other God’s before Me”, He kinda means it!  This is heart allegiance issue.  In our day and time, it usually manifests itself as a Generic Spirituality says “BOTH / AND” Christianity invites us to “EITHER / OR”.  Generic spirituality says ‘sure, that Jesus talk is fine but let’s also make sure we add in other spiritual elements”.  But Jesus says “worship the Lord your God and serve Him only”  Friends, we

we cannot have it both ways.  It is Either / or not Both / AND.  Jesus. Not Jesus+

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor and theologian who was killed for his opposition to Hitler’s genocide programs, said this: “The human heart has the capacity for only one all-encompassing, all-embracing allegiance” 

This woman who called herself a prophet, this Jezebel was at work in the church of Thyatira, somehow she had convinced people that this kind of syncretism was really just “deeper understanding of truth”.  That this both /and approach was really no threat to their spiritual lives. 

She had convinced to participate in two things: sexual sin and eating of food offered to idols.  Now we know from studying history that these two activities occurred within ancient trade guilds.  Trade guilds were organized groups who controlled commerce in a given realm.  And in the city of Thyatira, they were famous in the ancient world for the incredibly high number of trade guilds.  Do you remember Lydia one of the early converts to Christianity in the city of Philippi in Acts 16?  Do you remember what her business was? She sold expensive purple cloth, and we are told that she was from the city of Thyatira.  Thyatira had wool worker guilds, linen workers, guilds for leather workers, potters guilds, bakers, bankers, shoemakers, and the list goes on and on.  In fact, due to its location on one of main east-west trade roads, over 50% of the commercial goods of the ancient world passed through this city.  Trade guilds controlled commerce.  So membership had its financial privileges.  But the opposite was also true, if you were not a member of a guild, you were out of business. 

[PHOTO] Thyatira has more trade guilds than any other city. Such guilds supported the pagan gods, so Christians had trouble supporting themselves. 

William Barclay in his commentary makes it clear as to why this arrangement posed such a big challenge for Christians in Thyatira:

“Membership in the trade guild required participation in the social activities of the guild. That would have been problematic for many Christians because such social activities were inextricably tied up in the worship of other gods…  The trade guilds had common meals together.  The meal would begin and end with a cup of wine poured out as an [offering] to the gods.  It was in fact the heathen grace before and after the meal.  Could a Christian join a ceremony like that? Still further, such a meal would almost certainly follow a sacrifice.  The token part of the animal would be offered on the altar.  The meat of it would be given to the worshipper to make a feast for the members of his [or her] trade guild.  Could a Christian sit and eat meat, which had been offered to idols?  Could he participate in a meal where the meat had already been offered to Apollo or Artemis or Thrimunus, the local god?  Still further, this trade feast not infrequently degenerated into carousals where drunkenness and [sexual] immorality where the order of the day.  Could a Christian participate in a feast where drunkenness and fornication were the accepted things?” 

Can you feel the tension here?  As a Christian in this city, you would be between a rock and a hard place.  Participate in the trade guild and be constantly confronted with sexual sin and food offered to idols.  Don’t participate, and it spells financial and social ruin.  What do to, what do to?

Here’s where this woman Jezebel was offering what seemed like a helpful theology of compromise.  Revelation 2:20 says that she was actively teaching people that participation in sexual activity outside of the bonds of marriage, that exploits the human body, not a big deal: ask forgiveness instead of permission.  She was actively encouraging people to do what the Apostles had decided would be so offensive for Jewish sensibilities, that Gentile Christians should abstain from going there: Participation in meals that were knowing sacrificed to idols [LEGO PHOTO] Tonight’s dinner was sacrificed to Asclepius, but whatever, right? Meat is meat. Who cares?

If there is one thing that a jealous lover cannot abide, it is compromise.  So Christ puts His finger on this area of concern and says to His church. Cut it out. Don’t let yourself be fooled.  You can’t nurture a little bit of sin on the side and still remain in vibrant, healthy, growing relationship with Me.  Sometimes we explore “How much sin can I get away with in my life?  How much alcohol can I drink without violating the biblical instruction to avoid drunkenness?  How much porn can I watch without getting caught?  How much can I shade the truth before I name it as a lie?  How much escapism can I indulge before it impacts my marriage?  How much compromise can I tolerate and still get away with looking like a ‘good Christian’ on Sunday mornings?”    

You see, we may not have trade guilds that put us in compromising places, but we’re pretty good at doing it ourselves.  You and I wrestle with a spirit of compromise every day when we ask the question “it’s just a little sin.  Who or what could it possibly damage!  I’ll just ask forgiveness later”

But there are serious consequences to compromise.  Listen to the strong warning in Revelation 2:22-23.  This is why Jesus introduces Himself to this church in verse 18 as the one whose eyes are like flames of fire – they see everything in your life.  This is a call to something we don’t talk a lot about today: holiness.  A pursuit of Jesus that doesn’t allow for compromise or concessions or side deals. 

Because when you compromise, you then fall prey to the second of Christ’s concerns for this church: Compartmentalization.  When you begin to walk the road of compromise, one of the most common ways to deal with it is to begin to carve up your life into different components or compartments.  To keep them all separate and neat and tidy.  That way, compromise in one area doesn’t impact or touch other areas. 

This is the pervading philosophy of our day: please keep Jesus confined to that “spiritual” compartment in your life… take Him out on Sundays and for religious events and occasions.  Then please put Him back in there and don’t let Him out.  

Compartmentalization happens when people say to us “I’m totally fine with you getting excited about Jesus, but keep your religious convictions out of politics. Or out of education. Or out of Business.  This is the real world and we don’t need that Jesus stuff here.  A person needs to strike a balance in life, am I right?”  

Dr. Jeff Bjork notes that “compartmentalization is the means by which we maintain the illusion of the both/and.  In other words, I can be both holy on Sunday and allow poison into my head on Mondays because it is ‘entertainment’ or whatever”  The danger of this is compartmentalization…  Where Jesus is in charge of the so-called spiritual elements of my life but He has no access to my finances, my decision making grid when it comes to parenting, my work, my hobbies or anything else.  He has his nice little compartment and He had better stay there!

I feel this pull, do you?  Sometimes I wish I could be just “one of the guys” in the neighbourhood and not Pastor Brad.  When I was in High School, I had a job where I became a totally different person than I was on Sundays and at school.  I wanted them to like me so I stuffed Jesus into the drawer and locked the door.  And when He busted out, when people would ask things like “aren’t you a Christian?”, I would get angry and make excuses and a bit like Peter “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”  But compartmentalization kills relationships.

But not all the church of Thyatira had been infected with the virus of compromise or compartmentalization.  There were those simply known as “the rest of you” in who received a special word of commendation:  Look with me at Rev 2:24-25.

After expressing His concerns around compromise and compartmentalization, Christ makes 3 promises to both them and to us.  Let’s look briefly at those as we respond to God’s Word this morning. 

The first promise is contained in those beautiful words at the end of 2:24 “I will ask nothing more of you”.  There’s resonance again from the decision in Acts 15 that the apostles and church leaders made not to add any requirements for Gentiles to become followers of Jesus.  They didn’t have to become Jews or follow Jewish cultural practices.  They could simply follow Jesus.  Here’s my take on what can happen: We think: OK, if I want to keep my loyalty to Jesus, then I need to make sure I stay far away from sin.  When the culture or attitudes around us are very liberal or standards are low, we sometimes fall into the danger of over-correcting.  We start putting up rules and fences to try and help maintain purity and authentic relationship with Jesus but we end up falling into the same traps as the Scribes and Pharisees did in Jesus’ day.  We add our own traditions to God’s commands.  This is known as legalism and down through the centuries, we have shown that religious people can be pretty good at it!

Yet the promise of this text is actually the opposite: That those who are trying to avoid compromise & compartmentalization have the opportunity to walk in Glorious Liberty

I love the way John Stott puts this in his commentary.  He reminds us that “a new immorality must not drive us into a new asceticism:

          “We must not overreact to an extreme laxity around us by          developing an extreme rigidity in ourselves!”  – John Stott     

There’s no new burden to layer on ourselves or others.  Simply hold fast to what we already have.  Jesus says that God’s commands are not burdensome (I John 5:3) and that His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 11:30) so we are to live under the promise of a glorious liberty that we have in Christ and not labour under or create for others a set of human-made legalistic set of rules.  Don’t be an accidental Pharisee.  Don’t layer on rules for people beyond the yardstick of God’s Word which is an adequate guide for faith and life.  Preserve and follow the teachings of Jesus, don’t add to them! Live in glorious liberty.     

But the promises are not fished.  There was another promise that we skipped over earlier in the discussion on Jezebel.  Verse 21 says “I gave her time to repent, but she does not want to turn away from her immorality”.  Here we see promise #2. Mercy for those who repent. 

Jesus was willing to forgive and offer deep relationship even to Jezebel.  To the one who was leading others into poisonous places. To those who commit adultery.  You may be here today and you may think “but Brad, you don’t know what I’ve done!  You don’t know how bad it is.  How bad I am.  All this talk about Jesus and love. If you really knew me and my past, you would probably have the users block me before I even set foot in the banquet hall on Sunday morning!”  Friend, if that is you, then let me suggest that you don’t know Jesus and you don’t know Jericho Ridge!  Jesus moved through His life with a depth of truth and grace that both confronted sin but also dispensed heaps and heaps of mercy.  I love the 19^th century British hymn by Fredrick Faber which says “There’s a wideness in God’s mercy. like the wideness of the sea; there’s a kindness in God’s justice, which is more than liberty”.  Glorious liberty. Mercy for those who repent.  Take some time this morning and ask God to let His mercy wash over your soul.  James 2:13 in the New Kings James versions reminds us that “Mercy triumphs over judgement” Receive that invitation today.  Walk in newness of life.  If you have never taken that step, I want you to do that before you leave here today. To open your heart and say “Jesus, I need your mercy.  I receive it.  I believe.”

The final promise is perhaps the most stunning of all.  The text concludes in Revelation 2:26-29.               

Jesus says “those who endure, who don’t give in to the pressure to compromise or compartmentalize, those who declare their allegiance to in this age, will rule and reign with him not only now, but also in the age to come.  They will be given Authority.  This authority is rooted in relationship.  Verse 28 says “I will give them the morning star.”  In the last chapter of the book of Revelation, Jesus says that He is the bright and morning star.  The morning star appears at the darkest time of the night.  When dawn seems as far away as it can get.  Yet it makes the turning point.  One author says “The morning start pulls the morning in behind it just as certainly as Jesus pulls the kingdom in behind him”.  Jesus is saying that He will give authority to those who in the strength He provides.  His invitation to us is to stay loyal to Him.  To invite Him to cleanse our hearts and to fill us with the authority and strength and power for what we face this week.  The morning star reminds us that the struggle is almost over and we need to have the courage to follow Jesus, even when there is a great cost for doing so.  Would you stand with me?  I’m going to pray for us and Dustin and the team will come and lead us in songs that invite examination and repentance in our hearts.  Our prayer response teams will be at the sides and back with their nametags on – today that is Ann Marie, Dale, Sylvia and myself.  Stand if you are able, and let’s pray.        

Father eternal, giver of light and grace, we have sinned against you and against our neighbour, in what we have thought, in what we have said and done, through ignorance, through weakness, through our own deliberate fault. We have wounded your love and marred your image in us. We are sorry and ashamed, and repent of all our sins. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, who died for us, forgive us all that is past; and lead us out from darkness to walk as children of light. Amen.