revelation uncovered 3: letters to the churches...

REVELATION UNCOVERED 3: LETTERS TO THE CHURCHES (PART 2) MORNING SERVICE

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INTRODUCTION As we look into these letters to the churches, we find they are meant for every Christian:

The Revelation letters are deeply personal, tailor written for the original churches.

Yet, they are universal; they are for any church that is a church, anywhere on the planet at any point in time and for any individual in those churches. Every letter is for all of us all the time. We are always in danger of some version of the wrongs; and we always be right when we do what is praised.

And every challenge is something we are now facing, have faced, or will face. –And for simple reasons: two thousand years ago, or today; people are still people. We still wrestle with a fallen nature; salvation is still salvation; sin is still sin; and the consequences are still the same. We still feel pain when rejected, and groups still persecute, the

primal seductions are still money, sex, and power, and we still are wired to fit into our societies. –And it is still a very intentional effort to stay right with Christ.

The Revelation letters are past, present, and future at the same time. God's imagery often refers to events and people of the Old Testament, that is; things He has ALREADY said; it refers to history and to the present, and promises and warnings of the future. –Often in the same sentence! The bottom line is; these letters are very real, they are based in reality, and rooted in history. And they are just as real in regards to the future. For example, the future of the original cities is our history, and we see much of what was said came true.

This morning we'll cover the next two cities and this evening, the last two. Each is fascinating in what it teaches. But let me share a thumbnail sketch of each city. It will give you a base from which to start:

1. Ephesus, a professional city of merchandizing; a church of strong knowledge and weak love

2. Smyrna, the religiously intolerant city; a church rich in its poverty

3. Pergamon, a political city; a church flirting with Satan’s Throne

4. Thyatira, a blue color town; a church strong in love but weak in knowledge

5. Sardis, a city on a fortress hill; a church slack in its overconfidence

6. Philadelphia, a frontier city on a fault line; a church that’s a shaky doorway

7. Laodicea, a professional city of self-reliance; a lukewarm church poor in its riches

By the way, if you miss the evening and want the information, it’s on the GO DEEPER page on our website.

THYATIRA Now we find ourselves in an entirely different atmosphere. The first three cities were quite professional. This city is a skilled workman’s town. It had more trade guilds than anywhere else. In our day, we might call it a "union town." It had a world-class dyeing industry; it may have even invented the dyeing of wool in purple which was THE material of the rich and royal. There were also skilled workers in linen, bronze, leather, baked goods, and pottery. -All renowned.

The people here were more the practical working class than the academia of the other cities. How that played out

was; there was no persecution on the principles of philosophy or religion. Believe what you want; just don’t let it

interfere with your work, and so the trap here, was very practical. Here is what God says to this church:

http://canaan-church.org/Page_LearnMore.htm


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Revelation 2:18-29 I know your works--I mean your love and your loyalty and your service and your steadfast endurance; and I know that your last works are more than your first. But I hold it against you that you make no effort to deal with the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and

whose misleading teaching causes my servants to commit fornication and to eat meat offered to idols. I have given her a

time within which to repent and she refuses to repent from her fornication. Behold, I am going to cast her into a bed

and I am going to cast her paramours into great affliction, unless they repent from her deeds; and I will slay her children

with death; and all the Churches will know that I am he who searches the inmost desires and thoughts of a man's being;

and I will give to each one of you what your works deserve.

To the rest of you in Thyatira, to all those who do not hold this teaching, to such as have not known the depths of Satan, as they call them, I say this--I am not going to put any other burden on you. All I say is, hold on to what you have until I come. I will give to him who overcomes, and who keeps my works to the end, authority over the Gentiles; and he will smite them with a rod of iron; like vessels of pottery they will be smashed; for this is the authority that I have received from my Father; and I will give him the morning star.

There are some major praises for this church. Not only did they stay true in faith and deed, they had a momentum going. Isn't it interesting how that works: Once we start moving in a certain direction, we tend to keep going. When it is in the right direction it is a wonderful thing. But all too often, it’s the wrong direction, even when it started right; it veers off course, and that’s what happened here.

Love was not a problem in this church; the problem was a focus on fellowship at the cost of God’s standards. They were the opposite of Ephesus; Ephesus was a thinking church with no warmth; this church was all warmth, and very little thinking. No one likes a cold church, but we need to realize that a shallow thinking church is just as deadly. A fellowship that turns a blind eye to God’s standards for the sake of friendliness is just as doomed. This mentality showed in Thyatira through accommodating a very influential woman. Perhaps she held sway by her status, or her compelling intellect or personality. Maybe she gave so much support that no one wanted to make waves, we really don’t know.

What we do know is that she was referred to as a Jezebel. So we can get a handle on her by looking at the literal Jezebel. Back in 1 Kings (16, 18) there was a wicked woman of beauty and power who married the Jewish king, Ahab. She was not Hebrew, but the daughter of King Ethbaal of Sidon. She embedded Baal worship into Israel, and did such a

thorough job that she all but wiped out God’s prophets. Her goal wasn’t to banish the worship of God, just to add Baal to the spiritual mix. Thyatira’s Jezebel didn’t push principle, but practicality. Here’s how that worked: Even though Thyatira wasn’t a religious center, the guilds had their patron Gods. They would often have dinners and social events, and the food was always offered to idols. And fitting the pagan culture, there was usually a lot of immorality associated with the idol feasts. If you were a craftsman, you really needed your guild. If you disassociated from the guilds, it would be career suicide. What was the Christian to do? Jezebel’s argument was basically; be practical, do what you’ve got to do.

Things really haven’t changed much, have they? Consider what people do to fit in their work places; in language, values, daily practices, work schedule, even appearance, all prone to compromise! The list goes on and on.


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Question: When was the last time you met someone who sacrificed career for their relationship with God? Combined with the practicality was a Greek line of thinking that the body is nothing in spiritual matters, only the soul

counts. In fact, Jezebel’s group had taken it a step further. They called it “the depths of Satan.” In this line of

thinking, it was actually our duty to experience as many types of sin as possible. The idea was to let the body wallow in sin in order to keep the soul pure. I guess it was an ancient form of “getting it out of your system” or “sowing your wild oats”!

It shows God’s great patience. As wild as this was, God gives this group time to repent; but if they don’t; their sensual bed would become their sick bed. –Imagine an epidemic of gonorrhea or syphilis with no known cure.

The promise to those who overcome, that is, those who use their minds as well as their hearts, and don’t compromise; they will ultimately have authority over the gentiles. In a system of guilds and apprenticeship, earned authority would have great meaning.

They would be given the morning star; that presents a stark contrast in a place that boasted the “depths of Satan.” “Morning star” is a title that was applied to Satan, (“O shining star, son of the morning”, Isaiah 14:12) and to Jesus (2 Peter 1:19; Isaiah 9:2 also Matthew 4:16).

Lucifer was the morning star in his beauty which led to his deadly pride.

Jesus is the morning star in the beauty of His selfless obedience and life-giving sacrifice.

Lucifer leads to death; Christ to life. It certainly puts the “deep knowledge of Satan” into perspective.

Thyatira gives us the opposite lesson from Ephesus. Ephesus proves it is possible to have deep Biblical discernment, and yet, be destroyed by your lack of love.

Thyatira proves it is equally possible to have Godly love, and yet, be destroyed by your lack of Biblical discernment. Then there is Sardis, and yet, another completely different scenario.

SARDIS Revelation 3:1-6 These things says he who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works; I know that you have a reputation for life, but that you are dead. Show yourself watchful, and

strengthen what remains and what is going to die. I have not found your works completed before my God. Remember,

then, how you received and heard the gospel, and keep it, and repent. If, then, you are not on the watch, I will come as

a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.

But you have a few people in Sardis who have not defiled their garments and they will walk with me in white raiment,

because they are worthy. He who overcomes will be thus clothed in white raiment and I will not wipe his name out of

the Book of Life, but I will acknowledge his name before my Father and before his angels.

Let him who has an ear hear what the Spirit is saying to the Churches.

Sardis began as a city of protection and splendor. It sat on a long ridge of Mount Tmolus. It was basically all cliffs except for one ridge up to the ledge on which it sat. It was a fortress tower overlooking the Hermus valley. It was thought to be impregnable. At the bottom of mountain was the River Pactolus which in ancient days, was said to carry

gold in the waters. In short, from the beginning it was very rich, very spoiled, and very self-confident.


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In its beginning, (before Rome) it was hostile to the Greeks. Then the Greeks laid siege to it, which didn’t worry the city much. Then an interesting thing happened, a Greek soldier noticed a soldier in the city drop his helmet over the cliff. He made his way down the cliff and retrieved it. The Greeks realized there were cracks in the ground by which they could climb. …So that night, a group of Greek soldiers scaled the cliff to find that the Sardians were so confident; they didn’t even post watchmen on the walls. And of course, the city fell.

Apparently, they didn’t learn their lesson, because the city was conquered a second time in the very same way! There were a few rebellions and eventually, Cyrus banned all weapons of war in Sardis and turned them all into

musicians and dancers. It became a very soft and degenerate people. By the time they are the subjects of Rome, they are a shadow of what they had once been.

This province was an earthquake zone, and Sardis had been devastated in Roman times. Tiberius gave great sums to

have the city rebuilt. Again, they were cared for the easy way. It seems there was no real life there, just an atmosphere of slackness and entitlement.

As it often happens, this mindset of the culture was reflected in the church. There is at least one preserved document where the Apostle Paul was urging the bishop of Sardis to get done what they were called to do. It seems that not only were they slack, they had a habit of not completing the things they did start.

God’s letter to them makes sense. They had financial resources, they could appear like they were doing things, when in fact; nothing of consequence was being done at all! They appeared lively, but were actually dead.

Being a dead church has some strange effects. They weren’t persecuted, because they were too lackluster to

mediocre to matter. Satan knows to let sleeping dogs lie. A sleepy peace is not a good sign. It can mean that in the

big picture; you just don’t matter! There were no heresies coming out of Sardis. Not that heresies are a good thing, but it at least that indicates

somebody’s thinking. Orthodoxy, if it is a mindless, effortless is NOT a good thing.

Holding on to set beliefs, but not really understanding them isn’t being faithful, it’s just lazy. God can correct the misdirected, but you can’t do much with people in a spiritual coma. God’s response to them; wake up, be watchful.

We can see how that should’ve stepped on their historic toes. It was not watching, that cost them their city; twice! Like the Greek conquerors, God will come like a “thief” in the night. They won’t know until it’s too late. You know the way to keep God from sneaking up on you? -Be walking beside Him all the time!

Christ mentions those who have not “defiled their garments.” In ancient religions, particularly, Judaism, there

were at least four ways to defile one’s garments; physically, sexually, ethically, or ceremonially. In the soft degeneracy, Sardis was defiling themselves in all these ways.

To the opposite, the few faithful are promised a “white raiment.” That is to be dressed in a heavenly manner. When Jesus was transfigured on the mountain (Matthew 17:2), His clothes shone bright white. Heavenly angels appear

in white and shining garments. Throughout Scripture, white is the opposite of dirty, it is pure, clean, heavenly, holy, victorious and refers to what is God is; and shares God’s nature. The corrective answer for them is to REMEMBER, KEEP, AND REPENT. That comes down to wake up and follow through.


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Do you know what these two cities shared in common? -A lack of diligence; a distinct lack of the WHAT and WHY God urgently teaches. For one church, it was just being practical; and it’s easier to be friendly than holy. For the other, it was entitlement; God stuff is fine, as long as it’s not too much effort.

I wonder how we’re doing with these challenges. Are we “practical” over holy? How hungry are we to know the WHAT and WHY of what God really says? -Is it easier just to be a “friendly church”? Does God see us (you) as diligent; or could even the word “lazy” fit? I would encourage us to ask God; and then WATCH for His answer.

revelation uncovered 3: letters to the churches...

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