LAISSEZ-FAIRE
Revelation 2.18-29
S: Sin
C: Tolerance
Th: God Speaks to the Church
Pr: NEVER IGNORE SIN!
CV: We will passionately pursue full devotion to Jesus Christ.
I. THE CORRESPONDENT
II. THE CHURCH
III. THE COMMENDATION
IV. THE CONCERN
V. THE COMMAND
VI. THE COUNSEL
PA: How is the change to be observed?
• Realize that orthodoxy and orthopraxy are essential partners.
• Let go of sin (it just slows you down and messes you up).
• Live with purity.
Version: ESV
RMBC 15 February 09 AM
INTRODUCTION:
This is a sobering time for our community.
• Green family
• Clarence Center
• Eliason family – explosions unnerved Debbie
• Students at Williamsville South lost their dad – I know that they are Joel’s friends
• UB professor – colleague of Mitsu Shimojo
• Chris Kausner lost sister – Chris was in stockade and played on our football team we used to have.
This has been a sad time for our area.
Many are suffering a lot of grief today.
It is a reminder to us…
When tragedy strikes, it is a reminder to examine one’s own life.
We do not know when our life is going to end.
We all desire to live a long, full life, where everything basically goes well.
But as we have experienced over the last few days, we know that does not always happen.
Sometimes, there is an interruption to our plans.
I will not pretend to understand the accident that occurred on Thursday evening.
But I do know this…we should never waste tragedy.
For tragedy is a sobering time.
It is a time to remember that we are not in control of all that happens in life.
It is a time to remember that life does not always goes as we have planned.
It is a time to remember that we need to be ready to meet God at any moment.
Note this…God would have us be ready.
He is communicating to us, gently and lovingly, if we will listen.
And sometimes, He allows circumstances to come into our lives to really wake us up.
OUR STUDY:
God is speaking.
That has been our theme as we have been studying Revelation: God speaks to the church.
I believe that God is still speaking to the church today.
And as we review what He has said to seven different churches, we are wise to consider what He might be saying to us as well.
(18) And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: “The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze. (19) I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. (20) 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. (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 as your works deserve. (24) 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. (26) 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. (29) He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
I. THE CORRESPONDENT
Jesus reveals Himself as the Son of God.
This is a title of deity.
In other words, He is one with the Father.
They are of the same essence.
So His reassertion of this title communicates His authority.
He is in control.
The readers of this message need to understand this.
For…
Nothing can be hidden from Jesus.
He has x-ray vision.
His eyes are flames of fire.
They are penetrating.
He peers deep into our soul, seeing everything and knowing everything.
His feet are of bronze.
Bronze represents power here.
His feet are tested and proven.
He will go where He needs to go.
He will move to where He needs to move.
There is nothing beyond Him because He has utterly defeated death.
So note this today.
The God who loves us knows us today.
He sees us.
And there are no surprises.
II. THE CHURCH
We have moved on our map to the fourth city.
We have gone from Ephesus to Smyrna to Pergamum.
Now we are moving considerably inland to Thyatira, the smallest of these seven cities.
You might remember Lydia in Philippi.
She was a trader of fine purple cloth and came from Thyatira.
She was one of Paul’s first converts on his second missionary journey.
The person of Lydia gives us a clue about the city of Thyatira.
For…
Thyatira was a commercial center influenced by the guilds.
Now these guilds were somewhat similar to trade unions of this day and age.
It was very difficult for tradesmen and women to make a living unless they were a part of one of these guilds.
They differed from trade unions, however, in that they were linked with the worship of other gods.
Each guild had its particular guardian god and as a member, you would be expected to participate in its activities which often included behavior that was sexually immoral according to Christian standards.
The members of the church in Thyatira were torn between making a living on the one hand which meant having to be part of the guilds and on the other hand staying faithful to Christ and to His holy standards.
III. THE COMMENDATION
So what does Jesus say to this church?
There is a lot of good news here, for…
They were advancing the cause of Christ by their love and faith.
It was pretty much the kind of church you want to be a part of.
They are the opposite of Ephesus.
They are commended for their love.
In fact, they were doing more than they did at first.
They had turned out to be dependable, reliable, and consistent.
They are growing in grace.
They are maturing in their Christian lives.
They are advancing the cause of Christ.
But…and it is huge…
IV. THE CONCERN
They were tolerating compromise.
They have a Jezebel among them and this is not a good thing!
To understand the character that Jesus is describing, we need to review the history of Jezebel.
The king of Israel, Ahab, takes Jezebel as his wife.
She, in turn, turns Ahab away from Yahweh, and toward the worship of the Phoenician god, Baal.
Ahab and Jezebel allow temples of Baal to operate in Israel, and thus, this pagan religion receives royal approval.
Furthermore, the queen uses her control over Ahab to lead the Hebrews into idolatry, sexual immorality and exercises domineering power over Israel.
After she has the prophets of God slaughtered, the prophet Elijah challenges 450 prophets of Baal to a test, exposes their god as powerless, has them slaughtered, and earns Jezebel’s wrath.
So much so that he high-tails it out of there and hides from her for some time.
After Ahab’s death, Jezebel continues to rule through her sons Ahaziah and Jehoram.
That’s the original Jezebel.
But now, a good 950 years later in Thyatira, her name is invoked again by Jesus.
This contemporary Jezebel, through her teaching, is deceiving and misleading the faithful in the church into a lifestyle of sexual sin and a form of idol worship.
She is dragging down the Thyatirian church down – way down.
Note how Eugene Peterson translates this passage.
It is going to be colorful language that should get your attention and show you how severe this condemnation is.
“But why do you let that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet mislead my dear servants into Cross-denying, self-indulging religion? I gave her a chance to change her ways, but she has no intention of giving up a career in the god-business. I’m about to lay her low, along with her partners, as they play their sex-and-religion games. The bastard offspring of their idol-whoring I’ll kill. Then every church will know that appearances don’t impress me. I x-ray every motive and make sure you get what’s coming to you.
That’s powerful language, isn’t it?
The church, though, is in grave danger.
They are tolerating Jezebel.
They are tolerating someone who is unwilling to repent.
Appropriate and gracious time had been given.
But now was the time to take a stand.
She had done enough damage.
V. THE COMMAND
Therefore…
They were to cling to the truth.
They were to hold on – hold fast.
They were to guard the truth.
They were to have right belief and let it dictate the right practice of the faith.
The problem was, they looked good on the outside, but on the inside, they were full of compromise.
Ill Cover (S)
Nome, Alaska, on the edge of the Bering Sea, is like many villages of the Arctic. If you visit Nome in summer you’ll see front yards full of broken washing machines, junked cars, old toilets, scrap wood, and piles of non-degradable refuse. Tourists who visit Nome in the summer are amazed at the debris and shake their heads. How could anyone live like that, they wonder? What those visitors do not realize is that for nine months of the year Nome sits under a blanket of snow that covers the garbage. During those months, the little town is a quaint winter wonderland of pure white landscapes.
Satan, like the sin he propagates is often like this, what appears to be one thing, beautiful and pure, is often the other, dirty and full of garbage.
You see, Satan is very religious.
He goes to church all the time.
And He is determined to make sure that we compromise our faith.
VI. THE COUNSEL
If we hold on…
If we are faithful…
We will rule with Christ.
We will rule with Christ when we are faithful.
Jesus promises that those who stay true and hold fast will be the victors.
We are overcomers through Him.
We are warriors.
And resistance is futile.
It is like iron versus clay.
The iron will win every time.
CHALLENGE:
Dear friends, Jesus is watching.
He is living and active.
He is involved.
And He is concerned with what we believe.
And He is concerned with what we do.
You see, both matter.
So…
Realize that orthodoxy and orthopraxy are essential partners.
Orthodoxy speaks to right belief.
Orthopraxy speaks to right practice.
In other words, what we believe and what we do must match up.
Jezebel is alive and well today.
There is a constant temptation in our culture to give in.
For our youth, it is huge.
When friends get involved in morally wrong activities and you want to keep those friends, there are tough decisions to be made.
But it is not just our youth that are faced with it.
We live in a culture that tells us to tolerate every sexual activity.
It is acceptable and expected.
Hook up.
Have an affair.
Live together.
Heterosexual…
Homosexual…
It does not matter.
Just love the one you are with.
Here we are the day after Valentine’s Day, and let me tell you that God has created and blessed sexuality.
We are not ashamed of it, especially when follow the design of marriage and live within its parameters.
This is where the real joy is.
But if we go astray and sin, there is only one way to handle it.
You stop the sin.
You confess the sin.
And you repent of the sin.
Period.
Let go of sin.
There can be no laissez-faire approach to sin.
There is no doing as one pleases.
When it comes to sin, we do not put up with it.
We do not accept it.
We do not tolerate it.
We name it for what it is.
It is not just a shortcoming.
It is not just a weakness.
It is not just an inherited character trait.
It is sin.
And there is only one thing to do…let go and repent.
We began the message with the understanding that tragedy is a sobering time that should cause us to reflect.
ILL Disaster (S)
John Piper encourages this reflection by saying…
The point of every deadly calamity is this: Repent. Let our hearts be broken that God means so little to us. Grieve that he is a whipping boy to be blamed for pain, but not praised for pleasure. Lament that he makes headlines only when man mocks his power, but no headlines for ten thousand days of wrath withheld. Let us rend our hearts that we love life more than we love Jesus Christ. Let us cast ourselves on the mercy of our Maker. He offers it through the death and resurrection of his Son.
If you have not placed your life in the hands of God today, today is a day to do so.
Do not delay.
It is a day to turn to Him so that you can be ready to meet Him.
If you are a believer in God today, today is a day to examine how you have been living.
So let me encourage you to…
Live with purity.
Here is the thing.
When we let go of sin, it is no great loss.
It only has been slowing us down.
And it has kept us out of the race.
Because of God’s grace, we have no need to feel held back by sin.
We can run full tilt.
We can run with pleasure.
We can run with joy.
I am convinced that our best days can be ahead of us.
But it is up to us.
We need to be spiritual healthy.
We need to live a life that is always ready for the day when Jesus calls us home.
For Further Study: I Kings 16.30-31; II Kings 9.30-37; Psalm 2.7-9; Isaiah 14.12; Jeremiah 3.6-10, 17.10; Hosea 9.1; Matthew 18.6-10; John 5.18; Romans 2.6, 12.9; Ephesians 2.10, 4.15; Hebrews 2.1-2; James 2.18; Revelation 19.12, 22.16
BENEDICTION:
Now may the God of peace equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
RESOURCES:
SermonCentral:
Allen, Carl Thyatira: Jezebel’s Jewel
Blankenship, Terry Thyatira: The Politically Correct Church
Brincefield, Larry Thyatira
Drake, Jim Behind Closed Doors
Elvery, David The Revelation to Thyatira – Jezebel in the Church
Fuller, Tom The Church of Tolerance
Kilson, Jim Disposing of Jezebel
Parker, Matthew Shame versus Liberty
Scudder, David Christian Cowards
Other:
Jeremiah, David, and Carole C. Carlson. Escape the Coming Night. Dallas: Word Publishing, 1990.
Keener, Craig S. The Ivp Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993.
MacArthur, John, Jr. Revelation 1-11. The Macarthur New Testament Commentary. Chicago: Moody Press, 1999.
Mounce, Robert H. The Book of Revelation. The New International Commentary on the New Testament, ed. F. F. Bruce. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1977.
Piper, John. Tsunami and Repentance. desiring God, 2005. Accessed 15 February 2009. Available from http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TasteAndSee/ByDate/2005/1279_Tsunami_and_Repentance/.
Wiersbe, Warren W. The Bible Exposition Commentary: New Testament. Colorado Springs: ChariotVictor Publishing, 1989.
