HONOR IN THE CHURCH
REVELATION 2:12-17 and 3:1-6
INTRODUCTION
For the past few weeks, we have been intently looking at the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3. In Revelation 1:19, Jesus Christ commands the Apostle John, "Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later.” The letters to the seven churches form a unit at the beginning of Revelation as to “what is now” and the rest of Revelation concerns “what will take place later.” These letters inform us what was going in the churches as the first century of Christianity was coming to a close.
The letters follow a general sevenfold pattern which can easily be seen as we read through each of these letters. The letters to Pergamum and Sardis, our letters for today, follow this same pattern:
#1 A greeting
#2 A reference to Christ's self designation or title and authority
#3 A commendation
#4 A rebuke
#5 A charge to repent or a warning
#6 A call to hear
#7 A promise
As we look at these letters to these seven chosen churches, we see a description of what life was like for early Christians. We also clearly see that what these early Christians experienced, what they found as obstacles, what they dealt with on a daily basis, we also deal with. This is extremely important! God’s Word to them then in their daily lives is the same as it is for us today! That is why we have been spending so much time these last weeks on these letters to these churches half-a-world away and two millennia removed from us.
THREAD: What they dealt with we deal with.
We will eventually read the letter to the church in Pergamum and the letter to the church in Sardis, but before we get there, we need to talk about a few elements we will find in these two letters. We need to talk about struggle, we need to talk about names, and we need to talk about the color white. These three elements: struggle, name, and white… bind these two letters together for us this morning and lead us to the applicable points of these letters for us.
STRUGGLE
The first element of these letters we need to discuss is “struggle.” The word “struggle” is an English word that has a German root (straucheln) from a word that means “to stumble along” (www.etymonline.com). I think back on what life was like for Christians in the Apostle John’s day… around 100AD… and it seems to me they dealt with some pretty good obstacles as they stumbled along through life. When we read about the churches in Pergamum and Sardis in Revelation, we will find that they struggled and stumbled through three very large obstacles.
FALSE TEACHING
First, they dealt with False Teaching. In one of the churches, there was a false teaching which led people to worship idols through sexual immorality. Jesus specifically names them as following false teaching like Balaam in the Old Testament and points out a group called the “Nicolaitans.” Somehow the Christians of that church had given excuses and rationalized what they wanted to do so they could follow this false path and allowed themselves to be trapped by false teaching and sexual immorality.
Jesus says in Matthew 7:15, “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” The Apostle Peter reminds us in 2 Peter 2:1-2 tells us, “But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them-- bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.”
APPLICATION
Jesus says that they were failing to hold on to the Truth and keep their faith pure. I see in these churches the same struggle that you and I face today. We live in a world where information is easily accessed through the internet and in the palm of our hands. Books and ideas are viral and can be seen by millions in mere moments. Movies and TV shows often peddle half-truths or full-lies and we take them in like drinking from a fire hydrant.
Some false things we might believe…
* You can get to Heaven without Jesus, all roads lead to God
* It doesn’t matter what you do in your bedroom
* It doesn’t matter what you do on the internet as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone
* You can be a Christian apart from a local body of believers
* Hell isn’t real
The list goes on and on ad nauseam because Satan is alive and well and wanting to tempt as many away from the Truth of God as possible. The part is that some come in the name of the Lord and peddle things that simply are not in accordance with the Truth in God’s Word.
We must be careful who we allow to teach us.
We must be careful what we call Truth.
DEAD FAITH
Second, they dealt with Dead Faith. Jesus speaks directly in one of the letters to those who live as hypocrites in the churches. I could not help but think of Jesus’ similar words in Matthew 23:27-28 when He said, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”
Jesus describes dead faith in these verses in terms of being nice looking and righteous and good on the outside, but dead on the inside.
* Dead faith is hypocritical faith
* Dead faith is going through the motions, but having no motivation of the heart
* Dead faith is not persevering through difficulties
APPLICATION
Jesus says they were failing to keep their faith alive and active and engaged with Him. I see in these churches the same struggle that you and I face today. We have a great temptation, like those Christians in the Apostle John’s day, to say one thing and do another. We have a great temptation to say we believe but we do not live it out. That is called dead faith. There are so many worldly influences and choices that we face in our lives and they come on us all at once.
We want to be people of faith with faith that is alive and active and healthy. An authentic relationship with Jesus Christ is a true relationship that is alive with communication, change for the better, study of God’s Word, an increase in holiness, and constant movement towards God.
INCOMPLETE DEEDS
Third, they dealt with Incomplete Deeds. Jesus says specifically to one of the churches that their deeds are not complete in God’s sight. When I hear that, I think about doing things “half way” or with “half hearted effort” or with “half energy” or with “half devotion.”
God doesn’t want our lives lived half way to Him; He wants all of us.
God doesn’t want half-hearted effort; He wants our best effort in our relationship with Him.
God doesn’t want us serving him with half energy; He wants all of our hearts’ desire.
I thought about this and the opposite of incomplete deeds or half-way effort is “whole hearted devotion.” The Bible has plenty to say about “whole hearted devotion”:
God Himself commends Caleb in Numbers 14:24 when He says, “But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.”
King Hezekiah prays in 2 Kings 20:3, "Remember, O LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes."
The Apostle Paul commands the Ephesians in Ephesians 6:7-8a, “Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, 8 because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does…”
APPLICATION
Jesus says these Christians in these churches in Revelation were failing and living out faith half-way. Remember that the obstacles that these early churches faced are obstacles that we face as well. They were faced with dwindling deeds and doing things in an incomplete half-hearted manner. We face these same challenges in a busier and busier world.
THREAD: What they dealt with we deal with.
NAMES
The second element of these letters we need to discuss briefly is “names.” To be honest, names are quite important in the Book of Revelation as the word “name” itself occurs 27 times and seems to indicate power.
The name of the star that falls to earth is “Wormwood” (Revelation 8:11)
The name of the angel of the Abyss is “Abaddon” (Revelation 9:11)
The 144,000 are marked with the name of God and Jesus’ name (Revelation 14:1)
Jesus is given the name “The Word of God” (Revelation 19:13)
Jesus is given the name “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” (Revelation 19:16)
In the letters to Pergamum and Sardis the importance of names creeps up more than once. In fact, one of the letters promises that if we overcome and persevere, that we will be given a new name… a new identity directly from God Almighty. In addition to that, the other letter talks about our names being etched in the book of life and Jesus claims us as His before God Almighty and all the angels. Jesus Christ will claim each of us by name before God if we belong to Him!
I see in these letters, and we will read them in a moment, that their struggles and stumbling in faith was causing the name of Jesus to be drug through the mud and was endangering the promises He had given them. We need to be reminded that as Christians, we bear the name of Jesus in our souls. We are His representatives. When we fail, we drag Him with us and we make it seem like the name of Jesus has less power than it actually does.
THREAD: What they dealt with we deal with.
WHITE
The third element of these letters we need to briefly discuss is the color “white.” In the letter to Pergamum, those who are faithful have a white stone with new name is given to them. In the letter to Sardis, those who are faithful are given white robes to wear.
What does the color white signify? White signifies righteousness, worthiness, holiness, and Christlikeness all rolled into one. The white stone we are given signifies that we have a new righteous identity before God because of Jesus Christ. The white robes and white clothing we wear as Christians sets us apart from the world because we are given worthiness in Christ to follow after Him. The white robes signify we are different on the inside.
In these letters, the Christians in the Churches were struggling to live out their new identities in Christ. They were soiling themselves in the world and their robes were getting sin stains all over them. They lives of the Christians in Sardis and Pergamum were looking much like the lives of the non-Christians around them.
THREAD: What they dealt with we deal with.
READ REVELATION 2:12-17
"To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. 13 I know where you live-- where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city-- where Satan lives. 14 Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality. 15 Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. 17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.”
READ REVELATION 3:1-6
“To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you. 4 Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. 5 He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
HONOR
The last thing I want to talk about with you today, which I hope ties all that we have already talked about: the element of struggle, the element of names, and the element of the color white… is honor. The word honor means “glory, renown, fame earned.” It is also tied to the Latin word which carries with it meaning about “reputation.” So when I talk about your honor or the honor of the church, I am speaking about your reputation or the reputation of the church. When I speak of personal honor or the honor of the church, I am speaking about what we are personally known for and what the church is known for.
Sardis wasn’t known for much.
Pergamum wasn’t known for much.
THREAD: What they dealt with we deal with.
APPLICATION
What are you known for?
What is our church known for?
* Live with Godly honor and persevere through struggles and stumbles in our faith
* Live with Christlike honor and wear the name of Jesus well in front of others
* Live with a righteous reputation and live out living in white
CONCLUSION
