“Philadelphia” – Rev. 3:7-13

In the fall of 1985, the Castleberry Lions were playing the Wichita Falls Hirschi Huskies at Hirschi Field under Friday night lights. By halftime, it wasn’t pretty. I believe the score was about 35-0 and it was obvious that the Huskies were bigger, faster, stronger and just plain better at football than the Lions.

In the halftime speeches and preparations for the next half, the coaches were just trying to do damage control. “Maybe if we do such and such, we can minimize their scoring.” “Maybe if we do everything right and nothing wrong, maybe it won’t be quite as bad as the first half. Maybe.” Nobody was talking about winning. Most of the coaches and the players were thinking about just trying to survive.

But I have always been an optimist. I looked around at all the sad faces. I recognized defeat in my teammates’ eyes and I couldn’t stand it anymore. I stood up and gave the best motivational speech you’ve ever heard a seventeen-year old give. I told them that I still believed in them. I knew it wouldn’t be easy and that we were outplayed in the first half but that the second half was for winners. We had prepared all our lives for just such a time and I believed we could win this game if we go out and give it all we had. Who is with me?! And we all yelled our best war cries and stormed onto the field ready to fight like the lions we were.

I’ll spare you the play by play but I believe the final score was 56-7 or so and the only reason we got 7 was because they were literally putting in their third and fourth string players. I’m pretty sure I saw the water boy suit up and take some snaps. I think I tackled a middle school girl at one point and I just barely caught her. Those kids were fast!

But I’m still an optimist. Like I said last week, I sincerely believe that this church’s best days are ahead of us. I still pray and believe that God is going to use this church to bring revival to Wise County. I see and believe that God is using us to minister to the poor, the addicted and the incarcerated. I believe every Sunday that this is the day somebody walks down this aisle and asks Jesus to change their life. I still believe.

But I have to admit that sometimes I feel like I am back in Wichita Falls and it’s the fourth quarter. When I look around and see defeat in the eyes of fellow church members, it hurts. When I see friends and family giving up on living a victorious life, it scares me. When I see some people just trying to survive, it frustrates me. Jesus said He came to give us a full and abundant life (John 10:10) and yet so many people live to work and work for the weekend and have no real life at all.

I hate to give bad news on top of bad news but as the military says, the only easy day was yesterday. It is only going to get harder to live for Jesus as the days go on. The world is not getting any better and we can expect to truly be persecuted for living as Christians in this world as we see people in other countries are right now.

But here is the good news. We have a door of opportunity right now, today where we live and work and play to make a difference in this world. We can’t change what we have done in the past and we can’t predict the future but we can be change-enablers for right now. We can’t change everybody but at the least; at the very minimum we can change the lives of our kids and grandkids because if we don’t then the world will. I say we have a door of opportunity because that is how Jesus described it to the church in Philadelphia.

Turn to Revelation 3 and let’s read what Jesus told John to write to this church. No, it was not in Pennsylvania. It was in Asia and would be modern-day Turkey and this city was built for the purpose of evangelism. The problem was it wasn’t for Christianity. It was for the purpose of building up the name and reputation of Greece. The Greeks built this city at a popular crossroads and so whenever anybody came or went through Philadelphia, the Philadelphians would spread the so-called good news about how great Greece was.

They had done a good job of it too. Most people in the area spoke Greek and thought of themselves as citizens of Greece so that was working for the city. What wasn’t working was the earthquakes that plagued the city. At one point, the whole city was destroyed and nobody wanted to go back because of the after-shocks made them wonder if it was going to happen again.

This was a small church in that city. They didn’t have a lot of physical or financial resources so maybe we at Christ Fellowship can relate to what they are told by Jesus. Let’s read Revelation 3:7-13.

To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. 8I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. 9I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars-I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you. 10Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth. 11I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. 12The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name. 13Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

In preparing for this message, I read a sermon by Dr. W.A. Criswell and was glad to agree with him that there are parts of this that are hard to understand. I believe this goes for all the Book of Revelation because the revelation that is talked about is the revelation of Jesus Himself. In this book, Jesus tells John and tells us some things that we just can’t relate to because we have never seen it or experienced it nor has anybody else so we just have to believe that when Jesus makes a promise, it will be an unbelievably wonderful promise and a promise that absolutely will be fulfilled.

But what we can understand in this passage is that Jesus tells this church His authority to say what He says, then He gives them a challenge and then closes with a promise for them if they complete the challenge. This is one of the two churches that Jesus found no problem with and so instead of reprimanding them for anything, He challenges them and us to make use of the time and that’s where I want to concentrate this morning.

But look again at verse 7. These are the words of him who is holy and true. Holy and true is Jesus just confirming His divinity. He is acknowledging that He is God. All through scripture, God is called holy and while He commands us to be holy as He is holy (Lev. 11:44), it is not, nor ever will be our title. It is a title of God. In Isaiah 6, the seraphs proclaim God’s holiness all around His throne all the time. The word “holy” means different or set apart and that is exactly what God is.

In the Greek, there are two words for our word “true” and one means not false and the other means real. While God is both of those, it is the word that means real that is used here and so Jesus is saying that He has the authority to say these things because He is the holy and real God and what God says is truth.

Jesus goes on to say that He holds the key of David. In the Old Testament when the temple was still called the House of David, then king Hezekiah had a faithful servant named Eliakim who controlled all access to the king. He was very protective of the king and the king knew he could be trusted and God said in Isaiah 22 that He would give Eliakim the key to the house of David and what he shall open none shall shut and what he shuts none will open. That was the highest honor for Eliakim and here Jesus says that He now holds the key because He goes on to speak of an open door for this church in Philadelphia.

So, let’s camp out in verse 8 for a little while. In fact, let’s personalize this verse. Let’s pretend that Jesus is writing this to Christ Fellowship as He very well could be. He says, “Hey Christ Fellowship family, 8I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

What does an open door signify? It signifies opportunity, right? I think I’ve told this story before but years and years ago I worked for Western Hauler in Ft. Worth customizing trucks. We did almost everything inside and out to these trucks and there was a lot of work done on them. I worked with several other guys and, to my knowledge, none of them were believers but I was especially concerned about one man.

Rick had done a lot of drugs and been in and out of prison and was now just trying to get by in life without messing up. Maybe some of you can relate to that. I had talked to him about God before and I knew he had read the Bible some but I kept praying that God would give me the opportunity to really witness to him.

Finally that day came. Rick was underneath a truck working on something and I saw that my job would have me under the same truck working on something else so I went to praying. “Okay, Lord. Here we go. Just give me the words and I will give you all the glory. Just tell me what to say.”

But as I gathered up all my tools to do the job, all I kept hearing from God was, “Say something about church.” So I started praying harder and explaining to God what the situation was. “Lord, I have this great opportunity. Just tell me what to say. What scriptures should I use? You just tell me and I’ll tell him.” But all I got from God was, again, “Say something about church.”

I have to be honest. As I got my creeper and slid up underneath that truck, I was kind of mad. God obviously doesn’t understand the seriousness of the situation. He doesn’t realize that I don’t know what to say and that if He doesn’t give me the words…then what? “Say something about church.” So I did.

With the worst attitude and with the least amount of energy and enthusiasm, I simply said, “Rick, we had a good day at church yesterday.” And I thought, “There, God, do something with that!” And He did. Rick put down his tools, turned on his creeper and propped himself up on an elbow and said, “Really? Tell me about it.”

So, I told him about church but that led to talking about Jesus and Heaven and Hell and grace and repentance and we just had the best time and I never had to struggle with what to say one time. Now, I don’t know that Rick ever accepted Jesus as his Savior but I planted a seed and learned a very important lesson.

The lesson that Jesus wanted the church in Philadelphia to learn and the lesson that Jesus wants the church in Lake Bridgeport to learn is found in verse 8. Before verse 8, Jesus tells them His authority and after verse 8 He gives them promises but the gist of the letter; the main thing is found in verse 8. 8I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

Philadelphia was a small church but a strategic church. They were able to minister to people that a lot of other churches couldn’t. They didn’t have a lot of power or money or people but Jesus says, “Look, I am God. I am the Creator of the universe and I am the one that put before you an open door.” The thing I find hard to believe about this is that the name Christ Fellowship isn’t actually mentioned because it sure sounds like Jesus could be speaking to us.

The greatest missionary that ever lived, the Apostle Paul, talked a lot about open doors in his ministry.  In 1 Corinthians 16, he says, “For a wide door for effective work has opened for me.” In 2 Corinthians 2, he said as he came to Troas that the Lord opened a door for him. He asked the Colossian church to pray that a door of utterance would be opened for him. (Col. 4:3) In Acts 14, he told how God had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.

Paul was praying for, asking for and expecting doors to be opened to him so he could spread the Gospel and because he was praying, asking and expecting it, he was able to recognize those open doors and was able to spread the Gospel all over the known world. Paul found open doors where most of us would only see brick walls. Paul was blessed by God to see and go through those open doors and because he did, Paul’s treasures in Heaven are literally out of this world.

But I hear ya. You aren’t Paul. I’m not either. Paul was one of a kind. We see Paul as kind of a spiritual Superman compared to the rest of us so it’s kind of unfair to compare us. I get it. You are right. You aren’t Paul but this letter wasn’t written to Paul. It was written to a small, weak church in the middle of a carnal, hateful, selfish, sinful world.

Jesus said, “I know that you have little strength.”  I know you aren’t Superman but I’m not asking you to do what Superman did. I am putting a special, custom door in front of you and I expect you to walk through it. The good news about this is, you don’t even do that in your own strength.  Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” We have talked about this before. That doesn’t mean necessarily that Christ will give you strength to make a million dollars unless He calls you to make a million dollars. But when He puts an open door in front of you, He supplies everything you need to walk through it. He gives you the strength, the money, the time, the talent and whatever else it takes.

We talked last week about all the ministries this church is involved in. Like every Christian church we are called to make disciples all over the world but this church, as we have acknowledged many times, is called to minister specifically to the poor, the addicted and the incarcerated. That’s not my idea. That’s not something the Leadership Team came up with. That is just the door that God opened to us and it is obvious. In doing that, we have a food pantry and a jail ministry. We go to the RV park down the road. We are involved in the Discipleship House in Bridgeport. We pack shoeboxes for children overseas. We tithe to other missions that do similar things. Those are just some of the doors that God has put before us. The question is, are you walking through those doors?

What about your personal doors of opportunity? What about your kids and grandkids? You ought to be praying, asking and expecting doors to open for you to tell them the Good News of Jesus Christ and what He has done in your life. Babies ought to hear the name of Jesus being sung as they go to sleep way more often than hearing about boughs breaking and cradles falling.

The thing about open doors that we all need to remember is that they don’t stay open. It has taken seven years of our church making the contacts that God gives us for some of these doors to open. But they may slam shut tomorrow and never open again. What are you waiting for? Are you waiting for more motivation? Go back to verse 11 of Revelation 3. I’ll be honest. I read a bunch of commentaries on verses 12 and 13 and I’m not real sure what some of that is really going to look like but I understand verse 11.

In verse 11, Jesus says, “I am coming soon!” He is coming soon and He is bringing His rewards with Him and He wants us to have them and He says they are great but I tell you what I want more than eternal blessings and that is to have all my friends and family with me in Heaven. I want our neighbors there. I even want my enemies there. You know how to make an enemy into a friend? Show them and then tell them the love of Jesus and I promise it will be way harder for them to hate you.

But that door is not going to be open much longer. That door has closed to people in China and Viet Nam and even in the country that is now where the city of Philadelphia was. There is no Christian church in Turkey to speak of. God closed that door. It will close for you too one of these days. Are you walking through the doors that God has opened for you?

Today there is a door open just for you to walk through and allow Jesus to be Lord of your life and all you have to do is believe in Him. That belief will be obvious as your life changes. When you submit to Him and repent of your sinful lifestyle, asking God to forgive you of all your sin, you walk through that door into an eternity of blessing. I believe someone today needs to do that right now as the music plays.

“Sardis” - Revelation 3:1-6

I’m so proud of this church! We collected enough stuff to fill sixty-two shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. For a church our size, that’s pretty impressive. Because of that, sixty-two kids will get a present this year that otherwise wouldn’t and everybody that had a part in it got treasures in Heaven for eternity. Thank you to everybody who helped with all of that. That’s very exciting.

Now, tell me something else that Christ Fellowship does that you are proud of or excites you. How about out ministry to the poor, the addicted and the incarcerated? Our ministry to the RV Park down the road? Our part in the Disciple House in Bridgeport? Did you know that as a church we tithe 10% of our gross income to five different missions or ministries? Some of them, in turn, support other missions and ministries. That’s pretty cool. We also have a food pantry that helps people every week. We also go to a lot of time and expense to put our Sunday morning service live on Facebook and I hear almost every week about somebody that enjoyed it.

That’s a lot of stuff for a church. God must be pretty proud of us. I think we can just sit back and take it easy for a little while, don’t you? Maybe we at least take the holidays off and go back to ministry in January, maybe February. What do you think? I don’t want anybody to burn out. Oh, we should continue meeting here every Sunday morning but maybe next week we will discuss some other ways that God must be proud of us because of what we have done in the past.

Ben, will you come lead us in a closing song? I think we have done enough for a while. What? No? Why not? Aren’t you afraid of burn-out? I mean, we have done some really good stuff in the past. Can’t we just cruise for a while; you know, take a little break? Why not? Yes, Paul said in Galatians 6:9, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” But surely we have done enough good things in the past to carry us for a while, right? No?

You know what it reminds me of? Bruce Springsteen has a song from 1985 called “Glory Days” and the last verse goes like this. (Don’t worry. I’m not going to sing it.)

And I hope when I get old I don't sit around thinking about it
But I probably will
Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture
A little of the glory yeah
Well time slips away and leaves you with nothing, mister, but
Boring stories of…Glory Days.

Time slips away and leaves you with nothing, mister, but boring stories of…Glory Days. How true that is and what a shame that is. It is even more of a shame for Christians in a church to have nothing but boring stories of what they have done in the past.

Every year on our church’s anniversary which is coming right up on December 2, we will take some time to remember a bunch of stories about the early days of our church and when we do we always do it in a way that shows God’s protection and provision for us. We give Him all the glory for those days. That’s good and fine and we should do that but every year we add to those stories and we will add some more when we celebrate again on December 8^th of this year.

But if every year we met together to celebrate and every year we told the same old stories about what we did in 2013 and 2014 and what fun we had and how good God was in that, then something is wrong even if we are giving God glory. Something is wrong if a church isn’t doing anything. If a body on the side of the road isn’t moving, you would pull over and try to help that person. You would know just by looking that they were dead or almost dead and something was horribly wrong.

The church in Sardis was laying on the side of the road not moving. They had done some great things in the past but it was just about dead. Let’s read about them in Revelation chapter three. We have made it all the way to the third chapter as we continue our study on the seven churches that Jesus told John to write in the book of Revelation. We have come to the church in the city of Sardis. Today it is called Sart in modern day Turkey.

Anybody want to guess what Sart is known for? Literally even today Sart is most known for some military battles that happened thousands of years ago. Talk about “Glory Days!” It is a thriving little town even today, just like it was back when John wrote them but even today they are living in the past. What’s really interesting is that two of those battles were notable because the guards posted to alert everybody if someone attacked had fallen asleep. And it happened to them twice, 200-300 years apart.

That fact plays a part in how Jesus addresses them in His letter to them so let’s read it in 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. 2Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. 3Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, 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. 4Yet 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. 5The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. 6Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

First, let me tell you really quick that Jesus is telling John to write what He says and Jesus says in verse 1 that He holds the seven spirits of God. Don’t worry. You are correct. There is only one Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, but the number seven is used biblically to represent perfection and fullness or completeness. He is saying that God’s Spirit is omnipresent in all the churches. He sees what’s going on. He is there. He is a witness. He knows.

But what He goes on to tell the church that He knows is fascinating. Do you remember reading in the Gospels about how Jesus so often cleverly and subtly poked the Pharisees and religious leaders? He would be teaching and say, “You have heard it said…” and I just picture Jesus looking at some Pharisee. “You have heard it said not to murder but I tell you not to be angry.” He knew that Pharisee was so angry at Him that he wanted to kill Jesus.

He did stuff like that a lot. Not only was it teaching truth but it was a subtle dig, a little jab, a poke in the eye to those that needed poking. I want you to see that Jesus writes these letters with the same subtle cleverness. Jesus knows that Sardis had tried to build a temple to Artemis, a Greek goddess, but they never completed it and they became somewhat of the laughingstock around there. Jesus knew that Sardis was known for being on top of this almost impossible to climb cliff but that the guards had fallen asleep and their enemy walked right in on them.

So, look again at how Jesus addresses them. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. Ouch! It’s that same clever bite He used with the religious leaders. It was also teaching an important truth to them and to us today.

So, what makes Jesus say to that church in Sardis and even more important to us, why would Jesus say to us that our works are not finished, our deeds are unfinished? Turn to the book of James. Turn left in your Bibles about 1/16^th of an inch to James 2:14-17. James was the brother of Jesus and inspired by the Holy Spirit to write this: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

In this letter to Sardis, Jesus never chastises them about them really doing anything wrong. There was no doctrinal issue to be addressed. There was no sexual immorality like Thyatira had. He is telling them that, yes, in the past you have done some good things but if you really want to be alive; if you really want to take the next step in obedience, then it is going to require faith.

Now, when I say that I can just see some of you taking a breath and thinking, “Wew, good. He’s not preaching to me this time because I have faith.” Right? Let me tell you what faith is. In 2016 I went to Nicaragua on a mission trip with our friends Jody and Trisha Kennedy. I had been with them on other trips and I kind of knew what to expect but there was a lady that went with us from another church that had never been before and I struck up a conversation on the way over there.

I said, “So, you’ve never been on a mission trip before? I’m glad you’re going. That’s good.” She said, “Not good. I’m scared to death. I can’t afford it. I’m afraid of flying and I have no idea what I’m doing.”

I looked at her and thought, “Wow. That’s the faithiest faith that has ever faithed right there. That’s what it looks like!” And do you know what? When we got there, she just melted right into those people. She had a love for people and especially the young teenage girls just really clicked with her and I’m convinced that several of those girls came to Jesus because of that woman’s faith.

Scared to death. Can’t afford it. Didn’t know what to do but God opened the door and she walked through. She was over her head from the first step but she trusted God to provide and protect and she did it while being obedient and doing good deeds. That’s a finished work in the sight of God right there.

Now, I hope that woman is a mature enough believer to not be going around, three years later saying, “In 2016 I had some really faithy faith on that mission trip. Let me tell you about it one more time.” I hope she has other, more recent, stories to tell.

Jesus has something else to say to the church at Sardis as well. Look at verse 3. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. What had they received and heard? Well, the letters of Paul had been written and circulated by this time and most of the rest of the New Testament had been written so Jesus is saying to them, “What you read in the scriptures, hang on to that.”

And here we go again. The same folks that thought I wasn’t preaching to them about faith are relieved that I’m not talking to them about reading the Bible. But I’m preaching to all of us. Again, going back to James. James 1 says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.  25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.  Okay, some of us may be doing alright so far but watch out…26 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Ouch! If that didn’t step on your toes, you don’t have toes. Okay, okay, Jesus is telling the church at Sardis (what would you call them, Sardines? I don’t know.) Jesus is telling the Sardines to take the whole canon of scripture and be obedient to it. Hold on to it. But if we just take this one part that James says, that’s probably enough to work on for a while.

Tame your tongue! Keep a tight rein on your tongue. That means to say freely what needs to be said and to keep your mouth shut about the things that don’t need to be said and most of us struggle with both. As Jesus told the church, we have received it and heard it. We have held on to it. Or have we?

Are we keeping a tight rein on our tongue? A man working in the produce department was asked by a lady if she could buy half a head of lettuce. He replied, "Half a head? Are you serious? God grows these in whole heads and that's how we sell them!"  "You mean," she persisted, "that after all the years I've shopped here, you won't sell me half-a-head of lettuce?" "Look," he said, "If you like I'll ask the manager." 

She indicated that would be appreciated, so the young man marched to the front of the store. "You won't believe this, but there's a lame-braided idiot of a lady back there who wants to know if she can buy half-a-head of lettuce." He noticed the manager gesturing and turned around to see the lady standing behind him, obviously having followed him to the front of the store. "And this nice lady was wondering if she could buy the other half" he concluded. 

Tame your tongue. I know. I know. I’ve heard you say it. God made you this way. You aren’t rude. You are just blunt. You are just a straight talker, right? You calls ‘em like you sees ‘em. Yea, I hear ya. But Jesus calls that sin and He tells the church here in Sardis and the church here in Lake Bridgeport to repent! Do you see that in verse 3?

He goes on to say that if you don’t repent; if you don’t obey everything written in scripture, even the hard stuff like taming your tongue; if you don’t repent and wake up then He will come like a thief in the night. When Jesus says He is coming like a thief in the night, He is not coming to give you a reward. He is not coming to comfort you or give you an attaboy or call you sweet baby. He is coming for judgment.

In 1 Corinthians 3 and 2 Corinthians 5, Paul talks about how Jesus will judge all your deeds. If it is done with faith, you will be rewarded. If not, it will be burned up. It will be looked at as worthless. All the time, money and effort you put into things that don’t require faith will be like wood, hay and straw. They will be burned up in God’s judgment. As Christians, we will still go to Heaven but think of all the stuff we spend time and money on in this life that will do us no good in eternity.

I want you to know I have made an important decision. Some of you know I was given a pontoon boat for free. It’s nothing fancy and it needs a little work but I am enjoying it. The decision I have made is the all-important name of the boat. I have thought about it for a while and I was considering naming it “Calm Delight” which is the definition I found for joy. But just this week, going through this study of Sardis, I decided on “Wood, Hay and Straw.”

I know it’s not real catchy but I hope it keeps me reminded as I work on that thing just what really is important in this life. There’s nothing wrong with having stuff but is anybody’s life being changed by that boat? Is that boat going with me to Heaven? Shoot, I’ll be happy if it makes it all the way to the lake.

If Jesus came back tonight, is He going to care how clean that boat is or how well it runs? For the One who walked on water, I doubt He’ll be impressed. What about you? What are you spending your time, money and effort on that will be burned up like wood, hay and straw?

Look again at verses 4 and 5 at how Jesus closes this letter. This is a great comfort to all true believers. He says, “4Yet 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. Stop right there. I don’t know about you but I don’t feel worthy but thank you, Lord, it’s not based on feelings. We are worthy if we confess Jesus as Lord and do what He says. That makes us worthy and victorious. 5The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels.

All my commentaries agree that to read this as it might be possible to have your name blotted out of the book of life is incorrect. In fact, it says just the opposite. Jesus says He will never do that. G.R. Beasley-Murry says that Jesus wrote this book before time began and He didn’t make any mistake so He needs not blot out any names.  That’s good news because there are a lot of times that I not only don’t feel worthy but I prove that I am not worthy and it is only by God’s grace and the faith He gives me that I am considered worthy. Thank you, Lord!

When I look back on the history of our church, there is a lot to be proud of. This church has done a lot of good things for the Kingdom of God. We could talk about the time seven years ago that Eddie the Angel came in and we ministered to Him. Or we could brag about how a couple of years ago a guy in the Wise County Jail said, “Christ Fellowship? I know them! That’s the church that helps people!” There are other times and things we have done but I have no doubt that this church’s best days are in the future. Let’s focus on that. What are we going to do next? That’s exciting to me.

Maybe today you don’t know for sure if your name is even in the Lamb’s Book of Life. You can be sure by repenting of your sinful lifestyle. Turn away from that and ask God for forgiveness of your sin. Romans 3:23 says we are all sinners. Romans 6:23 says that what we deserve for that sin is eternal death in Hell. But John 3:16 says that God loved you so much that he sent His Son, Jesus, down from Heaven to die on the cross to pay for all your nasty sins and mine and that all we have to do is believe.

That belief will be obvious because God will change your life and continue to change it until you die or He comes back to get us. Are you ready for that? It could happen at any moment. Go to God in prayer right now as the music plays.

“Thyatira” – Revelation 2:18-29

Call me old fashioned but I like a good old bologna sandwich. Just the cheap bologna with a little cheese on some bread and I’m good. I eat them pretty often and here is what I have learned. Here, I’ll show you with this sandwich I made. I made it last Wednesday and then left it on the counter. Now, I know that doctors and scientists would tell you that it’s not good to leave food out like that, but I’m telling you there is nothing wrong with it. That mold growing on there gives it a nice flavor. Anybody want some? I’ll share.

Don’t listen to all those medical school graduates. I bet they have never even eaten a moldy bologna sandwich. A fresh sandwich is fine but a crusty, moldy, dark cheddar cheese, old sandwich is good too. It’ll be fine. Trust me. No? Why not? Have you ever eaten one? Then how do you know it wouldn’t be good?

You know it wouldn’t be good, even though you have never eaten one because you believe medical science, right? Yea, it looks gross and that’s a turn-off, but guacamole looks gross too and you eat that. The difference is that you trust what medical science has said for a hundred years or more. You trust the books written by educated men that prove that eating this sandwich would make you sick.

But what if I went around telling people in the church that eating moldy bologna sandwiches was fine. If I brought them to game night and to snack on at Bible study and I kept on doing it? You wouldn’t tolerate that, would you? If I want to eat moldy bologna, it’s one thing. But to encourage the rest of the church to do it would be unacceptable. You would do whatever it takes to stop me from spreading those lies.

Okay, okay, so I hear you. You don’t want to eat a whole moldy bologna sandwich. How about just a little bit of one? How about just a bite? Just eat a little bit of this black cheese here and see what you think. No? Well, how much mold is too much? How much moldy bologna sandwich is okay to eat? How much can you tolerate? None? Exactly right!

Turn to the book of Revelation with me this morning to the second chapter and we will see that something similar but far worse was going on in the church at Thyatira. We are continuing our look at the letters Jesus told John to write to the seven churches. These churches were real churches with real problems. Some of those problems were because of when and where they lived and some of their problems were of their own making.

Thyatira was the smallest of the seven churches in the smallest of cities but Jesus wrote them the longest letter. Thyatira was actually a military outpost set up to protect the other cities in the area. But in this city were a bunch of trade guilds, like unions, that were in place for all the different tradesmen that were there. Thyatira was a booming little city for trades such as textiles, tanners, potters, bakers, coppersmiths and such and each one had its own guild or union. Like in other cities we have seen, if you weren’t part of the union, it was hard to make a living.

The problem was, when these unions would meet, it would always turn into a “religious” feast that would include worship to all these false gods and that worship included all kinds of sexual immorality. You know, I guess if you are going to make up a god, make up one that encourages you to do what you want to do. That way you can do what you want and still be in right standing with your god. It looks like that is what was happening in Thyatira.

Let’s read Revelation 2:18-29 and see what kind of trouble this church was in. As usual, Jesus starts off by giving some good news but when you look at it closely, you see it is all Jesus can do to tell them anything good because He is obviously ticked off. Look how He starts this letter.

To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. (See. That is not the greeting of a happy Jesus.)19 I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first. 20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. 21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23 I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. 24 Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, 25 except to hold on to what you have until I come.’ 26 To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— 27 that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’[a]—just as I have received authority from my Father. 28 I will also give that one the morning star. 29 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

I remember when the internet was just starting out. It was starting to make a dent in the profits of print media like newspapers and magazines. We see now that the internet has almost completely taken over the areas of news and entertainment. But I remember back in the day that the owner of Penthouse magazine was on the national news making a plea for pornographic magazines and not just his own. I remember him encouraging people to buy his magazine but if not his, then buy Playboy because porn is normal and healthy. It is good for you. He wanted everyone to know that porn was good, no matter whose mag you bought.

I remember thinking how crazy that sounded. It’s crazier than a moldy bologna sandwich. But, I wonder if he really believed it or if he was just trying to make money or maybe he had convinced himself it really was true because he wanted it to be true.

In our text today, the biggest problem in this church in Thyatira was one woman. Jesus called her Jezebel. That was most likely not her real name but Jesus often changed peoples names to reflect their personalities and this nickname was no compliment. If you remember, Jezebel was in the Old Testament in First and Second Kings and was the evil queen of King Ahab. The Jezebel in Thyatira was a little more subtle. She evidently claimed to have direct insight from God that allowed her to encourage the Christians in that church to feel free to participate in the sexually immoral idol worship that was going on at these guild meetings.

I don’t know if she really believed it or if she was just trying to make money or if she had convinced herself it really was true because she wanted it to be true. But evidently the people in the church were tolerating it and that made Jesus mad. I bet it was very tempting to tolerate her and her teaching because if you don’t belong to one of these guilds, then it’s almost impossible to work. So, the Christians in the church in Thyatira had to make a choice and I’m sure it was difficult.

She was evidently teaching that you could be a Christian and be part of these guilds, even if those guilds worshiped idols and indulged in sexual immorality. They could sin and still be saved; that one thing had nothing to do with the other.  This may have been the tool that church was using to get the pagans of Thyatira to come to their church.  They were compromising their standards to attract the world.  They were saying, “Oh, come as you are!  Don’t change a thing.  Keep living like you have always lived.  We’ll accept you just like you are.  God loves you and we do too.  Neither He nor us expects you to change one thing.”

This goes back to the rules we have or don’t have around here. If you want to come to this church in filthy clothes, we don’t have any rules about that. We seriously do not care about such things. Please come. If you want to come to this church with a filthy heart, that’s fine too. We don’t have rules about that.

But we love you too much to let you stay either way. If you want better clothes, we can help you, but we really don’t care what you look like on the outside. If you want a clean heart and clean hands before God; a renewed mind; if you want to be a new creation, as God calls it, we can help you with that too because we do care about that.

The problem is we are surrounded by…the world. When we are here in this building, we all get loved on and supported and prayed for and did I say loved on? Good grief, this is a loving church; a giving church. Thank you, Lord, for the heart you have given this church and especially when this church is in this building, life is good.

But unfortunately, we have to leave here. We have to go out into the world; the nasty, perverted, sin-sick world where we are not loved on but lied to. We are lied to by the TV, the radio, internet, the world and ultimately Satan and we are told that porn is healthy. We are told that homosexuality is just a different lifestyle. We are told that sex before marriage is just the way it is and that there is nothing different about it than what married people do. But that is all a lie and it is a lie that is slowly making its way into the churches of today just like it was creeping into the church in Thyatira.

I have to brag on Cody and Teresa again for a minute. Guys, I am so proud of you! I know it has been hard and you have had every excuse in the world to quit but you have held on to what you have in the Lord and I know He is blessing you for it. Cody and Teresa and I had a talk when they first started coming here. I knew they weren’t married and were living together and I didn’t want to discourage them or run them off but I knew they didn’t know the truth so I tried to lovingly tell them what passages like 1 Corinthians 7:2 says. It says, “But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.”

It didn’t take long before Cody called me. “Hey! Been thinking about what you said. We went and got our marriage license and it says we have to wait 72 hours but can you marry us on the 73^rd hour?” Yeet! Yes, I can! And God was glorified in that ceremony and God is glorified in their lives and that is just fun to see!

And that’s what happens when people are obedient. God blesses them. But you also know what comes after that, right? The people are obedient. God blesses and then Satan attacks. Set your watch by it. Count on it. I promise it is going to happen. Satan hates when you get out of a sinful lifestyle, especially a sexually immoral lifestyle.

Let me ask you a question. Is all sin the same? Is one sin as bad as another? Well, honestly, that’s kind of a trick question. In one sense, all sin is the same in that any sin – big sin, little sin, medium sin – puts a barrier between you and God. Isaiah 59:2 says, “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”

But sexual sin has worse consequences because as 1 Corinthians 6:18 says, “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.” So, Satan has a thing for trying to get us to sin sexually. You are never too old or too spiritually mature for sexual immorality not to be a temptation.

But, as always, Satan is too smart to just come right out and try to get you to do something big. It always starts small. It starts with a picture or a word which leads to a thought and then another couple of thoughts and a small bad thing and then all of the sudden one thing has inevitable lead to another and you look around and find yourself hooked into something you can’t even imagine.

My favorite hero in the Bible, David, was walking around in the cool of the evening minding his own business up on his flat roof. Things were going well. He was the king of all Israel and God was blessing him. He was conquering all the nations around him. There was relative peace in the land. David himself had everything a man could want including more than one wife. But all it took was a look.

You know the story that 2 Samuel 11 tells. It went from an innocent glance to a longer look to asking a couple questions and pretty soon there was lust, adultery, murder, lying, deceit and the death of a child on David’s hands. He should have just bounced his eyes off her and gone downstairs and his story would have been way different. There was repentance and forgiveness for David but the consequences of those sins were devastating.

God doesn’t want you to have those consequences and so He warns us about that kind of thing all through His Word. When you do find yourself in that kind of a hole, the first thing to do is quit digging. As soon as you realize you have made a mistake, you should go to God and ask for forgiveness before it gets any worse or before you run out of time. Look at verses 21-23 again. 21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23 I will strike her children dead.

Wow! That sounds pretty harsh, doesn’t it? Evidently God takes this stuff pretty seriously. He says, “She likes that bed so much, she can die on it with all her customers and followers!” Most commentaries agree that verse 23 is talking about the people that follow her teaching. Jesus is protective of His bride, the church. He is protective of His Word and His glory and when anything threatens any of that, He can and will cut them off. He says in verse 24, “Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.” That ought to thrill some of us and it ought to scare some of us to death. Nothing gets past the penetrating stare of Jesus. He is searching our hearts and minds all the time.

We have talked before about how our churches today don’t really know persecution. So many churches in foreign countries have to have underground churches or sneak around at night because just believing in Jesus is against the law. We don’t have anything close to that. But I’ll tell you how Satan persecutes our church and it’s not much different than it was for the church in Thyatira.

We are surrounded by evil. We see and hear things all day every day that make fun of God and Christianity, tell us that perversion is normal and that just a little bit of evil isn’t going to hurt you. There isn’t much we can do about some of it. We have to go to work where there are unbelievers and unbelievers are just going to act like it. Don’t be surprised when they do.

We have to drive down the road and see certain billboards and awful bumper stickers. Sometimes you just can’t help seeing those things. I hope we can just bounce our eyes off those and keep driving. But while you are driving, what are you listening to? When you get home, what are you watching on TV and online?

I want you to be mindful this week about that sitcom you like to watch. Oh, I know they aren’t worshiping Satan or anything but if Jesus was sitting on the couch next to you, would you continue watching it? Do you think Jesus would laugh at those shows? First of all they just aren’t funny and secondly that half-dressed hussy on there that is trying to seduce a man she isn’t married to is subtly brainwashing you into thinking that’s no big deal.

Tell me that’s not true when you think about how far we have come from Ricky and Lucy being married but sleeping in separate beds to today where it’s just assumed that everybody lives together before they get married. It’s just assumed now that every good first date ends in sex. Tell me our society hasn’t been brainwashed into thinking that is okay.

That’s just exactly what this Jezebel in Thyatira was trying to do. It’s okay. You can be a Christian and still watch filth on TV. You can go to church and the rated “R” movies. One doesn’t have anything to do with the other. Well, it’s time to repent of that. Right now. Right here before it’s too late. God is searching our hearts and minds and He sees what is on that TV and computer and He hears that filth coming from the stereo and He is coming soon to “repay each of you according to your deeds.”

Are you ready for that? If you are then it’s good news in verse 24 where Jesus says, “Now I say to the rest of you…who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, 25 except to hold on to what you have until I come.’ That word for “hold on” in the Greek is “krateo” which is a strong word indicating it will not be easy. Jesus knows that but He is coming soon and He will make it all worth it! Hold on, dear one. Hold on!

If you are going to be a holy, godly Christian in these days, you might as well get ready to be hated, misunderstood and persecuted.  But, this is not the end of the matter!  One day, the King is coming!  When He does, He is going to let His faithful servants reign with Him.  We might be weak today.  The worldly, compromising churches might be the ones with all the people, all the power and all the prestige.  But, when the King comes, those who have served Him faithfully now will reign with Him then!  It will be worth it all when that day comes! (Adrian Rogers)

If you aren’t ready then, as Paul said back in his day, today is the day of salvation. Ask God to forgive your sins – everything you have ever done - and scripture says He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9) Allow Him to be Lord of your life. Whatever He says is what you want to do. No compromising on any of that. And allow Him to change you and bless you and make you more like Him. Do it right now as the music plays.

*Prayer*

This Jezebel was teaching things that contradict scripture. We need to be searching the scriptures every time a red flag goes up like that and if it doesn’t match what scripture is saying, that so-called prophet or preacher is a false prophet and you need to never listen to them again.