A Lord's Day Message for Sunday, February 27, 2011

(©Rev. Larry A. Langer, First Presbyterian Church, Jasper, IN, February 27, 2011)

“7 Churches: Brickbats and Bouquets”

“6. God’s Message to Philadelphia: “Overcome!” 

Revelation 3:7-13 and John 16:25-33

“If you conquer, I will make you a pillar in the temple of my God; you will never go out of it. I will write on you the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem that comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.” (Revelation 3:12)

Is there any among us who hasn’t heard of the city of “Philadelphia” as the “City of Brotherly Love”? Do you know how this began? The name began in the Greek language sometime during 159 to 138 B.C. The one word “Philadelphia” breaks down into two words, “feelos” – a friend, someone we are fond of, an associate, a neighbor; and “adelphos” – lit., the womb, a brother (literally or figuratively). Together, it becomes a word that indicates a person who is “loved like a close brother,” almost like a twin, a “womb-mate.”

Sometime then, during 159 to 138 B.C., Attalus II was the ruler of the Pergamum area in which the town was located. Attalus had a brother whom he loved very much, and honored his brother by naming the town Philadelphia, “Brotherly Love.”

Philadelphia was an important city originally. It sat on a high plateau, becoming a strong fortress city. It was also a city through which a main highway ran. One might say that it was a “gateway city.” Smyrna lay a hundred miles due west and folks traveling to Asia, Phrygia and the east usually passed through Philadelphia. Also, the imperial post road of the first century A.D., which originated in Rome, passed through Philadelphia on its way to the East.

(We can picture Philadelphia as our own Indianapolis, with Interstates 65, 69, 70 and 74 all converging and passing through. Indiana and Indianapolis aren’t called “the Crossroads of America” for nothing! So, too, Philadelphia.)

Economically, Philadelphia was part of a huge wine-growing district, and had textile and leather industries.[1] Culturally, Philadelphia was to be a mission city for disseminating the Greek and Asian culture and language in the eastern part of Lydia and in Phrygia. Its success at this is attested by the fact that the Lydian language ceased to be spoken in Lydia by A.D. 19 and Greek took over. (Ramsey, Seven Churches, p.391). But beyond this language achievement, Philadelphia had not been successful in converting the Phrygians (Barclay, Seven Churches, p. 80).[2]

All of this would indicate a thriving, growing, continuing city of which the world then could be proud. But Philadelphia had what I would say was “an identity problem.” In A.D. 17 an earthquake destroyed Philadelphia and 11 other cities; in fact, the whole area was so earthquake-prone that many people preferred living in the rural areas surrounding Philadelphia, rather than in the town proper.

(We can think today of the devastation we can see because of the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand. Will they rebuild? What will they rebuild? Will the great Cathedral, the TV station, the office buildings, the homes be rebuilt?)

After the earthquake in Philadelphia in A.D. 17, the Roman ruler Tiberius Caesar came to their aid and had the city rebuilt. Out of gratitude, the citizens then named the city “Neocaesarea,” which means “New Caesar.” Later, the town was named Flavia and Philadelphia. Later, yet, when the emperor cult was established in the town, the name became “Neokoros” or “Temple Warden.” In the fifth century, it was nicknamed “Little Athens” because of its proliferation of festivals and pagan cults.[3]

Basically over 400 years, the town had at least five names and/or nicknames, going from the “City of Brotherly Love,” to “Little Athens” because of the huge amount of pagan cults and festivals.

In this mix is the PCC, the Philadelphia Christian Church. Although nothing is known about its origin, we know it prospered under the ministry of a prophetess named Ammia for at least 60 years. (This was an early biblical recognition of the ministry of women pastors.) And here’s an interesting quote: “Long after all the surrounding country had succumbed to Muslim control under Turkey, Philadelphia held out as a Christian populace until 1392.”[4] Philadelphia, until 1392, apparently was regarded as a “Christian City,” much like we would say that “Jasper is a Christian City.”

For our purposes today, let’s consider Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, also the City that Jesus Christ loved. We can consider this letter of Christ, as dictated through John, a love letter of encouragement to the Philadelphia Christian Church to overcome their challenges because they stand in favor with Christ and with God.

To this church there really wasn’t written a “brickbat.” We can remember that with the other five churches, there was usually the statement, “I know your works,” then a small bouquet, but then a pretty heavy brickbat. Not so with Philadelphia, and the bouquet came in the same form that we often send flowers or give attention.

Jesus basically says to the Philadelphia Christian Church, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” I don’t know about you, but this is the greatest promise of Christ: “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

There are other great promises that we experience from Jesus. One is that “when we confess our sins, Jesus is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Another is “In life and in death nothing can ever separate us from his love.” Another is, “whoever believes in Jesus shall not perish but have everlasting life.” But, much like the promises that we make in marriages or the promises we make toward family members or the promises we make toward our dear, dearer and dearest friends, Christ “is with us always, even to the close of the age!”

So how did this letter assure the Philadelphia Christian Church of God’s love for them in Jesus Christ?

First, they were assured that Jesus was the real, genuine thing. Remember, their town had been through at least 5 name and nickname changes. Different rulers had come and gone. Cults had sprung up and grown.

We know how we get, don’t we, when our lives and living situations become unstable and/or inconsistent. Our lives, our bodies, our guts really like to be “settled.”

We don’t like constant change to the basics of life. We fear the unknown. Oh, we like variety in our lives, because we like a little “spice,” but we always like to return to what has been stable for us. When the life and area around us changes too much, we begin to doubt what is real, what is still our anchor point.

This is why Jesus says to the PCC, “These are the words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.”

The people needed these authenticating words; we need to hear these authenticating words and remember them, also!

Of course, we believe that Jesus is the holy one, the true one, and we believe that this authenticates Jesus. But, most other religions, cults and sects have the same language for their leaders, their “holy one,” their “true one.” What really helps the PCC here is that they are reminded that this holy one, this true one “has the key of David.” These people would know this code phrase as referring to Christ as the Messiah, because Christ is from the “line of David.” We can remember this, also.

Because we ourselves don’t come from “the line of David,” we aren’t Jewish, so this wouldn’t be our authenticating key, our pass key. Our authenticating key would be and is: “Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me.”

The opening of the letter could read for us then,

These are the words of the holy one, the true one, who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one will open.

Second, Jesus says in the letter, “I know your works. Look, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.”

What do we say to a person who is down and feeling worthless? “Look! Take a look at yourself. You have a lot to offer. “To the world you may be only one person, but to one person you may be the world.” You may have very little influence in the world, so “the best way to show love to the whole world is to love with a particular passion some little part of it.”” (William Placher, 1996)

It is the same way with a church: To the world we may be only one little church, but to one person we may be the world, and the best way to show the world the church’s influence is to show with a particular passion our influence in some little past of the world. We can be reminded that we have an open door out of which we can see our little part of the world. We can be reminded that we want to be a beacon of light to Jasper and beyond, from our little corner of the world. You see, I believe that this letter speaks to us. Jesus says to us, “I know your works. Look, I have set before you an open door.” I believe the question is not who will come in through the door, but how many of us will go out through the door, keeping Jesus’ word and not denying his name?

You see, our challenges are no different today than were the challenges in 100 A.D. We have those who claim they are Christian, yet only say this because they try to be “good people” and that Jesus was a “good person.” These are people who say that God is so good that he would never not accept anybody. What about all the “good people” in the world? Are they condemned because they don’t claim Jesus as their Savior?

Well, my friends, yes they are. If we believe this letter to the church of “Brotherly Love,” those who claimed to be staunch Jews still awaiting the Messiah were not only lost, but Jesus said they were a “synagogue of Satan.” Why? Because they denied who Jesus Christ was!

Third, Jesus also says to the faithful members at PCC, “I will make them come and bow down at your feet.” Jesus’ enemies will become Jesus’ footstool. Then Jesus says, “If you conquer, if you will take advantage of the open door, if you will stand firm in the faith of Jesus Christ, even though you are small, I will keep you from failing, and I will make you a pillar in the temple of my God and you will never go out of it!”

We really have no idea what it means to have our name on something while we are alive, especially something like a pillar that holds up a temple. We can imagine it for us, but what if we lived back in 100 A.D.? The buildings weren’t all that magnificent; only a few were big enough to be built with pillars. And, if you were a VIP, you got your name chiseled on a pillar. These pillars were strong enough to withstand earthquakes!

But this letter says that God’s promises are stronger than even these pillars! And, we are the pillars, not some building. Jesus said, “I will write on you the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem that comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.”

We know that later in the book of Revelation, we hear about the “Mark of the Beast,” the number 666, being written on people. We also hear about “the new Jerusalem coming down from God like a bride adorned for her husband.” And, here we hear about how Jesus says we are already pillars of his kingdom, because he knows our works, we use the open door, we keep his word with patient endurance, and we look forward to his coming. We will hold fast to what we have so that no one may seize our crown. We are a good church for Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

[1] Alan Johnson, Revelation (The Expositor’s Bible Commentary), (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing Co., 1981), p. 451

[2] op. cit., p. 451
[3] op. cit., p. 452

[4] op.cit., p. 453

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(Message © by Rev. Larry A. Langer, First Presbyterian Church, Jasper, IN, February 20, 2011)

“7 Churches: Brickbats and Bouquets”

“5. God’s Message to Sardis:

“Wake Up, Build Up, Dress Up!”

Revelation 3:1-6, Luke 12:13-32, and Matthew 24:36-44

“Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is on the pint of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God. Remember then what you received and heard; obey it and repent…” (Revelation 3:2-3a)

An interesting thing happened on the way to this sermon. Our church this day is the Sardis Christian Church, the SCC. As we have read and will learn more about, it is a church – as is the town in which it is located – that has “gone to sleep” and is in danger of not “waking up.” Along with making the choice to not wake up, comes the warning from Jesus himself that he will come “like a thief in the night” and deal with them.

So, as I began to be inspired to write I thought, “It would be good to begin the sermon with a story about having “passion” for soemthing and using it, particularly having passion for one’s church, even our church, and the following of Jesus Christ and doing ministry in his name and spreading his word locally and globally.

Therefore, I went to my books of illustrations, looking for a great illustration on having “passion” for something. Alas, I went to four different books looking for the heading “passion.” I could find no such heading!

So, I thought, what’s the opposite of having passion; I’ll approach it from the negative, from the “brickbat” side. I found a heading “mediocrity” and this story:

Chuck Swindoll talks about “mediocrity,” yet “excellence” in his book, The finishing Touch.

Competitive excellence requires one hundred percent all the time. If you doubt that, try maintaining excellence by setting your standards at 92 percent. Or even 95 percent. People figure they’re doing fine as long as they get somewhere near it. Excellence gets reduced to acceptable, and before long, acceptable doesn’t seem worth the sweat if you can get by with adequate. After that, mediocrity is just a breath away.

Ever tracked the consequences of “almost but not quite”? Thanks to some fine research by Natalie Gabal, I awoke to a whole new awareness of what would happen if 99.9 percent were considered good enough. If that were true, then this year alone…2,000,000 documents would be lost by the I.R.S.; 12 babies would be given to the wrong parents by mistake each day; 291 pacemaker operations would be performed incorrectly; 20,000 incorrect drug prescriptions would be written; 114,500 mismatched pairs of shoes would be shipped (to site just a few examples).[i]

Hearing this, I picked up on Swindoll’s opening sentence: “Competitive Excellence requires one hundred percent all the time.” Then, I next went to the word “excellence” as the opposite of “mediocrity” and found this idea:

In his book Lyrics, Oscar Hammerstein tells of the time he saw a picture of the top of the head of the Statue of Liberty, taken from a helicopter. He was amazed at the detail and painstaking work that was done on the lady’s coiffure. Hammerstein reflected that the sculpture could not have imagined, even in his wildest dreams, that one day there would be a device that could look on tip of the head of his creation. Yet he gave as much care to that part of the statue as he did to the face, arms, and legs. He wrote, “When you are creating a work of art, or any other kind of work, finish the job off perfectly. You never know when a helicopter, or some other instrument not at the moment invented, may come along and find you out.”[ii]

Hammerstein could have also said, “When I miss a week in practice, my audience knows it. When I miss a day, I know it.” [iii]

It is the very serious slippage from excellence to mediocrity for which the Sardis Christian Church was being chastised. And, as I said in the introduction, it had succumbed to the ways of the town in which it was located. It had succumbed to the ethos of the town of Sardis.

Sardis reminds me so very much of Jesus’ parable of the farmer who had had a great harvest and nowhere to store his harvest. So, he decided to tear down what he had and build bigger and better barns to store his abundance. This wasn’t necessarily the problem, though.

The problem was that his life then turned to mediocrity. His own statement condemned him: “And, I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you! And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:18-21)

The Sardis Christian Church and the entire town of Sardis were not rich toward God; they were so poor toward God that it was as if they had gone to sleep. They were so asleep that William Barclay commented, “Sardis was a city of peace, not the peace won through battle, but the peace of the man whose dreams are dead and whose mind is asleep, the peace of lethargy and evasion.”[iv]

What had happened? Partly, they seemed to celebrate and honor death more than they did life. They had three important areas in their town: An acropolis, a temple, and a necropolis.

The acropolis was a tall wall that towered 800 feet about the town on the north side to protect the town. It had only been ineffective twice and that was in 600 B.C. and 400 B.C., when someone came out of Sardis and went down a hidden stairway to get water, and was seen going back up. The enemy simply followed the water carrier back into Sardis and overcame the town. Once again, it was mediocrity – doing one’s job sloppily – that hurt the whole body, hurt the whole town: An 800 foot wall penetrated through a secret stairway and door due to mediocrity.

Sardis also had a temple to the god Artemis. However, as another example of their mediocrity, the temple was never finished. The “powers that be” in Sardis wanted to build their temple to Artemis to rival the temple in Ephesus and have it recognized as such, but, because of the mediocrity of the people, the temple was never finished.

Sardis had also begged Rome to let them build the temple to Caesar, but the honor went to Smyrna.

So, what was once an important, wealthy city ended up a mediocre one. One commentator said, “No city of Asia at that time showed such a melancholy contrast between past splendor and present decay as Sardis.”[v] And as Herodotus, in the fifth century B.C. wrote despairingly of Sardis and its people as “the tender-footed Lydians, who can only play on the cither, strike the guitar and sell by retail.”[vi]

But the main telling of Sardis was its “necropolis,” its cemetery, its “place of the dead.” It was huge, known for its “thousand hills,” its burial mounds. They seemed to have a special preoccupation with death – which will lead to mediocrity, won’t it; at least mediocrity toward life? The human soul, unless overtaken by mediocrity, has an inborn sense toward excellence, toward succeeding, toward building, toward doing something well, toward improving society, toward improving a church, toward growing one’s relationship with God!

So, Jesus, the one who holds every church in his hand and who sees every church as an invaluable golden lamp stand designed to give light to the world, calls the Sardis Christian Church out of its lethargy and mediocrity. Jesus said, “I’m not quibbling with what you have done in the past. I know your works, and you have made a name for yourselves. But, now, you have gone the way of your town; you are dead, also! But you still have a chance – your works are not perfect in my sight yet. So, wake up and strengthen what is left!”

You still have a few people there who still walk with me. They haven’t gotten their clothes and hands dirty with sin and the ways of the world. They are worthy; they will walk with me – and you can, too, if you will wake up, remember what following me all is about, obey it and repent of anything that isn’t of me.

You know and I know, because we read and hear the same news, that all of our mainline church denominations are losing members like crazy. These members are either going to the non-denominational churches or nowhere at all. Part of this decline is that our mainline churches have put our people to sleep with its mediocrity.

Coming out of the 50’s, we were strong and building bigger and bigger barns, read “churches”. In the 60’s we became pre-occupied with the Viet Nam War and the social and political agenda that we soon learned to distrust. But most churches didn’t give an alternative; it merely argued with the social agenda. They didn’t give Christ, but they spoke against Caesar. Then when the homosexual agenda began to be pressed by society in the 70’s, the church was very late in awakening, so late that it has been extremely weak in its gospel message against, not only this sin, but all other sins, as well.

The church at Sardis isn’t like the one we will have in two weeks, the Laodicea Church that is “neither hot nor cold.” No, the Sardis church is asleep and irrelevant!

But the Lord hasn’t given up on it. The Lord warns that he might, though: He said, “If you conquer, you will be clothed like them in white robes, and I will not blot your name out of the book of life; I will confess your name before my Father and before his angels.”

You know, back in those days, say the commentators, “In ancient cities the names of citizens were recorded in a register till their death; then their names were erased or marked out of the book of the living…There was also some evidence that a person’s name could be removed from the city register before death if he or she were convicted for a crime. In the first century, Christians who were loyal to Christ were under constant threat of being branded political and social rebels and stripped of their citizenship.

Jesus Christ himself says to his church and his people, “Wake up. Be the church you once were; be the church my Father desires. You have the faith and the leadership; follow both. Remember what you have received and heard; obey it and repent. Be worthy to carry the name “Christian” – of Christ. And, you will never be marked off, erased, nor forgotten out of the Book of Life.

As the letter to every church has ended thus far, so ends this one: “Let those with ears hear what the Spirit is saying to the Churches.” Amen.

[i] Charles R. Swindoll, Ultimate Book of Illustrations & Quotes (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1998), p. 372

[ii] Ben Patterson, The grand Essentials, as quoted in Swindoll, ibid, p. 185

[iii] Paderewski, quoted in Jacob Braude, Braude’s Handbook of Stories for Toastmasters and Speakers, quoted in Swindoll, ibid, p. 185

[iv][iv] William Barclay, Letters to the Seven Churches (New York: Abington, 1957) p. 71) as quoted by Earl Palmer, Revelation. (The Communicator’s Commentary), (Waco, TX, Word Books, 1982)

[v] William M. Ramsey, The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia (London: Hodder & Stroughton, 1904), p. 375, as quoted by Earl Palmer, ibid, p. 447

[vi] Barkley, ibid., p.71

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(Message © by Rev. Larry A. Langer, First Presbyterian Church, Jasper, IN, February 13, 2011)

“7 churches: Brickbats and Bouquets”

“4. God’s Message to Thyratira: Counter the Culture”

Revelation 2:18-29 and Mark 9:38-49

“I know your works – your love, faith, service, and patient endurance. I know that your last works are greater than the first. But I have this against you: you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet, and is teaching and beguiling my servants…” (Revelation 2:19, 20)

For the past 3 weeks over one million people have been acting “counter-culturally” in Egypt. They have been going against a culture some say has been a severe dictatorship with now-former President Hosni Mubarak. The telling part of his rule has been that the country has been operating under so-called “emergency powers” for the past thirty years! These emergency powers have given the government, military and police officials very broad authority to disallow many of the human rights freedoms that people living in a freer society enjoy: Freedoms such as the right to free speech, free assembly, and freedom to choose the country’s leaders. It has been a real blessing, though, that even as the military began to show its force, there was not any violence, as the crowds did freely assemble, as the government fell and Mubarak resigned.

Once again, as it has often been the case in our own country, it has been the young folks, the twenty- and thirty-something crowd, who led the protests. Others followed and then over one million people went counter to the culture. They ended up changing the culture!

In our own town, a group of concerned citizens has chosen to be counter-cultural and protest against the prospect of having a 75 megawatt electricity generating facility in our town that will burn grass and natural gas and heat a lot more water in its process. The culture the citizens are going against is one of a governmental entity trying to make economic use of an old facility, and a business entity trying to make profits.

The counter-cultural folks are concerned about the air quality for our citizens; the cultural folks are concerned about the air quality, also; in fact, the Environmental Protection Agency has a lot to say about the particulate emissions, but are especially wanting to enhance the economy of our area and the company’s profits. So, we have a counter-cultural movement right here in our own town, one that has even seen a few protestors around our own town square.

Counter-cultural revelutions are nothing new! Our own country was founded upon a counter-cultural revolution:

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among them are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed, (etc., down through), “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor…

Of course, we know this document in its entirety as the “Declaration of Independence.”

We also know of a document that has stood the test of time, actually of time immemorial. It has withstood wars between tribes and nations, between one people group and many people groups, and has withstood the murder of its leader. His name was Jesus, the document is the Bible, and the culture is the one in which we avow, “In life and in death we belong to God. Through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, we trust in the one triune God, the Holy One of Israel, whom alone we worship and serve.

We go on to avow,

We trust in Jesus Christ, fully human, fully God. Jesus proclaimed the reign of God: preaching good news to the poor and release to the captives, teaching by word and deed and blessing the children, healing the sick and binding up the brokenhearted, eating with outcasts, forgiving sinners, and calling all to repent and believe the gospel.

Don’t a lot of these sound counter-cultural?

Then we get to ourselves in our “A Brief Statement of Faith,” and we avow,

In a broken and fearful world the Holy Spirit gives us courage to pray without ceasing, to witness among all people to Christ as Lord and Savior, to unmask idolatries in church and culture, to hear the voices of people long silenced, and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace.

Don’t a lot of these goals sound counter-cultural?

The question is, do we have the courage to always do what needs to be done counter-culturally in the world?

This is our challenge, even as it was the challenge to the TCC – the Thyratira Christian Church. In fact, the letter to the TCC ought to be read and acted upon by every Christian church today upon threat of death to its people and to the church. This letter is all about what happens when the Christian Church doesn’t stand up for Christian principles, the principles of Jesus Christ himself. But the truth is, to quote one theologian, “The Christian Church has so watered down the Gospel that we have inoculated the world against the real thing.”

The truth is, because a great number of the Churches of Jesus Christ have done and are doing this, the Christian faith is becoming more and more irrelevant. When there is no difference between what is said from the pulpit and what is said from a presidential or classroom podium, or what is accepted in the sanctuary mirrors what is accepted on main street, or what is taught in Bible Study classrooms and what is taught in politically-correct classrooms is the same, we Christians, the Christian church and the Christian faith become irrelevant. The Judeo-Christian faith has always been and always needs to be counter-cultural until Christ comes again and the culture becomes of Christ!

This is the brickbat thrown at the TCC. They had allowed a “Jezebel” into their midst, into their congregation, and this person was teaching the ways of the world in which the people were living. This person apparently had claimed to be a prophet, one bringing “a word from God.” This person could be believed in those days, because there really wasn’t any “official” way to determine whether or not a person was truly a prophet of God or a prophet of something or someone else.

The Apostle John, in his first letter of three (not his gospel, but the first of those little letters toward the end of the Bible) said,

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, (I John 4:1-3), of which you have heard that it is coming; and now it is already in the world.

These days, at least in the Presbyterian Church, USA, we ask for a Statement of Faith and a recounting of a person’s faith journey, as well as personal references, when we consider a person for ordination as pastors or commissioned lay pastors. Our hope is that what the candidate for a pulpit says about his or her faith will resonate in our hearts and minds by the power of the Holy Spirit as being an authentic expression of the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

If we who are charged with ascertaining the spirit of a person for ministry and the gifts of the Holy Spirit that that person has for ministry, merely smile sweetly and say, “Oh, isn’t it wonderful that so-and-so is going to be a minister; he or she is so sweet,” then we are as guilty as the folks of the TCC of which our letter today speaks.

In a local congregation, if we just want warm bodies as our elders and deacons, or we ever want elders and deacons in office for any other reason than they are believers in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior first and foremost, and then that they will work hard to ascertain how the Holy Spirit is seeking to guide the church through them, such officers might just be as the Jezebel of which the letter speaks.

The Jezebel of the letter basically was trying to bring the culture of the day into the church. While Thyratira wasn’t a major crossroads town or a major Roman government town, it was still an important manufacturing town.

It was originally a military outpost assigned to protect the road from Pergamum to Sardis. But now it was a town of more trade guilds (read “unions”) than any other Asian city. The trade guilds played an important religious role is the city, which was a commercial center of weavers, leather-workers, potters, and bronze workers. Furthermore and as a result, the Christians who were members of those commercial trades would have a difficult time holding to a non-compromised faith in view of the pressure from the guilds to worship at the various city temples, and attend the guild feasts, most of which have religious connotations.[1]

I mean, can’t we picture this today, even? We work for a company and feel that we must go to a certain church to be part of the “in crowd”? Or we work for a company and feel we have to do other things – play games, go to practices, hang out in bars, do anything other than church, to stay in good graces and get ahead. I have observed before from this pulpit, that corporate boards of large corporations usually and often have their important board meetings on Sundays, not during the workweek.

So, the Jezebel of the day was bringing into the church that it was politically correct to overlook some types of sin, including eating meat sacrificed to idols and having sex outside of marriage. But it really doesn’t matter what the sin or the sins are that anyone brings into the church; they are still sins and need to be dealt with by the church body. As Earl Palmer said,

The theological principle that underpins this passage is that the created order of God is moral, and the violation of that moral order does not go unpunished. Interpersonal immorality has always been destructive to human relationships, because such sins, just as the sins of false gods, pride, selfishness, etc., go cross grain to the grand design built by God into the very fabric of life.[2]

Now, here are the bouquets and a challenge to the TCC. The bouquets are, first, that the TCC had a faithful bunch of members that did very good church work – they loved (and this is the word agape), they had faith, service and patient endurance…and, they were getting even better and growing in it. The church had faithful folks who loved each other and who were growing in their faith, their service, and in their patient endurance.

Secondly, the bouquet was that there was a way out of the promised death for Jezebel and the followers: They could repent. As Earl Palmer said,

These are the three good-news words planted firmly within the judgment: “They could repent.” It is not too late for the TCC to reach out to the Lord of the grand design. Nevertheless, one warning remains true: because of God’s love, the grand plan for human life must judge sternly the injustice of sexual exploitation of human beings, the sins of pride, greed, anger, and every other transgression.[3]

Now, here’s the challenge. Earl Palmer says it well:

These Christians have a responsibility, a mandate toward the nations. What we must understand in this letter to the church at Thyratira is the fact that the temptations which these Christians faced in this city were interwoven into trade skills, the success in business and the economic survival of the Christians…If they stood against temptation in their very jobs, the real option they had to face was economic suffering as well as spiritual suffering…The most subtle challenge to faith does not usually originate in public amphitheaters but in the daily places where we earn the money we need to live…The approach of this letter is to place the daily lives of the Christians upon as larger stage and within a larger context. I must see my task, my daily deployment, as part of the larger goal of my life. This is the only way that I can correctly size up the demands of any job so that on the one hand I am a good and hard worker and yet on the other keep faith with my integrity and any greater loyalties… What the trades need, what professions need, what all deployments of our lives need is not our soul but our skill, not our worship but our hard work. When we once learn this vital alignment of values, we will do better in our work, (in our society and in our churches).[4]

These principles have been at work in Egypt these past few weeks. These principles should always be at work in our daily lives. And God will get our soul! May it be so! Amen.

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[1] Earl Palmer, Revelation (The Communicator’s Commentary), (Waco, Texas, Word Books, 1982), p.140

[2] Palmer, 142

[3] Palmer, 142

[4] Palmer, 143

“The 7 Churches of Revelation: Brickbats and Bouquets”

(Message © by Rev. Larry A. Langer, First Presbyterian Church, Jasper, IN, February 5, 2011)

“7 Churches: Brickbats and Bouquets”

“3. God’s Message to Pergamum: One Another One Another” 

Revelation 2:12-17 and John 15:7-17

“Repent then. If not, I will come to you soon and make war against them with the sword of my mouth.” (Revelation 2:16)

Last Saturday morning, I did go to Evansville to the seminar on bullying. This was held at the wonderful facility of the First Presbyterian Church. There was ample room for gathering, for displays, and for the presentation itself in the sanctuary. However, this seminar wasn’t sponsored by the church itself, but by the Evansville Consolidated School District and by a grant that had been received.

The speaker was Michael Dorn, a fifty-something internationally known expert and speaker on bullying, but also on terrorism. He speaks to agents of the F.B.I., the C.I.A., the N.S.A., and the counterparts to these organizations around the world. He has spoken to the Massad, for example, the Israeli security force. His ability to be in demand to speak to all of these groups is his premise (and proof) that bullying and terrorism have the same root causes and the same solutions. Think that we sometimes even say of an out-of-control child, “He (or she) is a holy terror.” We use the word “terror” ourselves, when speaking of people who may be out of control.

Michael main presentation consisted of telling of an eight-year-old boy who was terrorized by teenaged boys in the woods behind their homes. These teens did unspeakable things to the boy, whose name was Steven. Of course, the teenagers told Steven not to say anything, and of course, as usual, out of fear, Steven didn’t.

But, as we know, the repression of trauma comes out in many other ways. Steven became a loner. He sat by himself at school lunches. He quit participating in class. Everyone thought it was just a result of puberty, so basically they clamped down on him. Steven’s family moved around a lot, also. Steven’s family tried to help Steven by putting him in different schools. Once, a teacher finally had Steven tested, and he tested out to have dyslexia. But this wasn’t the problem; this was a symptom. If we fast-forward to Steven’s senior year, it was so bad in the school where he was, that Steven carried a loaded .357 magnum revolver with him at all times. He didn’t trust anyone; he couldn’t turn to anyone; he feared for his life, both in reality and imagined.

Finally, Steven got the help he needed through one ROTC instructor, although another ROTC instructor totally ignored him. He also got help through a Scout Master, a teacher, and a few others. And, what Steven attributed his turn-around to was that these and others “One Anothered” him. These and others cared enough to give of their time, talent, and sometimes treasure, to demonstrate and prove out the Biblical principle, “Greater love has no one than this than to give up their life for a friend.”

Now, in the seminar, Michael wouldn’t attribute the principle of “one anothering” to this Bible verse from John 15:13, but the principle that he bases pretty much his entire teachings on is this verse. It is the premise that each one of us should care about and reach out to others, even at an ultimate cost to ourselves.

The entire quote that comes from John 15:12-17 we read this morning. Listen to it again, only with Steven’s story in mind. Jesus said,

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friend. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made know to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

Jesus said, “I am giving you this principle that you may “one another one another.” The principle consists of looking at someone in a positive way with hope, rather than in a negative way with disdain. Next, it involves being willing to come along side of that person to “befriend” that person, and show them that they are a special person, at least to you. Next, we are to picture a positive future, a future that will be a fruit-bearing future for that person. Throughout all of these steps, we let the person know that we will always be there for them, that there is nothing they can do that will cause us to quit “one anothering” them.

Gary Smalley and John Trent, in their book The Blessing, have broken this “one anothering” principle into five steps,[1] especially applicable to our children, but applicable to folks at any age:

One, give the person a meaningful touch. This can be a hug or a handshake, just so it is sincere to be meaningful.

Two, give the person a positive spoken message. Refuse to let yourself “label” someone as “
a bad person.” Think of him or her as a child of God who has only done some bad stuff.

Three, give the person “high value.” Put a high price of worth-whileness on his or her life. After all, again, he or she is a child of God, and “God don’t make no junk.”

Four, picture a special future for the person. This can be that they can “be anything they want to be” is helpful, but we also need to do some directional pointing to help discern what “fruit” the person will bear.

Five, we can make the commitment to help the person fulfill their dream, help the person bear fruit, help the person be the person of God God intended for them to be.

All five of these steps go into “one anothering one another.”

Oh, by the way, that 8-year-old boy named Steven. Want to know what finally happened? His full name is Michael Steven Dorn, the internationally known expert on bullying and terrorism and some solutions to both, who now gives important lectures on the topics.

Again, though, all of these solutions come down to one thing: Care enough to be there, to “one another one another.”

This is what the letter to the church at Pergamum is all about. It is a letter to the PCC – the Pergamum Christian Church – to one another one another, especially those who are doing things that are outside the Christian faith, such as holding to teachings other than Biblical teachings that is causing Christians to sin, such as eating food that has been sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality.

But listen to this comment from Rev. Dr. Earl Palmer:

…at the heart of interpersonal hurtfulness and broken relationships is a basic confusion of primary loyalty. When a person worships other than the true God, the result is that a confusion sets in; there is a breakdown of personal identity because the “no gods” we choose to worship other than the true God always robs us of our own identity first of all; then what follows is an inevitable hurtfulness toward the persons of our lives.[2]

Here’s where our “one anothering” comes in. In this letter to the PCC, God is recognizing that the membership is living in the midst of an evil place. Pergamum was 65 miles north of Smyrna, 105 miles north of Ephesus, and had been named the capital of the Roman province of Asia. It had become the center of emperor worship in the Roman World. There were temples to Zeus, Athena, Nikephoids, Dionysus and several to Asklepios.[3] The worship of gods other than the one true God caused the recognition in the letter that the congregation existed in the midst of where Satan’s throne is.

This reminds me of the words from Isaiah 6, where,

In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty…and said, “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

Only in the PCC, God is telling the members that they are living in the midst of cultic, even Satanic, stuff in which some of their folks are participating, and they aren’t doing anything about it and they need to do something about it. The members of the PCC who are faithful and worshipping the one true God need to “one another” those who are not.

The Lord first writes bouquets to the God-worshipping PCC members: Even though you are living where Satan’s throne is, you are holding fast to my name, and you did not (and do not) deny my name even (in the face of persecution).

But, here is the brickbat), you aren’t one anothering those in your membership that either aren’t worshipping me or are worshipping gods other than me and/or are sinning in your midst.

And, here’s the kicker: “You, the faithful members of the Pergamum Christian Church, need to repent of this lack, of this sin of letting others of your membership sin. It is your Godly duty to one another one another.”

God concludes the letter by saying, “You don’t want me to come down there with my two-edged sword and make war on those you need to one another. Instead, to everyone who “one another’s one another,” I will give three gifts:

First, some hidden manna. When folks worship me, they will feed on my word and it will nourish them fully.

Second, a white stone. This gift will identify the person as being healed by and in my word.

Third, they will be given a new name, a new identity to fulfill the identity distorted by sin, and healthy food from God’s word who knows of the human need to be fed and healed and made whole.[4]

In simplest terms, the name change will be from “sinner” to “forgiven.” The manna will be God’s word and love through prayer, the understanding of Scripture and through the bread and cup of Holy Communion. We have the word of God to share with each other, with which to one another one another.

May God bless us as we have an ear to hear and a faith to do! Amen.

[1] Gary Smalley and John Trent, The Blessing. (Thomas Nelson Publishing, Nashville, TN, 1986) p. 24

[2] Earl Palmer, Revelation. (The Communicator’s Commentary), (Waco, TX, Word Books, 1982)  p. 137

[3] Palmer, p. 135

[4] Palmer, p. 138

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