The Goo-Goo Dolls have recently released a remake of the song “Give a little bit”… I heard the song just after reading the two letters we’re looking at tonight – To Thyatira and Sardis – as printed on your handout. It was clear to me that the title of that song wouldn’t work as the title to these two letters… “Give a Little Bit.” Then I saw a book with a title that would suite these letters just right: The title was this: “Not less than everything.” If I could name these two letters I think I’d go with that title: “Not less than everything.”
In and through these letters it becomes clear that following Jesus, loving Jesus faithfully, is not something to be dabbled in or added to our busy lives when convenient… there’s no giving only “a little bit” when it comes to following him. This relationship doesn’t work except when it is everything.
A lot of the book of Revelation could be described that way. The call to us: Not Less than everything.
This is evident in the climax of the book. The climax of this book of Revelation isn’t at the end although it has an incredible ending. It’s in the middle. That’s how they often wrote back then – it’s called a chiastic structure.
And so in chapter 12:11 we find the center, the climax, the guts of this book.
The theological center of the book of Revelation is found in chapter 12:11, and speaking of Christ-followers it says this:
“They overcame (him) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.”
If the goal is to love Jesus faithfully… the weight of that goal is evident in this central verse. Is our commitment such that we will not shrink even from death? Are we willing to literally give our lives? Not less than everything?
The two churches we’re talking about today struggled with this. I gotta be honest, I don’t know if there’s anything I struggle with more than what these churches dealt with.
Of the 7 letters, we likely know least about these two churches historically. But of the 7, the reality of their situation probably resembles the reality of the church in 2005 more than any of the others.
As Lee Barbour pointed out to me, these two churches (especially when put beside one another) represent two extremes that the church often finds herself in.
One is the extreme of license (Ryan described this last week as well), the other the extreme of legalism. Lee calls these the two ditches that the church careens into back and forth as she makes her way down the road. It’s certainly true in my life.
In both of these letters Jesus describes the steps they are taking as “death-steps”. Each of these churches, he warns, are taking steps toward death – life apart from him.
Tonight I’m gonna try to cover both of these briefly. After each one we’ll worship and have a chance to take communion.
Forgive me for not covering all the details in each letter – I hope to present the main idea behind each. I’m covering two tonight so that at our last encounter we can look collectively at how these 7 letters speak into our lives and our church.
Thyatira :
Jesus identifies himself in a fairly intimidating way to start off the letter to the church in Thyatira. He describes himself as having eyes like a blazing fire and feet like burnished bronze.
Blazing fire… His eyes are piercing and purifying… they can look right through us.
This phrase takes me back to when I was a kid and the look I received from my mother when she knew I did something wrong but I wasn’t fessing up.
Later on in verse 23 he expands on this saying that he searches hearts and minds. Hearing this introduction certainly puts us on our heels.
It can be disconcerting to us to have someone walk into our lives and introduce themselves as having full knowledge of the things we do in private, the thoughts and feelings we entertain… thoughts and feelings no one else knows.
But he’s not introducing himself this way just to put us on edge. There’s comfort in this piercing look as well.
He doesn’t look right into us in order to frighten us or destroy us, rather to purify us. His look is uncomfortable when we are holding onto things in our lives that do not belong. His look is liberating when we allow him to come close and deal with those things that do not belong.
And his feet are described as “like bronze”… In the first century if you were gonna build something strong, bronze was the metal of choice.
He is not only piercing and purifying, he is strong, sturdy and stable. Whether we’re comfortable with his piercing gaze or not, he’s not going anywhere.
Again, depending on whether we want him to come near, his footsteps might sound frightening like a large linebacker bearing down on you or they might sound welcoming like a large firefighter coming to rescue you.
Nevertheless, he’s good, he’s just and he’s right and he’s coming near.
So Jesus identifies himself and his audience squirms a little in their seats… they swallow hard… a little sweat appears on their brow and then they brace themselves for what follows.
First, they receive affirmation. Jesus points out their deeds, love, faith, service and perseverance.
These are all good… and then he says that they are doing more than they did at first. They were actually moving along in their discipleship.
As apprentices, they were learning! Good news. In essence, Jesus is saying, “I know that you are following me.” That’s huge. They weren’t only going through the motions, they were progressing, going deeper, getting closer to Jesus.
But as the structure goes, Jesus follows the affirmation with criticism.
“Nevertheless,” he says, “… you tolerate Jezebel”. Here’s the problem. Here’s where I believe we as a church today need to perk up.
I think this letter from Jesus might make us shift in our seats, swallow hard and feel uncomfortable because I think his words hit the nail on the head for us today… at least they do for me.
“I know you’re following me,” Jesus says. “But you’re also following someone else.”
Here’s the crux of this letter… really the crux of all seven letters.
It’s a loyalty issue… the church at Thyatira was divided in their loyalty.
And just like Ryan challenged last week, Jesus is challenging us to take a close look at our loyalties.
We don’t know if there was an actual woman named Jezebel in their community but this is a clear reference to a Queen Jezebel in the Old Testament part of the Bible… and the audience of this letter would have known it.
In 1Kings 16 and following we learn about a King of Israel named Ahab. He was bad news. While his mandate as king was clear – follow the ways of Yahweh, God of Israel – he dabbled in following other ways as well… thanks in part to Jezebel.
See, Jezebel was the daughter of a king from a foreign land from a people group that did not follow Yahweh. They followed a number of different gods, including Baal, the fertility god.
Ahab married Jezebel and with her he took in her beliefs.
Suddenly God was sharing Ahab’s allegiance and Ahab wasn’t walking close to God.
If you’ve read through the Old Testament you can feel the tension here. It comes across clear that God is not about to tolerate split allegiance.
This is because divided loyalty doesn’t work. With God, it’s either/or, not both/and.
Jezebel was all about compromise… all about the both/and. She was all about blurring the lines between God’s kingdom and the world’s.
You can almost hear her lies… “God is great at church but let’s not let church affect our business dealings – different rules apply here, everyone knows that.” “The 10 Commandments are nice but check out those 10 Cheerleaders”. “The parting of the Red sea was amazing but you should try out the party at Mediterranean Sea this weekend.”
Her line was, “Give a little bit to God… but try a little bit of this too.”
But there are some things you can’t do just a little bit. Some things demand not less than everything.
For instance, you can’t become a little bit married. Either you are or you’re not. And lip-service won’t cut it. Marriage demands giving all of who you are to your spouse. It doesn’t work to divide that loyalty.
Divided loyalty in marriage isn’t marriage.
It’s called infidelity – whether that infidelity be with another person, our work or ourselves. When our loyalty is divided we go outside of our vows.
Darrell Johnson tells a powerful story of a friend of his from Manila. He starts by explaining that for men to travel in Asia is to encounter a lot of sexual temptation – far more than we do here. At any hotel, in any city in Manila, Hong Kong, Tokyo or Bangkok, “hospitality service” is tantalizingly available. Darrell’s friend shared how he resists that temptation when he travels. He told how he keeps a picture of his wife and kids in his wallet and in his briefcase. He cannot open either without seeing those to whom he has promised his love. When temptation comes – “sweet and strong” as he puts it – he pulls out the picture and looks into his wife’s eyes. One evening he was eating dinner in a hotel restaurant when he was enticingly approached by a “hospitality girl.” He took his wallet out of his pocket and showed the picture to the woman. Pointing to his wife he said, “I belong to her.” And it broke the spell.
Jesus was asking Thyatira… and tonight he asks us: “Whom do you belong to?”
In this letter, Jesus is saying that we can’t have it both ways. We either belong to him or we don’t. Our loyalty can’t be split.
And the only way we can keep our loyalty to him is if we keep him before us. The only way to overcome the temptation to compromise our loyalty to him in the workplace, on our computers, in our minds, in our relationships… the only way we can remain loyal is by looking into his blazing eyes.
His eyes are ablaze because he is just – no question – he penetrates our hearts and minds – he knows where our loyalty lies.
But they’re also ablaze because if we let him he will purify us in our weakness.
Like a surgeon going in to cauterize a wound he’ll go after our divided loyalties so we can be free to follow him uncompromised.
It might not be comfortable but we need to let him near. His mercy is great – he even extended it to Jezebel.
What’s the reward to those who overcome? Jesus promises two things.
1) The privilege of being alongside him in his rule when he comes again and
2) He promises the morning star. The morning star is that star that comes out in the middle of the night… when it is darkest.
And in the middle of that darkness this star tells the world that morning is coming and will break through the darkness.
As Bob Goudzwaard says, “The morning star pulls the morning in behind it just as certainly as Jesus pulls the Kingdom in behind him.”
Do you feel in the dark? Jesus promises the morning star to those who remain loyal to him… the morning star that pulls the morning in behind it just as certainly as Jesus pulls the kingdom in behind him.
Hang in there. He promises the night will only last so long… the morning will come.
Sardis:
Both of the churches we’re looking at tonight were taking steps toward death. Jesus describes them both that way. The church at Thyatira was embracing license – they had a both/and approach to life, compromising their loyalty to Jesus by tolerating and practicing loyalty to others and themselves.
The next church is the church of Sardis. Sardis goes to its death-bed a completely different way: by embracing legalism. Both are death steps – steps toward life without Jesus... steps away from faithfulness and loyalty to him.
Well if we could interpret Jesus with his eyes blazing and bronze feet being a firefighter coming to rescue us in his description with Thyatira, then in his description to the church at Sardis I think we can see him as a paramedic.
A couple of verses into this letter, Jesus tells the church at Sardis that they are on death’s doorstep. Given that condition I think he is describing himself as a rescuer.
He says he holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. The seven stars are the angels he has working with us to help us.
But what about the seven spirits of God? Are there seven spirits of God?
If you remember from a few weeks ago, I mentioned that in the book of Revelation the number 7 is a symbol. It is symbolic of completeness or fullness.
According to Paul Jewett, this is Jesus’ way of describing “the real spirit of God in all of his fullness, in the unity of His manifold energy and grace.”
In other words, the Spirit in all of his power has arrived on the tragic scene.
This carries the same kind of intensity as we feel when we come upon a crisis where there are ambulance lights flashing and paramedics working urgently with all their resources.
The church in Sardis is down and Jesus has come to their side with urgency… he’s about to perform life-saving CPR.
This was probably a shock to the Sardis church.
It says they looked alive but were dead. They probably thought they were fine. They didn’t realize their vital signs were cause for alarm.
They looked alive from the outside because they had what a lot of churches have.
They had active leadership and programs and worship and teaching. But Jesus says they were missing something.
So he tells them to wake up.
Whereas the church at Thyatira was exercising license – they had divided loyalties, the church at Sardis was simply incomplete in their loyalty.
They only had a little bit of loyalty. They were lazy.
Thyatira had a little bit of loyalty toward God and little bit toward Jezebel.
Sardis only had a little bit – it was simply apathetic… an empty shell of church activity.
“Wake up and strengthen what remains and is about to die.”
There’s an interesting piece of history in Sardis that goes with that warning. See, Sardis was known as an impenetrable and safe city.
It had around 80 – 100,000 people. It was situated on a hill and on three sides it was surrounded by 1500’ cliffs. It was a perfect stronghold.
But twice in its recent history it had been conquered. This was embarrassing to this city. Not once but twice this impenetrable city became so apathetic that they were overtaken.
So when Jesus tells them to be watchful, to wake up… that they’re about to die… his words carry the tone of an alarm… like they’re about to be overtaken again.
It’s interesting that only Sardis and Laodicea (the last church) have no affirmation at all from Jesus. He doesn’t even congratulate them that they have a good reputation.
I think this life-threatening condition the church at Sardis had is one that plagues us in North America just as much as the both/and condition of Thyatira.
In fact it may be even worse because this condition looks deceptively healthy. Sardis was apathetic. Sardis was wearing a mask for their apathy and that mask was legalism.
Dallas Willard describes legalism as external conformity to the words of Jesus’ teaching as opposed to inner transformation as a result of it. (2x) Legalism is always about the letter of the law, never the heart of it. It’s about rules and boundaries; black and white.
Legalism is an out for us when we crave safety and simplicity. When the costly life of being Jesus’ followers becomes too much or too tense we’ll opt for the safe route.
This is tricky. When we have the rules down, the to-do lists checked off, the Christian culture nailed down, it can look and even feel very lifelike.
It’s hard to diagnose ourselves in this condition let alone each other. Eugene Peterson describes Sardis this way:
“They retained the forms of religion after losing the Spirit (p.52 Peterson).”
The forms of religion? Does he mean church services like we’re having tonight? Does he mean they continued to meet in small groups and do care ministry and read their Bibles and pray?
If so, then what line did they cross in order to lose the Spirit? And how close are we to that line?
I think there are many ways we could determine whether or not we’re alive in the Spirit as individuals and as the church.
But tonight I’m gonna present the way that I believe this book of Revelation unveils for us.
It’s the most compelling way that I believe Jesus showed he was the real deal – alive in the Spirit.
Peterson said,
“The church attracts to itself persons who like to live in the atmosphere of the holy but have little interest in being holy themselves.”
This is legalism.
Legalism is a mask for apathy. It’s easier to put up a fence of rules around a tidy lifestyle and stay in that fence.
Legalism happens when we take the things in faith we want – the things that bring us comfort – and then leave the rest.
It’s loyalty going half-way.
And when legalism has set in, we stop being watchful where it counts.
We stop watching Jesus and start watching our religious lifestyle.
We stop being alive where it counts but keep a reputation of being alive because of the externals.
I’ve chosen the most evident and most controversial example for this in my talk tonight… this is brave or stupid but probably the latter.
I believe the way the church is reacting to the gay-marriage issue is symptomatic of this Sardis problem… let me explain.
When legalism has set in we will become watchful of our religious lifestyle. We’ll put up a fence around our rules for life and we will protect that lifestyle.
I’m not saying that we should be advocating for homosexuality. Clearly we can’t. But have you noticed the language Christians are using around this issue? We are using words like protect and preserve. And it’s not bad to want to protect those things.
But notice two things while we go there:
1) Jesus never lifted a finger to protect his way of life; and;
2) Notice that there are far bigger fish to fry than the issue of gay-marriage. But we’re apathetic with those other fish. It’s neither in our self-interest nor safe to go after those other, bigger fish.
This is evident as we watch the evangelical church bend over backwards to fend off gay marriage instead of going after the big fish and laying down our lives there.
The gap between the rich and poor grows; the number of starving people is growing. The AIDS epidemic is off the charts…
The scales of corporate injustice are screaming for our attention;
And we’re throwing our best energy and resources at protecting and preserving our Christian lifestyle.
I think we are giving our best energy to protecting our lifestyle… and when we start putting up a fence around our lifestyle we are serving ourselves and are no longer watchful of Jesus.
Instead of protecting this lifestyle, I believe the call is to throw ourselves at the poor and the AIDS problem and injustice and the homosexual community – I believe we’re in protection mode because we are not being watchful of Jesus.
Instead we are being watchful of our lifestyle and we could be on death’s doorstep because of this.
This is legalism. It’s easier to protect a comfortable religious lifestyle… but that’s not the call. And in Sardis, even with the lifestyle intact, Jesus said they were dead not alive in the Spirit.
Hear this: Jesus never came to protect his way of life… he came to give his life away. And that is the sign that we have the Spirit. That is what indicates that we are alive and not dead. Jesus never came to protect his way of life… he came to give his life away. He overcame by dying. It’s the same way we’ll overcome.
Are we giving away our lives in love? As the key verse in Revelation 12:11 states it: are we so in love with Jesus, so loyal that we are not shrinking even from death?
Jesus the paramedic has rushed to our side and calls for us to wake up!
Sardis was a seemingly impenetrable city – 1500’ cliffs on 3 sides and yet it was overtaken twice because of apathy.
In our legalism we think we’re awake but it’s a mask for apathy.
We’re at death’s doorstep about to exchange the high risk/high reward, lay-down-our-lives adventure of following Christ for a hemmed-in, low risk, protectionist, no-name brand misadventure.
The exchange is safe and even seems logical as we sit behind our fence acknowledging how the world around us is falling apart.
But following Christ isn’t only about living differently. It’s about living differently in the middle of the world that’s falling apart… and giving our lives - including our comfortable, protected lifestyle - away.
In his book, The Lion, the Witch and Wardrobe, CS Lewis has the beavers telling the children about Aslan the lion, which is the Jesus figure in the story. Susan, one of the children, asks the beaver the question, “Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.” “That you will, dearie, and make no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver. “If there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without his knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or just silly.” “Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy. “Safe”? said Mr. Beaver. “Who said anything about being safe?” Of course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He is the King, I tell you.”
Jesus is not safe. He never claimed to be.
He never intended for us to have a fence around us.
He intended to fling us out into the broken, dirty, dangerous world.
These letters are for our courage to do exactly that and to love him faithfully all the while.
Not less than everything… anything less than everything is a move toward death’s doorstep.
We have to be careful with our freedom, our license. It’s not both/and, it’s either/or.
And we have to be careful with legalism: Halfway loyalty isn’t life in the Spirit – it’s an empty shell masking death.
Have the Goo-Goo Dolls hit the nail on the head for us? Are we giving a little bit of our life to him?
Or is it, Not less than everything? Will we overcome by the blood of the lamb – not even shrinking from death itself?
What is the Spirit of Jesus saying as his penetrating eyes look into our hearts?
If we have ears, may we hear what the Spirit is saying to us.
If you feel overwhelmed, I’m with ya. It feels bigger than me. In closing, let’s take comfort in these words from Darrell Johnson:
“Jesus never says “Go, be new people, be alive.” He always says, “Come, come to Me, drink of Me, eat of Me, receive from Me the life-giving Spirit of God.” It is the Spirit who comes and makes us alive!”
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