Pastor Wilson
Reality check
Big idea:
Jesus calls us to repent of all compromise in an idolatrous world
Avoid carrying our modern lenses to understand the content more than 2000 years ago
Rev 2:12-17 (Pergamum)
“To the angel of the church in Pergamum write:
These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. 13 I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives.
14 Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. 15 Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
17 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.
4 components:
1. A description of Christ divinity (rev 2:18)
“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.
2. A commendation of strength (rev 2:19)
I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.
3. A rebuke and consequence of disobedience (rev 2:20-23)
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.
4. A promise of those who overcomes (rev 2:24-29)
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.
Rev 2:18-29 (Thyatira)
“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. 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.
Rev 2:14-15 (Food sacrifice to idols) (Sexual immorality)
Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. 15 Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
Rev 2:20 (Food sacrifice to idols) (Sexual immorality)
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.
Jezebel (is not OT jezebel but a metaphor) referring to:
Female leader in the church who lead the people away from God
Rev 2:23
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.
Numbers 22-24
Balaam:
Taught the king of Moab Balaak to seduce the israelites to sexual orgies and led many to worship the gods of Moab. In ancient pagan practices, sexual orgies were part of the worship ceremony unto their gods which Yahweh did not permit. Balaam advice was very simple: to have Israel compromise their believing loyalty to Yahweh through sexual immorality and from there lead them to worship of other gods.
Entrap is to sin against God, Taught people in Moab
1 kings 16:29-34 (Jezebel)
In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years. 30 Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. 31 He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. 32 He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. 33 Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than did all the kings of Israel before him.
34 In Ahab’s time, Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho. He laid its foundations at the cost of his firstborn son Abiram, and he set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, in accordance with the word of the Lord spoken by Joshua son of Nun.
Ahab - an evil israel king married Jezebel who is a Phoenician princess. The Phoenicians chief diety was baal. Jezebel killed prophets of Yahweh and led Ahab and Israel to worship Baal and many other deities. Why? Because Jezebel represented the gods of her nation.
Both Baal and Jezebel led Israel to compromise their believing loyalty to Yahweh. The compromise is through worship of other gods and sexual immoral lifestyle.
Why did the believers compromise their relationship with God through these 2 incidents?
While both pergamum and Thyatira were centres for business especially in Thyatira, it was a major tradehub and for merchants to gain connections and credibility to trade with each other, they had to join trade guilds. And every guild had its patron gods link to temples where they have their meetings, their meal fellowship and of course the orgies.
The compromise happened when Believers joined the worship of the pateon gods and the fellowship meals and orgies in the temples. They compromise to gain access, to gain acceptance into the trade guilds where they could make a living with the rest of the merchants.
The world system challenges us to do the very opposite.
Our Lord Jesus is fully aware of what you're going through as much as He was aware of the believers struggles in Pergamum and Thyatira.
Christ gives very strong promises to those who will remain loyal to Him.
Rev 2:17
Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.
Rev 2:25-29
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.
Morning star means divine status that grant you divine authority that allows you to rule the nations with Christ through eternity
Live with less today without compromise and be assured of your eternity with Him tomorrow.
1 Samuel 15:22 (Nothing must replace the obedience factor between you and God)
But Samuel replied:
“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as in obeying the Lord?
To obey is better than sacrifice,
and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
Obedience is better than sacrifice
We must trust that God will grant us the favour and provide for our needs as we maintain our loyalty to Jesus Christ
Rev 3:1-3 (Sardis)
“To the angel[a] of the church in Sardis write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits[b] of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, 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.
Church of sardis appeared to be fervent and vibrant but they were walking dead bodies or like zombies. On the outside alive but dead inside. This is a severe rebuke by Christ.
Rev 3:14-19 (Laodicea)
To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.
The city of laodicea boosted great resources because it was a Great banking hub city but it has no natural water (sounds like singapore). The city had to pipe in water from a hot spring pf another city, and by the time the hot spring water reach laodicea, it was lukewarm. In ancient times, people like to have hot water or cold drinks. Hot water from hot spring has medicinal benefits and for hot beverages. Cold water brings much relief in a drink from hot weather. Hot or cold water is good but lukewarm water was disgusting because it was not useful at all. God use Lukewarm to describe Laodicea church as disgusting. They had become wealthy and prideful. Believers were self sufficient with much resources but in the eyes of God they were wretch, pitiable, poor, blind and naked.
In Singapore we must be careful not to be self sufficient that we no longer need Christ in our lives.
The issue is never about the material things that we possessed, the issue is whether our hearts are possessed by the material things?
How do we then create a dependency on Christ when surrounded by status, materialism and the pride of self sufficiency?
Rev 3:20
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with Me.
(This verse is not a salvation call. It is for Christ giving an invitation to believers to humbly open the door of our hearts and welcome Him, because self sufficiency and pride shuts Cjrist out of our lives. We must keep the door of our hearts open to Christ.)
There's just so much pressure in the market place, demands at home front, and expectation in life to do well. Living in such a performance driven environment can cause us to be distracted by busyness, by climbing the ladder where we slowly remove Christ unintentionally and over time we become like the church in laodicea and sardis, where we slowly compromise our faith and negatively affect our relationship with Christ
How do we prevent this from happening to us, to our family? How do we ensure a constant dependence upon Christ?
We must not allow the environment around us to mold and shape us where we compromise our believing loyalty to Jesus Christ.
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