Session 7 – A Study in Revelation; Rev: 2 – 3:4: Mark Lanier, 02/25/24

Revlelation Lesson 7
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[00:00:00] This is the week for the Houston Rodeo, and we do have a lot of people on the internet who are cowboys and cowgirls who watch this, uh, who, who participate in rodeo. Of course, for some, the rodeo's not as much what's inside as it is what's outside at the Houston Rodeo. But in the sense of a rodeo theme, I thought I would give you the three points, uh, of, of today's lesson, uh, with a little, uh, rodeo kick.

So first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna set up the letters that we are looking at in the Book of Revelation. The second thing we'll do is examine those letters themselves, and before we go home, we will have our points for home. So let's [00:01:00] start with the setup of the letters. If you've been in here, and this is our eighth class or s- no, it's our seventh class in Revelation, um, each of the letters actually has seven parts to them.

Now, if you're new, Jack's not been here, Katherine's not been here, um, uh, it's worth saying that the Book of Revelation, it belongs to an old type of literature called Jewish apocalyptic literature. I met another guest down here, a young lady named Taran, T-A-R-A-N, and I asked her, "Have you read Taran Wanderer, Volume I, in Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain?"

She said, "No." I dare say she's pretty typical of this class. However, nerd boy over here read them multiple times. Uh, thank you very much. Three of us. [00:02:00] Um Okay, that's it. Three of us. All right. Well, they belong in a genre of literature. Uh, there's a certain kind of literature, and they're a type of that literature.

I think they're actually based on Norse mythology, but it's kind of a fantasy type literature. And, and there was a type of literature 2,000 years ago that's called apocalyptic literature, and it had certain traits within it: symbolism, a peculiar use of numbers, visions and dreams, a coming cataclysm in an age to come, angels and demons.

And part of that was this peculiar use of numbers. They used numbers in ways we don't. And so, for example, the number seven was a complete number, and it represented the idea of completeness because three was a spiritual number, a heavenly number. Four was an earthly [00:03:00] number. So if you add them together, you have all things spiritual and all things earthly, seven, or if you multiply them, 12.

Numbers that symbolized back then totality and completeness. This was not unique to Israel. This was not unique to apocalyptic literature. This was true in ancient Greece. It was true in ancient Babylon. It was true in a number of different ancient cultures that numbers had these symbolic ideas behind them.

So it's notable that you can dissect these letters into seven different parts to make the full letter. It's also notable that at the beginning of Revelation, there are letters to seven churches. So you have seven letters, and those letters being to seven churches tell us that while they are in fact written to specific churches, [00:04:00] the fact that there are seven tells us that they're written for the entirety of the church.

And so these are letters that you and I rightly read, not only looking to understand what they said to the recipient church, but to see what they say to us. Notice also that it's not that each church got one letter and that's all. All seven churches got all seven letters because all of the letters are intended in its fullness for all of the church for all time.

And so you've got seven letters there. Each part ha-- each letter can be divided into seven parts. You've got the salutation and address. You then have a designation of Christ, and Christ will designate himself self- designate in a way that is consistent with what he [00:05:00] says in the letter. So for example, if I'm gonna write a demand letter because someone has cheated you and we wanna get them brought to justice, then I'm gonna write it as a lawyer.

It's going on my law letterhead. It's gonna say, "This is Mark Lanier. I'm

a lawyer. You cheated my client. You better make it right, or I'm gonna have my way with you in court." It doesn't technically say it quite that way, but that's the thrust, okay? But if I'm gonna write a letter for you that's a letter of recommendation, I'm gonna talk about how I've known you for however long I've known you and, and the ways that I know you, because that's what's gonna be relevant to the recommendation.

Doesn't matter that I'm a lawyer if I'm recommending you to be a, a [00:06:00] driver for this, that, or the other. What matters is I've ridden with you, and I know how you drive. So you put a description in there of yourself that's relevant to what you have to say So Christ does that in these letters. He designates himself in ways that, that tie in to the message he's got to say.

Then the third thing that these letters do by and large is, uh, is they commend the churches for what they're doing well. The fourth thing they do, all but two, will then condemn the church for what they're not doing well After that, there's a warning or a threat. Might-- The warning might be, "Look out, bad things are coming your way.

Get ready." The threat might be, "If you don't change, this is gonna happen." And then there's an exhortation. [00:07:00] "If you've got ears to hear, listen to what's being said." And, uh, they close with a promise. And, uh, that's the way each one's written. Now, I'm not going to take each of those and go through the letters today with each form.

You can do that on your own. Uh, once you've done it with a couple, which we did last week, it's pretty easy to sort through and do. But I give you that as a setup for the letters. Now, Carol Wilson sits over there. Hi, Carol. Carol, it's nine forty-five. I'm through with part one. Carol watches the clock carefully, and she gets a little bit concerned if I let part one drag on too long to have time for everything else.

She told me last week I hit the timing. She said, "You stuck the landing like a Romanian gymnast." And, uh... Or she didn't really [00:08:00] say that. She said that I hit the timing. So I'm, I'm through with part one, and we're moving on to part two, the letters themselves, because this is gonna take a little more time. So these letters in the Book of Revelation, they're really starting in chapter two, and they're chapter two and chapter three.

Chapter one is just setting the scene. The letters themselves, if we put a map up here, in chapter one, we know that John's writing this. He's getting these vi- this-- these visions while he's, uh, uh, on the Isle of Patmos, and it's offshore from what is now modern Turkey, what was then Asia Minor. And you can stand on the two hills, mountains, that kind of make up Patmos, and you can see on a good, clear day the shoreline, even though it's some fifteen, twenty-plus miles away.

You can see the shoreline of, of Turkey, [00:09:00] where these letters were being written. And we looked last week at the letter to the church at Ephesus and the letter to the church at Smyrna. And so this week we're going to pick up with letter number three, which is to the church at Pergamum, also in some ancient, uh, manuscripts, Pergamon, M-O-N.

Same thing. If you had been traveling the road And you'd come to, down the main road, you'd come to the city of Pergamum. You would see that it was built up on a hill, and it was pretty awesome. It had this massive temple up on the hill. And, uh, uh, you can see, uh, i- i- it, it-- this is a reconstruction that was done in the 1800s of what it might have looked like.

That's when they were really starting the process of, [00:10:00] of archeology at Pergamum. And so they were able to take it and, and try to r- That's a computer simulation before there were computers. And so it's an artist sitting there looking at everything, trying to say, "This is what it would have looked like." Uh, and the, the temple, in fact, you can see if you go to Berlin, uh, there's a museum a, of Pergamum in Berlin 'cause they took a bunch of that stuff.

But this helps you see size-wise with people what this would have looked like. Awesome up on the hill. It wasn't the o-- This is a temple to Zeus. It wasn't the only temple, though. You had temples. Uh, Augustus Caesar

That was the Caesar when Christ was born. Augustus Caesar allowed a temple to be built to honor him as a god

at [00:11:00] Pergamum. It is the very first place that was allowed to bu- or that built a temple honoring the Caesar as a god And Pergamum was in a sense Rome's ruling arm. It was the capital city, if you will, of that area. And, uh, the, the proconsul in that area would've had what in Latin is called the ius gladii.

And, um, ius is, is law or right, and gladii is a sword So the the proconsul, the, the ruling arm, if you will, of Rome, [00:12:00] had this right of the sword, had the right to put to death anybody that he chose. And this right of the sword was part and parcel of this being a, a Roman area. So the, the, the, um, a Roman, um, ruling center.

So within the framework of that, you get this letter, and here we've got the text of the letter: "To the angel of the church in Pergamum, write: 'The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword.'" Now, it's referencing th- that's Jesus's self-designation that I talked about. Jesus is self-designating himself.

He's, he's designating himself as the one who has the sharp two-edged sword. [00:13:00] Now, this is written to a city where the proconsul had the power or the right of the sword Yet Jesus has the ultimate authority over life and death. And so Jesus is the one who has the sharp two-edged sword. He continues to say, "I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is."

And you can't walk anywhere near Pergamum without looking up and seeing this ostentatious, huge temple up at the top, at the Acropolis, at the top of the city, up at the, the, the peak of what you're looking at And whether Satan's throne is a reference to that big, bold temple, whether it's a [00:14:00] reference to the fact that you're worshiping the emperor at Pergamum, whether it's a reference to all of the above

Satan's throne is there. And yet in the midst of this, the writer says, and this moves into the commendation, "You hold fast my name. You didn't deny my faith even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness who was killed among you where Satan dwells." Now, we don't have a contemporary account of the death of Antipas, the martyrdom of Antipas.

We have accounts, but they're much later. They're still fascinating Because they say that Antipas was killed in a brazen bull, [00:15:00] and we know that this was used of other Christian martyrs as well. Let me tell you about the brazen bull Um

Several hundred years before Jesus, an inventor in Greece invented as a torture device a brazen bull. The bull was made of bronze, was hollowed out in the center, had from the center pipes that had, um, uh, kinda like, you know how you can have a duck call and depending on how you cut it and how you bend the reed it makes a different sound?

Um, the pipes were built in such a way where if you're inside the bull and you're yelling, it would go through the pipes, come out the mouth of the [00:16:00] bull sounding like a bellowing bull. They would take people, put them inside the bull, the bronze bull. They would close the door and lock it, and then light a fire underneath, and they would roast them to death.

They had vents that would cause the, the fire to not only go in to the cavity, but it would also follow out and come out the nose, so it looked like smoke coming out the nose of the bull while the person being roasted is bellowing in a way that makes it sound like the bull is bellowing. And that's the way history says Antipas was martyred.

We also have historically, they didn't only martyr him, [00:17:00] but Christian women and children were killed the same way

Jarrett and I were talking this, about this, Pastor Jarrett and I, and his co- his comment was, "Well, that's gonna put into perspective when I think I'm having a bad day." I'm kinda like, "Yeah, I'm not complaining about my allergies." Um, I mean, this is, this is, um

We live in a luxury land And I fear sometimes we don't realize it

Now, that's the commendation. Then Jesus says in the letter, "But I have a few things against you You have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, [00:18:00] who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel so they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. This is a reference back to Numbers 25 on forward with a special focus on the verse in 31, verse 16.

Let me give you the story in case you don't remember it or don't know it, and then I'll show you the verse. Israel's been called out of Egypt. The most feared army of the world in that area was the army of Pharaoh, and the army of Pharaoh could not stop God from delivering His people. The Red Sea could not stop God from delivering His people.

The various tribes they came up against that fought them [00:19:00] could not stop God from delivering His people. So when the people of God get near King Balak, King Balak says, "We've gotta stop them." And he sends his minions to hire the prophet Balaam and says, "Would you come curse Israel so we can whip them?" He says, "Well, let me check."

He runs his conflicts check, comes back and says, "No, I have a conflict. God says not to do this." He says, "Well, I'll pay you double," thinking it was a negotiation ploy. Balaam says, "Really?" "Yes, double. Double the going rate for cursing someone." Balaam says, "Let me rerun my conflict check and see if I can do that."

He reruns it, "Heh-eh. God says don't do it." [00:20:00] Comes back and says, "Man, I hate this, but I can't take the money. I can't do it." "I'll triple it." Bottom line is, uh, Balaam, uh, uh, especially with his donkey, um, figures out this is not what he can do. But then you start reading this story and it starts unfolding that what couldn't be done in a military victory against Israel, instead the locals come in with the seduction ploy.

"Hey, interested in a little of the local women? Hey, interested in a little of the local culture where we sacrifice food to idols and make the best barbecue you've ever eaten?" How about that? And Israel falls for it And [00:21:00] we have this passage after reading through it in Numbers, and you read through it and, and oh, Israel falls hook, line, and sinker.

And, and the consequences are severe. And then you've got the passage in Numbers 31 verse 16 which tells us

"Behold, these, on Balaam's advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord in the incident of Peor. So the plague came among the congregation of the Lord." That's what Balaam told, "I can't curse them, but have you thought about maybe seducing them away from God? You're not gonna be able to beat them in a head-on battle.

God's taking care of them. [00:22:00] But come on, everybody loves a good barbecue, and these are red-blooded American men And I'm just reminded of that passage, "The serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made." The temptations of Satan are generally not delivered by somebody wearing a red Halloween devil costume with pointed ears and a pitchfork and a switching tail Satan disguises himself as an angel of light

The first temptation he does to Jesus is after 40 days of fasting. He says, "Hey, we've got a lot to talk about, but you gotta be starving. So since you're the Son of God, why don't you turn these rocks into [00:23:00] bread, get something to eat, and then we'll talk." I mean, how deceptive. What could be friendlier than offering bread to a starving man?

And so this seems to maybe be the teaching of the Nicolaitans. We're not sure. It doesn't have to read that way. We're not sure what the teaching of the Nicolaitans are. But the bottom line is, is m- the people-- some of the people in the church at Pergamum They were fine withstanding the full on, dead on onslaught, but they were being twisted on these issues.

And the odds are decent that what was happening there is there would be the, the pagan festivals that were just part of all of those temples you're seeing. And some people in the [00:24:00] church were following the teaching of Balaam, and they were saying, "You know, we're, we're-- we know that there's no truth behind these idols, so we can go participate.

You know, we can..." It's called syncretism. It's called taking God's truth but integrating it in ways of culture that pollute the truth of God. And there's-- we integrate with culture in ways that don't. I mean, uh, the day after tomorrow is Tuesday. Tuesday gets its name from the Norse god Tiw. And so the name Tuesday is named after the Norse god Tiw.

And when you say Tuesday, you're not ar-- uh, honoring the Norse god as if he owns that day

I think two actually is a woman, as if she owns [00:25:00] that day. But that doesn't, you know, that's, that's just, that's not what's talked about here. This is a different kind of syncretism that violates core morality of God. So what does he say? He says, "Therefore repent. If not, I'll come to you soon and I'll war against them with the sword of my mouth."

See, he introduced himself as the man w- uh, as a man with a sword, two-edged sword. He'll use that So whoever has ears needs to hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I'll give some of the hidden manna And I'll give him a white stone with a new name written on it that no one knows except the one who gets it.

The hidden manna. You can read eight gazillion people [00:26:00] interpreting that. I just stick with John on it. Jesus says He is the manna and, and that, that's come down from heaven. And so the, the people who conquer will have Jesus in fullness. They'll, they'll find their sustenance from Jesus. They don't need to go party with the locals they can party with Jesus And they'll get the hidden manna, and they'll get a white stone with a new name.

Eight gazillion people will tell you what the white stone is. Most of them don't make sense to me. They used a white stone sometimes to get admitted to festivals, and so some say you'll get a white stone so that you can get admitted into the kingdom. I don't see that. They're already in the kingdom. Some think it might have been a, a not guilty vote [00:27:00] because when you were on trial in that day, in that era, it wasn't uncommon for the jurors to cast a, a, a black stone if you're guilty and a white stone if you're not guilty.

I don't go there either because these people are redeemed people. They're in the church But what that white stone is, the purity associated with the color white can be a part of it. The stone with the idea of it being an integral part of the church. Peter is the rock, but the church is built of stones, and Jesus is the foundation stone.

We don't know with precision what it is, but the bottom line is, is there is a, a reward when you suffer and conquer over these sins. What I like about this isn't, gee, it's the white [00:28:00] stone means this or the white stone means that. What I like about this is there are a lot of people who are stuck in sin, and sin is very sticky.

Sin doesn't just, um, doesn't just happen. When it's over, it's over. Sin will get you in its clutches and with claws will hang on to you and cut you and get deeper in you And yet Jesus makes it clear that there can be a release and a freedom from that, that there can be a conquering. So I don't know what sin you've got in your life, and I can't give you the magic button.

I can tell you 12-step programs have helped a boatload of people conquer various types of, of entrapment that they [00:29:00] couldn't otherwise. I can tell you that worship can help transform you. I can tell you that studying the Word helps transform your mind. There are a lot of different ways that we learn and grow, but don't despair.

Work on conquering. And that new name, a lot of people wanna know, well, what name is it? Is it the name Jesus? Uh, what name is it? Uh, am, am, uh, can I be frank?

Um Okay. Uh, can I, can, can I be frank? All right. I, I don't know what the new name is, but I don't think we need to know because that word name, onoma, in the, in the Greek In not just old Hebrew culture and, and in [00:30:00] biblical times of Hebrew and, uh, but in Greek culture, in all of the old cultures, your name meant your reputation You're gonna get a new reputation.

You're gonna be known for something other than worshiping at the throne of Satan. You can change your life by the power of Jesus. Do it. It's worth it. And that's that letter, and written not only to that church, but for all churches for all times. It's one of the seven. And so we leave Pergamum, and we stay on the road, and we go down to Thyatira.

Thyatira, there's still a city there, so when you're looking at the ruins, uh, you can look through some of the ruins and find your internet cafe right on the other side So I got an old drawing from the 1800s when they were archaeologically seeking this space out. This is not a river [00:31:00] here. This is a valley, because this was a valley town.

It wasn't up on a hill. And because it was a valley town, the roads went through it, and it was a natural marketplace. Nobody wants to haul their goods for trading up a steep hill. Everybody wants to be down on the level ground where there's easy thoroughfare, where the traffic's going back and forth Interesting note.

Lydia, Acts 16:14, who's, uh... Let's make sure we get this right. I'm on antihistamines, so there's always, like, a 50/50 chance I'm gonna say something really goofy, and David Case is gonna say to me on the way out, "Hey, that was real good except these two things where you just short-circuited your brain." Saying, "Thank you, David.

I feel better."[00:32:00]

Acts 16:14. "One who heard us

One who heard us was a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods who was a worshiper of God So this is in Philippi that Paul bumps into Lydia. She's from Thyatira. It's a place where they had a lot of commercial activity. Where you got a lot of commerce, you got a lot of potential for sin

This is, uh, some more of the ruins, which I guess you could see if you lived in that apartment right up there. Uh, this is an old Byzantine basilica that was built there because of the significance of this town in church history. And so the angel to the church in [00:33:00] Thyatira writes, "The words of the Son of God," this is the only designation of Him, of Jesus this way in the Revelation letters.

"The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, whose feet are like burnished bronze." You may be saying, "What's that symbol of?" I'm not sure. It doesn't have to be a symbol of anything. Remember, this is pre-movie days, and so some of this language is just to give you this visual like a movie.

And I gotta tell you, you see the Son of God with eyes like a flame of fire and feet like burnished bronze, and you got someone who means business Commendation. I know your works Hmm. Speaking of works, that's not working. There. I know your works. I know your [00:34:00] love. Remember the church at Ephesus we dealt with earlier?

They had lots of works. They just didn't have love. This church has got works. It's got love. It's got service. It's got, uh, faith, service, patient endurance I mean, this is all really big stuff. And so This remote has totally quit

Get that. Service. This Greek word for service, dikai-- uh, diak- konion, konion is the form there, but the... It's not the Greek word for a servant. That's a [00:35:00] doulos. It would be douloi, I guess, in this sense, or doulon. It, it, it is not a, it's not a servant that's expected to serve. Thank you, Brent. It is someone who is choosing to serve.

And so he says, "I know y- that, you know, you're not serving out of obligation, you're serving out of choice." That's a good thing. It's a sign they're serving each other. We serve God as His servants, but we serve each other when we choose to

You know, I, I've got Greg here. Greg and I will hopefully try to serve each other because we choose to, not because we're obliged to. There's just a difference there. This is good stuff, but here's the admonition: "I have this against you, you tolerate that [00:36:00] woman Jezebel." Now, you might be saying, "I thought she died, like, 700, 800 years before."

Yes, she did, but the-- she's being used, kind of like Balaam, as an Old Testament illustration of something. Jezebel. So I would just love to know. You know, some people have absolutely ruined certain names for history. You know, I mean, seriously, when you, when you sit there... Our daughter Gracie has three girls.

We had four girls, and we really wanted to give them Biblical names, and Gracie really wanted to give them Biblical names, but she didn't wanna use the same Biblical names that we had already used. So she's gotta come up with new ones. I promise you, it never entered her mind to name her kid Jezebel

You know, you're not gonna find many babies born in Israel named Hitler. It just doesn't happen. The name's been ruined [00:37:00] So, Jezebel. You think it works?

That's all right. I'll just hold it and it'll make me feel better knowing that I'm holding something that doesn't work.

So calls herself a prophetess. This is a woman in the church who calls herself someone proclaiming the Word of God. And she's teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. Now, you wanna read the story of Jezebel? You can read it in 1 Kings 16 through 19.

Doesn't meet a happy ending But Jezebel is, is the label, the [00:38:00] name given to this woman in the church The writer says, I, or Jesus says, "I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality." This is fascinating because she's teaching others in the congregation it's okay. She's teaching them to be sexually immoral, and yet it's attributed to her

I tell you, I just Do you know the Keith Green song on his No Compromise album? Song that's got that line, "Make my life a prayer to You." I wanna do what You want me to. No empty words, no white lies, no token [00:39:00] prayers, no compromise

Jezebel didn't know that song She wasn't teaching that song

And so the, the letter continues, "Behold, I'm gonna throw her onto a sick bed." She's getting a little mercy there because the real Jezebel got thrown out of a window down to the street where the dogs ate her, licked up her blood

But it's an interesting little pun nonetheless, nonetheless, that he's throwing her onto a bed because she's teaching people to commit adultery as if it's okay

She's not getting thrown onto the adultery bed, it's gonna be the sick bed. "And those who commit adultery with her I'll throw into great [00:40:00] tribulation unless they repent of her works."

There's repentance. Get it in gear, do it right. I'll strike her children dead. This is not a reference to the fact that God's gonna, like, find her children and kill them. It's talking about the ones who follow her

Th- this is, this is serious stuff I want the churches, all the churches will know I'm the one who searches mind and heart. He's the Son of God. I will give to each of you according to your works. Now, to the rest of you who don't hold to this teaching... See, it's a teaching. Whoops. To the rest of you who don't hold to this teaching, who haven't learned what some call the deep things of Satan.

As commentators generally think what she was doing, as bizarre as it sounds, is something [00:41:00] along the lines of, "Hey, we need to be able to teach people to leave the adulterous ways, to leave the... But the best way to do it is to understand it and experience it." See, if you'll walk in the sin, you'll better understand the sinner.

You know, this is telling the alcoholic to go to the bar to help people. You just-- This is, this is, this is exactly what one fella said to me in high school who was trying to get me to do some drugs sometime. "Nah, I'm not gonna do your drugs, thanks very much, have a good day." "Well, why?" "Ah, that's, that's not what I need in my life, that's not what I want in my life."

"Well, how do you know if you never tried it?" Well, I don't wanna murder people either, and I'm just gonna say I don't wanna do it without trying it first, okay? Uh, let's go kill somebody. Yeah, I didn't really like that. I think [00:42:00] I'm just gonna not do it anymore. I, I can make some decisions without having to be in the moment

We can come up with all sorts of goofy reasons to justify any sin we want. This is what Jeremiah said, the heart's deceitful above all things. The heart is desperately sick. You don't even begin to understand what your heart will tell you is okay to do But Jesus says you need to hold fast until what you have till I come.

The one who conquers, who keeps my works until the end, I'm gonna give him authority over the nations. He'll rule them with a rod of iron as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority. Jezebel wanted to be the ruler She didn't make it

Now, I wanna read Psalm 2 [00:43:00] Because Psalm 2 is being used by Jesus in this letter, and many of us will read this letter and maybe not realize it. So look at Psalm 2

Why do the nations rage? Why do the peoples plot in vain? Kings of the earth set themselves, rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed. They say, "Let's burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords." Well, I got news for you, the psalmist says. He who sits in the heavens laughs.

The Lord holds them in derision. He'll speak to them in His wrath. He'll terrify them in His fury saying, "I've set my king on Zion, my holy hill. I'll tell the decree, 'You are

my Son. Today I have begotten [00:44:00] you.'" How did Jesus introduce Himself in this letter? Son of God "Ask of me, and I'll make the nations your heritage, the ends of the earth your possession. You'll break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." You will rule over them with a rod of iron as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father.

You'll break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Therefore, O kings, be wise. Be warned. Serve the Lord with fear. Rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son. That word kiss is, uh, uh, related to the idea of falling prostrate before God. Lest he be angry and you perish in the way, for his [00:45:00] wrath is quickly kindled.

But blessed are those who take refuge in him. That's the reference for this letter. He'll rule them with a rod of iron as when earthen pots are broken in pieces. And I'll give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Let's keep going. So Patmos to Ephesus to Smyrna to Pergamum to Thyatira, and the next town is Sardis.

Now Sardis, you can still see some of the ruins there. You don't really have a, a, much of a village built with it. Here's the letter: "To the angel of the church in Sardis write, 'The words of him who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you're dead.'"

Or as they say [00:46:00] in New Zealand, dead. Dead. I know you have the reputation of being alive, but you're dead, which was the destiny of Jezebel's children if they didn't do something about it. The reputation. Huh. Do you know the Greek word for reputation used here?

Just the word name You have the name of being alive. I told you that word name stands for your reputation, who you were, what you did. It's even translated that way here. When we praise the name of Jesus, when we talk about His wonderful name, when we talk about the beauty of His name, it's not magic in the J-E-S-U-S.

When we say Jesus has the most [00:47:00] beautiful name, it doesn't mean... First of all, Jesus is, is a Gre- an Americanized, a English word. It's not even the way you would say His name But having said that, the beauty of His name, the name that's above all names, the name at which every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, the name that is worthy of our worship and adoration is what He's done.

It's His reputation. It's Jesus who died for us. That is what is above all else. You have the reputation of being alive, but you're dead. And this is coming from the words of him who has the seven spirits, the Holy Spirit, seven being that number for complete, the one who has the Holy Spirit of God, and the seven stars.

You're-- You seem at peace, but I gotta tell you, [00:48:00] a cemetery's pretty peaceful Rest in peace. But this is not the peace for the living. We're not to be dead to this world Says, "Wake up, strengthen what remains and is about to die. I've not found your works complete in the sight of my God." I know what you're thinking.

You're thinking, "Whoa, that's the Bob Dylan song." When you gonna wake up? When you gonna wake up? When are you gonna wake up and strengthen the things that remain? And yes, I was going to play it for you. And yes, we don't have time but for the first sentence.[00:49:00]

Big dreams. Dream, baby, but in order to dream, you gotta still be in a scene Victorious sleep

You gonna wake

You know, there's a, a carelessness and an indifference in life that some people have, but that's-- those aren't living attributes. That's sleepwalking. That's walking dead. That's zombie life We're not to be careless, we're not to be indifferent, we're to be alive in Christ. If you heard s- Jared's sermon this morning or you're gonna hear it, he's gonna talk about how important it is using the parable of the talents, how important it is that we live the kingdom life

Remember then what you've received and heard. Keep it. Repent. If you don't wake up, I'll come like a thief, and you won't know at what hour I'll come. By the way, those were real words to this city or this town,[00:50:00]

'cause this town was up on a hill, and there was only one approach, and it considered itself the safest town in the world because you just couldn't get to it unless you came up this one little approach, unless, which all the, th- those, that was all they guarded. Unless you were really good at climbing. If you were really good at climbing, they were easy picking, and they had been picked several times in their history, totally unexpected.

Jesus says, "I'm gonna come like a thief, and you won't know the hour I'll come." Now, you've still got a few names in Sardis, people who haven't soiled their garments, and they walk with me in white. They're not walking dead. They're worthy. But the one who conquers will be clothed in white. I won't blot his name out of the book of life.

I'll [00:51:00] confess his name before my Father and before His angels. If you've got an ear, hear what I've got to say And that gets us to that letter. Now, we've got more letters, and we don't have more time. So in the spirit of Hank I'm gonna skip to points for home and throw those other letters in later. By the way, River Oaks shopping spree anybody?

How about a, about a nice cold Coca-Cola? Maybe some s- whoops, Starbucks? That's what you have to look forward to if you come back where we snap, whoops, snap back to reality. Okay, d- is that just making you wish? Uh-huh, it'll come. Okay, let's get to, uh, points for home. Boom, here we go. Points for home. Wake up Wake up and strengthen what remains and is about to [00:52:00] die.

These letters are sounding an alarm. Get serious about life It's harder for us because we don't run the risk of being put in a brazen bull But we need to be serious and mindful about what we're doing. Uh, raise your hand if your days are limited. Every hand should go up

Use them

The other two points for home will have to wait 'cause we didn't get to the letters. But this one's good enough to be three If I could do anything at all, I would implore you to figure out prayerfully through study [00:53:00] how to grow past where you are today All of us need to grow past where we are today It, it doesn't mean you say, "Well, yeah, but I mean, I'm beyond hope."

No, no one's beyond hope. This ... Look, Jezebel's got hope But we need to grow past where we are today That's the encouragement and exhortation in these letters And we shouldn't let the deplorable behavior be something that turns us away from God. It should be something that turns us to Him. Make sense?

Yeah. All right. Next chapter of Revelation may be one of my most favorite, and we'll hopefully do a couple of these letters and next chapter of Revelation. But I think next Sunday-- Where's David Capes? I saw him a minute ago. David, do we have [00:54:00] Alistair in class for an interview next Sunday? So Alistair McGrath is coming in from England.

He is smarter than a tree full of owls. And I hope that you'll be here, and I'll talk to him with you. We'll interview him together, and then we'll finish this section of Revelation the following Sunday. So let me bless you in Jesus' name, and we'll go. Lord, in the name of Jesus, I pray that Your Spirit will convict us of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and that You will walk alongside us and help us understand what it is to be Yours with Your love and Your compassion and Your direction and Your strength for us to walk in a victorious way in faith and love.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.