November 2

Transcript

(Transcribed by TurboScribe)

Lulu is doing her five-kilometre walk in Niagara today. So that's why Kerry Bida is helping us today with the kids. So thanks, Kerry, for that.

And Alexander said, I'm tired of you. I'm going to take a week off. So Andrew got the job.

Again in this day, Lord, our prayer is that we want to see Jesus and only Jesus. You speak the words to the church today, Lord. Difficult words, but also the words of comfort.

So help us as we walk through these words to hear, to look at our own lives, and then, Lord, to listen to what the Spirit says. In Jesus' name, amen. Forgive me, I have a migraine this morning.

I'm not looking for your sympathy. I'm just telling you. All of you have halos.

I don't know where that comes from, but you all have halos today. So you must be really holy on this day. So if I kind of do stuff like this, it's nothing else except it's a little ouch, but that's perfectly fine.

We all deal with our own stuff, right? So number four in the seven churches, Ted, you can put that first slide up. I'm not going to use all of them. I'll tell you which ones we're going to run to, but put the first one up so we can see where we are.

We are in the church of Thyatira or Thyatira. Depends on how you want to say it, but some say Thyatira, some say Thyatira. Sometimes I get the two of them messed up.

Revelation 2, verse 18 to 19. Ah, 29, I mean. To the angel, and remember we said angelos can mean messenger.

It can mean pastor. It can mean leader. To the leader of the church in Thyatira, right? Let me give you a little background on Thyatira before we jump all into this.

Thyatira was nothing like the one we did last week in Pergamon. Pergamon was this acropolis, this city on the hill, and it was beautiful, and it was huge, and it was everything. Thyatira is nothing.

It's a little garrison city actually built to protect Pergamon. So lots of soldiers there, but also a huge industry city, an industrial giant in the end. Lots of trades, lots of guilds.

So things like shoemakers or cobblers, whatever you want to call them. People who did work with pottery, bronze smiths, copper smiths. This one I was thinking, how do I say this? Dyeing people, which sounds completely wrong.

People who did dyeing for a living, of clothing especially. And Ted, you can show this picture. The madder plant was found there in Thyatira, and you can see the madder plant is purple.

They made this beautiful purple cloth, and it should remind you of one of the people that we know from the city of Thyatira. Someone want to take a go at that? Lydia. We read about her in Acts chapter 16, when Paul and Silas and Timothy came to Philippi.

On the Sunday they went out, or the Sabbath they went out, and they found some women, and among them was a woman called Lydia who sold this purple cloth. And it says she came from a city by the name of Thyatira. So at least we know someone who lived in this city.

It's interesting to remind ourselves of these guilds that were in there, like the potters and the bronze smiths that were in there, because we're going to read about them in a few moments. So Ted, let's go back to our Scripture. These are the words, it says, of the Son of God.

Now again, remember what I'm doing. I'm not doing my usual narrative teaching. I'm reading them line by line, and I'm breaking it down for you.

So forgive me. These are the words of the Son of God. The head god of all of the gods' name was Zeus.

The guardian god of the place called Thyatira was the god called Apollo, and he was called the Son of God because his father was Zeus. Now look at the wordplay. These are the words of the Son of God.

But this is not Apollo. This is the Son of God, the one who made heaven and earth, the one who breathed breath into each one of us, the one who sent his Son into this world so that he could die for our sins, and that same Son who rose from the dead, who overcome death, who overcame sin for each one of us, and who is alive and well and sitting on the throne next to his father, the lion from Judah, the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, our Saviour, now redeemed. This is what he writes to Thyatira.

He says, Thyatira, I know you know about Apollo calling himself the Son of God. It's not him writing to you. This is me.

This is your Lord speaking. And then he says, these are the words of the Son of God whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. Oh my goodness.

Chapter 1, 14, 15, you're going to read, you would read this again. This is when Jesus introduces himself. This is how he introduces himself.

The flaming eyes and the feet of bronze. Can we break that down for one second? When we see flaming eyes, our first thing is, oh, holy moly, that's scary because flames burn and flames kill. It's not what he's saying.

Yes, it is dangerous. But what does fire also do? It purifies. And that's where he's going with this.

He's not saying I'm here to burn you. He's saying the fire is that which purifies because the eyes of fire, there is nothing that they don't see. They open it up and they bring the best to the top as fire purifies.

So again, I'm thinking, how do we, how do we translate that into our own lives? And for me, the best translation of that is Psalm 139. Lord, you know me. You see me right through me.

There is not a word in my mouth or you know what I'm going to say. Whether I sit or whether I stand, you know that. You know my coming and my going.

And then he asked that question. He says, where will I go to flee from your presence? Do I go to heaven? You there. Go I do under the earth? You there.

Go I east? Go I west? You are there. I cannot get away from you. Those thoughts are too wonderful for me.

But thank you, Lord, because you hem me in from before in the eye. These are the words of the Son of God. With eyes that blaze like fire, that will burn you, my child, that will search you, to search your heart.

And you know what that Psalmist said at the end? He goes on. You remember you knew me before I was even formed in my mother's womb. And you, Lord, knit me together fearfully and wonderfully.

And then he ends this beautiful Psalm and he says, so search me, O Lord. Search my heart. And then if there's anything, Lord, that is not from you and that is not good that you do not want, please, Lord, take that away.

These are the words of the Son of God. His eyes are like blazing fire, not to burn us, but to search us and to cleanse us and to bring out the best in us. These are also the words of him whose feet are like burnished bronze.

They would hear that immediately, those bronze smiths that work there in that place called Thyatira. They knew about bronze. They knew that bronze was steadfast.

They knew that bronze was not just broken. They knew that bronze would not just die and go away. It's strong.

It's there. It's heavy. What does that say about Jesus? Let's break it down and I'm going to break that word burnished bronze for you in a second from the Greek.

It is pretty cool. When you see that first image takes you back to Daniel when he speaks of the Son of Man that will come with blazing eyes and then these feet of bronze. So the feet of bronze and Daniel are kind of like these feet that will stomp and break everything.

That's not what the feet are doing. It says they're coming, they're heavy, so he's not running. Remember last week he said I was going to come at you at a gallop.

These feet come really slow. Also says you can't move these feet. Where they stand and where they are, they are strong because that's who our God is.

But here's the cool thing. When you take the burnished bronze in Greek, it's got two words and I'm not going to say them to you. I can't.

So it's two words. The one means bronze and the other one means incense. And now Kimberly is nodding her head because the light bulb just turned on.

What was the altar that stood there in the Holy of Holies made of? Bronze. What did they sit on? What did they put on that when the priest went in to pray for the people? Incense is coming with those bronze feet. But there's also this incense that burns on the bronze.

It's the prayers of the people. We read that just a chapter or so ago. The prayers of the people that go up to the Lord and say, Lord, help us.

Lord, take care of us. And he's saying these are the words of the Son of God who sees you and who knows you and who loves you. But he's coming.

He's coming slowly but surely. But he's also coming with the incense for you, praying for you, holding you, being there for you, not to trample you, but to pray for you, because that's what the Son of God does for you. Boy, the Greek is a beautiful language.

Gotta know it. But it also sends a message to those in Praetera who do not know the Lord. He is coming, and he will test, and hopefully he passes.

And so after saying this and showing who he is, he comes with this beautiful comfort for his people. I know your deeds, your love, and your faith, your service, and your perseverance. Love and faith are the most motivation for their deeds of service and perseverance.

Can we break them down? I know your love. He uses the wonderful word. Remember, there's different words for love in Greek.

He uses the word agape in this word. It's that love that gives of itself freely, that love that does not ask, but that love that just overflows, this love that loves compassionately, forgiving. And he says, I know, Thyatira, that that's how you love.

You love compassionately. You love caringly. You give so courageously of yourself.

What a good word. I've often said it. I've come to a place where I sometimes do not like the word love, because it's used so easily.

I love you. I love you. I love you.

I've often joked in the church. I've said when someone comes up to me and said, I really love you, but I have to tell you something, I start running like nobody's business, because next thing that's going to come is going to cut and hurt so badly, because we have lost that kind of love. This is not that kind of love.

This is the love that Jesus Christ had when he left his kingdom and came into this world. This is the love that God has when God looked at us and God could have wiped us off the earth. And instead of doing that, he said, I will give you my child to come and die for you.

It's the kind of love that opens its arms on a cross on Calvary and says, I died for you, and I give you my life. I love you. When we use that word love, think of that for a moment when we say that, because it takes a lot.

It lets the I die, and it gives everything to the one I love. I often say this to the folks when I'm doing marriage prep with them. I say, love is not a feeling.

It's an act of your will, because if it's a feeling today, I feel good. I love you. Tomorrow, I don't feel good.

I don't love you. Then I feel kind of good, and I kind of love you. And then I feel really good, and I love you, and I love you.

And then, oh no, I, no, I love you. I love you. That's how God does.

Because boy, if God's love was a feeling, I think it would be down there all the time. Love is this act of giving, and what a beautiful word that God says to them. I know your deeds.

I see it in the way in which you love, even in a city that is so, so hard to love you. I also see your faith. That's a cool word.

You know what faith means? It means putting your trust in someone else, giving yourself up, and letting it go. Isn't that what we do when we say, I have faith in God? I give it all up, and I say, I trust you with my life. I trust with what you're going to do with my life.

I trust what you said is true, Lord, and I'm going to walk in that word so I have faith in you. God says, I look at you, and I see how you have placed yourself in my hand, and how you walk in my hand. Is it always easy? No.

Is it always what I want to do? No. But faith says, I give it up, and I give it to you, and now I'm going to walk with you, and wherever you lead me, that is where I will go. Faith says, I'll take your sin, and die on the cross, and I know, Father, you're going to open that grave.

The faith is the motivation, and the love is the motivation for the deeds of service and perseverance. Boy, those are big words. Those of us who come from the Dutch Reformed churches would know the word deacons a little better than the Presbyterians.

Presbyters don't really know about deacons. Deacons comes from this word, service, diakonos, and it's talked about of Jesus so often in the Scripture that Jesus was the great diakonos, servant, one who does not ask to be served, but one who serves, and gives, and freely gives. I know.

I know your deeds. I know how you serve, and give freely. Thank you, sinful, for being servants of the Lord in so many ways.

I just chuckled at my brother when he was doing the announcements this morning. You do such a cool job. You were such an amazing servant.

When you stood up, and then you come up, and you say, I'm going to pray. And you pray. You pray for those who are hurting.

Then you come up, and you mess up my table. Thank you, Andrew, for going, because I have a silly old back for picking up the old table and bringing it here, for being these servants, caring for one another. That's what we do as servants of the Lord.

Every week is a different deed. You never know who's going to be up there. What are they doing? They're not doing a gig up here for you.

They're leading us in worship, serving, giving graciously. God sees that. I know you.

I see your deeds. Is that easy every Sunday? No, it's not. Some days are easier than others, but yet we do that.

And I know your perseverance. That's a big word. For a garrison city, they would know that really, really well.

It is the word that is used for soldiers when they are being attacked. And the sergeant or the captain or whoever is in command says to them, hold the line. Don't move.

Despite the enemy coming at you, coming at you, hold the line. I know your perseverance. How you hold the line, how you stay where you are, steadfast, unmoving, hanging in there.

Hang in there, Thyatira. Hang in there, Central. Even when the arrows come, even when the struggles come, even when the hurt comes, hang in there, hold the line.

Because there is one who stands with you in that line and won't let you go. These are the words of the Son of God. I know your deeds, and I won't let you be alone.

And here's the thing. When I look at you, Thyatira, I know that you are now doing more than you did at first. I've seen the growth.

I've seen how strong you have become. Folks, we have it so easy. For them, it was not that easy.

And to hear God looking at you and saying, I see you, I see what you do, but here's the coolest thing. I've seen you grow from this little baby church to a church that is growing stronger and stronger and stronger. May God say that you're doing better than when you first started.

I started 145, 6, 7, whatever years ago. May God say that you're doing even better than when Reverend Dixon started writing that little diary. May God write the diary when he writes about us.

I better stop. I can go on for the whole day. I can't stop.

When I think of that, I think of the book of James. There's a word in there, do. Do.

Remember what James wrote. He says, you want to talk to me about faith, giving yourself up? Because you want to talk to me about faith without works? So when your brother, your sister is in need, and you say, oh yeah, I see you're in need. I hope you'll be okay.

Walk away. Are you going to go that? Our faith is also seen in our deeds, how we become stronger. Now I'll go on.

Nevertheless, it's actually the word but, the Greek word ala, but I have this against you, and that's always the scary part when God comes with that second thing. This is a difficult piece to try and work through. We're not 100% sure.

Most commentaries and theologians will say we're talking about a certain person in the congregation, and this is not meant in a bad way. It seems it was a woman who was in this congregation calling herself a prophet, and it's about this specific person that God is speaking because they were listening to this person and what this person was saying. I have this against you.

You tolerate that woman, and then he calls her Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching, she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. Yeah, Kimberly, you can say that again.

That is scary stuff that is written there. So you hear what I'm saying. It seems there was this person, a woman, who was calling herself a prophet, and remember in those days they revered people called prophets because they got the articles from God, and so they could say, I'm speaking on behalf of God.

So this woman is coming there saying, I'm speaking on behalf of God, but then she's saying to them, it's okay. Cool down. Don't worry about this stuff.

You can do the God thing, but you can also do the other thing with the other God's things because part of this problem was this. The guilds that were running there, we called them unions. The unions, the guilds that were running there, you wanted to be part of the guild, be a shoemaker, be a potter, be a bronze smith.

You had to become part of the guild. To become part of the guild, you had to go through their rituals. The rituals had everything to do, and I've said this before, with sexual immorality.

They had all kinds of stuff going on when you were incorporated into that thing, and then they would sacrifice to the God of the pottery, and to the God of the bronze, and to the God of this, and then you had to sacrifice to that God, and then you had to eat to say, I believe in this God, and she's saying to the people, it's okay. God's fine with that. You can serve God, but you can also serve these other gods and do whatever they do.

It's okay to mix the two. No wonder Jesus calls her Jezebel. Can you remember who Jezebel was? First Kings chapter 16, chapter 10, second Kings chapter 9 is the bad one for her because that's when she dies.

She was the wife of King Ahab, the king of the northern kingdom Israel, and she was this false prophet telling her husband to sacrifice to the other gods, putting up the Canaanite idols and letting them sacrifice. She's the one who had the prophets killed. She's the one who was right after good old friend Elijah, who had him run for his life, but in the end, she ended up out of a window on the ground being eaten by the dogs.

Jezebel, when you hear the word Jezebel, it's this horrible woman who was misleading the people with her false teachings, and they fell for that, and Jesus says, you're falling for that. You can't compromise. My words from last week, same thing.

You can't compromise. It's not okay. Either you stand with me or you don't stand with me.

That's how it is. I have given her time to repent of her immorality. The grace of God always, but she's unwilling, so I will cast her on a bed of suffrage.

This is so cool. She's lying on a bed of immorality. Jesus says, I'm going to take you out of there.

I'm going to cast you on a bed of suffering. Greek word for you, Jay, kline. Are you a clinician? Do you work with people? I'm going to cast them on a bed for the clinician to work with them on a bed of suffering, on a bed, a sick bed, where he's going to suffer and going to make an end to her nonsense.

I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely. Those who do Bible study with me, flipsis, that rock that lies on you, the tribulation, and he uses the word megaflipsis, great tribulation they will go through. They will suffer badly.

So see how it escalates from a sick bed to great suffering, and unless they repent of her ways, I will strike her children dead. Bed of immorality, to bed of sickness, to great suffering, to death. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is the grace that we find in Jesus Christ, our Lord.

God does not take kindly when we play games with his words and with what he asks of us. He doesn't just smile and brush it off and walk away. God says, I don't like that.

That's not the way it is, and if that's the way that you want to walk, it will not end well. I think we've ended in a world where we're scared to talk about sin and the wages of sin. The word talks about that all the time, and you know I've used this word often.

We are recovering sinners.

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