Revelation 2-3

December 8, 2019

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

The sermon starts at 16:12 in the audio file.

Or, The Extraordinary Inheritance of Terrible Optimism

I continue to find myself more and more in the strange position of defending optimism. For much of my life I claimed to be a Realist, which is really a pessimist who likes to argue. Before that I was just an idiot. But for a growing number of years I have come to believe, especially about the Last Days, that things are going to become truly amazing as the world goes to hell in a handbasket. Light will shine so brightly that only increasing darkness will keep pace, until The Light of Life returns to judge the nations and defeat every enemy and dwell with His people and reign in His kingdom on earth.

What am I talking about, how did we get here, and what does it have to do with the book of Revelation? Good questions all, and let me try to answer them in reverse.

Conquering Optimism

The last 10 sermons have been about the messages of Jesus to seven first century churches in Asia (Revelation 1:4, 2:1-3:22). Every one of those messages has ended with a promise to “the one conquering” or “the one overcoming.” I’ve not only been naming these sermons with a Just Conquer theme, I believe that Just Conquer colors all of Revelation. I’ve been saying “just” conquer for a few reasons. First, because I’m channeling Nike’s motto (“Just Do It”), because it’s a provocative understatement, and because this conquering is not your gladiator/emperor/general’s definition of conquering.

Think back with me about the seven things that needed to be conquered. Though two of the seven churches weren’t called to repent, they still had troubles and temptations to deal with.

Ephesus: just conquer lovelessness

Smyrna (no repentance): just conquer fear of prison and death

Pergamum: just conquer indulgence, especially as connected with false teaching and sexual immorality

Thyatira: just conquer worldliness, especially as connected with idolatry

Sardis: just conquer negligence, with a reputation for being alive though actually about to die

Philadelphia (no repentance): just conquer discrimination

Laodicea: just conquer tepidity, especially as connected with self-reliance

As lampstands (Revelation 1:20), these churches would shine as lights in the world by not sinning and by not quitting. It was that basic. They would shine as lights by loving God, loving each other, holding fast the truth, being zealous for fellowshipping with Jesus, and persevering. This is just conquering.

To the one conquering Jesus gave promises. A different promise was given to the overcomers in each local church, but with the general call for anyone with an ear to hear what the Spirit says to the churches, I can’t think of a good reason not to understand that just conquerors get all the promises.

To the one conquering Jesus promises:

he will eat of the tree of life (2:7)

he will not be hurt by the second death (2:11)

he will get hidden manna and a white stone with a new name (2:17)

he will rule with authority over the nations and receive the morning star (2:27)

he will be clothed in white garments, his name will never be blotted out of the book of life, and Jesus will confess his name before the Father (3:5)

he will be made a pillar in God’s temple and he will have the name of God written on him (3:12)

he will sit on Jesus’ throne and rule with Him (3:21)

Near the end of Revelation God summarizes the just conquer promises.

And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have[...]

Revelation 3:19-22

December 1, 2019

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

The sermon starts at 18:10 in the audio file.

Or, On Not Making Jesus Nauseated

The church of God has often been found in bad shape, but not abandoned. She regularly deserves rebuke, but even the rebuke is a sign of God’s love for her. It’s one thing for a church to think that she doesn’t really need God, it is a much worse thing for God to let a church keep thinking that.

The Laodicean church is infamous for invoking Jesus’ gag-reflex. Their lukewarm, complacent attitude made Him wish that they were almost anything other than what they were. No one has higher standards for a church than Jesus, no one knows better how a church measures up to those standards, and no one offers better news to weaksauce churches than The Amen.

In the first part of Jesus’ message to the church in Laodicea Jesus called out their Middle-Meh and counseled them to buy all the things they thought they already had. They thought they were rich, Jesus said to buy from Him pure gold. They thought they had impressive taste in textiles, Jesus said to buy from Him white garments. They thought their optometry department gave them 20/20 vision, Jesus said to buy from Him eye-salve for the soul so that they could truly see.

In verses 19-22 Jesus explains more and gives quite a JustConquer promise.

Love’s Paideia (verse 19)

It’s about time that Jesus really lay into this church, isn’t it? The faithful and true Witness has to be tired of their half-hearted and basket-covered light. They are like an oral suppository, with a taste like sweaty socks in the compost pile. The Laodiceans didn’t even realize that the wealth they had was from Jesus and that He was offering them even greater wealth if they would just depend on Him.

So after the vomit comment we’re ready for the prophetic hammer: I reprove and discipline. The word reprove is confrontation, exposing the problem and bringing a person to see the wrong for himself (BAGD). To reprove a tumor you’d slice open some space to work. Disciplinemay have a punishing vibe, the kind of thing dad might say while he’s taking off his belt for a whooping.

But there are a few things that show this isn’t a humiliating punishment (in addition to the offers in verse 18). Jesus said, “I myself reprove and discipline as many of those whom I am loving.” The target of The Amen’s discipline are His loved ones. He loves the Laodiceans.

And He loves them like family. The verbs reprove and discipline in verse 19 are the same verbs used in the Greek translation of Proverbs 3 (also quoted in full in Hebrews 12:5-6).

My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline

Or be weary of his reproof,

for the LORD reproves him whom he loves,

As a father the son in whom he delights.

(Proverbs 3:11-12)

Jesus is not the Father, though He does refer to God as His Father in verse 21, the third time He’s referred to His Father to the churches (also 2:27, 3:5). He’s not the Father, but He is still family. When He said “those whom I love,” the Greek word is a form of phileo, usually a brotherly-love, a relational love (which is different from agapan in the LXX for Proverbs 3:12). It’s personal to Jesus.

And back to the word discipline, it is the word you’ve heard about, paideia. It is less like spanking and more like schooling. It is all of the educating, enculturating process to get a child (from  παιδίον) to grow into a responsible child-maker himself.

Following in His Father’s footsteps, Jesus personally and lovingly and purposefully doesn’t let the lukewarm be happy lying in the puddles of their lukewarmness. Tepidity isn’t terminal, not for those Jesus loves.

Therefore be zealous and repent. The repent part we’ve heard Him say before (to the Ephesians, the Pergammumites, the Thyatirans, and the S[...]

Revelation 3:14-18

November 24, 2019

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

The sermon starts at 13:40 in the audio file.

Or, On Not Making Jesus Nauseated

Here is the final message of the seven Jesus sent to the churches in Revelation 2-3. The message to the Laodiceans in verses 14-22 may be the most well-known due to a couple striking images. The message is severe, with no commendation for the church, to the point that they are making Jesus sick. And yet, I think I might also call this the most hopeful of all the messages. Jesus disciplines those He loves, He doesn’t leave them in their sin. He offers the truest riches, the clearest sight, the best counsel, the closest fellowship, and the highest throne.

Let us hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

The Beginning Amen (verse 14)

Three more titles apply to Jesus as He addresses the guardian angel of the church in Laodicea. It has been quite a list of identifications so far. He is the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lamp stands (2:1), the first and the last, who died and came to life (2:8), the one who has the sharp two-edges sword (2:12), the one who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze (2:18), the one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars (3:1), and He is the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David (3:7).

Amen is a common word in the Bible, original to Hebrew, borrowed/transliterated into Greek, then borrowed/transliterated int Latin, and now borrowed/transliterated into English. Usually it comes as an affirmation, a finishing assent, though Jesus often began parts of His teaching with “Amen, amen,” or as the KJV, “Verily, verily.” Nowhere else in Scripture is Amen used as a title. But Jesus says that He is The Amen, The one who ratifies. He is “The Let It Be So.”

Jesus is the faithful and true witness. More than a reminder that He doesn’t lie, we are compelled to hear Him testify to the reality of things. He knows and can be relied on to speak to how it is, which the Laodiceans were lacking.

And Jesus is the beginning of God’s creation. The key Greek word is arche (ἀρχὴ), only used elsewhere about Jesus in Colossians 1:15. That’s interesting to note because Paul connected Colosse with Laodicea in his epistle to the Colossians. He had never been to either city (Colossians 2:1), but he wrote a letter to each of them and then wanted the churches to exchange and read each other’s (Colossians 4:16).

In Colossians 1:18 Jesus is “the beginning (arche), the firstborn from the dead,” the one from whom and through whom and to whom are all things in creation (Colossians 1:15-17). Arche is the beginning (ESV, NASB), but beginning as in the “Originator” (HCSB), “source” or “origin” (Osborne). Things get their start in Him, hence He is the “ruler” (NIV). One dictionary includes as a definition, “a point at which two surfaces or lines meet, corner,” so Jesus is the convergence point, but everything goes out from Him.

This is quite a resume of titles as to why He should be heard.

Spiritual Temperature (verses 15-16)

Jesus speaks to what He knows about the condition of the church. Usually when He refers to the “works” of a church He’s about to affirm some good before diagnosing what needs fixing. It doesn’t take long before realizing there is nothing positive to see here.

Three times in verses 15-16 we get the pair: cold/hot. You are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot. You are…neither hot nor cold. What they are instead is sickening. The word Jesus chose is lukewarm, they were tepid. It makes Jesus nauseated.

They weren’t what He wished they were, which is what? What do hot and cold refer to?

There is a familiarity with being cold that makes us think it is spiritually negative. We have a cultural history of talking about warmth and heat as signs of vigor, kindness, sincerity, and health. We keep cold as a reference for things/pe[...]

November 17, 2019

Edi Bowers

Revelation 3:10-13

November 17, 2019

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

The sermon starts at 17:20 in the audio file.

Or, The Kingdom Has a Keeper

The church in Philadelphia was being harassed, and it was religiously motivated. Religious harassment is the most tenacious, because it’s based on judgments of right and wrong that are justified out of the box, no understanding required. In Philadelphia there was enough of a Jewish population that they were making life miserable for the Christians–similar to the situation in Smyrna. Jesus commended the Christians for clinging to His word and His name (Revelation 3:8), and promised that He would eventually vindicate the Christians before the haters (Revelation 3:9).

Drawing on imagery from Isaiah 22 and Isaiah 60, Jesus promised these Gentile believers that He was the keeper of His kingdom (Revelation 3:7)), that He had opened the door for them to come in (Revelation 3:8), and that the Jews who hated Him and made themselves ostensible gate-keepers would be brought to acknowledge that Jesus loved the church (Revelation 3:9). They would come and bow down and know that Jesus was the Keeper.

To those being discriminated against, Jesus gives assurance and exhortation and just conquer promises.

From or Through? (verse 10)

He picks up on their good works: they didn’t budge in their commitment. The basis of what He would do builds on what they did: “Because you kept the word of my endurance….” The ESV: “you have kept my word about patient endurance” isn’t as good as the NAS: “you have kept the word of My perseverance.” The church endured not so much in holding onto Jesus’ exhortations to endure but rather in holding onto the truth that Jesus Himself endured. Jesus endured to the cross. Jesus was tempted, harassed, rejected by Jewish leaders, falsely tried, and then tortured and killed. He remained faithful through it all, and the Philadelphian Christians received and lived according to that story.

Because they kept that word, Jesus said, “And I will keep you.” He wasn’t going to keep their word, but keep them “from the hour of trial” (ESV) or “hour of testing” (NAS). The rest of verse 10 is a detailed description of this particular “hour.” It is the hour “which is about to come on the whole inhabitable world to test the ones inhabiting the earth.”

The first thing to note is that this is not a local concern only. There had been trouble in Philadelphia, but this will be trouble everywhere man can be, far as the curse is found. “The whole world” (ESV), is the household of man’s dwelling, the place that isn’t the heavens or the underworld, and “the ones inhabiting the earth” are the persons, frequently mentioned in the rest of Revelation as the enemies of God. A coming “hour of testing” will be a global testing.

Note second that the Philadelphian church will be kept from that testing hour.

Let me flag the next few comments by acknowledging that it is precarious to build a doctrine on a preposition. Also, we are blessed to have more of God’s Word than the Philadelphians. We have our own copies of the complete Old Testament, as well as New Testaments. And while we believe that Revelation 3:10 fits the broader context of Scripture, we should ask what “from the hour of trial” indicates in the immediate context of Revelation 3:10. What does it mean to be “kept from” the global hour of trial? What encouragement did the Philadelphians grasp from this promise?

The preposition in Greek is ek, usually meaning “from.” There is another preposition that is typically translated “through,” and another for “in.” Jesus doesn’t use those. He promises to keep the Philadelphian church from the hour of testing. It sounds like a pre-test deliverance, a removal ahead of time. If that “hour” tests the whole world, if it tests the ones dwelling on[...]

Revelation 3:7-9

November 10, 2019

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

The sermon starts at 17:35 in the audio file.

Or, The Kingdom Has a Keeper

Most of my sermons follow a fairly simple pattern. A pattern isn’t necessarily bad; a good pattern can be comfortable, though it could become predictable in a way that makes one feel as if he’s heard it before. These messages to the churches in Revelation follow a pattern. Jesus identifies Himself, usually in some manner that is especially relevant to the church He’s addressing. Then He says what He knows about their works, good and bad. He gives them instructions about what they need to do and gives promises to the ones who conquer. And there is always a call to hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

My messages about these messages, and probably most of my sermons, usually begin with some observation I’ve made that introduces a current problem with the answer to be found in the upcoming verses. I don’t feel like it’s my job to sell you on the idea that the Bible relevant; it is relevant. But I regularly start by trying to show some relevance, then return to the historical context of the city, then move into the verses themselves.

I also have a thing for paragraphs. That seems like the min/max level for good interpretation. Too many verses might make for too much material to grasp, too little and the context can be lost. Plus, paragraphs keep the study moving; I’m not trying to reach John Calvin numbers of dozens or hundreds of sermons per book of the Bible.

I say all that to say that I’m not following my typical path today, which will include asking you to take your copy of God’s Word and look with me at a couple other passages outside of Revelation. I want you to see some of the background for the allusions in Revelation, and how that sets us up to be both surprised and yet also confirmed in what we knew already. One of the goals is that we would be better equipped to keep God’s Word, including being gripped by the reality that God keeps His word first.

This is a good word to a small church of Christians who were being left out by those who weren’t actually in the position of getting to decide who should be left out. We’re only going to consider the first three verses in the Philadelphian message today because we need more time to consider the Kingdom Keeper.

The key idea in these verses is actually key, the “key of David.” The key is good for opening and shutting a door, and that door is the door in and out of the Messianic Kingdom. Jesus is the keeper of this key, He is this Kingdom’s Keeper, and He is also a Keeper of Promises, especially those related to His Kingdom.

Verse 7

None of the four pieces of the description of the Keeper are from John’s initial vision but all four work together. Here’s my translation for verse 7: “The holy, the true, the one having the key of David, the one opening (and no one closes) and one closing (and no one opens), says thus:”

In verse 8 Jesus wants the Christians to behold the door before them which He had made open. In verse 7 He’s identifying Himself related to that door.

He’s been set apart, consecrated for His office; He’s holy. There is no deception, no shading in His character; He’s true. He has authority as the key-holder, and this is authority over the royal household since it is the key of David, more about that in a moment. And it is not an authority in title only, but He exercises the authority of His office with total prerogative and without resistance; He is the one opening and closing, no one can overturn His policy.

This imagery comes from the chapter about the “valley of vision” in Isaiah 22. There was an unfaithful steward over King Hezekiah’s household named Shebna, who thought of himself to be the strong man (verse 17), who built himself a tomb like that for a [...]

Selected Scriptures

November 3, 2019

Evening Service

Dave Light

Revelation 3:1-6

November 3, 2019

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

The sermon starts at 18:40 in the audio file.

Or, Guarding Against Nominal Spiritual Life

This might be the most severe letter of the seven that Jesus sent through John to the churches. What was their problem?

It’s possible that Sardisians had some of the same issues that the others churches did, but Jesus doesn’t explicitly say so. The church in Sardis may not have been super loving, though they didn’t have a bad reputation for that. It’s possible that they were following some false teachers, but that’s not addressed. Specific association with idols, religious or civic, isn’t mentioned, nor is sexual immorality. Their problem was that they weren’t paying attention.

Carelessness and coasting is costly. False security is the worst kind of insecurity. Sardis knew all about the ruin caused by negligence, and the church hadn’t learned her lesson.

Sardis had the longest history of any of the seven churches addressed in Revelation 1-2. The old city was built on a 1500 foot high acropolis (a fortified city on a hill), with almost perpendicular rock walls on three sides (Mounce), which they believed made them impregnable. But twice enemies climbed the wall, got into the city, opened the gates, and defeated the Sardisians. It happened in 549 BC, when Croesus, the king of Lydia, went out against Cyrus, king of Persia. Cryrus beat Croesus who retreated to Sardis thinking he’d be safe and his army could regroup. But a Persian solider did the “impossible” and scaled the walls. The unthinkable happened again in 195 BC when Antiochus the Great attacked Sardis with the climbing strategy. In both cases the city hadn’t bothered to station anyone at the wall. It was reckless inattentiveness and inactivity.

The church in Sardis had more people who weren’t paying attention to their spiritual life than those who were. Their negligence was about to lead to death, and Jesus called them to Wake up, twice.

The Spirit Giver (verse 1a)

The Lord and Head of the church has supernatural concerns.

And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, “The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.”

That Jesus has the seven spirits refers to the greeting John gave to the seven churches in Asia (1:4), and isn’t a part of the vision of His Person (1:12-18). The seven spirits is a prophetic appellation for the Holy Spirit, the source of grace and peace mentioned in the greeting between the Father and the Son. It also connects with Zechariah 4, and means that Jesus has and sends and directs the Spirit. The third Person of the Trinity is also called “the Spirit of Christ” (Romans 8:9; 1 Peter 1:11).

The seven stars are mentioned at the end of chapter 1, and identified as “the angels of the seven churches.” Of course it’s tempting to make these angels “messengers,” that is, to make them men, and then see them as those who carried the messages from John to the cities, or rather as a church pastor/leader in each city. But do the “seven spirits” as the Holy Spirit and seven mailmen match? Do the “seven spirits” and seven pastors match? And why would it help the church in Sardis to know that Jesus was in charge of all the rest of the mailmen/pastors? If anywhere, that would have been more applicable to the church in Thyatira since Jesus said “all the churches will know” (2:23).

No, the seven stars are “the angels” (1:20), the celestial beings who live around us, above us, and yet are not obvious to us. Church life occurs in two realms: the physical and the supernatural, in the first-century city in Sardis and before the eternal God and rulers and authorities in heavenly places (see Ephesians 3:10).

This was the heart of the problem in Sardis. Negligence in the spiritual battle is not just cost[...]

Revelation 2:18-29

October 27, 2019

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

The sermon starts at 16:30 in the audio file.

Or, The Burden of Reaching International Relevance

We don’t have a Jezebel in our church. No one should actually name their daughter Jezebel anyway, but even in a symbolic way, we don’t have any Jezebels. The church in Thyatira did. And like Ahab’s wife, this woman led at least some of those among God’s people into trusting gods who aren’t really gods and into sexual sin that wasn’t really satisfying. We don’t have any self-identified prophetesses among us, but that doesn’t mean we have nothing to learn from this first-century message from Jesus.

Jesus’ words to the church in Thyatira (2:18-29) is similar to His words to the church in Pergamum (2:12-17). In both churches there was false teaching, in both cases the church was too easy on the false teachers. At least the Ephesians tested those who taught among them and exercised discretion (2:2), though, of course, the Ephesians had a lovelessness problem (2:4). But again, the Pergamumites and the Thyatirans seem to have similar issues.

What’s different is the reason why the false teaching took hold in each city. In Pergamum, the Christians were tempted to indulge themselves according to Balaamite and Nicolaitan teaching for civic reasons. Pergamum loved and lauded the Roman Emperor, and failing to acknowledge the idols could be taken for a type of treason. In Thyatira, though, failing to acknowledge the idols was bad for business.

Thyatira was mostly in the middle of nowhere, at least compared to the seaport cities. It didn’t have any geographical defenses, like being built on a high hill. It was more like an outpost, a “garrison town” (Osborne), one of the first places to be attacked, so one of the places most frequently rebuilt. Rebuilding is good for business. There is evidence of a variety of goods and services, and in particular, of different guilds, with inscriptions discovered for “woolworkers, linen-workers, tanners, potters, bakers, slave-dealers and bronze-smiths” (Mounce). You may remember “Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods” who believed Paul’s preaching when visiting Philippi (Acts 16:14). Each guild had a patron god, and that god required honor and provided social glue. In order to be in the union, you had to pay the dues.

Enter Jezebel. She claimed to speak for God, and her message from God was that it was more than just okay to pay the dues to economic idols, it was actually an expression to show how close one was to the true God. Some of those in the church embraced her message, because it is the kind of message that goes down easily. If it didn’t tickle the ears, it certainly padded the wallet.

Jesus was, and is, having none of it. One word that summarizes their problems: worldliness. They behaved like this world, and the things in the world, were important to have, even if it meant reinterpreting the truth for God’s sake. Jesus calls the Thyatirans to just conquer worldliness, and the Spirit calls us all to hear the message.

The All-Knowing One (verse 18)

A few things stand out in this identification of Jesus to the Thyatirans.

First, these words are of the Son of God, which is the only time this title is used for Jesus in the book of Revelation. It is also the only title given in the identifications in these messages to the churches; even the rest in verse 18 are descriptions. It may be that the Son of God emphasizes that there is only one, because the “guardian deity” of Thyatira was Apollo Tyrimnos, the son of Zeus (Mounce).

That Jesus has eyes like a flame of fire emphasizes His piercing vision (see 1:14, from Daniel 10:6), a fact which is stated explicitly in verse 23. His feet are like burnished bronze (see 1:15), and this seems to connect to the metallurgy in the city as well as a military image of brass slender and s[...]

Selected Scriptures

October 20, 2019

Evening Service

Jim Martin