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Location: Hattiesburg, Mississippi, United States

Thursday, March 03, 2005

2/30/05 Text:Revelation 2:18-29 Title: Morningstar

2/30/2005
Text: Revelation 2:18-29
Title: Morningstar

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen
Today we are going to take a look at the letter to Thyatira. Thyatira is the smallest and least important town of the seven that Christ had John write a letter to, yet its congregation received the longest letter.
Thyatira was founded by the Macedonians, and is located about 30 miles southeast of Pergamum on the Lycus River. Today the city is known as Ak-Hissar in modern day Turkey.
Thyatira was not important for art or culture but as a commercial center. I think you could call it a factory town similar to some of our old industrial cities that grew up around textiles or steel. Secular writings show that there were all types of goods being produced, wool, linen, leather pieces, metal works, and clothing.
But, what Thyatira was most famous for was the purple cloth that was manufactured there. You might have heard of one of the city’s cloth merchants, a women named Lydia. Lydia was the seller of purple cloth that was brought to Christ by Paul when he found her selling her cloth in Phillipi, a city about 400 miles northwest of Thyatira.
By the third century after Christ’s death and resurrection, Thyatira was a stronghold of a heretical sect known for its extreme use of bodily self-denial, and abuse. There was also a from of Gnostism being practiced, a cult of those thought to have secret knowledge of God.
When you take a closer look at the letter you see that it is divided into distinct sections. Like most letters first there is the address of the congregation the letter was written to. Next is a section called the exaltation where we see God being described as a God who had blazing eyes and whose feet were like burnished bronze.
Both of those images were important to John’s readers, for God’s blazing eyes, signified righteous anger, and his feet of “burnished bronze” meant unbreakable power, because bronze was the hardest metal known at the time. To put it in perspective, I think it would be like getting a letter from a judge stating right off that he is all powerful, and that your life is in his hands.
Next is the core of the letter, where we find that it is sort of a good news, bad news type letter. Jesus first tells them that he is aware of the good things that the congregation was doing, but that he is also aware of the bad things the congregation tolerated in its midst.
But Christ does not stop there, for in his mercy he does not just condemn them, he tells them that they should not let the things going on overcome them, for a couple of reasons. First he is going to punish Jezebel, who by the way, is thought by most scholars to be not an actual person living at the time, but symbolic for all the false teachings that were going on, nor will he let those who follow her teachings go free.
Although that might not sound like good news to you, it is, for we too face many of the same things that the congregation of Thyatira faced. There are still all types of false teachers around, except now they are also on television, the radio, on the internet, in video games, magazines, and newspapers where they are telling us that there are other ways to God, telling us that there is really no truth, telling us that if it feels good do it.
We might not have temples dedicated to sex, but the evils we face are just as real. The vast majority of movies, plays, and other popular entertainment tell us that casual sex is okay. Why we even have cute names we give that type of sex, like “hooking up”, which usually means that one is going to have casual, meaningless sexual intercourse, with no expectations afterward.
How long ago was it when the first “four letter words” were first used on the public airways and we were shocked, but are not shocked anymore? The list could go on and on. I am afraid that far too many Christians think they can live with, can accept, those type of things in their lives and not be affected.
But can that be true? Can we in fact just accept what is going on around us, what too many times is being broadcast into our homes, as being just the way things are, and still follow Christ?
We do not have to go too far to find the answer to that question, for we find in verses 22 and 23 of our text today, that not only will Christ severely punish those who follow the teachings of Jezebel, he is going to punish those who allow it to take place in their midst. Boy if that is not Law I do not know what is.
It is Law alright, but Christ is using the Law for only one purpose, that is to drive them back to his saving arms. He then closes the letter with wonderful words of comfort, as he has John write, “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 Only hold on to what you have until I come. 26 To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations 27 'He will rule them with an iron scepter; he will dash them to pieces like pottery'--just as I have received authority from my Father. 28 I will also give him the morning star. 29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
What a wonderful Gospel message, a message of victory that does not just apply to them, but to us today. Christ is telling them, and thus us, to just hang in there, stay with the basics, accept the free gift of forgiveness from God, love him above all things, and love your neighbor as yourself. That is doing Christ’s will. You will have the final victory, over sin and death, crushing them just like a piece of pottery is broken when struck by an iron bar.
It is true, for you have his word on it, just like God the Father gave his word to Jesus his son, that he would overcome evil and rule over all things, he promises that those who remain faithful to Jesus will also overcome all things.
Before I close I want to spend just a little time talking about the significance of the Morning star in our text. The star that we know as Venus is often called the Morning Star because you see it in the Eastern sky just before the sun comes up in the morning. In antiquity the morning star was seen as a symbol of royalty and power.
There are only 4 references to the term “Morning Star” in the Bible. The first mention is in Isaiah 14:12. There the term is used to describe the king of Babylon and his fall from power.
In 2 Peter 1:19, we read, that there will be a time when the morning star will rise in your hearts. In this verse Peter is talking of that time when Jesus comes back in all his glory, and those who are alive will be filled with his knowledge.
In Revelation 22:16 we read, "I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.” It is pretty clear from that text that Jesus is the Morning Star.
Thus in Revelation 2:28, where we read, “I will also give him the Morning Star.” means that in the end, Christ himself will make sure that all of those who have remained faithful to him will receive him in his fullness as God, for as surely as you see him, you will see God.
What a wonderful comfort that is to all Christians. Do not despair. Whatever is happening or will happen in your life, stay with the basics, accept his free gift of forgiveness, love God above all things, and love your neighbor as yourself, and in the end you too will receive the Bright Morning Star. Amen

Sunday, February 27, 2005

3 Sunday in Lent John 9:1-39 "Things are not always as they seem."

2/27/2005
3 Sunday of Lent
Text: John 9:1-39
Title: Things are not always as they seem.

Let us pray: God of law and of love, dispenser of justice and of mercy, help us to hear your word this day, so that in your speaking and in our hearing your will may be known so that we may faithfully follow you. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen
Have you ever noticed that things are not always as they seem to be? If you have not looked at it yet, please take out this sheet of paper, the one with the blocks and slanted lines drawn on it. Are they straight or crooked? They look crooked do not they? If you take the edge of your service folder and lay it alongside any of the lines you will see that they actually are straight. You have fallen victim to an optical illusion. Your brain is not letting you see the truth, and that is exactly what our Gospel reading for today is about, because things are not always as they seem to be.
But, before I explain what I mean, let’s take a quick look at our text. Who would you say are the main characters in the story? Well first off, there is a blind man, who was born that way and who was then healed by Jesus. Then of course there is Jesus, who healed him. Then there are some Pharisees who are arguing with the healed man over who had healed him. Last there are the man’s parents who are trying to side-step the whole issue and not get involved.
If you had to condense the story to just a couple of sentences you could probably say, “Jesus saw a blind man one day. He gave him his sight after which the Pharisees gave the healed man a hard time. That is what it is about is it not? It sure appears so, but things are not always as they seem to be.
You see the story is not about the blind man, or the Pharisees, or even the man’s parents who are trying to save their own skin. No, the story is about Jesus. Surprised? Maybe not, but I think that most people would think that the story was about the blind man being given his sight.
Well, maybe you are one of those that know this story is about Jesus, after all he did heal the blind man, but things are not as they seem, for the story is really not even about Jesus giving eye sight to the man born blind.
It is true Jesus did heal him, but what the story is about is the healing of spiritual blindness, for as we get near the end of the story, we discover that the man who we had thought only been healed of his physical blindness was also healed of his spiritual blindness, unlike the Pharisees, who could see but are being accused by Jesus of being blind.
Let me read just a few verses, particularly those right after the man who was blind had been thrown out of what was probably the temple. Starting in verse 35, “Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, (I love that, Jesus found him, he went to him, good news) and he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" 36 "Who is he, sir?" the man asked. "Tell me so that I may believe in him." 37 Jesus said, "You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you." 38 Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him.”, in the Greek,” fell down at his feet”.
You see before this second encounter, the man did not know who Jesus was. He only knew that someone, probably a prophet, had healed him of his blindness. That is all he knew, so Jesus sought him out, so that he could have the healing that really mattered, spiritual healing. The man saw Jesus the Word, and believed. Why is it then that the Pharisees who also saw Jesus the Word did not belief?
I think that we could find all kinds of reasons behind their unbelief, but the main reason was that Jesus did not fit the mold that they had created for the Messiah. First of all he was an unknown, certainly not a king. Secondly Jesus had made mud on the Sabbath. As silly as that might sound to us today, when Jesus made a little mud from his spit, he broke the Sabbath law. Thirdly, Jesus had healed someone on the Sabbath. Emergency medical care was okay, but this man had been blind since birth, so it certainly had not been an emergency. It could have waited until Sunday.
The Messiah would not have broken those laws. He would have kept them, all of them perfectly. You see the Pharisees had gotten so wrapped up in the rules of their religion that they could not see the Gospel act that Jesus had done.
That is why Jesus said to them in verse 41,"If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.” In other words, he is telling them that just because a person is blind does not mean God caused him to be blind for committing a sin. No, he is telling them that their seeing is the sin.
Let me explain what I mean by that. You see, the Pharisees were the spiritual leaders of the people. They studied God’s Word and then applied it to the people’s lives. What he is telling them is that they are the ones who are really blind, for even though they could see with their eyes that the blind man could now see, they could not really see who it was that healed him, for they were spiritually blinded by their strict adherence to the law which did not allow them to see that Jesus was the promised Messiah.
What we can learn from this lesson is that we too can become spiritually blind, maybe without really knowing it. We can trust in Jesus as our Savior, but if we are so tied into the law, the have to do this, or have to do that, then we too can become spiritually blind, or at the very least not see the Gospel of Jesus Christ for what it is, sight giving life.
God’s commands cannot reveal the Good News of Jesus. Only the Gospel reveals Jesus. The Law is all about what we are to do to please God. It is our rules and guidelines on how we are to live our lives and worship God. Its main purpose is to let us know that there is nothing we can do on our own to please God. It condemns us, because every one of us here this morning should know that we cannot keep the entire law, that even one little slipup condemns.
The Gospel on the other hand, can only comfort you because it is all God’s work in Jesus Christ on your behalf. Jesus has taken the condemnation away from the law freeing you to live your life as God wants you to live it, forgiven.
If you are finding yourself saying, “I must do this or that to please God” you are in danger of becoming spiritually blind. It is sort of like a cataract is starting to grow over your spiritual eyes. As the spiritual cataract grows things get out of focus and the Gospel message of Jesus cannot be seen clearly.
All of us have to continually struggle with keeping the law in its proper place because we were all born spiritually blind. None of us have the ability to see spiritual things on our own. That is why people in Jesus’ day did not all believe, and that is why some people, even after reading, or hearing God’s sight giving words to them still will not see him as their Savior.
Just like the man in our Gospel lesson this morning, Jesus has given you more than your eyesight, he has given you spiritual eyesight, and because of that you can now see that all the bad things that happen in life are not punishments from God, for Jesus has already been punished for your sins. You can now see that you have a God who works out all things for your good. You can now see that Jesus has opened up a whole new world of faith to you, for you have been completely and totally forgiven by God. You can now see that you are guaranteed eternal life with Jesus Christ.
Rejoice and be glad in the Lord, for once you were blind and now you can see. Amen