|
Rev. 2:18-29
|
|
Letters From Jesus: Seduced by Sex & Satan Revelation 2:18-29
Before we start I would like you to pull out a piece of paper and pen and write down a few words. Use your bulletin outline if you wish. Somewhere on your paper write the word “church”. Now underneath church, list several indispensable qualities of a church. List the top three to five things that must be part of a church if it is to truly be a church. We’ll come back to your list a little bit later.
Last week I told the conversion story of St. Augustine and how he had been immersed in sexual immorality before he became a Christian. Let me quote part of what he said again. “The bubbling impulses of puberty befogged and obscured my heart so that it could not see the difference between love’s serenity and lust’s darkness. It seized hold of my youthful weakness sweeping me through the precipitous rocks of desire to submerge me in a whirlpool of vice.”
Remember, this was his pre-conversion struggle. After he became a Christian, as far as we know, Augustine didn’t struggle with temptation, lust and sexual immorality. Is this what happens when we become a Christian—we don’t have to worry about temptations in the realm of sex? I wish this were true, but statistics tell a different story. The sins of the culture around us continues to successfully invade the church. Statistics show little or no difference between Christians and non-Christians in teen pregnancy rates, adultery and pornography.
It does no good to say that it was easier for Augustine that it is for us. His culture was also saturated by sex. Remember from last week that he had a girlfriend, concubine, whatever you call her, for fourteen years and this was the widely accepted practice. Other than his praying mother, Augustine probably didn’t have friends or co-workers who challenged him to live a sexually pure life. I can imagine that just the opposite was true. Every culture has struggled with sexual immorality. From Genesis through Revelation, the characters of the Bible all lived in sex-saturated cultures.
Is it really worse today? One could perhaps make a strong argument in that direction, but the point is we cannot blame our sinful tendencies on our culture. “The internet made me do it.” The cable channel made me do it.” “My boyfriend made me do it.” All of these are flimsy excuses for sinful failures. And although it is easier to blame the men because they seem to engage in the most obvious sexual sins, women are just as likely to struggle as men. Women tend to struggle silently and secretly in the heart. Because women are more relationship oriented, the longing of their heart is to be accepted and loved for who they are and that longing is often filled by sinful fantasy. I don’t want this to be another one of those “shame-on-you” kind of sermons about sex. Like all of our struggles, the Lord knows how hard it can be to overcome temptation and live a life of purity. So relevant is this struggle that Jesus even wrote a letter to a church about this very problem. This is the fourth letter written to the churches in Revelation, this one addressed to the church in Thyatira. 18 “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. 19 I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first. 20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. 21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23 I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. 24 Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets (I will not impose any other burden on you): 25 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. Jesus began all seven of these letters in the same way—by giving a short description and reminder of who is doing the writing. This is Jesus, the Son of God. He has eyes of blazing fire and feet of burnished bronze. These are parts of the description of Jesus from chapter one. He is reminding this church in Thyatira, and our church today, that he walks among the churches and sees all that goes on. He is the Lord of the church and he writes with absolute authority. Do not mistake this for a general letter of encouragement or a mere list of suggestions. Like the Great Physician that he is, Jesus makes an accurate diagnosis of the problem in this church then he lays out the only possible cure. But like all of the seven churches except one, this church has more than just problems. There are many wonderful things happening. Jesus says, I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance. How many churches could this be said of? This IS the church, isn’t it? A church full of love. What did the church from Ephesus struggle with? They had lost their first love. The Ephesian church had sharp discernment when it came to false teaching. They lived lives of moral purity. They suffered persecution for their faith. They had all of this, yet they had a tremendous lack of love. But this church in Thyatira had an abundance of love. Oftentimes we fake church. We put on a happy smile, pretend that we all get along just great—all the while there are feelings of anger, envy and broken relationships in the church. But there was little faking of church in Thyatira—they had genuine, Christ-honoring love for the Lord and for one another. Jesus likewise commends them for their faith, service and perseverance. Now stop and look at your list you made at the start. What words did you use to describe the church? I would bet that all of you wrote down “love”. I wouldn’t be surprised if the word “faith” made it on most of your lists. I am sure many of you also wrote down “service”, “ministry”, “outreach” or some kind of word like that. This is a great description of the church: love, faith, service and perseverance. Any church would be glad to receive such a commendation, especially if it came directly from Jesus. This church in Thyatira was a vibrant, loving church, a faith-filled church. Their faith and love probably allowed them to be very generous in their giving. They may have had a tremendous outreach to the poor and down-trodden people. If this were a modern day church it would have a food pantry, AA programs, a drug rehab program, a clothing closet and a day care center for single mothers. This church would have been praised by their denomination and celebrated in an article in Christianity Today. This church in Thyatira was not just expressing these Christian values, but they were getting better and better at living them out. Jesus said, you are now doing more than you did at first. They showed real growth in these areas. But if you were to look deeper you would see real problems. Jesus said, Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. At this point some of you may be thinking, “What in the world is Jesus referring to here?” Many of you will recognize the name Jezebel as the wife of the Old Testament King Ahab. Ahab was a weak, selfish king of Israel in the 9th century BC. The true leader of the house and the whole kingdom was Ahab’s wife Jezebel. If you recall it was Jezebel who infected Israel with Baal worship. And with most pagan worship, sexual immorality was an integral part of the religion. Jesus is not saying that there was a women in Thyatira named Jezebel, but that there was a woman who had been behaving like Jezebel. Notice how Jezebel won people to her way of thinking. She called herself a prophetess. This woman must have been a charismatic, authoritative type leader. The NIV reads that she “misleads my servants into sexual immorality”, but a better translations is that she seduces people into sexual immorality. Her teaching was attractive, intriguing and seductive. Think about it this way. If you could create a church that was ideal in most every way, but that also encouraged and defended the practice of various forms of sexual immorality, who wouldn’t want to sign up? We are sexual creatures by nature and if the theological prohibition were removed, if we sincerely believed that God approved of sexual immorality, than we would all be doing it. Such a church would have the best of both worlds—you get all of the benefits of Christianity plus all of the perceived benefits of absolute sexual freedom. I can guarantee you we wouldn’t have any trouble growing a church like that! Take careful notice of Jesus’ wording in this condemnation. He said, “you tolerate that woman Jezebel”. In other words, Jesus was condemning this church for tolerating sexual immorality. This sheds more light on the tolerance debate in our community, doesn’t it? Here we have a clear example of Jesus commanding intolerance! In letters to the editor we are told that if we do not tolerate all forms of sexual expression, then we are being intolerant. It’s funny how they are so intolerant of our intolerance! But here is where extreme caution must be given. It is easy for us to pick on the issue of homosexuality. Up until last month, in 3 ½ years of sermons I never once spoke against homosexuality. I have felt compelled to do so because it has been not only thrust upon our community, but thrust upon the church as well. But here is the caution: if we are to speak out on issues like homosexuality, then we’d better be cleaning our own house of all other sexual sins! How can we have the moral authority to speak against homosexuality unless we also speak out strongly against all other sexual sins? How can we point at others when within our own churches we have myriads of examples of adultery, fornication, pornography and virtual affairs?
Just in terms of total numbers, sexual sins committed by heterosexuals have done far more damage to society than any amount of homosexual sin. Heterosexual sin often results in children being born out of wedlock or to single mothers. This leads to increased chances of poverty as well as a horde of social, physical and spiritual problems. If we are to be consistent, we need to speak out against all forms of sexual sin, and it must start in our own homes. As Peter said in his first letter, “It is time for judgment to begin with the family of God.” (1 Pe 4:17)
Many of you have read the excellent little book by Randy Alcorn called the Treasure Principle. Here is what he calls The Treasure Principle: You can’t take it with you, but you can send it on ahead. He has also written another book called The Purity Principle. Here is how he defines the Purity Principle: Purity is always smart; impurity is always stupid. Not sometimes. Not usually. Always. You’re not an exception. I’m not an exception. There are no exceptions. In his book he tells the story of a man he calls Brad. He writes, “Brad was a seminary student preparing for ministry. One night he argued with his wife. Upset, he drove to Starbucks to think things through. Soon Brad was engrossed in conversation with a young woman. A few hours later he was in bed with her. Brad came to me, ashamed and distressed. "How can I tell my wife?" he asked. "Will she ever forgive me? It was so sudden-there was no warning. It came out of the clear blue sky!" Then Alcorn asks the question: “Or did it?” (The Purity Principle, p. 40) What was true of this man named Brad is true of all of us, men or women: we don’t just happen to fall into big sexual sins. We don’t live lives of moral purity one day and have an affair the next. The so-called bigger sexual sins are always preceded by a series of smaller sexual sins. A survey was taken at one Promise Keepers gathering of 1500 men. One half of them had viewed pornography within the previous week. Not the previous five years, the previous week. Randy Alcorn was the keynote speaker at a Pastor’s Conference I attended in February. He said that in that gathering of over 1,000 pastors that nearly 20% of them would be addicted to pornography. Not that they looked at pornography recently, but that they were addicted. Let’s be clear here: ALL guys struggle with lust. Some of you husbands might be thinking, “Oh man, now my wife knows my secret!” But it’s true ladies, ALL men struggle with lust. Once we are clear on that point, there is only one question that remains—is each man overcoming in his struggle with lust or he is losing this important battle? Is this also a universal problem with women? Being a man I can’t speak accurately to that question, but I suspect the problems are the same but manifest themselves differently. What does it mean if a woman dresses immodestly? This may not strictly be a sexual sin, but such a desire to be noticed could lead to sexual sin or be a part of a larger spiritual problem. I have been told by some women that romance novels can lead to impure thoughts of fantasies. Anytime you compare your husband to another man you are playing with envy, jealousy, discontent and yes, potentially an emotional or physical affair. So what does Jesus say to all of us who struggle with this powerful temptation? The same thing he said to this woman Jezebel and to those who followed her: Repent. 21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. As Paul said in 2 Corinthians, God always leaves a way of escape out of temptation and sin. But is it really that simple—just repent of my sexual sins and all will be well? Like most things in the Christian life, it is simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Many can get into a sin-repent-sin-repent cycle from which there seems to be no escape. Let me give you some practical suggestions to break this sin-repent cycle and be on your road to overcoming sexual sin.
1. Tell someone. God knows that confession of sin has a way of breaking its power over us. James 5:16 says, Confess you sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. When it comes to confession, we like to take the easy way out. We pray a quick, silent prayer: “God, I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.” But do you really mean that? When we confess to one another, the darkness of sin is finally exposed to the light. Finally someone else knows. Finally someone can pray for you so that you can move toward genuine spiritual healing.
2. Set up strict boundaries. Never assume that you will be strong enough to defeat the power of sexual sin on your own. We Christians are experts at pushing the limits of sin. One women wrote an email to the Christian ministry called Probe and asked the question, “Is it a sin to wear a bikini?” This is one of those questions that tries to explore how close we can get to sin and not cross the line. It’s similar to asking, “If I let my two year-old play right beside the highway is this OK as long as he is not on the highway?” We would tell the young mother, “Keep your child far from the highway”. We would answer the woman, “Keep yourself far from a bikini”. And we should say to all men and women: “Stay as far away from sin as possible.” It is not weakness to run away. 1 Cor. 6:18 says, Flee from sexual immorality. Flee—that means run away!
There are many ways of running away from sexual immorality. If you struggle with cable TV, get rid of the cable or the whole TV. If you struggle with the internet, get rid of the internet or at least get a good filter. At the office Jeff and I use Covenant Eyes as our internet filter. This Christian ministry is based on a saying of Job, “I have made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a woman.” I think Covenant Eyes is actually better than a filter because a filter might not always be effective or there may be ways to get around a filter. But the way covenant eyes works is that it monitors and records every single web page you ever visit. Then a complete record of all of these web pages is sent to two accountability partners. One copy is sent to Chris Crye, my accountability partner, and the other is emailed to Karen. Wives, make sure your husbands get some kind of internet filter. And if they refuse to do so, ask them to explain to you how they can be strong as to not need a filter.
3. Make no excuses about privacy. If we are to win this battle over sexual sin, as well as other sins, we must not imagine that we have a right to privacy when it comes to sin. We need each other. The speaker at the Spring FLD conference has a ministry working with churches in big trouble. Many of these have had pastors that have sinned sexually. When he interviews these churches after the fact, he always asks the leaders if they ever saw any signs leading up to the sin. This speaker said that every time he has asked that question, someone always says, “yes, I was always troubled by the way I saw him speak to the choir director”, or some such thing.
If you ever think I am heading for trouble, you have a right and a responsibility to warn me in advance and call me on the carpet. The same goes for all of us. If we can’t speak the truth to one another, we might as well take the word “church” off of our name and just call ourselves “Grace Social Club”. A while back a fellow believer who is not part of our church, dropped by the church office with his son, who I think was about 7 or 8 years old. The next time this same man visited he told me that his son had seen a picture of naked person on my computer. I wasn’t sure what he meant at first, then I remembered that his son had been intrigued by the screen saver that was flashing a new picture every ten seconds. One of the pictures was Michelangelo’s painting on the Sistine Chapel called Adam. You know—the famous one where the bearded God infuses Adam with life by touching their fingertips together. Like most of those paintings, Michelangelo’s characters wear little or no clothing. It was an innocent mistake, but this man had every right to ask me about it and I am glad that he did.
With Jesus, it’s never too late to repent, but we have to be willing. Jesus said that this woman Jezebel was given time to repent, but she was not willing. She loved her sin and did not want to let go of it and she suffered greatly as a result. Jesus said the same fate awaits us if we are not willing to repent. If you don’t like your sin, if you are willing to let it go, then tell someone. Expose it to the light. Then let the healing power of the Holy Spirit and the faithful prayers of your friend lead you to wholeness and healing.
Rich Maurer May 16, 2004 |