Lenten Midweek IV

Letters from Our Lord: To the Churches in Thyatira and Sardis

Lenten Midweek IV

March 13, 2024

Text: Rev. 2:18-3:6

            In the great Reformation hymn, “Salvation unto Us Has Come” (LSB 555), we sing, “For faith alone can justify; Works serve our neighbor and supply The proof that faith is living” (v. 9).  The hymn verse may well be a commentary on our Epistle from this past Sunday: “For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:8-10; ESV).  Jesus knows that the works and faithfulness of the Thyatiran Christians are increasing… their love, faith, service, and patient endurance exceed the first (contrast that with the first letter to the Ephesians, where Jesus says they have abandoned the love they had at first [Rev. 2:4]).  And Jesus knows, on the other hand, that the works of the Sardinian Christians give them an appearance of being alive, but, in fact, they are dead.  And Jesus has come to wake them up, to raise them. 

            “I know your works” (2:19; 3:1), says the Son of God, with His eyes like a flame of fire (all-seeing, purifying), and feet like burnished bronze (powerful, victorious), the One who has the Seven Spirits of God (that is, the Holy Spirit in His seven-fold presence), and who holds the seven stars (the angels of the Churches, the pastors) in His hand.  The works are not what saves a person, of course.  That is Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone, the gift of God that is not a result of works.  But the works show whether or not, as we sing, “faith is living.”

            The Thyatirans are commended.  But there is also a warning, and a call to repentance.  Even in this Church, where love and faithfulness is growing, there is a deadly infection: “that woman Jezebel” (2:20) is tolerated among them, seducing Christians by her false teaching, to practice sexual immorality and eat meat sacrificed to idols (yes, again, the two always go together, sexual immorality and idolatry).  Now, her name probably isn’t Jezebel in reality.  This is, rather, an allusion to the Jezebel of the Old Testament, wicked King Ahab’s even wickeder queen, who did just this… seduced the Israelites to commit sexual immorality and worship Baal, even as she pursued Elijah and the prophets of the LORD, to murder them, and coaxed Ahab into tremendously evil deeds (1 Kings 16-22). 

            This woman in Revelation is like her, either an actual woman, or perhaps a heretical group of people, within the Christian community, but infecting the Christian community with immoral and unchristian teachings.  Christ gave her time to repent… as we always should, calling on our brothers and sisters who are guilty of manifest sin or false doctrine to return to the Lord, loving them enough to speak truth to them, begging them to cast off their sin and unbelief.  But when they refuse to repent, then there must be the painful business of Church discipline.  Excommunication, at some point.  Always in love for the impenitent.  We must never do it spitefully or vengefully, but always and only in love.  And in fear, lest we likewise fall from faith.  That is the concern, right?  That the rest of the Church be saved from the poisonous contagion.  Jesus Himself will deal with Jezebel if she refuses to repent, casting her on a sickbed (the very bed she used for her infidelities), and along with her, those who committed adultery with her, and all her children.  Why?  To cleanse the Church from infection.  Lest Christians follow her example, and fail to take warning.  So that the Churches will know that Jesus is the One who searches mind and heart, and judges accordingly.  If the infection doesn’t clear up by repentance, radical surgery must be performed.

            Where are we guilty of this?  Where have we tolerated, or even promoted, sexual immorality, of which there are so unimaginably many varieties in our time?  Living together outside of marriage, fornication, pornography, adultery, homosexuality, polyamory, transgenderism… and the list goes on and on.  Even Christians participate in these.  But be warned.  They are deadly to Christian faith.  They are the deep things of Satan.  They are idolatry, because they abandon the one true God and His will for you, in favor of self-worship, and the worship of gods who offer moments of illicit and fleeting pleasure in exchange for your soul.  And so, wherever you have tolerated, promoted, or participated in any sexual immorality, repent.  Confess it to Christ.  Run to His healing wounds, to the shelter of His forgiveness, His cross and death for you.  The healing may be painful, but you will always find it in Christ.  He loves you.  He will not forsake you.  You are only safe in Him.  But, so also, you are always safe in Him. 

            What of the Church in Sardis?  They have apparently impressive outward works.  But Jesus knows that, inside, they are dead.  What does this mean?  The works they do appear quite grand.  But they are not done in faith.  And so, they are not done in love.  These are any works that are done as a mere show of piety, or to earn merit before God, or praise from other humans.  We see this in ritualism for its own sake, and in legalistic moralism (these are dangers to which conservatives are especially susceptible).  We see it in the all-pervasive virtue-signaling of social media and pop culture.  We see it in the liberal mainline Protestant churches of America, who don’t believe much Scripture, but do have expensive social programs… some of which even do good things (like feed the hungry, clothe the naked, etc.), which is great, and we should thank God for that… but many of which promote great evils, like abortion, or mutilation, or the sexual immorality and idolatry of Jezebel.  We see it in our own hearts, whenever we do a work, not out of love for God or for our neighbor, not in faith, but to make ourselves look good, or to make ourselves feel good (“It just made me feel good to help someone in need,” we so often hear in a newscast… that’s the tell!).  Repent.  Such works are dead. 

            We must examine ourselves in light of these letters.  How is our faith evidenced in our love for one another, and for the world?  The Church Father, Tertullian, observed how Christian love impressed his pagan neighbors: “See how they love one another,” they would say.  Are love and faithfulness increasing among us?  Are we living and growing in them?  Or do we have a reputation for being alive, when, in reality, rigor mortis is setting in?  Do we tolerate false teachers?  Do we promote them (after all, we bought their book at the Christian book store)?  Do we tolerate sexual immorality?  Are we silent in the face of it?  Do we tacitly give it our approval?  Do we participate in it?  What idols need to be smashed among us, lest we end up with Jezebel on her sickbed? 

            Beloved, Jesus is coming.  He is coming again to judge.  He is coming like a thief.  We don’t know the day or hour, so we must always be ready.  “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast” (Luke 12:35-36).  Wake up, and stay awake!  Be raised in the risen Christ, even now, to walk in His newness of life.  How?  Jesus says, “Remember… what you received and heard.  Keep it, and repent” (Rev. 3:3).  Remember by hearing and learning God’s Word, Law and Gospel.  Treasure it up in your heart.  Meditate upon it.  Pray it.  (Watch and pray, Jesus says to His sleepy disciples in the Garden [Matt. 26:41].)  Ask for God’s Spirit.  He will always give His Spirit to anyone who asks (Luke 11:13).  These are the things you have received in Baptism, in Scripture and Preaching, and here in the Holy Supper.  They are God’s saving gifts to you in Christ.  Cherish them. 

            For the Lord is faithful to you.  Jesus died for you, for the forgiveness of your sins.  He is risen for you, and lives for you.  He reigns for you.  And He is writing to you in His letters here in Revelation, to protect you, rescue you, and keep you as His own.  He even holds a star in His hand for you.  He gives you a pastor (two of them, in fact!), and at this moment, by His grace, I thankful to say (and I think I speak for Pr. Taylor, as well), I am one of them.  Why the star?  To preach His Word to you.  To wash you.  To feed you.  To teach you.  To tend you.  To give you the healing medicine and nourishment of His means of grace. 

            And here are the Promises for the one who conquers, the one who keeps Jesus’ works to the end (Rev. 2:26): He will reign with Jesus.  He will be given the rod of iron, the scepter, as we prayed in Psalm 2 (Rev. 2:27).  He will be given the Morning Star, which is Jesus Himself, the Light invading the darkness of our world and our lives, putting the darkness to flight (v. 28).  He will be clothed in white garments… baptismal robes of Jesus’ own righteousness, covering all our sin (3:5).  And his name will never be blotted out of the Book of Life.  In fact, with joy, the Lord Jesus will confess him before His Father and the holy angels.

            So, beloved, listen… Listen to Jesus’ Word.  It’s the reason He has given you ears.  Hear what the Spirit says to the Churches.  For what He says gives you living faith… faith that is busy doing the works God prepared beforehand, that you should walk in them.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.