House of Cards

Message Transcription

I think some of you know this, but Karl and I are actually really good friends. We get to spend a lot of time together. I even last year when my mom passed away, Karl was one of the very first people to contact me, came to my mom's, got to come to my mom's visitation and participated in that. And so we are good friends. And if I can tease Karl, I'm going to tease Karl. There are things that you do and don't do to guest preachers. And so I'm just going to give you a few of those right now. There's a few books that you don't assign to a guest preacher to preach, the first of which is probably numbers, just because I don't know how we make the Book of Numbers exciting. The next book is probably Leviticus for obvious reasons. Lamentations is another one, probably that we don't give guest preachers because, you know, Lamentations is just really sad and Revelation would be the last one that I would throw out as a book. You don't give guest preachers because there's so much going on in the Book of Revelation that at about two hours of background work we might all be on the same page. I am going to attempt the passage that, mind you and I want to just make certain this caveat is obvious. Karl told me to preach. So we're going to do our best to walk through the Book of Revelation this morning, at least through this particular passage, and spent some time wrestling with it before I do too much background work and I am going to have to do some background work this morning, mostly because if not, we end up with a lot of, well, a lot of contemporary perspectives on Revelation, where it we've got a lot of people who are trying to guess the future and what they think the future is because of what they read in the Book of Revelation.

And often times it looks more like somebody march Madness bracket where we're just going to throw stuff at the wall and hope it sticks and maybe that's good at the end. That's not what I'm going to do for you this morning. And that's part of the reason I want to do the background work. I feel like it's important for me to give credit where credit is due. So a lot of what I'm going to share with you this morning comes from some of the best historical scholars, theologians, great preachers that I've heard for for many years. And so you're going to hear some stuff that I've taken from people like Ray Vanderlinde, N.T. Wright, Scott McKnight, Michael Gorman, Marty Solomon, Walter Brueggemann, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and then Dan Bushel. And so I want to bring some of these things to light and then we'll wrestle with it. Let's talk about the context of revelation for just a moment so that we can get, I think, a bigger picture of what's going on.

There's a great deal of discussion, research, debates, arguments over how we interpret this. But I want to spend some time looking at what I believe is one of the primary drivers for every single passage in Scripture, and that is historical context. Without us asking the right questions, oftentimes what happens is we ask the wrong questions and we end up running after the wrong answers and end up making scripture say whatever kind of affirms whatever our insecurities are, rather than taking a step back, allowing Scripture to give us questions and then begin to wrestle with those. When you look at what's going on in the text, Revelation is an epistle. It's far more about what's going on in its contemporary time than it is about what's going to happen in the future. In fact, this is an epistle. This is a letter written to these seven churches, and it would make sense when you begin to go back and look at the way even maps were put together, the way in which these cities lined out, because the churches, the seven churches that we see in Revelation two and three, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and today the one we're going to look at, specifically, Letitia, are important cities in one of the primary postal routes throughout what we now know as Turkey. And so what you would have is here is this letter that John is writing and he's passing it to the first church, Ephesus, and then along the postal route.

It just continues to be passed from church to church to church. And if you look specifically at what's said to these churches, he is directly hitting their immediate context. John's purpose here is to teach these churches how to live like Jesus Christ within the Roman Empire. It's part of the reason he uses the term and the analogy of Babylon, that Babylon is this covert kind of secret analogy for all of these broken empires that are oppressive and hurtful to people. And he began looking at what John is trying to help them to understand. It is the way to live out the victory of Jesus in between his resurrection and the resurrection to come. And that one day the Lamb of God will win back the world eternally, forever, and perfect it and recreate it the way He always desired it to be in heaven and earth will perfectly overlap the way God had always intended. Now, one quick comment, because it just seems to have a. I don't know, a renewed popularity right now amongst certain Christian segments. This pointing to Jesus, where he somehow and in some divine way, puts his enemies under his feet. And we interpret Revelation 19, the rider on the white horse, the one who has this robe that's dipped or dripping in blood, and he has this sharp sword that's coming out of his mouth. And we see this like warrior Jesus, who's coming back to kill off everybody who stands against him.

I want to make certain we understand something this morning when we see Jesus with blood. Whose blood is it? It's his. It's his blood. Because Jesus the Christ wins back the world by dying himself, not by slaughtering his enemies. This is the same conversation John gives us in some cases in John chapter six, when the people come to him and they want to force him to be king, a military king, and Jesus leaves the group and gets away from them because he's not going to be forced into that type of mode, only to turn right back around and give us some of the best communion theology ever. Eat my flesh, drink my blood. We just did this. Jesus conquers the world and his enemies by dying for them as the slaughtered Lamb of God. And that's why he calls you and I to deny ourselves, take up our crosses and to follow him. Now we have a little bit of a foundation for Theodosia. Interestingly enough. Laodiceia okay. It sits between two cities, Hierapolis and Colossae. We know Colossae because we've read the book of Colossians. Hierapolis is a very important city, or at least at the time was a very important city for the Roman Empire. It had these hot mineral springs which were believed to have all sorts of healing power and healing medicinal properties. People would come from all over to rest and to relax and to sit in these hot mineral springs.

In fact, the Roman Empire even built a military outpost not too far from Laodiceia, so that when their great army was on leave, they could just walk a little ways away to the city of Latakia and rest and relax and heal in these hot mineral springs. Colossae was a small city off the beaten path. Okay. Colossae was not really that important to the Roman Empire. And when there was a crazy earthquake in 60 AD, Rome did not really care to even rebuild Colossae. In fact, to this day, Colossae is so forgotten that it's one of the cities in the area that's not excavated even now. Colossae was known for having fresh, cool drinking water that supplied much of the area. Now, let's come back to this earthquake for just a moment that took place in 60 ad. Hierapolis was actually offered money, a sort of government bailout of sorts to rebuild the city because it was such an important city for the Roman Empire. Colossae was not given any money. They weren't given anything. Odyssia, though, was actually offered the same bailout and they decided, No, we don't need your money. We will rebuild on our own. And the city's mantra was We did it ourselves. That was their mantra. And the funny thing about it is, is there's no evidence in history to suggest that Rome was somehow offended that Letitia did not want the money. In fact, in some cases they were almost championed for it, like, wow, good for you.

You you did it yourself. Theodosia. Even now is being excavated. By the people of Odisha. They are not using the money from the Ministry of Tourism even to this day, because they did it themselves. Lay odyssey had its own mint where they created and they printed their own money. Laetitia was a very important bank for Rome. They printed their own currency for the local usage. And on those gold coins it said, We did it ourselves. There's a trend here. They had a state of the art gladiator arena where the best gladiators from around the region would come and fight. And interestingly enough, one of the things that they would do is these gladiators would create all sorts of new weapons. And then that military outpost that wasn't too far from Hierapolis, they would bring Roman soldiers to the gladiator arena in Hierapolis in Laodicea, and the Gladiators would teach the Roman soldiers how to use the new weapons and become experts at them. For all of the Roman Empire, there was this law called Angaria. This meant that if a Roman soldier asked certain things of the people they were lawfully, they were lawfully required to follow through on what the Roman soldier asked. It's part of the analogy that Jesus is using when he speaks. If somebody asks you to walk a mile with them, you walk a second mile. Because Roman soldiers would tell people, You're going to carry my pack for a mile and you had to do it.

But one of the other things that they would do is that they would come and they would just knock on your door at any time. And if a Roman soldier knocked on your door and said, please give me some food, give me something to eat, you were required by Roman law to invite them into your home and to give to them what you had. In fact, one of the interesting things is, is that angaria, because of where Hieropolis was and that Roman military outpost Hierapolis wrote to the Roman Empire and said, Please, will you ease the requirements of the law of Angaria? Because these people are these Roman soldiers are always here and it's a strain on our folks. Laodiceia did not write that letter because they were going to prove we don't need to. We will do it ourselves. We will figure this out. The was known for its own wool. Colossae was known for a really fine, nice red wool. Latakia was known for a very classy black wool. They exported a famous eye salve from Hierapolis. They took the mud and the water from Hierapolis, this mineral hot springs. And they created a kind of like salve out of it for people to put onto their eyes. In fact, there were a lot of there's a there's a lot of evidence to suggest, at least some theories out there that this eye salve would actually clear up and and even heal various eye diseases.

Letitia had to pipe in. And to this day, still pipes in water from more than 30 miles away because. The hot mineral springs of Hierapolis flow down into an area and the cool water from colossae flow down into an area that meets right outside of Laodicea. And those two things mix and become a useless, futile kind of gross bit of water. So with that in your minds, a little bit of the background there. I want us to read this passage again. Knowing some of those details, I want you to see and begin to make some connections with the text when it comes to John writing this specific city. Here we go. To the angel of the church in Laodicea write These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. I know your deeds. Here we go. I know your deeds that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were one. Or are either one or the other. So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I'm about to spit you out of my mouth. You say I am rich. I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing. We did it ourselves. We have a bank. We make our own money. Making some connections. But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire so that you can become rich and white clothes to wear so that you can cover your shameful nakedness and salve to put on your eyes so that you can see.

To whom I love. To those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am. I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person and they with me. To the one who is victorious. I will give the right to sit with me on my throne. Just as I was victorious and sat down with my father on his throne. Please tell me you're making some connections before I even get there. John accuses them of being lukewarm, that they should be one or the other, not some gross combination of the two. Now, let's go back in time for just a moment. At least let me go back in time for just a moment. And I remember hearing youth ministers or different preachers at different times interpret this text. Like God hated the lukewarm Christian even more than he hated the person who was completely against him. Right. The amount of Oh, man, this is this is like a great Friday night talk at church camp. Right? Because this gets the baptisms coming. All right. I'd rather you be completely against God than be a lukewarm Christian. And all the 12 and 13 year old kids are crying and they're like, Oh, let me give my life to Jesus.

That interpretation is insane. Okay. The idea that God would rather us be 100% against him rather than struggling in life with a little bit of apathy is crazy. I hope we know that that was the point where you say amen. Okay. There we go. Okay. Super glad the history lesson did not put you to sleep just yet. Okay, That's craziness. But we begin to look at some of these interpretations. And that's why I say when we don't ask the right questions, we end up chasing all sorts of rabbits, making scripture say all sorts of things that it was never intended to say, and that the writer of the text never intended for it to say. John wants those in La Odyssia to understand and to embrace. Live out who you truly are. You are image bearers of God. Live out who you truly are. If you are a hot mineral springs and you have healing properties, be that if you're cool water that is refreshing to the world, be that, but don't be some gross mix of the two because some gross mix of the two is useless. It's futile. It is. It's irrelevant. And to be honest with you, it's almost harmful. There's a reason they're still piping in water for 30 plus miles into the area. And when we lose our identities in Christ and we mix with something else that is impure and not us, when we lose those genuine image bearer properties of who we are.

Man.

We become something so bad, not just bad for us, but bad for the world when it comes to our witness. This is where I get in trouble. Over the last few years, almost every single Christian survey and date and data firm in the United States, folks like Barna or PRRI, Pew Research, et cetera. They've they have determined that when Americans of all faiths, even those who would consider themselves nones, the I don't really have a faith and I don't have a church and I just kind of do my own thing. That group, when they reflect upon Jesus and his way of living. They're drawn to it. They're inspired by it. Jesus does not have a bad reputation amongst those groups. Even the groups that haven't quite called him Christ. But those same data research groups. Collecting mountains of evidence. Tell us that the church. You and I are the ones who have the reputation issues amongst our society. To be honest. Least in my humble opinion. It's because we have mixed our Christian identity with so many other things. We distance ourselves from the poor. We distance ourselves from the powerless. We're more worried about laws against immigration than we are caring for the image of God in the immigrant. We'd rather argue abortion than take care of the single pregnant mom. And I'm not saying I'm for abortion. I'm just simply saying, how do we take care of the single pregnant mother? We mix our identity with Jesus, with things like pornography and alcoholism and substance abuse.

And then we walk into the voting booths expecting and trying to dominate those who stand against our perspectives and our ideologies. We've traded in the affirmation of the risen Jesus for likes and followers. And in doing so, I think in so many ways we have become useless. We become useless to a world that desperately needs to see the redeemed image of God living within us. So that our worship rituals, like what we're doing today, match our loving societal engagements. And in this way. We need a salve for our eyes. We need a salve to be able to see what Jesus is offering so that we ourselves can see what he sees. When we look at ourselves and when we look at others. So that we can enter the world as a people known for hope and joy. And let me ask you a few questions here. Do you think the world is getting better or worse? Do you think Christ is just as active today as He was back then? Do you think God is changing the world and redeeming his image and people like He has been for the last thousands and thousands and thousands of years? Because your answer to the question, my answer to this question will show the world what I've mixed with.

If we're just being real honest. Do you know how much territory over the last several, what few decades, 100 years God has reclaimed in our world? 100 years ago. Less than 10% of Africa was Christian. Today, half of the continent of Africa considered Christ, Lord. By all accounts, the most Christian continent in the world today is Africa. In 1950. China basically destroyed every bit of Christ's church in the country. And during that time, every Christian, everything that we even resembled Christianity was being destroyed. And those who claimed Christianity, who continued to stay with Jesus Christ were martyred, beaten, ostracized, and had everything taken from them. The church went underground. And when we got more information about China in the mid 90s or so, we came to learn that in the 50s the church in China was about 3 million people. In just over 40 years later. They were 140 million people. Mission Resource Network. Our friends, some of you know Dan Bouchelle. This is where I'm getting some of that stuff, too. Can confirm for you that there are more people worshiping in China this morning. And probably in the United States at all of our churches when it comes to attendance. China's growth over the last 40 plus years rivals the day of Pentecost and what took place between Pentecost and the third century.

And that has happened in most of your lifetimes. I have to say your. Because I was born in 81. Sorry. Brazil and South Korea are known today not for receiving missionaries as much, but for sending missionaries elsewhere. For every 200 South Koreans, they send a missionary. And in America today. Christianity. Christianity is declining amongst some demographics. You and I know it. It's no surprise. But you know what's interesting? Christianity in America is not declining amongst our black brothers and sisters. Christianity is not declining amongst those who come from Latino countries or other immigrants. Christianity is declining amongst white churches. I'm not. This is the data. And here is Jesus, just like with Theodosia. Standing at the door and knocking. Will you let me come in and have dinner with you? And in their day they would let the Roman soldier in. He'd come in, sit down, eat whatever he wanted, and they'd basically stand off to the side while he ate at the table, waiting for him to leave. And Jesus Christ knocks on the door and he says, I want to come in, but I'm not coming in unless you open the door. And then when you open the door, I will come in and I will eat with you. And in some crazy divine way. Even though it's our table, he becomes the host.

The transforming power that renews our vision to see the world the way Christ sees the world. You are an image bearer of Christ with the responsibility in some cases, of being a physical presence of Jesus Christ to the rest of the world. It is who you are. Those are your divine properties. The question is in this time of Lent. Is will we repent of the things we have mixed ourselves with? Will we repent of our sin, of mixing ourselves with ideologies that run contrary to Jesus Christ and what he wants for our world? Will we become again useful for the kingdom? And you know what's crazy, Letitia? Actually, after this letter became a vibrant church for the region. In fact, just a few years ago, as they were excavating Theodosia, they found one of the earliest churches and it had art dedicated to the church, Father Polycarp. Polycarp was John's first disciple. So when I think about our country today. I'll be honest with you, I don't worry about whether God is going to be faithful, and I don't worry about whether or not God is going to do great things. I don't worry about whether or not God is going to bring his love and his redemption and transformation to our country. I don't worry about that. My concern. Is that we won't be brave enough to let our idols die so that he can change us.

That's what I worry about. That we won't let our idols die so that we can live exclusively for him. It's the slaughtered lamb of God who conquers the world. And that is your calling. Then I self. Take up your cross and follow him. In the words of G.K. Chesterton. Christianity. Has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found hard and therefore left untried. Let me pray for you and we'll have another song. God, we give ourselves to you. For the places in our hearts. God where we need to repent. Please God with your spirit, give us the courage to do so. Give us the courage God to. To surrender fully. And then whatever you need to recreate in us, whatever you need us to be. God give us the courage to go on the journey to become that. And while this word is used far too much God, I pray a revival starts amongst the places God that have claimed you for so long. But we've mixed with so many things that make us impure. Revive us. Bring us to life again. Put your spirit in us so that we might be something beautiful for the world to claim and your glory to claim you as the grand story. It is through Jesus, the Christ that we pray. Amen.