Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church

Colossians 3:1-5, 12-14 and Revelation 2:18-29

We are going to continue in our series on the letters to the churches in the Book of Revelation. Let me give us a couple vocabulary words that we will be working with this morning, doers and benefiters.

There are those who are doers, who take action. And there are benefiters, people who benefit from the actions of the doers. It happens all the time. For example, there are doers who do the work of building and selling homes. Then there are benefiters who may never have picked up a hammer in their lives but who twirl signs that direct people to those homes. They benefit from the actions of those who build.

A personal example comes from the world of movies and television. Our first church after we were married was Hollywood Presbyterian, so we have lots of friends in the entertainment business. Several are writers. One of the cool things that writers do is get the names of their friends into their movies and TV shows. Anyone remember a geeky African American old TV character named Steve Urkel? There is a real Steve Urkel at Hollywood Pres. A writer friend used his name for a onetime character who became the star of the show.

Well, my family’s claim to fame is that my daughter Emily has her name in a made for TV Disney movie called “Double Teamed.” Often you don’t hear the full name, sometimes it just shows up in the credits. Not this time. Take a look.

How cool is that. Our writer friend is the doer. We are benefiters.

There were doers and benefiters in the ancient city of Thyatira. Only, it turned out it was not a good thing. We will come back to all of them in a minute but first let’s begin with the good news that Jesus has in a letter for the church at Thyatira in the second chapter of the book of Revelation.

Rev. 2:18-29 18 ‘And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze: 19 ‘I know your works—your love, faith, service, and patient endurance. I know that your last works are greater than the first.

Oh, I like the way this starts. It’s as if a secret shopper attended that church and gave a glowing report in the Thyatiran Daily News. “I was greeted in their busy courtyard and at the door by friendly people. The preaching was powerful and it was obvious they had a strong missions program. Members I spoke with told me their church has a resiliency that helps them weather challenges that come their way. And my research shows that their current works, ministries, missions are better than in years past.” I like these Thyatiran Christians. Why, this might even be a description of RBCPC.

Hearing what Jesus had to say to the church in Thyatira, I’d say he would have some good things to say about us as well.

Shall we all agree not to read any further? Trust me. I’ve read it. It’s all downhill from here. But, the next part talks about the recruiter, the doers and the benefiters. So, take a deep breath and let’s dive in.

20But I have this against you: you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet and is teaching and beguiling my servants to practice fornication and to eat food sacrificed to idols. 21I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her fornication.

Did I mention that the Book of Revelation is very symbolic? It is. Here we have symbols. Jezebel is symbolic. There may very well have been a specific person who was gathering and teaching others. By naming her Jezebel, the Thyatirans were immediately reminded of the Jezebel of the Old Testament who was a very bad queen of Israel. She didn’t just worship false gods, she killed the priests and prophets of the true God and recruited and supported hundreds of priests to her false gods. She worshiped idols and was an idolater. The Christians who read this letter immediately understood that a Jezebel in their midst meant idolatry.

Let’s keep going, carefully. This I have against you…fornication and eating food sacrificed to idols. That may seem like an odd combination. Think doers and benefiters. Fornication is an action of a doer. The name Jezebel tells us the issue in Thyatira was idolatry. The term fornication tells us that people were actively involved, committing idolatrous acts. They are doers. People who eat food sacrificed to idols are benefiters. They may not worship false gods, but they buy their meat at the discount temple butcher store. They benefit from the action of the doers who did the sacrificing. More than that, they benefit from the culture and industry of idolatry. The church was filled with people who either actively participated in activities that denied God or passively benefited from those activities and Jesus is challenging that status quo attitude.

Having said all that, I kind of want to say, “so what.” It’s a bit of a yawn. Do we really care about a culture and industry of idolatry? We all get our meat from Albertsons or Vons. To be honest, a conversation about being vegetarian would stimulate more interest.

Let’s come at this from a different direction. History books tell us that Thyatira was known for its unions and guilds. More trade guilds were known in Thyatira than any other Asian city. The inscriptions mention the following: wood workers, linen workers, makers of outer garments, dryers, leather workers, tanners, potters, bakers. The city was filled with professionals and they had to be part of a union or guild if they were going to be successful in that town. That we can understand. We have unions, guilds, business organizations, fraternities, sororities, country clubs, rotary and chamber of commerce. But, membership in Thyatiran guilds and unions required participation in compromising activities. Members were expected to regularly participate in corporate parties that featured sex acts and big meals in honor of the gods. Guild members were expected to go along to get along. And, if you didn’t go along you lost your membership, your job, your livelihood. This isn’t a good setting in which to describe similar kinds of business parties that go on today but, suffice it to say, they do exist.

Then, like now, Christians were conflicted. They wanted to serve the Lord and walk by faith but they also wanted to make a living and be part of their society.

So, Jezebel comes along in the church and teaches, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” Everyone is doing it. It’s the price of doing business in this town. And the church members bought into it hook, line and sinker. Do we know anything about that kind of thing?

How about Christian salespeople whose clients want to go to racy places for business meals? College students for whom drinking is the norm, not the exception. We could go on with all kinds of examples of compromise with the world. Twenty years ago, preachers attacked smoking, drinking, dancing and movies. Today, those may seem quaint and we could come up with a new list. But, too often the church and preachers focus on specifics of their day but miss the deeper issue. The issue is not deciding which activities are acceptable and which are not. That’s legalism in its purest form. That’s white knuckle religion, where you know you shouldn’t do something that is tempting you so you fight yourself, trying not to do it, developing white knuckles as you do. Or, we worry that our religion tells us we shouldn’t attend an all important meeting but we don’t know why.

Revelation takes us deeper than religion. The question for us today is not “do I put things before God?” We all do. Nor is the question, how do I stop myself from doing those things? The question is how do I become the kind of person who doesn’t do those things?

We need to recognize how fully and robustly we epitomize the phrase, “I want what I want when I want it.” And recognize the incredible opportunity available to us to “want what God wants when God wants it.”

We can’t get away from it. At the root of who we are, in our hearts, is a photograph of us with a caption that says Managing Editor or CEO, queen or king. And what we do flows out of that place. Without transformation, all of us, Christians and not, are our own Chief Enforcement Officers, ruthlessly enforcing our own wants on anything and anyone who will comply. We can choose to ignore or disagree with that but we cannot choose the consequences of living that way. Let me show you what I mean. I’ll invite you to take the Bible out of your pew and turn to page 201 in the New Testament or you can look on the screen but, it may be most helpful to see it for yourself in scripture. Find Colossians chapter three verse five:

Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: Fornication, impurity, passion, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.

What are the first and last words in the list? Fornication and idolatry. So we are on the right track. We usually read a list like this in the Bible and think it is just that, a list. Look more carefully at this grouping of earthly things. It is not a list, it is a progression. Actually it starts at the farthest end of a bad progression and works its way back to the core, the root from which the rest flows.

• Fornication is sexual immorality – meaning inappropriate behavior between two people.

• Impurity is inappropriate sexual behavior by ourselves.

• Passion may be better translated lust. Lust is wanting impurity and fornication.

• Evil desire is wanting inappropriate things of all kinds.

• Greed is just wanting what we don’t have.

We call it wanting. Our culture calls it deserving. The Bible calls it greed. Whatever you call it, it means we want more, more money, more entertainment, more love, more respect, more something else, something other than God and what God would have us be.

Greed, evil desire, lust, impurity, fornication. Watch how this progression grows out of a core called idolatry, worshiping, trusting, wanting something other than God. We begin at a core grounded on anything other than God. For many people, it is themselves, CEO. From there comes, I want. Then, I want inappropriate things. Then, I want sexually inappropriate things. Then, I am personally participating in sexually inappropriate behavior. And finally, I am participating with another person in the most hurtful, betraying, self destroying kinds of earthly things we can do. And, it all stems from the root of putting myself first. Take any of the big sins in life and you can trace them back, through a progression of acts and attitudes and thoughts, all the way back to self at the core.

Churches can fill up with self worshiping, compromised people and God will let them go their self centered way. Someone has said that God is a gentleman who will not force himself where he is not wanted. If that happens to be a church, even one that says they want God. I know I have abruptly changed the topic away from ourselves and onto churches. That’s because I know what’s coming. I’d like to not have to read or try to understand or explain the next part. Jesus warns that church, remember, the loving, enduring church with good works, ministries and program. To that church he says,

22Beware, I am throwing her on a bed, and those who commit adultery with her I am throwing into great distress, unless they repent of her doings; 23and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts, and I will give to each of you as your works deserve.

Remember, these images are symbolic. And Jesus is telling that successful congregation, you made your bed now sleep in it. But your people are going to be distressed and the things nearest and dearest to you are going to be taken away. What might her children be symbolic of? Their reputation, their ministries and programs? Whatever it is, it’s the last thing they would ever want to loose.

Thank goodness this is talking about them and not us. Thank goodness we don’t attend worship for our own sakes, we don’t serve or give for our own benefit, we plan worship and ministry for the sake of those who are not yet here, not yet Christians, rather than just for ourselves. Thank goodness all our ministries are safe from Jesus’ judgment.

But, in reality, when we truly want to be faithful followers of Jesus, we are in a real jam. We are surrounded by compromise that seems inevitable and unavoidable. We live in a world that tells us that we are the most important thing. The philosophy of customer service demands that I, the customer, am always right, even when I am wrong. Something is right for me if I think it is right. Our country clubs, our supermarkets, our health clubs, our auto dealerships, certainly every ad on television tells us we are most important. We aren’t drowning in it, we’ve learned to breathe it. We believe it. It works itself out in our everyday life and even our church life and relationships.

I showed that clip of Emily Nybo at the beginning to show that, we are caught up in this world of ours. Sure Hollywood puts out garbage. Shall we condemn all of Hollywood? Even Disney? People used to say, “throw your TVs out the window.” Would that now refer to the TVs we have in our SUVs and on our phones and laptops? We are the first generation in the history of the world that has needed to be told, “please turn off your cell phones…. We aren’t drowning, we’ve learned to breathe it. None of us are immune. Jesus knew that. He said his followers are to be in the world but not of it. He said we are to be salt and light in the world. There are Christians who are trying to make a difference in their companies and industries. A lawyer in our church made the joke, that it’s the bad 99% of lawyers that give the rest of us lawyers a bad name. What if we are the one percent? Shouldn’t we stay and influence?

Now, I and we must be very, very careful here. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jezebel didn’t start off with this train of reasoning. We don’t want to end up in her compromise again. But, since we can’t get away from our world, how are we going to live in it?

Let’s go back to where we started this message, with doers and benefiters. This world will never let up in asking us to do things that conflict with what God would have us do. And there will always be opportunities to support and benefit from evil, without getting our own hands dirty. We can be far more discerning about what actions we take part in and what actions we are willing to benefit from and which we are not. Here are some steps for us:

1. Do not assume.

Do not assume that because everyone else is doing something, you should.

Do not assume that because you have a certain job, God wants you there long term.

Do not assume that because you aren’t taking the action, it’s fine to benefit from it. This one can apply to stocks we buy, cloths we wear, movies we watch. There are companies, lifestyles and values that we should not support.

Do not assume that because you can, you should.

Do not assume.

2. Determine the root.

Determine the root of your actions and emotions. When you are upset, or anxious or excited, follow the progression of that action or emotion back to its root cause. Colossians chapter three has several of these progressions, positive and negative that you can study.

Determine the root of actions and emotions in our church.

Determine the root of goals you have and opportunities you are presented with.

Determine the root.

3. Decide to promote God.

God is quietly waiting outside our hearts. He has a current resume, impeccable references, and stellar track record. He knows how to navigate the waters of culture. He is a far kinder taskmaster than we are ourselves. That is a sermon series in itself. At this point I can only say you need to think about that. It’s time to resign and promote God.

9Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to …us. Amen.