The Church of Compromised Loyalty: Part 2 - Revelation 2: 19-21

1:06Where is dad? It's a major problem. It spans all nationalities. Where is dad? Eighty-five percent of children and teens with behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes. Eighty-five percent of them. Yeah, when dad doesn't love me, it's very difficult for a child to get their mind around that. 70% of all adolescent patients in drug and alcohol treatment centers originate from homes without fathers. Children without a father in the home are five times more likely to live in poverty than a child with a two-parent household.

2:06Children without fathers at home are nine times more likely to drop out of school. Ninety percent of all homeless and runaway children come from fatherless homes. Men, children need their fathers. We've really dropped the bar really low in our society. If a man just stays faithful to his wife and is a father to his kids, he's a hero. Just show up, Dad. Just be there. If you can do nothing else than just be there, what a difference you can make.

3:02Of course, a church has much higher expectations for men than just being faithful to your wife and raising your children. Yes, that goes without saying. But a church has much higher expectations for men. He wants men to exemplify Christ. He wants men to exemplify Christ in the way they relate to their wives, in the way they father their children. And that's just the family, the church. It is the men who God is tasked with the responsibility to exhibit Christ in all of their relationships.

3:54Well, we do have a fatherless crisis in our society, and I would like to preach a Father's Day sermon and address this fatherless crisis, a fatherless crisis in our land and in our churches, and in the process give some practical advice to become better fathers. And then I got to thinking, what would be a good text? And I thought about it. And all of a sudden, bam. Just. Like a lightning bolt on a clear day. Bam, it hit me. Revelation 2:19.

4:38Of course. You can turn there. Revelation 2:19. Where it says, I know your deeds, and your love, and faith, and service, and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than the first. This is written to a church, written to exhort the church to continue in the deeds that please Christ. So, of course, this relates to fathers. And what's really exciting is that it's the very next text in our study of Revelation. Look at Revelation 2:19.

5:29I know your deeds, and your love, and faith, and service, and perseverance, and that your deeds are late, are greater than at first. You've heard me tell those kind of jokes before, haven't you? Well, you can tell when a pastor is going senile because he tells the same kind of jokes over and over. And you can tell that the congregation is turning senile when they keep laughing at them. But the reality is that the law is a little bit of a Is this text as we are here back at the church at Thyatira? It does speak to all of us, so it certainly includes fathers. It tells us what we all should occupy ourselves with, whether it's the church, whether it's individuals in the workplace, whether it's people at home or in school or anywhere else. Welcome back to the city of Thyratira. It's the smallest city in our study through Revelation, but it also has the longest letter. The longest letter. Let me read where we are, and I'll begin in verse 18. And to the angel of the church in Thyatira, write: The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and his feet are like burnished bronze, says this: I know your deeds, and your love, and faith, and service, and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first. But I have this against you: that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads my bondservants astray, so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality. Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds. And I will kill her children with pestilence, and all the churches will know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts, and I will give to each of you according to your deeds. Stop there.

7:46But back at Thyratira, some of the basic questions that the church was dealing with were: can a Christian partake in the festivities or festivities that involve eating meat sacrificed to idols? Can a Christian engage in sexual immorality? If so, at what level? Can the apostolic proclamation that has been handed down to us from the apostles, can the faith that has been handed down to us be blended with pagan or secular ideologies? That's a basic issue. I think it's helpful to turn the question around a little bit and ask the question: what pleases Christ the most? You see, if we're asking that question, if this becomes the question that you fundamentally want to answer, then you're on a much better trajectory. You're not looking how far is too far, and you can see. Still be okay, you're trying to answer the question: how can I be sure that I am doing that which pleases Christ and pleases Him the most?

9:10See, for the Christian, our first aim is to please Christ in every arena of our lives. We are, whatever we're going to experience, whatever we see, our aim is to please Christ. And there are going to be internal temptations to compromise. They're going to come along throughout life. There are also going to be external pressures to compromise our loyalty to Christ. And the question then becomes: how far does Christ expect our loyalty to Him to extend?

10:01One of the things that's very clear in this letter to Thyratira, it extends to the very end, to every aspect of our existence. How far does my loyalty to my wife Nancy extend? Well, to every arena. I made a covenant with her. And so, wherever I am, whether work, home, school, private, Thought like wherever I am, there is a covenant of loyalty that bears upon me. How far does our loyalty to Christ extend comprehensively? We stopped at verse 18 last time, so we'll pick up at verse 19 this morning. I want to look at deeds that please Jesus. Deeds that please Jesus. Before we get into what's wrong with this church, I want to take a morning and just look and think about those deeds that please Jesus. Because the church, what's spelled out in verse 19 is really remarkable, what Jesus commends them for. Verse 19, I know your deeds. That is, I am intimately acquainted with your deeds.

11:33He knows us. He has eyes that are like a flame of fire. They search. They have tremendous insight. Nothing is hidden from his sight. He sees. He sees our deeds. He sees us. He knows the motivation behind our deeds. He knows our deeds. He knows us intimately. I know your deeds and your love and faith. And service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first. There is an emphasis upon the quality of deeds.

12:15Jesus is very much appreciative of their deeds, he likes them. Verse 18: He has eyes aflame of fire. Look at verse 23. He speaks about the judgment that will come upon those, upon Jezebel and those who embrace her teaching. And I will kill her children with pestilence, and all the churches will know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your deeds. Your deeds. Jesus knows their deeds, and he knows that a church's deeds, he's speaking to a church, is evidence of their allegiance to him.

13:10Deeds testify to our allegiance as a church, also as individuals. Your deeds testify to your allegiance. Who are you loyal to? Well, your deeds tell the story. And Jesus. Is the one who searches our minds and our hearts. He knows us intimately, and he is coming in judgment, and he will give to everyone according to their deeds. And all the churches are going to know this. All of humanity is. Jesus liked the quality of their deeds.

13:56It's clear from verse 19 they were engaged in good works, the kind of works that pleased Jesus. And so we can learn from Diotira the kinds of deeds that we should be involved with and in as a church, what we should put our collective energies together for, and as an individual, and as fathers, deeds that you should be active about. So we want to look at this in verse 19. We want to look at the kinds of deeds that Jesus likes so that we will engage in such. First of all, Jesus likes deeds that come out of a heart of love, that come out of a heart that love. Look back. Look back. Your deeds. I know your deeds and your love.

14:51See, the church was commended for its love. Love for God, love for one another. Ephesus didn't have this love. Thyatira does. Ephesus had orthodoxy. Church of Thyatira did not. The deeds came out, their deeds came out of a heart of love. And Jesus likes this. He says in Matthew 23:37, as he's answering what is the greatest commandment, he says, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole law and the prophets. In other words, you look at what the whole law and prophets, what we call the Old Testament, a reference to the whole Old Testament, what is the thing you should come away with? But all of this is geared to promote a love for God and a love for one another, a pure love for God, devotion to him, and a love for one another.

16:17It's clear that whatever else is said about this church, it's clear that Thyatira was a loving church. They loved God. At least a good segment of them did. Expressions for love for God express themselves, or deeds that express a love for God come out of a heart that desires to honor Him. If you love God, you have a heart that desires to honor Him. That is, give Him the weight that He deserves, give Him the respect, give him the credibility, give Him whatever, give Him weight, authority, meaning, Consider Him.

17:10That's what love does. Desire for God to be seen. If you love God, you'll desire Him to be seen instead of you. You'll make life more about appreciating Him and making Him known rather than asserting yourself, seeking to get away with what you can. In short, if you love God, you're going to want to please Him. If you love people, there will be an honest desire to help, to serve, to put their needs above your own, to take your strength and subordinate it to their benefit.

18:00Whether it's words or actions, but Jesus wants a people engaged in loving deeds. Second, Jesus likes deeds that express faith in God, that express faith in God. We know from Hebrews 11:6, without faith it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. Back at verse 19, I know I am intimately acquainted with your deeds and your love and faith. I know your faith. Faith. I know that you believe that God is.

19:03I know that you believe that God has spoken and that his words are there, been handed down to you through the scriptures. That's what faith really builds itself on, on very simple premises that God is. Do you believe that? God is. God has spoken. And his words are written in the Bible. Faith. Faith. Faith and fidelity are implied. God is, God has spoken. His words are written in the Bible, and he rewards those who seek him as such.

19:47It's the gist of Hebrews 11:6. Without faith, it is impossible to please him. Faith. God is. He has made himself known. He has given us his words so that we may have a relationship and know what pleases him. And then we is pleased when we orient our lives to the reality that God is, that he has spoken, his words are in the Bible, and that he rewards those who diligently search him, seek for him. And he is pleased when our deeds are simple expressions of these realities. Do you believe that God is?

20:37Do you live as if he is? That's the real story. Do you believe that he has spoken? Do you believe that he has made himself known? What do your deeds say? You see, Jesus likes deeds that Express faith in God and consequently loyalty to him. That's what Jesus likes. Deeds that come out not just a heart of love, but express faith in God and loyalty to him. What he says in verse 24. It's clear that there were these people there, no matter what else is said in Thyatira. Look at what he says. It's clear that there were those who held fast to this, who were remaining loyal. He says, verse 24, but I say to you, the rest who are in Thyatira, who do not hold to this teaching, that is the teaching of Jezebel, who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they call them, I place no other burden on you. Nevertheless, what you have, hold fast till I come. So there are those who are loyal to Christ there.

22:04And faith in God and loyalty to Christ marked their works. Same should be true for us. Jesus likes deeds that come out of a heart of love, express faith in God, but also serve practical needs. Look back at verse 19. I know your deeds. I am intimately acquainted with your deeds. Your love. I am intimately acquainted with your love. I know your faith. I know what's driving you and what you have. I'm going to move on. Sorry, I lost my thought.

22:45And service. I know your deeds, your love, and service. Service. See, love expresses itself in practical deeds of service. The word here is the word we get deacon from. Deacon. Service. Love expresses itself in meeting practical needs. Practical deeds of service. That's what a deacon is. One who ministers to the needs of others. One who seeks to help in real, tangible, practical ways. And what these deeds do is they express care and concern for the well-being of others. Deacons.

23:43What a great title. What a great name. But it's more than just that. It's to describe our hearts, care and concern. That's what a deacon does. Expresses care and concern in very tangible and practical ways. It's what a servant does. And Jesus likes deeds that serve practical needs. And it's not so much the size of the deeds, whether big or small deeds. What is important is where those deeds are pointing. Whether big or small, service points to the reality of God.

24:46Deeds of service point to the same reality, whether they're large or small. It's the reality that the deed points to that is all that is at issue. God. God is the author of such deeds. And when we engage in practical, measurable, and helpful deeds of service, guess what we do? We proclaim Him. We point to Him. And that's what this church is doing. They probably were a church who supplied food for the needy. They may very well have been. One of the churches that gave generously to the collections for the needs of the saints and other churches, looking at maybe even Jerusalem, as 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 seems to indicate. They may very well have been one of these generous, giving churches, helping out very practical ways.

25:58So, Jesus likes deeds that come out of a heart of love, express faith in God, serve practical needs, but also persevere through the temptations to quit. Look back at verse 19: I know your deeds, and your love, and faith, and service, and perseverance. Perseverance. If love expresses itself in practical deeds, faith expresses itself by enduring the pressures to quit, the temptations to quit. That's what Jesus likes. He likes to see us engaged, persevering instead of quitting. So easy to quit. It's so easy to get your feathers ruffled in a relationship or in church or.

27:00And just quit. Jesus loves deeds that persevere through all those temptations to quit. There's also external temptations to quit or pressures. Proclaiming Christ, the Christ of Scripture, at Thyratira, was a costly endeavor, especially with the job situation being what it was, and an expectation to worship the gods of all these trade guilds, persevering with those deeds, even when there's pressure to quit. Jesus loves us to continue in deeds that come out of a heart of love and express faith in God that serve practical needs, regardless of the pressures or temptations to quit.

28:11What's interesting about this church is it's the only church in all of the seven that is commended for its love and service. This church put them together and they persevered in them. It's a remarkable church, in spite of what's going to be said about them. And it's going to get nasty. But whatever else is said, this is a remarkable church that persevered in their demonstrations of love to God, demonstrations of love to their neighbors, demonstrations of faith and trust in God, demonstrations in service to others, and their quiet endurance through it all was exemplary, especially amidst all the temptations and hardships and opposition of their times.

29:23These are all kinds of obstacles. I mean, there are all kinds of obstacles that will encourage us to quit. This church did not. So, Jesus likes deeds that come out of a heart of love, that express faith in God, serve practical needs, persevere through temptations to quit. And number five, are growing. Are growing. They mature as time goes on. Look back at verse 19. I know your deeds, and your love, and faith, and service, and perseverance, and get this, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first.

30:22Your last deeds are better, are greater than they were at first. In other words, you're getting better at these deeds. Not only are you enduring, but there is a mark of maturity in your deeds, a mark of growth. Greater. And I think this involves both number and quality. This church is putting out greater deeds in quality and in number. Jesus likes deeds that mature as time goes on. We're to be growing, growing. I loved this year's vacation Bible school. I'm sure many of you who were part of that would probably agree with me that this year, Was better than last year. And why is that? Well, there was some effort, there was some thought, there was effort giving to make it better.

31:42And so this year, our vacation Bible school was better than last year. And I'm already hearing a lot of conversation and a desire and a heart to make it better next year. Growth, maturing. That's a trajectory that Christ likes. He's very pleased when he sees our works growing in maturity. With each passing day, each passing year, we ought to be a better collection of people, a better church. As each passing year and day, we ought to be better fathers.

32:36Our works as fathers, as husbands, as wives, as Christians, as students. We are to be growing and maturing in the faith and growing and maturing in our deeds of love. We should be better this year than we were last. If you're truly in Christ. Jesus loves to see us grow. And so Jesus likes deeds that come out of a heart of love, express faith in God, serve practical needs, persevere through temptations to quit, and are growing and are growing.

33:27That's what excites him. And whatever else is going to be said, this was a remarkable church. But as we keep going, it becomes very clear that there's something majorly wrong with this church. Something that would change the quality of their deeds forever. Something that, if they did not repent of, would permanently mark this church forever. We learn about this in verses 20 and 21. I'm not going to cover this today, but I do want to comment on it because I want to add a sixth deed that Jesus likes, though it doesn't come directly out of verse 19.

34:31Look at what he says in verse 20, but I have this against you: that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads my bondservants astray, so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. Notice the order is important there. This Jezebel, this prophetess, is teaching and leading bondservants, number one, to commit acts of immorality, and that is explicitly sexual immorality, and eat things sacrificed to idols. The sexual immorality led them into idolatry. They first went to idolatry and then became sexually immoral. It was their sexual perversion that led them into their idolatry. And this woman taught and led Jezebel, this bondservants astray into the realm of sexual immorality and participating in the temple festivities of pagan deities. Verse 21 says, I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality.

35:59We're Going to look at Jezebel next time. But for now, it's sufficient to note that the church was tolerating an evil voice in their midst. A voice that opened the door for sexual immorality and the whole pagan festival scene that went along with it. It was a voice that was willing to negotiate loyalty to Christ, and they entertained it. They let that voice speak, they let that voice lead, that voice took the whole church or cast a spell over the whole church, and it impacted the whole church. Even though there were some who did not go along with it, they were captivated and afraid to speak out, to address it.

37:10So Jesus likes deeds that come out of a heart of love, express faith in God, serve practical needs, persevere through the temptations to quit, and are growing. And I'll add a sixth that show no hint of sexual immorality. That show no hint of sexual immorality. Listen, men, women, brothers, sisters, do not entertain a thought, any access point, anything that would suggest at any level sexual immorality. We are to be free from that, clean from that, distant from that.

38:20Well, like I said, we're going to spend a great deal of time on Jezebel. She's another one of those major satanic personas of the Old Testament. We looked at Balaam, the teaching of Balaam, that was up there at Pergamum, where Satan's throne is. Next, we're going to see this other satanic persona, Satan's little princess, Jezebel, and her impact that she had in her day. What she was, how she was leading the people astray, bondservants astray at Thyratira. But for now, let's come back to our day and Father's Day.

39:23Listen, fathers, say something about fathers of our time. Fathers who leave children as orphans are really what's wrong with this country. If you father a child, father them. It's not hard. And to those fathers who do not father their children, and I mean live with their children and take care of their children, why do you expect somebody else to take care of your children? You father them. Why in the world would you want to hand them off to somebody else and expect somebody else to take care of your children? What's wrong with you?

40:26I'll tell you what happens. Many of these situations as a primary cause, it's sexual immorality. That is the primary cause. Listen, behind the sexual revolution of the 60s was a bunch of perverted men. They wanted more people involved in this sexual movement because, at the heart of it was a bunch of perverted men. This is what gives rise to abortion, immorality with no consequences, fatherlessness in our society begins with sexual immorality. Listen, behind the homosexual revolution of our times, at the core of it is a bunch of perverted men.

41:32And they are willing to adopt whatever worldly philosophies that can justify their actions and recruit more to participate. But at the core of it, perverted men. And such is the characteristic of a fallen world: perverted men doing what perverted men do, seeking their own interests foreign to. The kind of deeds that Jesus likes, deeds that come out of love, express faith in God, serve practical needs, persevere, maturing. No, they're maturing in a whole different category of evil, serving their own interests, figuring out how to do it, cutting off people who won't give what they need, and developing relationships with those who will.

42:27It's very predictable. Such is the characteristic of a fallen world. But such is not to be characteristic of those who follow Christ. Christ deserves men who will lead their families in the way He leads His people. This is what He desires, this is what He is pleased with. People who will participate in the kind of deeds that please Jesus. People of all levels, certainly fathers. Why, fathers? Because this is what He wants the characteristic of the home to be like and the church.

43:25You know what? One thing I love about Christ. Even as a father, it's not hard to beat up fathers. We all know deep down there are places where we have dropped the ball, where we have done what we shouldn't have done, when we didn't do what we should have done. We get that. It's not hard to beat a dad down into a place of regret and sorrow, but it doesn't change the standard. We, as fathers, need to participate and lead our families. We need to be, this is what being a leader means: that we're the first to exercise and to perform those deeds that come out of a heart of love and express faith in God, that serve practical needs, and persevere through all temptations to quit, and that we continue to be better fathers and better as time goes on. But what I love here, and I see this here in verse 21, speaking about Jezebel, I gave her time to repent.

44:43I gave her time to repent. At the core of us, core of this, and fatherhood and parenting, stands the God who has eyes, the Son of God, who searches. Us, who knows us, who knows our ways, and he wants us to come into the truth, come into the light, and let us see what he sees and turn away from that which he despises and turn to that which pleases him. And he gives us time to repent.

45:26It's because he's good. He doesn't want us living like this. He doesn't want us to be year after year growing in darkness, but growing in ways of life and truth. And so he gives us time to repent. He's given us the sacrifice. He's given us himself. He's given us the truth so that we may turn and turn to him and participate and do those things that please him because they are really good. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for this morning. Thank you for the truth we have in your word. We thank you for the men of this church and like-mindedness around the world who have not abandoned their call, but Have joyfully picked it up and taken it as one of the highest privileges. What a privilege it is to be a husband, to be a father, and to have these gifts from you. Father, and I know there are many who are not called to be fathers, and there are many here, and yet the standard is the same: that we all participate in these deeds. So, Father, what a privilege it is to stand before you as your people.

47:11May you be exalted here as we turn our hearts to you. Help us to embrace these ways by the power of your Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen.