Emmanuel Lutheran Church

Sermon for Midweek of Oculi

Revelation 3:1-6

Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, commands John to write a fifth letter, to the angel of the church in Sardis. For this pastor, there is no word of praise, only a stern warning, which we can also take to heart: Be sure to have more than just a name for being alive!

Jesus reminds the pastor of the church in Sardis that He is the one who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars. Back in chapter 1, we identified the “seven Spirits” who were before the Father’s throne as the Holy Spirit with His sevenfold gifts, which He always gives in just the right measure. Here, Jesus says that He has the seven Spirits of God. He is the One who sends the Spirit to His churches and distributes His gifts to whomever He pleases. He also has the seven stars, which were identified in chapter 1 as the seven angels or pastors of the seven churches. Jesus is the Sender of pastors. They’re meant to be gifts to His churches. Like stars in the sky, they shine the light of Christ in their preaching, and the Holy Spirit does His work through them. Also like stars, they are to be fixed in place, not wandering about like the planets; their doctrine and life are to be solid and dependable. Since Jesus holds them in His hand, He has the power to protect them and the authority to remove them, if necessary.

When Jesus tells this pastor that He knows his works, this time it isn’t a good thing. I know your works, that you have a name for being alive, and you are dead. A “name” for being alive. If you noticed, the word “name” is used four times in these six verses. Here it refers to the pastor’s reputation. People think of him as being alive, but he is really dead. They think he’s alive, a true believer in Christ Jesus who shares in the spiritual life that comes from God, whose name is surely written in the Lamb’s book of life. But Jesus knows the truth: this pastor is dead in trespasses and sins. He’s become an empty suit, an empty shell. He says the right things and outwardly does the right things, but he’s just going through the motions. On the inside, he isn’t penitent, he isn’t believing. And without faith it is impossible to please God.

So he’s given an urgent warning: Be watchful, and strengthen the remaining things that are about to die, for I have not found your works complete before God. Remember, therefore, how you have received and heard, and keep it, and repent. Be watchful, because you haven’t been. You’ve let earthly concerns and selfish thoughts slip in and take the place of Christ in your heart. You’ve allowed yourself to fall asleep. Snap out of this spiritual stupor and strengthen the bits and pieces that remain! That would include His knowledge of Scripture and of the duties of his office. He’s lost the trust part of faith. He’s lost the appreciation of God’s grace to him, a poor, miserable sinner. He’s lost the heartfelt love for God that accompanies genuine faith. But he still has all the knowledge part of faith. He knows the Law and the Gospel. He knows what he has received and heard from the apostles. And now Jesus is sending His powerful Spirit in the words of this letter to turn the pastor back to what he has heard, to what he himself has undoubtedly preached time and time again, to acknowledge his sins, to repent and trust in Christ for forgiveness, and to fulfill the duties of his vocation.

The warning is sealed with a threat: If you do not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you. Notice, Jesus isn’t expecting the congregation to get rid of this pastor. They can’t even see how dead he really is. Jesus is the One who sees it, and Jesus is the One who will “come upon him,” that is, come against him, in His own time and in His own way.

The pastor’s deadness has had a negative effect on his congregation. His preaching has obviously been affected by his spiritual emptiness. But whatever Gospel still remained in his preaching was still effective. The Gospel is effective even if it’s preached by an unbeliever, just as the Sacraments are still valid, even if they’re administered by an unbeliever. And the Gospel that was still present was preserving a remnant in Sardis. Jesus says, You have a few names even in Sardis that have not defiled their garments; and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. The pastor’s name was deceptive, a name for being alive, although he was actually dead. These few names, these few souls among the laity in Sardis, were genuine believers. They hadn’t defiled their garments, they hadn’t jumped into the common practices of fornication and idolatry. They hadn’t fallen into willful sin or wandered away from the faith or lost their love for God and for one another. By faith they were still counted righteous and pure before God, symbolized by the white garments. And Jesus promises here that they will walk with Him in white, they will spend eternity with Him in righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, as we say in the Catechism, in the Second Article of the Creed, for they are worthy. Not worthy because they were sinless, but worthy because they persevered in repentance and faith.

As for the one who overcomes, he will be clothed in white garments. Those who overcome, who keep their garments undefiled, who persevere in repentance and faith are all promised white garments, or white robes. Later, in chapter 7, we’re told exactly what that means: I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes…One of the elders answered, saying to me, Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?” And I said to him, “Sir, you know.” So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. That’s the glorious heavenly future Jesus is promising in this letter to those who remain faithful here on earth.

He also promises this: I will not blot out his name from the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. The Book of Life comes up several more times in the Book of Revelation. It’s God’s figurative book that contains all the names of those who have been incorporated into Jesus by Baptism and faith. There are other books, too, the books that contain the works—that is, the thoughts, words, and deeds—of all men, and since all those works are tainted by sin, those who are judged by the books of works will be condemned. But God will cross reference the names there with the names written in the Book of Life, and if your name is found there on the Last Day or on the day of your death, you will be safe. And not only safe, but Jesus will confess those names before His Father and the holy angels. This one is Mine. This one believed in Me, and I claim him and her as My own.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

What, in particular, should we take to heart from this letter to the angel of the church in Sardis?

Well, any pastor who preaches on this text had better do some serious soul-searching. Do I believe what I preach? Do I have a genuine trust in Christ and a sincere love for Him and for His flock? At best, the answer will be an imperfect “yes.” But that imperfect “yes” is still the difference between being alive and being dead. And it is obviously a relatively common thing for a preacher to be an empty shell of a Christian, or Jesus wouldn’t have dedicated one out of these seven letters to addressing it (or two, if you count the final letter to the angel of the church in Laodicea).

Preachers must examine themselves, even as Jesus surely examines each and every one. But we have to be careful not to become judges of preachers, either, as if we could crawl into their hearts and see whether they’re truly alive or dead, whether they truly believe in the Lord Jesus or not. Here, as elsewhere, we have to put the best construction on everything and assume the best about preachers, too. We can judge false doctrine or bad practices. But we can’t judge false faith or assume false motives. That we have to leave up to the One who searches the innermost thoughts and hearts.

Of course, what is said of the pastor in Sardis could also be said about everyone who claims to be a Christian, who has a “name” for being alive. Every Christian, Paul writes, is called on to Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. You should all be doing that regularly, weekly, certainly before you go to receive Holy Communion. And if you’re having trouble, you do have a pastor who can help you to examine yourself, as a doctor examines a patient, by asking certain questions and providing a diagnosis based on your responses. In fact, that’s one of the main purposes of both confirmation, when you become a member of the church, and of private confession, where you can continually come and seek the pastor’s help in your spiritual self-examination.

As for the promises Jesus makes here, about the white garments He’ll provide and the names written in the Book of Life and confessed before His Father, let those promises spur you on to keep struggling against your sinful flesh, to keep fighting the good fight, to keep your garments undefiled, and to keep living at odds with the world, at odds with our corrupt culture, and to remain faithful until the end, faithful until death. Those blessed saints who do will walk with Christ in glory. May our names be found among theirs! Amen.

Sermon for Midweek of Reminiscere

Revelation 2:18-29

Tonight we come to the fourth letter from Jesus to His seven churches in Asia Minor, to the angel of the church in Thyatira. The situation in Thyatira sounds more or less similar to that of the church in Pergamum, which we heard about last week. As we look at this evening’s letter, we’ll note this specific emphasis, that faithfulness to Christ includes dealing with false doctrine.

The letter begins, as always, with a part of the vision of Jesus Himself that John saw in chapter 1. Here he highlights the fact that Jesus has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like bronze. He wants this pastor, and us, to remember that, as true God and true Man, He sees everything. His eyes burn through time and space, body and soul, to see the innermost thoughts and hearts of men. He sees our real motives, our real intentions. Nothing is hidden from His sight. He also wants this pastor, and us, to remember that His feet are like bronze, that is, His rule over all things, since “all things have been placed under His feet,” is both precious and unbreakable. He isn’t malleable. He doesn’t tread lightly on His enemies.

This Jesus has words of high praise for the pastor of the church in Thyatira. I know your works, and your love, and your service, and your faith, and your patience, and that your last works are more than your first. Unlike the pastor in Ephesus, who had abandoned his first love, this pastor retains it. He is no detached lecturer on pure doctrine. No, he loves the Lord and the Lord’s people and shows it with his works of love. He watches over the flock as one who serves, not as one who rules. He patiently endures trials. And, like a healthy branch growing on a vine, he is producing more and more fruit, more good works than at first.

But not all is well. I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols. If you recall from last week, Pergamum’s pastor was allowing his members to be deceived by outsiders, to be dragged off and seduced to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols. This pastor’s members are also being seduced to do the same things, but by a woman within the congregation.

Jesus names her Jezebel, because she resembled the wicked queen Jezebel from the Old Testament, the wife of Ahab. She seduced countless people in the northern kingdom of Israel to join with her in her adultery and idolatry. She opposed the prophet Elijah and tried to kill him. She succeeded in killing many of the Lord’s less famous prophets. But in the end, she was thrown down from a window, and the dogs ate her flesh, as the Lord had prophesied about her.

The woman in Thyatira called herself a prophetess. Notice, Jesus doesn’t call her that. He never sent her. She claimed to have special, direct revelations from God, but Jesus later calls her supposed revelations “the deep things of Satan.” Those claims of direct access to God allowed her to teach whatever she wanted under the guise of “God’s Word,” which is what false teachers often do. Sure, the Bible says, “You shall not commit adultery,” but I’ve been told by God that certain forms of sexual activity are actually pleasing to God! She successfully led many of Jesus’ servants astray. And Jesus holds the pastor in Thyatira partially responsible, because he allowed her to spread these false teachings within his church without preaching against her and without disciplining her or excommunicating her. The pastor isn’t responsible for the sins that are committed outside his church or for the doctrine that’s preached outside his church and fellowship. But he has a divinely given responsibility to deal with false doctrine and sinful practices that are being spread among his flock.

Now, even a false prophetess who was committing such grievous sins and leading others to commit them wasn’t immediately punished by Jesus, just as Jezebel wasn’t. He says, I gave her time to repent of her fornication, and she has not repented. So, Jesus informs her pastor of what He is about to do. I will cast her into a bed, that is, a sick bed, a bed of suffering. The very place where she practiced her sexual sins will become her place of suffering. And those who commit adultery with her I will cast into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death, and all the churches will know that I am he who searches the innermost thoughts and hearts.

Now, does this sound at all like the Jesus our world talks about today? Far from it! Today’s false prophets depict a Jesus who is just pure love and acceptance of everyone, who would never dare punish someone, much less call anything a sin! In fact, the Jesus who is taught in most “Christian” churches around the world is happy to let people pursue whatever sexual desires make them happy, because all He really wants is for them to be “happy” and be “themselves.” It actually sounds a lot like what Jezebel was teaching, doesn’t it?

But the real Jesus threatens severe consequences for those who live in these sins. I will give to each one of you according to your works. Now, no one’s works are good enough to save him from condemnation and hell. Outside of Christ, there is no one who does good. But when we are justified by faith in Christ, we are reborn and set free to do the things that please God, with the help of His Holy Spirit. When we do those things, God promises glory, honor, and peace. But those who insist on doing evil, without repentance, will be repaid with evil from God.

I say to you and to the rest in Thyatira, to all who do not have this teaching, who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they say: I will place no other burden on you. Only hold onto what you have until I come. Here Jesus specifically addresses the whole congregation in Thyatira, not just the angel of the church. He doesn’t hold the innocent responsible for the sins of the guilty. You’ll notice, He also doesn’t call upon them to change the world around them. He simply calls upon them to “hold onto what you have,” the Word and doctrine of God, the holy Sacraments, and Spirit-wrought faith. Hold onto it, He says. Don’t let anyone move you from it. It’ll be enough to sustain you until I come.

Then Jesus promises two gifts to the one who overcomes and perseveres until the end: As for the one who overcomes and keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations. And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; like vessels of clay, they will be shattered, as I have received from my Father. The first gift is the authority to reign with Christ, to share in His authority. Right now, the nations seem to have far too much authority over God’s people, and they certainly abuse it. But in the end, when Christ comes, those who have remained faithful to Him will be the ones ruling.

The second promise: And I will give him the morning star. What does the morning star symbolize? At the end of Revelation, Jesus says, “I am the bright morning star.” He promises to give us Himself. What more could we ask?

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

So what is the Spirit saying to our church in particular in this letter that He would have us hear? Does He know your pastor’s love, service, faith, patience, and growth in good works? I hope so. It’s certainly my goal. But you can be the judge of that, even as Christ is the true Judge of it. Does He know those same things in our congregation? I think so. May it continue to be our conscious goal!

What about the rebuke and warning? Do we both deal with false doctrine in our midst and take care not to be seduced into sexual sins and sins of idolatry? False doctrine can be taught in more than one way, even by one’s example, and it’s a very common thing for people to claim direct revelation from God, as this “Jezebel” did, either through their feelings, or through their private interpretation of Scripture, or through actual whisperings from God, which are more likely the deep things of Satan.

As a pastor, I did once have a member who claimed direct revelation from God, personal messages from God. She valued those personal interactions with God more highly than anything she ever heard from the pulpit. She even criticized me for placing so much emphasis on “the written Word” or the preached Word. She wasn’t shy about sharing her encounters with God and her messages from God, and she could have been a bad influence on other members. The truth is, I should have done something about it. But I was newly arrived, and a large part of the congregation at that time would have seen it as “mean” and “judgmental” and “divisive” if I had dealt with it. We would have surely lost several members over it at the time. So, while I did warn her in private and made sure my preaching was clear from the pulpit about the dangers of these private “revelations,” in the end, I didn’t really deal with it.

On the other hand, together we have made sure over the years not to allow false doctrine to be tolerated within our fellowship, like objective/subjective justification and the twisting of the holy office of the ministry. Because, when you knowingly and willingly remain in fellowship with those who teach false doctrine, you become participants with them and enablers of them.

As for being seduced into sexual immorality, see how seriously God opposes it in His Word, both for the sins themselves, and because adultery and idolatry go hand in hand. People worship the creature instead of the Creator. Their passions and desires become their gods. We have to be continually on guard against such sins in this corrupt world and in these corrupt times.

So hold onto what you have! Remember, Jesus doesn’t command you to “change the world” or to “fix society” or to “create a slice of heaven on earth.” Watch out for false doctrine and deal with it, if it enters our church in any form. And hold onto the deposit of pure doctrine, of true faith that is accompanied by love and the other virtues. When Jesus comes, you will have a reward, if He finds you still persevering in repentance and faith. May God grant it, for Jesus’ sake! Amen.

Sermon for Midweek of Invocavit

Revelation 2:12-17

This evening we pick up the series that we began during Advent on the seven letters to the seven churches in Revelation. You’ll recall that all seven letters are addressed to “the angel of the church,” that is, to the pastor of the church, the one who has been divinely called to preach and to apply the Word of God to the people of God in a given place. Three of those letters have a combination of praise and rebuke for the pastor, two have only rebuke, and two have only praise and comfort. This third letter, to the angel of the church in Pergamum, has both praise and rebuke for the angel of the church, and there’s much we can learn from it.

First, Jesus reminds this pastor that He is the one whom John saw earlier in his vision who, among other things, has a sharp double-edged sword. And where is this sword? Coming out of His mouth. As the writer to the Hebrews says, The word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. With that soul-penetrating sword, Jesus accomplishes two things: He both defends His people and slays His enemies.

He says to the pastor, I know your works and where you live, where Satan’s throne is. Satan’s throne is figurative. It means that the enemies and persecutors of the Word had a strong presence in Pergamum. It means that lies and deception were common there, as Satan is called the “father of lies.” It means that, through his lies and deception, Satan was influencing tyrants and inciting them to persecute the godly. Jesus even mentions a Christian named Antipas, His faithful martyr, who was put to death in Pergamum by the servants of Satan. Jesus isn’t ignorant of Satan’s influence there. He knows all about it and is using it in His own hidden ways to build His Church.

Jesus also knows that the pastor has been faithful in confessing the true faith and holds fast to the doctrine of Christ. You hold fast to my name and have not denied my faith, even in the face of persecution and as he watched others being put to death for confessing Christ before men. You continue to teach My Gospel! That’s good!

But it’s not all good. But I have a few things against you, because you have there people who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to set a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication. In the same way, you also have people who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans, which I hate.

The story of Balaam and Balak is recorded in the book of Numbers. The children of Israel had spent their 40 years in the wilderness. They were just about ready to enter Canaan from the east, which meant they had to go through Midian and Moab, where Balak was king, and he had seen the incredible victories they’d recently won against the surrounding kings. So Balak hired Balaam, a well-known prophet / sorcerer from the east, to curse Israel. It’s quite a story. Balaam was offered lots of money to curse Israel, but the Lord kept him from doing it. Instead, the Lord compelled Balaam to bless Israel instead. But that meant he didn’t get paid. So he came up with another solution for Balak: Send a bunch of beautiful young women over to the Israelite camp and have them seduce the Israelite men, both to have sex with them and to join them in their pagan rituals and festivals.

It worked, though, in the end, it didn’t save Moab. Many Israelite men joined in the fornication and idolatry, resulting in a plague that killed 24,000 Israelites before Moses and the Phinehas priest put an end to it.

In a similar way, there were Christians in Pergamum who were being seduced by the Nicolaitans, a sect that promoted sex outside of marriage and participating in pagan rituals and meals. These Christians were engaging in these obvious sins, and nothing was being done about it by the pastor. He was supposed to be using the Word of Christ not only to preach the sweet comfort of forgiveness of sins to the penitent, but to preach the Law to the impenitent, the Law that bites and kills on the inside, the Law that condemns sin, including the sin of adultery and of idolatry, in all their forms. Jesus Himself commanded His apostles to practice church discipline, and finally, if the sinner refused to repent, he was to be excommunicated. Instead, the pastor was tolerating it. And Jesus says, “I hate that.”

So He says to the pastor, Repent! Recognize your own sin in failing to preach and apply the Law! Realize that it’s not okay to tolerate sinful behavior among the members of your flock. You must use the sword of My mouth against it, and if the sinners refuse to repent, you must exclude them from the fellowship of My Church, both for love of Me, and for love of them, and for love of the rest of the flock, and even for love of outsiders, lest they should start to think that Christ Himself tolerates or even endorses adultery or idolatry.

If you don’t repent, Jesus says, I am coming to you soon, and I will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. It’s far better to have a preacher preach the Law in Jesus’ name now, even if it hurts, than to have Jesus Himself come and fight against you.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. This warning, and the encouragement that follows, is not just for the pastor of the church in Pergamum. It’s for all who will listen, for all the churches, for all the hearers to pay attention and learn.

Jesus closes with an encouragement and a twofold promise: To him who overcomes I will give to eat of the hidden manna. The manna, the miraculous bread from heaven, came down to the Israelites in the wilderness every day for forty years, except for the Sabbath days. But a portion of it, a measure of it, was to be hidden away in a jar in the tabernacle, to be kept from generation to generation. That jar was eventually lost. But the true hidden-away manna is the joy and refreshment and sustenance of the heavenly good things that are reserved for the saints in heaven.

He adds, And I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on it which no one knows except the one who receives it. The Roman poet Ovid, who lived just before the time of Christ, writes of a white stone signifying an innocent verdict in court. So here, to the one who overcomes, to the one perseveres in repentance and faith until the end, who continues to confess Christ and abide in His Word, He promises that the absolution that the sinner hears here in this life, from the minister, will most certainly be honored in heaven. He’ll be forever absolved from sin, from the curse of the law, and from eternal damnation.

Also, when a person was to be elected to the magistrate, his name was written on a white stone and cast into the voting jar, where it was hidden until it was revealed in the public election. The sense is that he who overcomes has been elected by God to be His child and heir, a brother and coheir of Christ, a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem. But all of that is still hidden in this life. All of that is ours only by faith, and faith, while it shows itself openly through our words and our works, is still truly known only to God and to the believer himself, or herself.

Now, how does all this apply to us here? Well, Satan’s throne, his diabolical influence on society and on the government, seems to be everywhere at the moment. His hatred toward Christians, toward God, toward the Word of God, and toward the creation itself is taking over our country, as it has already begun to take over many countries in the world. Surely the end is near! But we are encouraged by Jesus’ words in this letter that He both knows and ultimately controls how things are going in the world, and He also knows when His people continue to confess Him and His Word boldly and unapologetically, which should inspire us to keep doing it, because it’s only a matter of time before Satan’s throne is overthrown, since Christ is coming soon.

But the criticism revealed in this letter is especially relevant. There are any number of Christian churches that no longer preach the Law, no longer condemn the sins that God’s Word condemns, like sex outside of marriage, homosexuality, and unscriptural divorce. Or, if they condemn it on paper, they don’t say much about it from the pulpit. And even if their members are publicly and persistently promoting wickedness, whether it be sexual sins or sins like abortion, for example, their pastors refuse to excommunicate them for it. Their wickedness is tolerated. And Jesus still hates that.

As for us here, I know of no examples of public, unrepented sin that haven’t been addressed. But if it ever has to be, or even if it’s just a matter of preaching against sin in general, I hope you’ll understand, it’s what Christ commands us to do. When a pastor condemns sin, either in general or in the case of an individual, it isn’t to be mean, or “holier than thou,” and it certainly isn’t to make some people feel superior to others or secure in their own goodness. It’s to be faithful to the Word of Christ. It’s to call a sinner back from the edge of the cliff of eternal condemnation, or to warn God’s beloved people so that they don’t start heading in the direction of that cliff. And finally, it’s to give a clear witness of the Christian faith to outsiders. The fact is, the Christian faith has been horribly represented to the world in all sorts of ways, and that includes churches that have stopped preaching or applying God’s holy Law. We can’t do anything about what other churches do. But we can see to it that we remain faithful here in preaching and applying both the Law and the Gospel.

So take that lesson from this evening’s letter from the book of Revelation. And also, take with you the comfort of Christ’s promise to the one who overcomes. An innocent verdict in God’s courtroom that lasts forever, and the revelation of the blessed election to salvation that took place before time began. Amen.