Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

For decades the American people have been lulled into complacency by hearing the Gallop Pole say that over 90% of Americans believe in God.

This led to a false security that we were a godly nation.

But now Gallop decided to get more specific, and he discovered that only 10% of Americans are really committed Christians who take Jesus seriously, pray, and live the Christian life.

The vast majority of Christians in America are indistinguishable from the non-Christians in their life-style and values.

The church has contributed to this by a non-virtuous toleration, and permissiveness that says as long as you help us meet the budget, do as you please, but if you get caught, don't say where you attend church.

Now I must confess that I am by nature a permissive person.

I was raised by permissive parents and I loved it.

I was free as the breeze, and did as I pleased from kindergarten on.

I was downtown in Sioux Falls, the largest city in South Dakota, as a mere kid from 6 to 9. I was shining shoes and going to shows until dark.

I played on railroad tressels, and by the dangerous falls.

I went skinny dipping with the older boys and loved my childhood years.

Because of that I became a permissive person.

I loved the freedom and I survived, and so I just follow the golden rule and give others the same freedom.

I have to remind myself that how I turned out had nothing to do with the permissive life-style I had, but with the grace of God.

All three of my closest friends in those permissive years ended up in the state penitentiary.

I escaped that destiny only by the grace of God.

I found Christ as my Savior at age 9, and this made a radical difference in the way I used my freedom.

I choose not to steal with my friends.

So what I know from my own experience is that freedom is great, and if you use freedom to choose good rather than evil, then permissiveness is a virtue.

But if you use freedom to do evil it is a vice.

So what you have is some people who will use their freedom for folly, and you become foolish for allowing them so much freedom.

But others will use it for positive and healthy adventure, and you will get credit for being so bold as to allow such freedom.

What is needed then is discernment as to how individuals will use their freedom.

If you have a child who will use every opportunity to do something dangerous and stupid you need to be more intolerant of their freedom.

If they are responsible and can make wise use of freedom, then you can take more risk.

Risk is what it is all about.

God took a risk in letting Adam and Eve have access to the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and it was a high risk.

They failed the test and fell.

You can argue that God was too permissive, but that is the only way to find out how people will use their freedom.

If you allow your child to go off to college, you are taking a high risk.

They can use that new found freedom to become irresponsible and damage their lives.

But if you don't take the risk, you can never know what their potential could be.

Freedom is scary, and it is a gamble, yet there is no choice if you want the best.

So what does this have to do with the letter to the church in Thyatira?

Everything!

The main vice in this church is their permissiveness and the damage it is doing to the church.

The other churches have had external problems and pressure from the community, but this church has an internal problem, and their corruption is an inside job.

The problem was a woman named Jezebel.

It is symbolic name, of course, for nobody names their little girl Jezebel.

The Jezebel of the Old Testament was a pagan who became the Queen of Israel by marriage to Ahab in about 884 B.C.

She killed the prophets of God and brought idolatry and immorality into Israel.

She was one of the most wicked women in history.

She is the only woman I know of in history who was so evil that she became dog food after her violent death, and dogs ate her body.

It was a gruesome judgment and ever since her name has never been found in those books of names for your baby.

That name really went to the dogs, and so the only time you use this name is when you want to express contempt.

The original Jezebel was not a believer in the God of Israel.

She was said to worship Baal, and when she came to Israel as queen she brought 800 priests of Baal with her.

She was a missionary and was determined to promote her religion, which was soon quite popular because sex was part of the ceremony.

The more you sowed your wild oats the better your crops would be was the bottom line of this fertility cult.

Sex was a part of magic that made nature happy to cooperate.

This sexual worship went over big in Israel, and was so successful that Elijah the prophet felt that he was about the only man alive in Israel who was not worshiping Baal.

God had to assure him there were 7,000 who had not bowed to Baal, nor kissed him.

7,000 is a lot more than one, but it is a small percentage of a whole nation, and so Elijah was right.

It was discouragingly successful to mix sex and religion.

So when we come to the New Testament we discover that there were Christians even who thought it was a good idea to mix sex with their faith.

It is probably fortunate that we do not know exactly what this Christian Jezebel was teaching, for if we did it would probably be popular today.

All we know is that she was a Christian leader who claimed to be a prophetess, that is one who brought a message to God to His people.

Her message was persuading Christian people to practice idolatry and immorality as a legitimate part of their Christian worship.

The woman was a teacher in the church and one who professed the gift of prophecy.

Gifts are truly wonderful, and are the key to getting God's work done in this world.

But lets face reality: They are also a key problem in the New Testament.

People can be gifted by the devil too, and the gifts are often the biggest problem in the church, as we see in the church of Corinth, and here again in Thyatira.

This woman was gifted and persuasive.

She was charismatic and verse 20 says she was misleading the servants of Jesus.

We see that true Christians can be so gullible that they can be manipulated by clever and gifted people into just about anything, including so-called sacred sex.

It was because so many Christians were buying into this "Sex for the saints" package that the church as a whole was tolerating it.

Not all in the church were buying her theology, and they were staying pure in their marriages, but they were not being intolerant of other Christians who were indulging.

Here you have a case where Christians are deeply divided on a moral issue.

It was hard to take a stand, for it could be your own brother or sister, or even your parents, or child, who was persuaded that Jezebel was a spiritual genius.

For the sake of unity you don't want to rock the boat.

Jesus does understand the dilemma of the faithful Christians, for He does not pronounce judgment on them, but only on Jezebel and those who follow her.

The tolerant and permissive Christians who just passively let this immoral behavior happen without protest, he does not like, but he does not condemn them, but just urges them to stand fast, and not give in on their position.

Jesus recognizes that sometimes a Christian is in a catch 22 ethical dilemma, and does not know what to do, and all he or she can really do is not cooperate with those who teach and practice what is not God's will.

Jesus did not expect the faithful Christians to change things, but just to keep pure themselves.

He would have to deal with these deceived Christians Himself.

The mercy of Christ is overwhelming in this letter.

We tend to see only the judgment, for it is severe, and capital punishment is even involved.

But look at verse 21 where Jesus says, "I gave her time to repent, but she was unwilling."

The patience and tolerance of Jesus is a wonder.

Here is a Jezebel who is using her gifts to dishonor Christ and lead His servants astray, and yet He does not strike her with lightning and quickly bring her to judgment.

He gives her time to repent instead.

He is ready to forgive and restore even this Jezebel to a place of honor and service in the church.

His mercy is beyond our comprehension.

Most of us would go full speed ahead on judgment, but Jesus gave her another chance.

It is a text like this that makes me very tolerant of fallen Christians.

If a Christian has been awful, and has fallen into the pit, but has repented and experienced the forgiving grace of Christ, I see no valid reason for not using that Christian in any way Christ has gifted them to be used.

If Jezebel had repented she could have been an honored leader in that church.

In verse 22 Jesus deals with those who commit adultery with Jezebel, and He says they too will suffer intensely unless they repent.

Again, I am overwhelmed by the grace of Christ.

I am a permissive person by nature and experience, but I do not think I could be as permissive as Jesus is here.

He will permit these Christians who have deliberately committed adultery with Jezebel to escape judgment if they repent.

I am permissive in the sense that I love to give people freedom, but if they abuse and misuse that freedom, I feel they need to pay a penalty.

It is only right that there is a cost for violating the law of God.

There is a penalty for violating the laws of men, and so why not more so when we break God's commands?

Jesus says judgment is going to fall, and each will be repaid according to their deeds.

That only seems right, but Jesus throws in a way of escape by means of repentance.

You can seemingly get by with murder if you take this road, for Jesus will permit just about anything if there is repentance.

Every sin Jesus condemns in these 7 churches is neutralized by repentance.

Seven times Jesus calls Christians to repent and escape judgment.