Those who hear will live (John 5:1-30)

Pathetic

In today’s passage, Jesus heals a guy whom I can only describe as pathetic and a bit of a jerk. Jesus heals him. In case you think I’m being too hard on this guy, let me just say that he and I have a lot in common. I love making a big deal about my problems. I can talk about my problems all day long. Some of us do that in a group - we call it a prayer meeting. We go round and round; and talk about all the bad stuff that’s happened to us this week - complaining about our boss, our doctor, our spouse. And when we finally do pray (in the last few minutes), we even complain about God - “Oh Lord, why don’t you do something about this painful situation in my life?”

Well, that’s me, honestly. Maybe, that’s some of you here today. And that’s the guy we meet in John Chapter 5.

Stinky

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie - the blind, the lame, the paralysed.

John 5:1-3

It’s a strange scene. What we have here is a swimming pool for sick people - the blind, the lame, the paralysed (verse 3). So, it’s not exactly Cambridge Parkside Community Pool. These sick and paralysed guys sit around the pool all day long - they are not there for a game of water polo.

John tells us that the pool is surrounded by five covered colonnades, and archeologists have actually dug up this pool called Bethesda - so it’s a real place in Jerusalem. There is a covered walkway that goes all round the four sides of the pool and one walkway that goes right across the middle of the pool (so from above the whole thing looks like a digital number ‘8’ on your old Casio watch). These walkways provided shelter for the blind, lame and paralysed people sitting all day under the sun.

It was not a very pleasant place to be. These guys can’t exactly go to the toilet any time of their own choosing and they just sit there all day long. It’s a stinky place, to say the least.

Why were they there? Well if you look at verse 4, you’ll notice something interesting. It’s missing! Verse 4 isn’t in most manuscripts which means it probably isn’t in the bible. Somewhere down the line, someone thought it would be a good idea to add that verse, to explain what was going on with all these sick people sitting around the pool all day. And if you look down in your footnotes, you’ll see verse 4, which says, “From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease he had.”

Every now and then, they believed that God would cause the water to bubble up. When that happened, the first guy into the pool won the lottery. Whatever disease he had - blindness, paralysis, whatever - if he was the first in, he was healed. We don’t know if that’s the real story, but it does explain why they were there.

But Jesus comes to this place filled with sick people - who all have a story, who all have needs - but Jesus chooses to heal just one guy - a man who has been paralysed for 38 years.

Expectations

One who was there had been invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

John 5:5-6

That’s a strange question to ask a guy who’s not been able to use his legs for 38 years. “Do you want to get well?” You don’t go to the cancer ward in Addenbrooke’s and talk to the guy lying in bed with five tubes sticking out of his body only to ask him, “Do you want to get well?” Of course, he does! That sounds like a silly question. That sounds insensitive. Of course, he wants to get well!

But for those of us who have been here in the Chinese Church, studying the gospel of John the past couple of months, I think we have come to expect that surprising question from Jesus when he first meets someone. We tend to expect Jesus’ opening words to be something profound - “I am the light of the world; I am the resurrection and the life” - and Jesus does say that (in this same gospel of John, I might add). But Jesus always begins when he first meets someone by dealing with their expectations. He deals with their baggage, if you like. “What do you want?” he says to the two guys who want to sign up as followers. “Woman, why do you involve me?” he says to his mom. “Can you get me a drink?” he says to the Samaritan woman by the well provoking a scandalous response. Each time, Jesus deals with our expectations first - what we really think of him; what we expect him to do for us; what we read about him in Time magazine - before revealing who really is and what he has come to do in his own words and on his own terms. He needs to do that because all of us have baggage. All of us have preconceived ideas about Jesus - positive and negative.

He says to the man - paralysed for 38 years - “Do you want to get well?” It’s a good question because the man’s answer to that question says a lot about about his expectations from the people around him.

“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no-one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

John 5:7

His problem, according to him, is the people around him. There’s no-one to help him into the pool and someone else gets there first. That’s his story. It’s never his day. Someone else always wins. No-one’s there to help him. That’s the reason why he’s stuck in this situation for 38 years.

He sounds bitter. He sounds miserable. He sounds as if he’s given up. So when Jesus asks him, “Do you want to get better?” instead of saying, “Yes,” or instead of getting angry with the question, “Of course, that’s why we’re all here, to get better!” what does the man do? He complains about the people around him. “My life is so unfair!”

Friends, why are you here today? The church is a gathering of sick and broken people and yes, you should come expecting the people around you to be gracious and compassionate towards your needs. But is it possible that you’ve turned up today just to complain; just to get attention; just to feel sorry for yourself? Like I said before, he and I have a lot in common. I can talk about my problems all day. Do you know where I get to do that most? Here in church. It’s tempting use the time we have at bible studies, at prayer meetings, at Sunday gatherings as forms of therapy. But instead of getting better, we become more and more bitter. That’s because God is our heavenly psychologist, who doesn’t actually do anything for us, he just sits back and asks us how we are feeling today. But when Jesus says, “Do you want to get well?” that’s not an invitation to whine about our day. He is offering to completely change to lives.

Jesus could have talked to any other person at that pool that day. Yet he chose to focus on this guy - a man who needed his help; and yet a man who wasn’t looking for help. All this man wanted was attention and the chance to feel sorry for himself. Out of all the sick people Jesus could have talked to that day, Jesus chose to talk this man. Jesus chose to heal this man!

Healed

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

John 5:8-9

Instantly and completely, the man is healed. There is no recovery period - “At once,” the bible says, “the man was cured.” There is no physiotherapy involved: he is strong enough to pick up his mat and walk.

And all Jesus has to do is say the word: “Get up!” Jesus commands the man to rise up and he does. Jesus gives a command and his power to heal - to completely restore a man from 38 years of paralysis - that power lies in the authority of his word.

But after that, the guy who has just been healed doesn’t stop to say thank you to Jesus. He doesn’t even know his name. In fact, what we see next is this guy going out of his way to get Jesus into trouble for healing him in the first place.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry you mat.”

But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”

John 5:9-11

The man gets into trouble with the authorities. The Jewish rabbis say to him, “Hey, you’re breaking the law of the Sabbath,” by which they mean: he shouldn’t be carrying his mat around on the Sabbath day. The Sabbath day, which was holy in the Jewish religion, was a day when God said, “You shall not do any work.” It’s one of the Ten Commandments. Breaking the Sabbath was breaking God’s law and the religious police were threatening to punish this man for his crime.

What does the man have to say in his defence? “It’s not my fault. The guy who healed me - he made me to do it.” Seriously, that’s what he does in verse 11: he points the finger at Jesus. The thing is, he doesn’t know his name. That’s why he calls him, “The man who made me well.”

So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd who was there.

Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

John 5:12-15

Jesus looks him up again in the temple. What does the man do? He reports Jesus to the authorities. “Hey, that guy you were looking for who told me to break the law of the Sabbath? I saw him in the temple. His name is Jesus.”

It doesn’t sound as if this man is very grateful to Jesus for healing him. He’s doing the same thing he’s always done: complaining about the people. Blaming others for his pain. “Jesus got me into trouble. Why did he have to heal me on the Sabbath? Why did he tell me to carry my mat? I was minding my own business sitting by the pool when he turned my life upside down!”

Stop

But I wonder if the reason why he was also upset was because of what Jesus said to him at the temple in verse 14, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”

Whoa! Who does Jesus think he is telling me not to sin, warning me that something bad might happen? What does he know about my life? I’ve been suffering for 38 years. He thinks because he said some magical words he can tell me how to live my life?

Now I want to be careful about what I say about the connection between sin and suffering; about what the bible teaches us about the consequence of our sin. It’s not always a one-to-one correlation: as if, you sin therefore you will suffer this pain. That’s a mistake the religious leaders make in Chapter 9 when they say to a blind man, “You were steeped in sin at birth!” They were saying God was punishing him with blindness. Yet in the same chapter, Jesus says about the same man, “Neither this man not his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” It’s not always the case that pain, illness and tragedy are a result of a personal wrong or sin and Jesus actually warns us about making that connection in Luke Chapter 13, when he refers to an incident of a tower collapsing in Siloam: “Do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

But here in John Chapter 5, Jesus does make that connection between this man’s sin and his paralysis. “Stop sinning,” Jesus says to him, “or something worse may happen to you.” The 38 years of paralysis was bad; there is something worse that God can do if you continue to rebel against him. Now remember, Jesus has just healed him of his paralysis, so this warning comes in the light of an amazing display of grace and mercy. But the healing was not an end in and of itself. The healing was a sign to turn to God in repentance and faith. This is not the case of manipulating someone in a painful and vulnerable situation into going to church or to give money. No, this guy is healed! This guy has had his slate wiped clean - no more problems, no more pain, no more suffering. And yet, here is someone who is blinded by his sin, not because of his pain, but because of his prosperity.

People today who claim we need more faith in order for God to heal us; who claim we need more faith for God to work miracles in our lives - are clearly wrong in their understanding of the purpose of such healings and miracles in the bible. This man had zero faith. Jesus healed him. This man, as far as we can tell, was not a Christian when he was sitting by the pool of Bethesda. Yet Jesus healed him. Why? Because the healing was not an end in itself.

If all you want Jesus to do is heal you from our physical suffering, frankly, you have no idea who Jesus is. Jesus has come to heal us from a more serious condition - something worse than the 38 years of paralysis the man suffered. Jesus has authority to raises the dead to life.

Work

Now, you will have to bear with me a moment because the way in which Jesus raises us from death to life comes at the end of this section. It is important not to skip the part in the middle because some of us need to know who we are dealing with - kinda like the man who was healed but had no idea who healed him. We need to know who Jesus is before we can truly say, “Yes, I believe in him.” Otherwise, we might walk away thinking we’ve been blessed by God when we’ve not; we might walk away better only to become bitter. We need to hear what Jesus says to us about himself.

To put in simply, Jesus says that he has come to do his Father’s work.

So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at work to this very day, and I, too, am working.” For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

John 5:16-18

Remember that the Jews were really upset about the Sabbath law being broken by the guy carrying his mat but it looks like the guy has successfully deflected all the attention towards Jesus, “He’s the trouble maker. It’s his fault, not mine.” So, the issue Jesus is dealing with here is the Sabbath law: You shall do no work, says God.

How does Jesus answer? Jesus does not say what many of us would say. We would be tempted to say to the religious leaders: You’re too extreme! You have misread the law! The Sabbath was a command to stop work - not carrying mats around. God meant us to lay down our tools, to cease from our labour. What the religious leaders had done was come up with additional stipulations - 39 additional descriptions of work - one of them was carrying anything in public. You could carry stuff - like your bowl of cornflakes or your iPad - in your own home, but not out in public because that is work! You are “transporting” an item from one place to another. It was possible to use that argument, but notice that Jesus doesn’t say any of that.

Neither does Jesus argue for acts of mercy. Elsewhere in Matthew’s gospel (Chapter 12), Jesus says it is lawful - not unlawful - to do good on the Sabbath. Jesus is healing people. He is helping them get well. Yet, that’s not the argument Jesus uses here either.

What does Jesus say? “My Father is always at work to this very day, and I, too, am working.” Instead of breaking the command, Jesus is saying: I am fulfilling the command. Why do they have the Sabbath? Because God gave the Sabbath in the ten commandments, yes, but also because God finished his work of creation in six days and rested on the Sabbath, according to the creation account in Genesis. The Sabbath is the fulfilment of God’s work. Like when you finish that big project - an assignment, a painting, an XBOX game - and sit back with an ice-cold Pepsi and go, “Ahhhhhh, that’s good!” It’s the accomplishment of work. God sits back and looked at his work of creation on the seventh day and said, “It is very good!”

But the fact that Jesus says, “My Father is always at work,” means, God is working towards a final, ultimate goal that is the new creation. The Sabbath is a hint that something amazing is still to come. And Jesus says, “That’s what I was sent to do: to finish my Father’s work.”

The Son

Very quickly, he gives us four implications of that working relationship with his Father in the following verses: God’s pattern, God’s passion, God’s power and God’s judgement.

Firstly, God’s pattern. Verse 19: “Jesus gave them this answer, ‘I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” When Jesus is healing the paralysed man, he is not merely acting as a doctor, he is bringing in the new age when all death and decay will be removed from God’s creation. What Jesus is doing is imitating his Father’s work on redemption.

Secondly, God’s passion and this is his passion or love for his Son. Verse 20: “For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.” God wants all glory to go to Jesus, that’s why he sends him into the world. So that, verse 23 says, “all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father.” It is the language of inheritance. Jesus is taking over his Father’s business.

Thirdly, God’s power seen in the resurrection. Verse 21: “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.”

All this is relates to the fourth implication: God’s judgement. Verse 22: “Moreover, the Father judges no-one, but has entrusted all judgement to the Son.” This is God the Father handing over all his authority - to raise the dead, to pronounce judgement, to grant life and forgiveness to Jesus.

If you see these four implications of Jesus doing the Father’s will, carrying on the Father’s work as his Son, we can now understand how this fits in with our response to him. What did Jesus expect the paralysed man to do when he healed him? What does Jesus expect us to do today as we read these words from the bible?

He wants us to hear his words.

Hear

“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes in him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father as life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. And he has granted him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.”

John 5:24-27

These words are in the present tense. Whoever hears my words… he has crossed over from death to life. A time is coming… and has now come when the dead will hear… when those who hear will live.

What does Jesus want us to do today? To hear his words and live. He raises us from the dead. Those who hear have crossed from death to life. That is something that happens and can happen right now if we hear his words today.

Later on, Jesus makes a distinction with what will happen on the last day.

“Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out - those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.”

John 5:28-29

On the last day, Jesus will come again and all will hear his voice. “John… rise up!” “Calvin… rise up!” Good and bad will all hear his voice. By the way, the word for “rise” as in “rise to live” and “rise to be condemned” are the exact same words Jesus says to the paralysed man, “Rise up! Take your mat and walk!” It is his command that speaks life to the dead. Not even death will prevent us from facing him on that last judgement day.

The question is: Will you hear his voice today? “I tell you the truth,” Jesus says in verse 24, “whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” To hear his word and to believe God are not two separate responses. To hear is to believe. Jesus says, “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me.” He is saying: To trust in his word is to trust in God who sent him. His voice is God’s voice. He speaks with all of God’s authority. When we gather like this on a Sunday to hear the bible read, we are hearing Jesus; we are listening to God speaking to us.

That is so important because here Jesus is speaking to a group of people - the religious leaders - who think they can trust in God’s word on the Sabbath by ignoring what he says about the Sabbath. He is talking to a man so aware of his physical suffering but so blind to his spiritual condemnation. “Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you,” Jesus says only to be ignored by the very man he healed. “My Father is at work, so am I,” Jesus says to the religious leaders who become all the more determined to persecute him and eventually nail him to the cross. Here is a guy in the temple; here are leaders of God’s people - all thinking they are doing God’s will by ignoring God’s only Son.

We are no different. I say to you quite soberly, we are no different, unless we strive to make this word - this bible - the very centre of who are and all we do here in the Chinese Church, we will have been no different from these pathetic men. We will be tempted to make a big deal about our problems. When times are tough, we whine and complain. When times are good, we are less inclined to turn to God in repentance. Only God’s word speaks life into the dead. Only God’s Son can raise us from the dead.

Make this word the centre of who we are and all that we do. God is speaking today and he speaks to us by his Son in his Word. These are the words of eternal life. “I tell you the truth,” Jesus says in verse 25, “A time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.” 

Hold on to what you have (Revelation 2:18-29)

A small church

To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.

Revelation 2:18-19

Thyatira was the smallest city out of the seven churches addressed in the book of Revelation. Compared to Pergamum (which we looked at last week), Thyatira was a tiny place. In fact, Thyatira was a military outpost used to defend Pergamum which was much bigger numerically and more important economically.

And yet, the longest letter in the book of Revelation is written to the city of Thyatira. Out of all the other churches, Jesus has more to say to the Christians in this tiny city. He says, “I know your deeds”. “I know everything that’s been happening in your church. Not the big one down the street. Yours.”

This was a small but growing church. “You are now doing more than you did at first,” Jesus says (verse 19). It wasn’t growing in numbers, but in love, faith, service and perseverance. I wonder if Jesus would say that of us? “Chinese Church: you are smaller than all the other churches. Most people in Cambridge don’t even know you exist. But I do.” We have not grown bigger in fourteen years. But the question is: Are we more loving? Are we more faithful to Jesus after fourteen years?

Thyatira was. It had grown in love and faithfulness. Jesus says to them, “Don’t think I haven’t noticed”. But then he goes on to say to this small church, “You guys have a big problem.”

A big problem

Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.

Revelation 2:20

The problem is “that woman.” Sounds harsh. Everything else is OK - very good, in fact - except for that one person, that woman, called Jezebel. Who is she?

Queen Jezebel is famously recorded in the Old Testament as the wife of Ahab, king of Israel. In 1 Kings 16 says this:

Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him.

1 Kings 16:30-31

Ahab was the King but Jezebel was the real power behind the throne. She influenced her husband to institute nation-wide worship of the foreign god Baal. She ordered people to hunt down and kill every one of God’s prophets that they could find. When someone refused to sell the king a piece of land, she killed him and just took the property from him. Jezebel was a blood-thirsty, deceptive, mass-murderer and she ruled Israel.

But that’s not why she is condemned here by Jesus.

You see, last week we looked at the prophet Balaam who also caused that people of God to sin. But Jesus does not point to Balaam and say, “That man”. And yet look at verse 20. “You tolerate that woman, Jezebel.” Why does Jesus say, “That woman”? Two reasons:

Firstly, unlike the situation last week with Balaam and the teaching of the Nicolaitans, Jesus is singling out an individual, not just an influence. This was a real person. This woman was single-handedly responsible for the problems in this church and the judgement that was going to fall on this church.

Now it is unlikely that her name was Jezebel. That would be like having the name “Voldemort”. Parents don’t usually give their babies names like “Voldemort” or “Hitler”. What is happening here is Jesus comparing this woman to Jezebel in the Old Testament, and saying, “This is how serious the situation is.”

Why was it so serious? Balaam never tried to be one of the people of God. But the modern-day Jezebel was a member of the church in Thyatira. She was doing damage from the inside. She calls herself a prophetess - meaning, she has taken up a position teaching God’s word. She is seductive. She is deceptive. She is influential.

So, the first reason why Jesus says, “that woman, Jezebel” is because he is talking about a specific individual in this church, who is single-handedly responsible for corrupting the church from the inside.

But the second reason is this: You have empowered this woman to cause this destruction. “You tolerate that woman.” Now the Greek word “gunaika” can be translated “woman”, but it can also mean “wife”. Some manuscripts have the additional word, “sou” meaning “your”, which has caused translators to suggest that verse 20 read as “You tolerate your wife, Jezebel”.

Jesus is saying, “She is like Jezebel because you are acting like Ahab. You have given her the authority and control over the people of God.” How? Verse 20 says, “By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.” Meaning: the way in which she is exercising her influence is by her teaching. Meaning: When you allow someone to teach in the church - whether it is here on a Sunday like this, or even in a smaller group like Rock Fellowship - you are giving him or her authority. What is the criteria for allowing someone to preach the bible?

Notice that this woman Jezebel was probably a very good teacher. She calls herself a prophetess - She would stand up and say, “This is what God’s word says.” Verse 24 tells us, she even taught the “deep things” about God; meaning the people who heard her teach went, “Wow, I never knew that before! That’s deep!”

The bible says in 2 Timothy 2:20 - this is the apostle Paul writing, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.” Teaching is equated with authority in the church. Paul does not allow women to take up this position of authority. That is why he writes, just a few verses later about overseers, pastors and elders, who must be men and who must be men able to teach.

Authority in submission

Now I have had very godly women, who are submissive to scripture, who love Jesus, earnestly ask me - not to stir up trouble, but out of a sincere desire to know God’s will, they say - “Calvin, what if there is a woman in the church who is able to teach? What if God has given her insight and ability and this gift of teaching?”

I would say, “Praise God for that woman and her gift. But God’s word tells us clearly to appoint men to lead the church and to teach the bible - not because men are more able than women; not because they are smarter than women - but because the leadership or men and the submission of women displays the headship of Christ and the submission of the church.”

The key principle is this: The authority to lead the people of God comes from submission to the word of God.

Now this is not to say that the moment we let a woman preach on Sunday, she’s going to turn into a Jezebel! That’s not what I’m saying at all - please don’t get me wrong! Jezebel was teaching idolatry and leading people away from God through her teaching. Jesus does condemn her personally, but he also condemns those who her allowed her to continue in her “ministry”. And the reason why it was so hard for them to put a stop to this teacher - not just this teaching - but this individual; a teacher in the church, was precisely because they invested authority in this person’s authority and not the word of God.

My appeal to you girls here in the Chinese Church is this: Many of you are here because you are studying for you PhDs. Many of you are articulate and smart and gifted. And let’s face it, the guys can be a mess. You look at them and think, “When are these men going to get their act together?” The bible says clearly from the event of the fall, that a key sin of Adam’s was irresponsiblity. We, men, are prone to laziness, ungratefulness and anger - even when it comes to leadership in the church; even when it comes to leadership in the family. We men, need to recognise that sin.

But women - the bible says of you - the fall caused women to want to rule over men. To compete. To take over. You girls, need to realise, that urge and desire will be there. It is a sin that will want to justify the action of “cleaning up the mess left by the guys” or “getting the job done properly”. If God has gifted you with ability, use that ability to God’s glory in submission to Christ. In your homes, that will be mean submission to your husband. In the church, that will mean submission to the elders and leaders of the church.

For men, we need to lead in submission and in love. Beware of hypocrisy. Or rather I should say, we should repent of our hypocrisy. We are given the privilege and responsibility of leading others in areas where often we have failed in our own lives. I will just highlight one area: prayer. We are not a church that prays well because we are not men who pray often.

Don’t get me wrong: In the midst of our failures, our sin and hypocrisy, the bible’s solution is not, “Try harder”. Rather, what the bible calls for is repentance: Acknowledgement of our sinfulness and trusting in God’s forgiveness.

Time to repent

I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling.

Revelation 2:21

I find this truly amazing. Jesus gives this woman time to repent but she is unwilling. She is stubborn. “No, I will not!”

Not only her, but also the rest of the church:

So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways.

Revelation 2:22

It is hard to miss the overtones of sexual misconduct in these verses. Verse 20: She misleads - literally, seduces - my servants into sexual immorality. The word is porneia - which is a broad term which covers any and every kind of sexual sin. It is the root word translated “immorality” in the next verse 21. And in verse 22, those who follow her are accused of “adultery” which means unfaithfulness to a spouse.

And yet, it is important to see that these mean much more than just sinning sexually with your bodies. It is unfaithfulness to Jesus. When Jesus sees us worshipping him on Sundays, but then going to the temple on Mondays, offering joss-sticks at the temple, or bowing down to deities and idols during Mooncake festivals - We think it is no big deal, but it is serious, friends. In God’s eyes, it is as serious as cheating on your own husband or wife.

I don’t use this illustration lightly. I have had people tell me of friends whose husbands slept with other women, and men whose wives have left them and their children. They tell me how hard it is to forgive someone who has sinner against them.

Jesus offers this forgiveness. He gives time to Jezebel. He says to the church, “Repent.” He is a husband who is willing to forgive an unfaithful spouse. That is the love of God, don’t miss that, friends. It is costly forgiveness.

But Jesus also warns those of us who will do repent. Who, like Jezebel, are unwilling to repent.

I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

Revelation 2:22

Here Jesus turns from talking to Thyatira, to talking to us here at CCCC. “Then all the churches will know,” Jesus says. I don’t think this situation of a Jezebel teaching immorality to Christians has happened here. Not yet. Jesus is saying, “Make sure it doesn’t happen.” Don’t allow something as serious as this to ever happen here at CCCC. Because it can. Because if it does, Jesus will know - he searches our hearts and minds - and Jesus will repay each of us according to our actions.

But if it does - God forbid - yet if it does, Jesus says to those who are faithful to his word, “Hold on. I’m coming for you.”

Hold on

Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets (I will not impose any other burden on you); Only hold on to what you have until I come.

Revelation 2:24-25

The cross-reference for what Jesus means here is Acts 15:28. This is another letter written by the apostles in Jerusalem to encourage non-Jewish; Gentile believers who had come to put their trust in Jesus Christ. The reason for this letter was false teaching. The gospel had spread to non-Jews, but false teachers were placing extra requirements, or “burdens” on these new Christians, that they needed to be more Jewish in order to be true Christians. To assure the new believers that they were true Christians, the leaders in Jerusalem wrote and sent a letter through Paul and Silas saying:

It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.

Acts 15:29

Here in Revelation says, “I will not impose any other burden on you”, referring to Jezebel’s teaching on “sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols” (verse 20). It is a message of assurance: What you have is the full gospel. You don’t need to extras - whether it is circumcision, or dressing up on Sundays, or even these “deep things”. Just hold on to the gospel - the essential truth of Jesus and his death on the cross as the only means of forgiveness and reconciliation to God.

Now the way in which Jesus encourages these faithful Christians is quite surprising. It’s like a friend who suddenly calls you up and says, “I’m in trouble. My car has broken down.” or “A tragedy has happened.” or “I’m lost and I don’t know where I am.” And you reply, “Hold on. I’m coming to get you.”

Jesus says to those who are still faithful to him. “Hold on. I’m on my way.”

Notice, this tragic situation is not caused by persecution from outside the church. It is false teaching inside the church. Moreover, it has become so difficult and perhaps even, irreversible, that the only solution is for Jesus himself to come and intervene. All because the church “tolerated” the woman, Jezebel. If you look over the page to the beginning of chapter 2, Jesus says to the Ephesian church, “I know you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.” (Revelation 2:2) That’s what should have happened in Thyatira. I hope that is what is happening right now - I hope that you are testing my words. Are they true. Is this what the bible is saying?

Holding on to the gospel means testing everything against the gospel and rejecting anything contrary to the gospel.

The author to the Hebrews writes:

We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.

Hebrews 3:14

Authority over the nations

To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations -  ‘He will rule them with an iron sceptre; he will dash them to pieces like pottery’ - just as I have received authority from my Father.

Revelation 2:26-27

Finally we come to Jesus’ promise to those who overcome. It is the promise of authority. This is significant again because the church had handed over its authority to the false teacher Jezebel. But here Jesus reminds us that his authority comes from God the Father and that our authority comes from the Son of God.

In other words this mediated authority. Mediated just means that this authority comes from somewhere else. It comes from God. It comes through Jesus. It is rooted in God’s word. Which is why Psalm 2 is quoted.

“He will rule them with an iron sceptre. He will dash them to pieces like pottery.” Psalm 2 is a messianic psalm or a coronation psalm, that is, it is talking about the king. When the bible calls Jesus, the Son of God, it is calling him God’s chosen king.

Now the strange thing is this: Here is Jesus applying this Psalm on Christians - “To him who overcomes and does my will to the end... he will rule”. It is essentially saying that Jesus will share his authority - his rule over the nations - with Christians. Many of us hear that and go, “I didn’t sign up for that. That’s a bit heavy.” And if you are feeling a bit uncomfortable with the idea that you will be ruling with Christ or even exercising judgement under the authority of Christ, let me just say to you - That’s a good thing. Often times our judgements are selfish, motivated by pride, untempered by grace and driven by anger.

And yet Jesus has been telling us all throughout this passage that there will be judgement; that he will bring judgement; and that his judgements are fair. He sees into our heart. He repays according to our deeds. So when Jesus says to the Christians in Thyatira, “Hold on. I’m coming,” he is saying to them that he is returning soon to bring salvation and judgement.

But now Jesus adds one more dimension to his judgement. He will judge through the church. The word for “rule” in verse 26 is the Greek word “poimanei”, meaning, “to shepherd”; it is the word “pastor”. Pastor simply means “shepherd”.

It means that at times, leading and pastoring a church involves exercising God’s judgement in accordance with the bible. The church in Thyatira should have known this. They they should not have tolerated someone like Jezebel. They should called for repentance. They should have warned her of the consequences and given her time to turn back to God.

The morning star

I will also give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Revelation 2:28-29

The morning star here refers to the sun, or to be exact the rising sun. Jesus who has been addressing this church in the small city of Thyatira, saying to them, “I know your works; I see your into your hearts,” now says there will come a day when everyone will see. Your faith, love and perseverance will be as evident to all, as obvious as the rising sun.

This is God’s word. Someone asked me yesterday, “How do I know if God is really speaking to me?” It was a sincere question about finding out God’s will; about hearing God’s voice. And yet, here is Jesus saying that the Spirit is speaking to all the churches. God has spoken his final and full revelation through Jesus Christ. If you are reading this: This is God’s word.

The real question is: Are you listening?

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

Speak, O Lord, and renew our minds;

Help us grasp the heights of Your plans for us

Truths unchanged from the dawn of time

That will echo down through eternity.

And by grace we'll stand on Your promises,

And by faith we'll walk as You walk with us.

Speak, O Lord, till Your church is built

And the earth is filled with Your glory.

(“Speak, O Lord”, Keith Getty and Stuart Townend)

The glory of God in the suffering of Christ

Last Sunday we read of Jesus’ words spoken to his church in the midst of their suffering for the sake of the gospel. I highlighted three main lessons from Revelation 1:1-9 on how we can effectively encourage our brothers and sisters when they face times of depression, difficulty and even death.

1. We share in their suffering
John identifies himself as a brother and a companion in their suffering. He doesn’t give advice on how to avoid suffering. He joins them in suffering.

When someone is faced with great disappointment, anguish or loss, what he or she may need most in the first instance is simply for a friend to sit next to them silently. Perhaps all you can do is cry with them. We mourn with those who mourn.

2. We show them Christ in his glory
The words of comfort we read in Revelation - these are Jesus’ words. He speaks these words of comfort and of conviction. Only he can lift our gaze to behold his glory. Only he can open our eyes to perceive his sovereign will and power sustaining us in the midst of uncertainty and oppression.

The Son of Man is the one who receives all power, glory and authority to rule and judge from God, the Ancient of Days. But the Son of Man is also the one betrayed into the hands of the Gentiles, mocked and rejected by his own, crucified on the cross.

The exalted Christ is robed as a king, his feet gilded with bronze, ready to do battle against the powers of evil and to trample over his enemies (Daniel 10). The ascended Christ pleads before the Father in robes of the High Priest - he is our advocate and mediator. He walks with us through the fires of persecution; as the Son of God walked alongside Daniel’s friends in the burning furnace.

This is the King of glory who fights for us. He is the Priest full of compassion who walks with us.

3. We help them find strength and assurance in the cross
John falls down as though dead. On the cross, Jesus was truly dead; he was raised and now lives forevermore! He reminds us: we no longer need fear death. Jesus holds the keys to death and Hades.

In the midst of our pain and suffering, Jesus strengthens us by drawing our attention to his pain and his suffering. For there on the cross, we see the apex of God's glory in Christ. It is only from the certainty of his death and the knowledge of Jesus' suffering that we receive the assurance of our forgiveness and the hope of eternal life.

No guilt in life, no fear in death,

This is the power of Christ in me;

From life's first cry to final breath.

Jesus commands my destiny.

No power of hell, no scheme of man,

Can ever pluck me from His hand;

Till He returns or calls me home,

Here in the power of Christ I'll stand.

The Son of Man

Why does Jesus call himself the “Son of Man”? Again and again, the “Son of Man” is Jesus’ favourite and most common way of referring to himself - some 80-plus times - as recorded in the gospel accounts.

If you have ever felt puzzled by this, you might take some comfort in knowing that Jesus’ closest friends didn’t initially understand what he meant either. No-one else ever called Jesus the “Son of Man” (with the one single exception of Stephen in Acts 7). Rather, many addressed him as Son of David or even, Son of God.

In the Old Testament, “son of man” can simply mean “human being”. As in Psalm 8:4:

What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?

Psalm 8:4

Here, “man” and “son of man” are used synonymously. The context of Psalm 8 is the relationship between creation and the first man, Adam. God has made the descendants of Adam - his sons (“son of man” translates Ben ‘Adam) - stewards over creation. In other words, God has placed the responsibility of caring for the earth on the shoulders of humanity.

Elsewhere in the Old Testament, God calls his prophet Ezekiel, “son of man”, thus identifying Ezekiel as a representative of sinful humanity; yet at the same time, distancing Ezekiel as a created being - a son of man - before an eternal sovereign creator God. So readers of the Old Testament would have heard echoes from Scripture in Jesus’ use of the term “son of man”. 

However, we know from Matthew’s gospel that Jesus had one particular Old Testament reference in mind. In Chapter 26, Jesus is brought to face charges before the Sanhedrin, an assembly of religious leaders and scribes led by the high priest. 

The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.”

Matthew 26:63

Notice that the accusation made against Jesus was whether he claimed to be the Christ. Jesus replies, “Yes”. He does not deny that he came to fulfill the long-awaited expectations of the Messiah (a Hebrew name which has exactly the same meaning as the Greek word “Christ”), who was to be God’s appointed King to bring salvation to his people Israel.

However, Jesus goes on to clarify that he would not simply be an earthly king come to establish an earthly kingdom. 

“Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

Matthew 26:64

Here we see the full purpose of Jesus’ use of the term “Son of Man”. It is a reference to a vision recorded in Daniel Chapter 7.

In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

Daniel 7:13-14

God as the Ancient of Days hands over his authority, glory and power to this one individual; one whom Daniel says, looked like “a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven”. The moment Jesus made this connection with the vision from Daniel 7, the high priest tore his clothes, cried out, “Blasphemy!” and sentenced Jesus to death (Matthew 26:65-66). Why? Because the religious leaders finally understood that through his use of the term “Son of Man”, Jesus was equating himself with God.

Here we also see that it wasn’t enough for Jesus to be called Son of God. In fact, throughout his ministry, he distanced himself from that name. Not because it wasn’t true. But because it was often misunderstood.

Muslims today find the term offensive because it implies that God impregnated Mary in order for Jesus to be born the Son of God. Hence, the beginning of Mark’s gospel needs careful clarification when evangelising Muslim friends, as the book opens with the words, “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

Yet within the context of the New Testament gospels, even the Jewish people of God misunderstood what it meant for Jesus to be called Son of God. Like “Son of David”, the average Israelite used “Son of God” to mean God’s chosen king. That was all they saw Jesus as: a political revolutionary sent by God to overthrow the Roman oppressors and bring independence to Israel.

Conversely, Jesus’ use of the Son of Man was ambiguous enough, strange enough and memorable enough for him to make fresh connections to Old Testament promises, such that after the event of his death and resurrection, Jesus’ followers could look back at these words to understand who he truly was as the Christ and what he truly did on the cross.

“What is man that you are mindful of him,

the son of man that you care for him?

You made him a little lower than the angels;

you crowned him with glory and honor

and put everything under his feet.”

In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

Hebrews 2:6-9