Hold on to the title
Contents
Title : Catch it till the end ! < But hold fast what you have till I come >
Bible: Revelation 2:18-29 (Sunday morning service on September 14, 2008)
(607-112) 523-27, Myeongjang 2-dong, Dongnae-gu, Busan
<Hymn = 458 Your kindness, 209 Your word, dear children>
These days, people who have been hiking in autumn have accidents. Accidents are common when people get poisoned by picking mushrooms. Mushrooms are good for the body, but there are many poisonous mushrooms in the wild. Therefore, you should not eat mushrooms that grow in the wild.
The problem of the church in Thyatira we read today is exactly the same.
# Church of Thyatira (2:18-29)
Thyatira is a city in Lydia, Asia Minor, and it is also the hometown of Lydia, the goddess of Philippi (Acts 16:14), and was located at the key point of traffic connecting Pergamum and Sardis.
1. Praise
[19] I know of you work, love, faith, service, and perseverance, that your last deeds are greater than the first.
There was a development in the ministry of the gospel. It's a lot more advanced than the first. It is God's will that the latter develops more than the first. The church must be devoted. You should be blessed and do well. It must be grander, stronger, more spiritual and more advanced than at the beginning. It seems that you have received material things, but if you retreat spiritually, it is not progress. This church has been praised for making a lot of progress.
2. scold
A person with the same power as King Ahab's wife Jezebel, therefore, could not resist the temptation of heresy that accompanied the power of the world, but tolerated and followed it.
The most troubling problem is the ideology of Jezebelism: the papal ecclesiastical supremacy, which was formed in the Middle Ages, and the secularists who appeared in the pro-Japanese and ecclesiastical groups during the Japanese colonial period.
Verse 21 speaks of unrepentant sins, even though He gave them the opportunity to repent.
This church is immersed in secularism and does not repent. There are secular churches in the world. It is the act of serving people in fear of man rather than God.
Although fearful, those who relied on God's sovereignty more and more depended on death and lived or died. This church is a church that has been led by the powers of the world. If the Lord is the owner of the church, and this church depends on the power of the world, it is a church that ignores God. It is a powerful church from the outside, but it is a broken church. It is a church that ignores the sovereign God of history. I am telling you to turn away from the honorism of this world.
Romans 2:4 “Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and forbearance, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?”
Joel 2:12 “For even now, saith the LORD, return to me with fasting and weeping and mourning and with all your heart.”
3. Conclusion
Everything in this world was created with a clear purpose in the beginning. Any object must have a primary purpose for which it was created. So is our life. When used for its intended purpose, it can be said that it was 'successful', be it a thing or a life.
Let's say you have a gorgeous gold-plated luxury fountain pen. No matter how expensive a product is, it would be useless without ink. Because it cannot be used for its original purpose of 'writing'. A good men's accessory might be tucked into your shirt. But for its intended purpose, it's not worth more than a few hundred won ballpoint pen just rolling around.
Our lives must also have a main purpose. No matter how expensive and glamorous it may seem, it is a problem if it is used only for secondary purposes other than the main purpose of pleasing God. What purpose is your life being used for now?
(Rev 2:23) “And I will put to death his children, and all the churches shall know that I am a one who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.
- I will kill my children (there is no future, I must set an example)
- He repays us for all our deeds (Judges our wrongdoings)
(Rev 2:25-26) “[25] But hold fast what you have until I come. [26] He who overcomes and keeps my works to the end, I will give authority over the nations.”
- He who endures to the end will be saved. (don't change)
end of sermon; hymn = lord this hand