Wednesday, August 9th | To The Church in Sardis

Hello, everyone. Today is Wednesday, August the 9th. I'm Ryan Hill.

I'm John Galantis. You're listening to Clear View Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com, or if you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028, and you can email us at contact at ClearViewTodayShow.com. That's right, and you guys can help us keep the conversation going by supporting the show. You can share it online with your friends and your family.

Leave us a good review on iTunes or Spotify, anywhere you get your podcasting content from. You can even share it with strangers online. You can share it with strangers, yeah. If you're just sitting on the bus or if you're in a car and you're at a red light, get out of your car and go over to the other person in the car next to you.

Well, what you do is you open your AirDrop and then just AirDrop it to everybody. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And whether you know them or not, they're going to get to listen to Clear View Today. And when someone in the crowd is like, who is this? You just be like, oh, okay. Just keep quiet. Go to the bathroom. Go into the bathroom and AirDrop it from the stall, like into people on the other side. That's what you do. That's what you do. They need to hear our opinions on the Bible.

What was I saying? Leave us a link and a review on iTunes. Oh, sorry. Leave us a review on iTunes.

We're going to leave the link in the description so you can do just that. And today's verse of the day is coming to us from John 1, 12 through 13. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Think about that. He gave them the right to become children of God. We are not by nature when we are born children of God. Sometimes people use that term, like all God's children, to apply to all of the people that God made. And God did create everyone, but children of God is a different category. Those are the people that have been adopted into God's family.

And think about what that means. If we're children of God, then he's our Heavenly Father. He's the one who loves us. He's the one who provides for us. He's the one who cares for us. He's the one in whom we have an inheritance.

I mean, that's a beautiful identity. And you can rest in that identity with confidence and assurance because it's not coming from you. It says that who were born not of blood or of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. It means that there's nothing that anybody on earth contributed to your identity. They didn't shape it. Your parents didn't shape your identity, your surroundings, your childhood bullies, your whatever. None of those people determined who you are.

If you were a Christian, it says that you were born of God. Speaking of bullying, what's up with the shirt? Whose? My shirt?

Yours. You know yours because you are like, I don't know, aloha today. Yeah, I'm wearing a Hawaiian shirt.

Any reason for that? I've literally never seen you wear a Hawaiian shirt and then suddenly here we are. I used to make fun of people who wore Hawaiian shirts. I had a friend who wore Hawaiian shirts and I would be like, why are you wearing that? You're in your 20s. That looks so stupid. That's something that 50-year-old, 60-year-old dudes wear. And then Jared, Pastor Shaw's son-in-law, started wearing Hawaiian shirts.

I was like, you guys look dumb. Then we started producing this album and we went to do some tracking in the studio. We actually went and did Power and Mercy as a single first. Which is available now. He did some music assault, Clearview Worship, new single, Power and Mercy.

Right now, link in the description. When we were there, when we were tracking, the producer, shout out to Travis Motley. I'll go ahead and say his name, that's fine. He and his engineer were both wearing Hawaiian shirts, but his had big playing cards on it. He was peacocking so deep, like a Bob Ross peacock. Not a good look.

It was wide open. And I was like, that's me now. This is my personality now. That's me. I saw my friends doing it growing up.

I saw Jared doing it. But now I see this guy and I was like, that's me. So what I did was, a few weeks after that, we were scheduled to go track some drums. So I took David in the back and I took Jackson, who is on staff with us here at Clearview.

They're both of our drummers. And I just bought them some Hawaiian shirts. And I was like, we're going to wear them as a goof. And I just think I'm not going to stop. I love it. I'm so confident that this is me now. This is who I am at my core. I'm like on vacation all the time. Even when I'm at work, even when I'm doing the radio show, I'm like on vacation.

I need like a, like a fruit juice with a little umbrella. I am going to do everything in my power to discourage this. I just had the idea the day before we went and I thought it would be kind of like funny and like, not disrespectful, but just like a light jab, like, Hey, you guys look silly last time we were here.

They liked it. And I love this shirt. That's now yours. Do you wear the other blue one, David?

No, I haven't worn it since. We'll give it back. Out of spite. Give me the shirt back. All right. All right.

Anyway, Hawaiian shirts. You don't like it? I mean, it's fine. You wouldn't wear it to work?

Probably not. To you, this would be inappropriate? No, not inappropriate. It's just not, not really my thing, but to be fair, like I'll wear like a funky short sleeve shirt.

It's just not like a Hawaiian shirt per se. I think I need a chain. No. Now that's, we're getting too far with the chain.

Let's take a break and see if I can find the chain. No, we're not going to do that. Okay. All right. We're going to start today's show and hopefully we're not going to have any more developments in Jon's wardrobe, but if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028 or visit us online at clearveetodayshow.com.

We'll be right back. Hey there, listeners. I'm Jon Galantis.

And I'm Ellie Galantis. And we just want to take a quick second and talk to you about Dr. Shah's and Nicole's book, 30 Days to a New Beginning, daily devotions to help you move forward. You know, this is actually the second book in the 30 days series. And the whole point of this devotional is to help us get unstuck from the ruts of life. You know, when it comes to running the race of life, it matters how you start, but a bad start doesn't ultimately determine how you finish the race. You can have a good finish even with a bad start. And that's where this book comes in.

No matter who you are or where you are in life, you're going to get stuck. Instead of going out and buying some gadget or some planner, like I know I've done several times, 30 Days encourages you to find your first start in God's word. Life doesn't have a reset button, but our God is a God who does new things.

His mercies are new every day, which means every day is a new chance for you to start over. You can grab 30 Days to a New Beginning on Amazon.com. We're going to leave a link in the description box below. And if you already have the book, let us know what you think about it.

That's right. Send us a text, 252-582-5028. Share what God has done in your life through this devotional. Hey, maybe we'll even read your story on the air. Ellie, you ready to get back to the show?

Let's do it. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abbadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com, or if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028.

That's right. If today's your first time ever joining us here on the Clear View Today Show, we want to welcome you, let you know exactly who's talking to you today. Dr. Abbadan Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and host of Today Show.

You can find all of his work on his website. That's AbbadanShah.com. Before we go any further, what I want to know is, how did you get worse in the time it took for us to switch over from the ad? How did you get worse? Dr. Shah, I apologize, whatever this has happening over here, I'm just going to apologize for all of this. I told you to give me a second because I didn't get to eat lunch. What is happening right now? Hang on one second. I felt like I came in here with the Hawaiian shirt.

You came at me with some really weird bullying energy. I didn't. I just asked you because I don't see you in a Hawaiian shirt. I was like, oh, what's going on with the Hawaiian shirt? I'll tell you what I'm going to do. Out of respect for Dr. Shah, button the shirt. Please. The shirt, this is going to be on for the remainder of the episode.

Okay. I hope the shirt will stay on for the remainder of the episode. I'm not changing shirts.

It's going to be the Hawaiian shirt. Out of respect for Dr. Shah, will button. Maybe you and I will talk off mic because the bullying energy has to come to an end.

You know what I'm saying? That's rich. That is exquisite. Oh my goodness. I hope today's episode is about a fun vacation because I don't know how you're going to transition out of this.

Well, you're in luck, my friend. Today's episode is about death. Not a fun vacation.

Why did I pick today to wear the Hawaiian shirt? Not a fun vacation. I don't know what all of that was. I'm sorry, Dr. Shah. It was some intro drama that got a little out of hand.

I apologize. Back in the day, this is talking about like in the mid nineties, the Hawaiian shirt had a new life. Yeah, this is in the mid nineties. The Hawaiian shirt was everywhere. It was reinvigorated. I said this earlier, but I've always made fun of guys who wore Hawaiian shirts.

I actually bought this one for David and I ended up liking it so much. I took it back. Yeah. It was like past, like nowadays, you know, the trendy pastures, the hip pastures wear like homeless clothes, right? And then with this, like the shirt is falling off baggy sweatshirt rips, tattered jeans, item costs over $200. Right. Yeah. But back in the day in the mid nineties, well, prior to that, it was the vest. The pastor puts on a vest and no shirt, no, no, no, the bluer shirt, but no tie and suit. Oh, they are hip.

They're trying to be seeker sensitive. And then they went from the, this, this vest to wearing Hawaiian shirts. And I think it was Rick Warren who made them popular.

You know what? I remember seeing videos of Rick Warren in Hawaiian shirts. Did he peacock?

No. Oh, but he just had the flowery Hawaiian. Around like the Purpose Driven Life era. I remember that. And then it was he was a speaker at Liberty University in Lynchburg. And so Jerry Falwell, who was, who would always wear suit and tie, right? He was always the conservative, the fundamentalist type person, right? He was always so dressed with suit and tie. So they switched. So Jerry Falwell wore Hawaiian shirt and Rick Warren wore the suit and tie. Anyways, it was a crazy era. So that kind of reminded me of that. You know, it's just a thing where I'm in my thirties now and I'm just trying to kind of live up to that, live up to my name as a 30 year old or a 31 year old. And you think you're wearing a Hawaiian shirt.

I feel like I know that your heritage is like Greek Mediterranean, but you're, you're giving off heavy Italian vibes right now. Really? Yeah. I need to, and the pizza didn't help with that.

The pizza did not help. I'll think that through. I'll think that through.

Re-work it, you know, workshop it, and then come back next time and we'll try it again. Sure. Sure. Funny.

I like crazy, crazy people. We're diving into, it's funny that you talked about new life because we're talking about how to get new life when being dead. We're talking in the vein of the churches in the book of Revelation.

We've been talking about this over the past few episodes. We've heard from so many of you, how these episodes are helping you kind of reconfigure your thinking about Christian life and what it looks like to be a believer, how church should operate and the warning signs that are available to us in the book of Revelation. And today we come to the church in Sardis. That's right. And Jesus's indictment against this church was that they were living dead.

Now think about that for a moment. Living dead. In other words, they are there as a church.

The doors do open Sunday mornings. Things happen like, like songs are sung and messages preached and offering is taken and maybe a Sunday school class is there, but overall they are still dead. And that was the church in Sardis. I think I really appreciated when you preached this because too many Christians are living under that sort of misdirection of Ephesians 2. Like what I mean by that is Ephesians 2 is one of my favorite passages where it's like you were dead, but God who's rich in mercy has made you alive. And so we tend to think now that he's done that, I'll know you'll never be dead again, which is true, but you can live as though you're dead.

And I think people, even myself included, don't think that through. Especially churches. They can be, that's why we talk about dead churches.

It'd be one thing if they had sold their property or put a rent me sign or sales sign, but they're still meeting. They still have a handful and they almost tend to have a remnant complex, but they're not remnants. They are refusing to repent before God because there is a place for remnants where people are hanging on.

They're the last ones to live in that particular region or part of the country where it seems like the lights are going out everywhere, but they're hanging in there. But this is not the same thing. This is more, it's more devastating to look at and more insidious, I feel like, because you can go through the motions of church. You can be a part of this ministry team and be doing this and going through the actual services, but there is no life.

There's no life in the body. It's kind of a grim picture because we all have been, had a family member, had a loved one or someone who was on death's door. And it seems like we're just waiting and waiting and waiting. And it gets to a point where it's like, I almost, I want to say this carefully. I almost would rather see the end come quickly than all this lingering around and just waiting for this. This uncertain in-between. I wholeheartedly agree with you. In these churches that are just kind of hanging on without any real hope of waiting to die, you know?

Yeah. Now this church was in Sardis. Sardis was long known as a great city in ancient times and Nicole and I were not able to go there because of time.

Again, our time ran out and we're hoping to go back one day, but the city goes back to 1200 BC and it was at the height of its wealth in the sixth century BC. There was a King by the name of Croesus. That's where we get the expression as rich as Croesus. Have you all heard that? I have never heard that before.

I've never heard that. Yeah, but it is out there and it's kind of sort of maybe has become passé, but as rich as Croesus was to mean that he is filthy rich and he filled his coffers with the gold that came from the mines and the sands of the river Pactolus, which flows through ancient Sardis to this day. And this was also the place where they minted coins for the first time.

Sardis was known for minting coins. And the problem with Croesus was that he became proud and arrogant and in his pride, he lost his kingdom to King Cyrus of Persia. Well, okay. Was this the time of where, was he, was he Babylonian? Who Croesus? No, Croesus was, I guess, Lydian. Okay.

Okay. So King Cyrus, the Persian army came in and we kind of took them over, I guess. So there was like not really a siege, but it was sort of a holding pattern and Croesus had plenty of money. So he had hired mercenaries or soldiers from different parts of the world, like Greeks and Egyptian soldiers. And they were all part of his army and winter was coming. So he told them, go home because in the winter we don't fight, go home.

And when I need you, I'll call you back and I'll pay you for that. So guess what? Half his army left.

Persians were not going to take a break in the winter. Yeah. No, they're going for it.

This is a great opportunity. Yeah. So they were like just waiting. And then when they saw all these soldiers leaving, they're like, I'm just going to walk right in.

Hello. Yeah. And so next thing you know King Croesus decides to move up to the Acropolis and every city, ancient city would have an Acropolis, the major ones. So it's like a mountain outside the city. So they were on top of the mountain and the Kings, the heads of state would live there.

And then the common people live down below. And the Persians were watching and they saw that there was a guard up there and he drops his helmet and kind of falls down the mountain, not like way down, but just kind of falls under, watching this, this thing happening. And the soldiers just like walks away down there, my helmet. And he walks his way back up and goes into the Acropolis, walks like the kids think I might see a way.

Golly. So the Persians are watching this and they look at each other and go, is it that simple that you can just walk up that mountain and you're in the Acropolis. So what one of those brave soldiers decides to sneak in and he gets up to the top and he goes, there's no one watching this place. So several more followed in and they opened the gates from the inside. Bro, that's not like a Scooby, Scooby Doo entrance. I don't know.

Some kind of mystery incorporated hijinks. So because of his complacency and which came because of his arrogance. And there's a principle there guys. When you get arrogant, when you get proud, boastful, you become complacent, whether it's in your spiritual life or your personal life. When you start thinking, I got this, just know you're about to get speared. And this is what happened to Croesus. Something else I didn't share in my message when I preached on Sardis or this letter to the church in Sardis was that Croesus also did what is known as self immolation. And we're not quite sure, but they say, the historians tell us that when a King would lose his kingdom or lose a battle before the conquering King could come and take him captive, they will set themselves on fire. Wow. So Croesus did and either he died or Cyrus said, no, just douse out the fire.

You don't need to die. I think it was a ladder. Yeah. Well that, that would have, was this the same Cyrus that conquered like the Babylonian empire? That's right.

And he kept coming. Cause that's not far from this place, right? Turkey is sitting on the boundary of Iran and Iraq and Babylon was in Iran, Iraq.

If he's, if he's the same Cyrus that let all the Jewish believers go home, that would probably fall in line with his character, his, I guess, leadership style. Yeah. So, so this will sort of help us understand this, this letter as we go further into it. So again, this was the hardest message in the series.

Just want to let you forewarn you. And it begins with Jesus giving his credentials. The credentials are this. These things says he who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works that you have a name that you're alive, but you are dead.

Now you already know what the difficult part is here. What are the seven spirits of God? We know about the one Holy spirit. God is triune father, son, spirit, three, and yet one, three persons, but it's one God. We don't worship three gods.

Right. Now what's happening with these seven, the seven stars we know because revelation one 20 says the mystery of the seven stars, which you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches. And as I've been saying, the angels are the pastors. Some people say guardian angels, some think, you know, these are special angels assigned to each church. I just don't think Jesus would write a letter to a church, to an angel, right.

And then put it in the church in these cities. Now, if you think that's a literary technique, then I mean, it's a whole different issue there. Then, then how many of what else in revelation is a literary technique, right? Right.

So it can get really messy very quickly. So I would say stick with the simplest explanation, which is angels. Angolos means messengers. So the messengers of the seven churches, who's a messenger, the pastors, the one who preaches to that. Well, that kind of goes back to a discussion we had earlier on a previous episode where like you, you try to categorize these things like first tier, second tier, third tier theological debates, but everything is connected.

Everything is wound together. So if you try to pick a part one, just know that it's inevitably going to impact what you believe. Yeah. I think the tier system makes us feel like, like good or safe or just non-confrontational, but it's really just a matter of at what point are you willing to compromise? You're going to have to compromise down the road.

So it's just like, at what point are you willing to say, okay, I'm willing to compromise this core doctrine? Right. Yeah.

Yeah. So I would say stick with the, the simplest meaning, which is messengers to the seven churches and the, and so the pastors, but the seven spirits are harder to understand, but it's also mentioned in Revelation 1 four. So if it was just mentioned one time, I could find a reason around it and say, well, we know what this really means is this, but it's mentioned in Revelation 1 four, where it says John to the seven churches, which are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him, who is, who was, who is to come and from the seven spirits who are before his throne.

So now the question is what is going on? Well, there are two passages in the old Testament that shed light on this passage. The first one is in Isaiah chapter 11 and the second one is in Zechariah chapter four. So let's go to Isaiah 11 very quickly. It says, there shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse. Remember Jesse, father of David and a branch shall grow out of his roots. Okay.

No problem there. But now starting in verse two, I want you to count with me how many attributes of the Holy spirit are mentioned in this passage. The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. Let's begin counting the spirit of wisdom, which is one and understand standing to the spirit of counsel, three and might for the spirit of knowledge five and of the fear of the Lord six.

And it seems like it's done, but it's not. His delight is in the fear of the Lord, right? Which is his delight is in the fear of the Lord, which would be the seven, because he is, this is a spirit that fears God, right? Well, but, and he shall not judge by the sight of his eyes, nor decide by the hearing of his ears means this is a spirit who judges. So that's the seven. That's the judgment. Yeah. That's the seventh spirit.

Okay. So when you put these seven attributes together, the seventh one, not as much of spirit of judgment, but the statement implies that there you have the seven spirit. So when it says seven spirits, it's not like seven spirits are hovering or fluttering around.

It's, it's a completion. The Holy spirit is a complete spirit who does all these things. Now in Zechariah four, it gets even closer. Listen to verse one. Now, the angel who talked with me came back and waken me as a man who is awakened out of his sleep. And he said to me, what do you see? So I said, I'm looking, and there's a lampstand of solid gold with a bowl on top of it. And on the stand seven lamps with seven pipes to the seven lamps for who has this, I'm going to verse 10 now for who has despised the day of small things for these seven rejoice to see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. They are the eyes of the Lord, which scan to and fro throughout the earth, the whole earth. So Zechariah sees the seven lamps, which are the seven, which are the eyes of the Lord that scan the earth, the whole earth. Now lamps, eyes go to revelation four, five and from the throne proceeded lightnings thunderings and voices, seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits. So seven lamps, eyes, seven spirits is revelation five six.

And I looked and behold in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders to the lamb. And as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God. So seven lamps, seven eyes, seven spirits, they're one in the same. So the seven spirits represent the, can I say like a 360 degree eyes of God? The seven spirits are the completeness of God.

Yeah. That he can see everything. Not a single speck in the entire universe is hidden from God, the Holy Spirit. So it is a difficult passage. I'll acknowledge that, but when you study it carefully and that's what we're called to do, right? Don't just walk away with that, like that preacher and say, there's nine persons in the, in, in the Trinity, but don't, don't just be so, so naive and go, well, I don't know what the seven spirits mean.

I guess it's just a way to say completion. No, let's dig in. Let's go to Isaiah. Let's go to Zechariah, put it all together. And that's when you see that this is the Holy Spirit, but it signifies his complete completion in being the perfect spirit. And it also implies that he sees everything. So Jesus, in saying this to the church in Sardis is putting himself on the same level or is he saying, I've got the full completeness of God behind my words. I have the full Holy Spirit with me. The full Holy Spirit. Now for us, it seems like, well, Father Trinity, you're the second person on the Godhead. Surely we know that right. Father, Son, Spirit, three and yet one, of course, at any moment, the Holy Spirit is with the Father and with the Son and all three of them are together.

What's the point, right? But you see, we're entering into the Holy of Holies where God is revealing himself in ways that we haven't heard before, but that's how God speaks. And that's a good thing. What I'm saying here is that what Jesus is telling the church in Sardis is that the Trinity is not divided.

In fact, the Holy Spirit, the third person, the Godhead who has been sent, right? What Jesus promised, I'm sending another comforter who will be with you, who will guide you into all truth, who will convict the world of sin and righteousness and the judgment to come. He is completely with me in calling you out. That's good. Wow. Now, if this doesn't ring your bell and if this does not excite you, I'm sorry. You have the wrong things exciting you.

That's right. But this should be the things that should fire you up. If this doesn't excite you, you might be on Death's Door. Nice.

I love that. If this doesn't ring your bell, that's awesome. We're going to pick up with Sardis tomorrow, but if you guys have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028. Or you can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. Visit that donate link at the bottom. Partner with us financially and be a part of what God is doing through the Clear View Today show, impacting the nations with the gospel. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clear View Today.