Amen, amen. You guys can find a seat this evening. And it is so good to see you and a great crowd. And as the thunderstorm just is rolling in right outside, we might have to hunker down a little bit tonight right here. But no, we are thankful for the building that we get to meet in here tonight and for the protection that we have.
But I understand anytime you have bad weather, you do need to welcome everybody online each and every week. I'm reminded. We get a chance to talk with some shut-ins from time to time and just people who reach out, pop into the church office who just can't physically make it, but I'm grateful for technology and for them to be able to watch online. And I didn't mention this earlier. I do want to ask you to pray for one thing for me, if you would.
I had an opportunity last night. I went to my old stomping grounds over in Asheboro. It's where I grew up. And the church that I grew up in, they run a camp, and it's a camp called Missions Possible Camp. And it's happening this week.
And what it is, is it's a camp where they kind of, you know, you have to be selected by your youth pastor to go to this camp.
So it's not evangelistic. It's basically for kids interested in ministry and going into full-time ministry, missions, or things like that. And so I had an opportunity to go there last night, and it was just really good to be around that. And so I asked that you would just pray that God would call kids from that camp to. Go into his ministry and to go be a part of what God is doing across the world.
And so, do be in prayer for that. Uh, if you would.
Well, we are diving right back into our series. I'm super excited about this. I hope that you're enjoying the series. We're in week number five of this series through the book of Revelation. I'm learning so much, you know.
Like, I studied this in college, and you had to go through a deep dive into this when you were in seminary. And I'll just be honest with you, I just kind of breezed through college, I'm not going to lie, okay? And so, I just learn so much now that just when I was like 19, 20 years old, I just was kind of breezing through, and now I'm so much more mature than that, okay? And I'm focused, and I'm learning a lot. And I'm enjoying going back and just really taking some time and reading a lot through this.
And I'm super excited about just sharing with you guys. I look forward to Wednesday night as much as anything. And so I'm excited to dive in. I ask you this every time: if you didn't grab an outline on your way in, would you slip up your hand? Anyone need one?
Wow, Quendo, what in the world? And so. You are here every single week. And Quinda's like the faithful of the faithful. She walks over here, and we have conversations for days.
And so, but no, if you need one, just slip up your hand, and we would love to get one. We also have timelines that you can keep kind of in your Bible that we will reference week to week. I do ask, you know, you don't need one every week, just keep one in your Bible that'll help us out. There's a lot of ink on there with the colors that we have. And so, if you would just help us with that, but that's just some resources just to help you as we kind of work through the book together here tonight.
But we're going to be in Revelation chapter number two. Revelation chapter number two. I do ask that if you have missed a week, I'd love for you just to take some time, jump online, and just kind of watch the week that you missed so that I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time like tonight and moving forward reviewing and things like that. And so, if you missed something, you might want to look back, or if you're just now tuning in, maybe go back and watch some of those so that you can stay up to speed with what is happening and how we are working through this. But we are continuing our talk about the seven churches.
And so, I am going to give you three things that I'm just going to mention every week of our series through the seven churches.
So, it's on your notes: an introduction to the letters of the seven churches, just a few things that I'll mention to you. Remember, these were literal churches. Hopefully, you know these blanks by now. These were literal churches. And I'll show you a picture, just kind of where they were.
So it started with Ephesus and goes up in a clockwise formation. The letters were, all the way, which we will end with Laodicea. And they all existed on the coast, you can see, of the Aegean Sea. This is now like the western part of Turkey today. And each one of these, there were literal churches that existed at this time.
But number two, these were applicable. The letters are applicable to churches today.
So there are things about every one of these churches that we can learn something from.
So in many cases, there's warnings. You'll see some of that tonight. And then there's some affirmations, some things that you need to, really, we need to hone in on as a church.
So every one of these churches can be something that we can learn and apply to our local church today. And then number three, the letters really represent time periods. And as you study these, you'll see this, that a lot of them, they will kind of show a different time period in which we live today within the church age. And so tonight we are jumping back into it. And so we are looking at the letter.
to the church at Thyratira. The letter to the church at Thyratira. And this is going to be in Revelation 2:18 through 29. And this is the longest portion that Jesus gives to any church.
So, this is the most verses that he gives to any church. And there's a lot of material here.
So, I'm going to read through 18 to 29, pretty much straight through, and then we'll kind of work through it. And so, if you have a question as we work through this, we'll get to it here in a moment, I promise, okay? Verse 18 of Revelation 2 says this. And unto the angel, that's messenger, remembers that's the pastor of the church in Thyratyrah, write, These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass. I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works, and the last to be more than the first.
Notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee. because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. Verse 21. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.
I will kill her children with death. And all the churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the reins and hearts, and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. But unto you, I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak, I will put upon you none other burden. But that which ye have already hold fast till I come. Verse 26.
And he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers, even as I received of my father. I will give him the morning star. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto. The churches.
Now, there's a lot here that I wanted to see, but like I've done with every one of these letters to the churches, I. You need to understand a little bit about the city in which these churches existed. And so I'm going to give you a little bit of background, a little bit of church history tonight as we kind of dive into the actual exposition of verses 18 through 29. The city of Thyratira was located, as you saw on the map, about thirty miles southeast of Pergamos, which is what we looked at last week. Today, if you look for this city now, it is a city in Turkey called Akisar.
I think I'm saying that right. And so you can kind of, that's what it is in modern day. It's really probably out of the seven different churches or the seven cities, it was probably the most least significant city out of the seven. There's not a whole lot. You'll see.
It's mentioned one other time in scripture in Acts 16 that we'll look at here in a little bit. But the city was kind of considered one of the centers for business and for trade during that time. And like I mentioned earlier, each one of these cities or churches kind of represents different time periods in church history that you can kind of follow and work through. And Thyratira could be called, if you were to name the church, kind of what is Jesus Trying to Say, you could name it this. Yes.
or the corrupt church. The idolatrous Or the corrupt church. And let me just say this by way of introduction. We all are going to be warned a little bit about what is happening here in Thyratira.
So the church age in which many believe that this is representing would be from on the calendar would be 80,600 to about 80 1517.
Now, very significant because in 8600, if you look in church history, this was really when the. The Roman Catholic Church really emerged around AD 600. And then in 1517, that date is very significant because that was the time when Martin Luther, the great monk, when he reformed his way out of the Roman Catholic Church and he had 95 problems with what the Roman Catholic doctrine was teaching. And so he took these 95 problems, we call it the 95 thesis, and he nailed it to the Wittenberg Castle Church. And so we would know that on the timeline of church history.
And the church at Thiratira, they say, represents this time period from the emerging Roman Catholic Church to 1517 when the Protestant Reformation happened and Martin Luther kind of broke away. His main problem with the Roman Catholic Church was that they had complicated the gospel. By adding certain works and rituals. To the gospel.
So, if you read through some of his reforms, you will find time and time again that he is rebuking the Roman Catholic Church for the different things that they are adding to the gospel. And it's like I say every time that Jesus. Plus nothing equals everything, okay? But Jesus plus anything. ruins everything.
Okay, you can't add anything to the gospel. You see, the gospel is very simply by grace alone. through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. And what was happening there in this church age that you will see that Jesus addresses directly to the church at Thyratira was really allowing idolatry to infiltrate itself into. Into the church.
And you know this: that whenever you add any human ritual. Or work or add anything to the gospel, you really corrupt. The gospel. When you add things to it, because it is really, like I said, it's by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And what was happening was the Roman Catholic Church was introducing a bunch of different things in this time period that was not pleasing to Christ at all.
I mean, some things like this. I'll just give you a few of them. From AD 600 to AD 1517, here's a few things that the Roman Catholic Church instituted. And by the way, let me say this. I don't know what your religious background is.
If you were Catholic, I want you to know that I'm not at all being critical to you. I'm just pointing out a few things here tonight. I've never been to a Catholic church. I've grown up in a Baptist church my entire life.
So much of what I know from a Catholic church has been studied and read. But these things are true. And if you do have a Catholic upbringing, you're going to actually understand what I'm talking about tonight as much as anybody else in the room. During this time period, here's a few things that happened. Shortly after AD 600, Boniface III was given the universal title of Pope over all of the Catholic churches.
And Martin Luther had a problem with that because, you know, we would know this, that there's only one mediator between God and man, and it's not a Pope. Jesus. And we have to understand that. And so they instituted the Pope of Raw Catholic Church. Another thing that was instituted after during this time period was the doctrine, truth this is true, the doctrine of kissing the Pope's foot.
out of respect and admiration. And you see the worship of this individual. You also see the use of holy water was instituted in 850 AD, as well as praying with rosary beads and things like that. Also, shortly before Martin Luther completely rejected the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, they instituted what we would know today as the doctrine of transubstantiation.
Now, you might not know what that is, and you're probably like, man, that's a really big word. I didn't come here for that tonight. Very quickly, here's what I'll tell you: the Roman Catholics believe this: that when they take the elements of communion, that they would believe that as you're taking the bread and you're drinking of the cup, That as you take that into your system, that it actually becomes the actual body and blood of Jesus in your body. And that's what the Roman Catholic Church believes. And during this time period, this was the time that all of these things were being instituted, which is why Martin Luther in 1517 broke away from the Catholic Church.
But this is the time period that Thyratira is supposedly representing on the church calendar.
Now, so what you see in the Roman Catholic Church is really this. Is that there are tons of idols? Statues Icons And rituals that are represented in the Roman Catholic Church.
Now, I will tell you this, because if you're like me, you're wondering, can anybody be saved in the Roman Catholic Church? I'll tell you this. There's probably some in the Catholic movement that believe in Jesus and grace by faith or through faith in Christ and believe in Jesus. And we're probably going to be worshiping with some of them in heaven. I want you to understand that.
I think that's true of every denomination. And so I don't want you to think that when we get to heaven, it's only going to be independent Baptist people there, okay?
Some of you are going to be blown away. You're going to think your neighbor that you never thought because they went to a different denomination would ever make it to heaven, and they're going to be there with you.
So I want you to understand that.
So I'm not trying to throw any shade or criticism, but I'm pointing out a few things that you can see in this movement that Thyratira is warned about here. The only reference to Thyatira that we have really in scripture outside of Revelation was in Acts 16. And there's a story about Lydia. You remember Lydia? And Lydia was in the business of selling.
Clothing and materials made of purple, which is really one of the things Thyratira was known for. And she was selling all this, and she ends up getting saved. And it says she was saved and baptized, as well as her entire household. But that is really about the extent of what we know in the scripture about Thyratira.
So that gives you a little bit of background.
So now I want to kind of work through this letter and what Jesus has to say to the church, but it'll help you understand what I just said. You'll see this in the words of what Christ has to say to the church at Thyratira.
So, first, I want you to see Jesus' title to the church at Thyratira.
So, He's given a title to every letter to every church. And what you see here is His title is this: it's found in verse number 18: The Son of God. who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire. And his feet are like fine Brass. are like fine brass.
A couple of interesting things. This is the only time in the book of Revelation the Son of God is used, that phrase. He is clearly introducing himself, Christ, as the righteous Judge. His eyes as flaming fire, or with flames of fire, he is clearly upset about something. And he is about to talk about the criticism that he has with the church at Thyratira.
But you can see here, right off the jump, that he is coming and recognizing and introducing himself as the righteous judge over all things. When you see brass, and it says that his feet are like brass, brass in scripture is a sign of strength, it's a sign of judgment, and it is a sign of power. And so he is coming as the righteous judge. Yes, Christ loves all, and yes, Christ died for all, but he is also going to judge all. And we have to understand that: that he is a righteous judge.
And so that's his title. The second thing I want you to see here in the letter is the affirmation to the church at Thyratira. The affirmation.
So he gives something that he wants to commend the church at Thiratira with. And here's what's wild: they're doing really well.
So he's going to give them a criticism here in a moment that's pretty direct, but they're doing pretty well. In fact, Jesus gives them five things, and they'll be on your notes, and they're right here out of Scripture. Five things in verse 19 that he is commending them for, okay?
So, what you see here is that he commends them for their works. He commends them for their Their charity. And by the way, they're the only church out of the seven churches that was affirmed and commended for their love. And so he commends them for their charity, their service. Their faith.
and their patience. You see that right out of verse number 19. He lists these things, and he mentions even this, that the last is more than the first. And so what you find here is that this church is doing well. They served.
They loved. They endured. They were faithful. The majority of them, they were making a difference, if you would, and serving people. I mean, the word service here in verse number 19 is actually from the same Greek word where we would get the...
word deacon.
So when you think about deacons, their main objective from the book of Acts when deacons were instituted, deacons are there to serve. That's their main objective, okay? That's their main responsibility is to serve in the local church. I'm grateful that our deacons do that. I'm grateful that we have deacons who do serve and give their life to this ministry here and to the mission of the local church.
But that is the primary responsibility of deacons. And the word service mentioned here is the same where we get the Greek word deacon. And so it's interesting where you see the correlation there. They did serve, they loved, they endured, and they had faith. And they had they had love, but There was a criticism, which brings us to number three: the criticism to the church at Tyrum.
And here's what I will tell you: that I'm going to kind of summarize this because you see it in verses 20 through 25. And there's a lot of material here.
I'm going to summarize it, though. Here's what the main criticism that Christ had with the church at Thyratira was this: Thyatira was tolerant. of sin. They were tolerant. of sin.
Look at what it says in verse number. Number 20.
So Christ just built the church up, right? And now in verse 20, it's kind of like a teaching moment, okay? It's kind of like that moment when you have to have a hard conversation and you build somebody up, and then it's like, okay, here's the way we can improve. Here's the way that we can.
Well, that's kind of what Jesus does here with the church at Tyratirus.
So he says in verse 20, notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee. Because thou sufferest that woman, Jezebel. which calleth herself a prophetess To teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed. unto idols.
Now If you do some reading and study about this passage of scripture, you are going to see that, believe it or not, there's a lot of commentators and theologians that actually disagree just a bit on if Christ is actually talking about an actual woman there in the church at Thyratira or if he is referencing the idea of idolatry and using the name Jezebel as an Old Testament type because that is what she was in the book of 1 Kings.
Now, there's good people on both sides of that argument. Here's where I'll tell you I land. I think he's talking legitimately about somebody in the church at Thyratirah. You can kind of see that a little bit in how it's said there. And so, but that's beside the point because I actually think that both of those arguments are true in some ways because he's going to address the idea of idolatry and he's also going to talk specifically.
Specifically about Jezebel.
So, a couple things about Jezebel, what we know about her, and the likening of in 1 Kings 16.
So we were introduced to her in 1 Kings 16. If you're in my Bible fellowship class, we did some talk about her. It was about a year ago when we did our series through the kings of Israel and Judah. But in 1 Kings 16, really, the seventh king of Israel, probably the worst king that they ever had, was King Ahab. You would know that name.
I use evil. He was wicked. And he did not obey the things of God, and he did not walk in the things of God. And one of the worst things that he did was he married the woman Jezebel in 1 Kings chapter number 16. And Jezebel was just as wicked as As he was.
She was a pagan. Idolatrous woman. She was from a place, not a Jew, she wasn't an Israelite. And so he married her, and God had strictly forbidden Israelites to marry those of pagan nations, the ones who didn't worship the one true God of Israel. And so, I mean, not only that, I mean, if you look throughout Jezebel's history, Jezebel, we don't know a whole lot about him, but Jezebel's dad is mentioned in 1 Kings 16.
His name is Ithbael. And if you look up what that name means in Hebrew, the name literally means with Baal. That's the home that Jezebel grew up in. From the very beginning, that's her influence as a child as she grew up with somebody who worshipped Baal. And so, naturally, as she watched her parents raise her, she was influenced by the same pagan, idolatrous.
Life. In fact, if you follow her story in 2 Kings, you will actually see that she was one that practiced idolatry as well as. as witchcraft. And so this is who Ahab marries. And here in Revelation chapter number two, Jesus is calling out the church at Thiratira because they tolerated.
And allowed Jezebel. To kind of Move throughout The church at Tharatara. You see, what was happening here, whether you want to debate or not, if Jezebel was an actual person. Here's what I'll tell you. They were clearly, by Jesus' direct rebuke and criticism to the church at Thyratira, they were clearly involved as a church with allowing pagan culture.
And idolatry to infiltrate itself into the church. And here's the sad part: is that the church at Thyratira, as it came in, They tolerated it. They tolerated it.
Now, he did commend them that many of them were faithful and they served, but they tolerated this pagan. Culture. By the way, going back to some of the church history stuff that we looked at earlier. I don't think it's a coincidence that he's talking directly and rebuking this idea of allowing idolatry and allowing witchcraft and warning the church about tolerating that in the local church. I don't think it's a coincidence that this time in the church is compared to the time in the church where the Roman Catholic Church emerged, like I talked about earlier.
Because the Roman Catholic Church is filled with those things that I mentioned earlier, rituals. Icons and different rituals that you would add. In your Christian experience. to be accepted by God. And so there is a likening to both of those things.
And so we have to remember this, and it's what I said earlier, but it's on your notes here tonight: is this, and this was the main problem with Thy Retire. As they tolerated sin, Jesus was reminding them of this. And this is what you have to understand because you might think, wow, we're doing really good because we don't allow idolatry in the form of rituals. We don't allow idolatry in the form of idols and what we would see as idols, like statues and figures. And we must be doing really good.
But here's what I'll tell you: this: a lot of different things can become idolatry, even in a good Baptist church. Let me just be honest with you. Your tradition can become idolatrous. If you're not careful. I'm not saying it is.
But what I'm telling you is this: is that if you associate your tradition. Of maybe how you think church should be, or whatever. If you associate tradition with the gospel, then you are slowly starting to lend yourself to the problem of what the church at Thyratyra was doing. Because what they were doing was they were adding things. To the gospel and what they believed about the gospel.
And what we have to understand is this: salvation. It's by grace on your notes. It's by grace alone. Through faith alone, in Jesus alone. You don't add anything to it.
You don't need to add anything to that.
Now, our church can have a certain style about it, and that's fine. But when you associate your style with the gospel and you add it as a necessary thing, that becomes our idolatry. And we have to be very careful. And by the way, you can think about idolatry in a lot of different ways. It can be tradition.
It can be people. It can be leaders. I'll tell you this: as a pastor, I always follow stuff like this all the time with pastoral leadership. And here's what I'll tell you: there's a lot of churches out there that idolize their pastors. And you can bring idolatrous things.
Into churches in a lot of different forms. It doesn't have to just be. A statue sitting somewhere. Can be in a lot of different ways. And so there's a warning about this that we need to take to heart.
But in verses 21 through 23, we see what happens. Jesus, and I love this because verse 21 is so good. Jesus says, and I gave her space to repent of her fornication. I gave her space to repent. And by the way, he gives us space to repent.
He gives us space to repent. And he gives her space to repent, but she repented not. And because of her unrepentant spirit and her unrepentant heart, what you see here is that because she did not repent, she is going to have to live through the great tribulation. That is going to be the judgment that Jezebel and those that bring idolatrous things into their belief about the gospel, they will suffer the great tribulation. Together, but he gives us an opportunity to repent.
And you see that really through verse number 20, really through 25. But I want you to see here that there is still, even though he mentions some things that he commends them for, five things, and then he mentions the criticism, but he also, like he does with every church, there is a reward to those that overcome. To those that endure. There is a reward. If you're still with me, can you say amen tonight?
Okay. And so I get it. When you get so deep into talking about things like Jezebel, we can space out a little bit. I hope you're not considering naming your kid that. It's not a good name to think about.
And so don't scratch that one off because it is not a good thing, okay? And so, but there is a reward, and this is where it gets good. And so there's a warning, and that's good. We need warnings. We need guardrails.
We need things in life, okay, like that. But there is a reward. And to those that overcome, to those who stay the course, to those who continue to live for Christ, there is a reward to those who overcome. And the reward. is twofold.
The reward is twofold. First, let me read this again. I'll read it for you. It says this in verse 26. And he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations.
And he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers, even as I received of my father. And I will give him the morning star. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto. Unto the churches.
So there's two things that he mentions as a reward to those that overcome. First is this: overcomers will be given power over the nations. Overcomers will be given power. Ezun Over the nation. 2 Timothy talks about this, and you can kind of see that.
And what it says in 2 Timothy is. Is this? You would know the passage. It says, I can't remember the chapter and verse, but it says: those who die with Christ will also live with Christ. And then it says, those who endure with Christ will reign with Christ, right?
And so he mentions that. And there's this idea in scripture about when the millennial reign happens.
Okay, listen, I told you, Christ could come back at any moment. All right. If you have not accepted Jesus now as your moment, he says when he talks, I was talking about this with our class, and this is true, and maybe somebody needs to hear this. In 2 Peter 3, Peter is writing to the church, and he's talking about the second coming. He's talking about when Christ comes back.
And there's a verse in there that we all know very well, but sometimes we forget contextually. When he's talking about when Christ comes back, he says that the Lord is not slack concerning his promise. That promise is when he will return to get us or whatever. And here's the point: he says, as some men count slackness, but as long suffering, why? Because he's not willing that any should perish.
Perhaps the reason Christ hasn't come back is he's waiting on you to get right with God. And let me just say this: as your pastor, please get right with God so he'd come back and get us, okay? And so that's what he's saying here. But the overcomers will be given power over the nations. You see this theme that in the millennial reign of Christ, his 1000-year reign.
that the saints We'll rule with Christ.
Now I'm going to be honest with you. I don't fully understand what that will be like. I've dwelt on this and tried to dream and meditate a bit, but I truly think that our minds and hearts are so filled with this earth. And with this flesh, that we cannot fully comprehend what this will look like. Because when we think of rain.
We enroll. We think Leadership. We think hierarchy. And I'll just tell you this: I don't think that that's exactly what it's going to look like, but I'll be the first to admit, I don't fully understand. But what he says here is that overcomers.
Will be given power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of a potter shall they be of broken to shivers, even as I received of my father. In fact, in Revelation chapter number 20, verse number 4, I think it's up on the screen, Revelation 20, verse 4. Yes. And it says he gets another vision, and he says, And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them. And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands.
And they lived and reigned. With Christ a thousand years.
So, one day, we don't know exactly how this is going to look, and it's futuristic. And so, it's something that we can kind of dream about and look forward to. But let me tell you this: to those that overcome, to those who have repented, unlike Jezebel and those who bring idolatry into the local church, here's what I'll tell you: there's coming a day where you will reign with Christ and you will be given power over the nations. Not exactly sure what it looks like, but that's worth meditating and dreaming about. The second thing that he says here is this, is that not only overcomers will be ruling or given power over the nations, but secondly, what he says here is this, overcomers will be given the morning star.
He says it in verse 28, and I will give him. The morning Star.
Now What's interesting about this, that's one of the reasons I wanted Bob to sing The Lily of the Valley. He's the lily of the valley, the bright and morning star. And what I want you to understand is if you look throughout scripture in Revelation chapter 22, verse 16. Jesus actually calls himself this. He says, I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches.
I am the root and the offspring of David and the bright and morning star. And here, what Jesus is promising to those that overcome is that we will be given the morning. Star. It's almost as if Jesus is promising us the ultimate. Treasure.
and the ultimate prize. It's himself.
So, what you have to understand here, those that overcome, those who endure, those who place their faith in Jesus alone. And what he did for them, and don't add things to it like people like Jezebel and the idolatrous people. He says, Those that overcome what they are going to be given is the most prized possession of anything. The most prized possession is Jesus himself because he is the bright and morning star. And what we are going to be given is him.
In fact, we looked at this in our series through the minor prophets. If you remember this, this is recent because it was like the last week of the minor prophets. We were finishing up our series in the Old Testament through Malachi. And in Malachi chapter 4, he talks about when Jesus is coming back. And he says something very significant that I think is somewhat what he's talking about is this, in a way, is this.
He said that one day the Son of righteousness.
Son, S U N, the Son of righteousness would come, and that was the name of Jesus. And one day the Son of righteousness would come, and he would have healing in his wings. And what I want you to understand is this: is that here, those that overcome. Those that overcome will be given. The bright and morning star, forever to be in fellowship and one with Jesus, and forever to be with him, to rule and to reign right there along the one that gave us life.
And that's what we are promised if we but endure. And in Malachi chapter number four, when he says that the Son of righteousness will arise with healing in his wings. He talks about that the Son of righteousness is going to come and he's either going to destroy. Or he's going to refine. He's going to, you know, destroy all things through a fire.
Or he's going to disfine. You could say it this way: that he's either going to judge. Or he's gonna heal. And here's what I want you to understand, church, and this is where we need to land the plane. is this.
is that What he comes to do for you. On that day. would be dependent upon what you have done with him now. When Jesus comes back and he arises with healing in his wings, what he's saying, Malachi is prophesying about this, is this, the bright and morning star, that when he comes, He's going to come to judge. I mean, he just said this here: that his eyes are like fire, and his feet are like brass.
He is the righteous judge. And when he comes back, here's what I want you to know: he's either going to judge. Or he's going to heal. He's either going to destroy or he's going to refine. And what happens to you in that moment, whichever side you fall on, what happens to you in that moment is dependent upon what you do with him in this moment.
What we do with him in this life. That's why. Jesus says Repent. Repent. That's why when Jesus came onto the scene, his very first sermon was this: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
You see, the reason why Jesus says that is because one day he's going to come as the righteous judge. And he's going to destroy or he's going to refine. And depending on whether we have repented, like here, he warns the church that there were people within the church who did not repent. They were adding things to their faith. They were adding traditions.
They were adding rituals. They were adding idolatrous practices like Jezebel. And he gave them space to repent, but they repented not. And what he's saying is that one day he's going to arise and he's going to provide healing for those that overcome and he's going to provide judgment to those who refuse to repent. The bright and morning star is coming back.
The returning king is coming soon. Let it be today. Wouldn't that be amazing?
So until then, you know what you need to be doing? Looking up. Looking up, because at any moment the trumpet could sound and Christ could call us up to forever be with him. I hope it's today, right? I hope he comes back tonight.
But let me tell you this: until he does, we should look up and we must be sharing the good news of the gospel with everyone around us. And shame on us for the times that we refuse to do that, or we get scared to do that, or we feel ignorant to do that, because we have the hope of Jesus. We have the Son of righteousness, we have the bright and morning star promised to us. We have the answer. We have the hope.
Let us share it with other people and let us look up for the returning king is coming.
