The Beloved Disciple

by Beth Moore

  · ". . . Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied" (Acts 21:8-9).

  The New Testament undeniably records the viability of a woman hav­ing the God-given gift of prophecy, or what we might generalize as "speak­ing forth." Jezebel had no such God-given gift. She wasn't called. She was controlling! She wasn't wisely authoritative. She was bossy! Oh, that none of us-male or female-would confuse the two!

  Certainly God calls women into places of leadership, but in the spirit of 1 Corinthians 11:5, I believe our heads must be covered by higher authority. I cannot express how strongly I feel about this issue. As women, we enjoy a wonderful umbrella of protection as the biblical proverbial buck stops with the men of our households and churches. If God calls a woman to assume a leadership role, I believe with all my heart she is only safe and operating in God's authentic anointing under that umbrella!

  Given my past and my lack of credentials, I will never understand the sovereignty of God to appoint me to an area of leadership. At the same time, I know what He has called me to do for this season, and I'd be in direct disobedience to God if I let someone's disapproval dissuade me. I cannot describe, however, the terror that shoots through me over finding myself in an area of leadership. How anyone can have an intimate rela­tionship with God and be arrogant and fearless in a position of authority is beyond me.

  James 3:1 warns, "Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly." Why would anyone ask for stricter judgment?

  Jezebel was asking for it whether or not she knew it. Please don't miss that Jezebel's most serious infraction was not her sin but her unwillingness to repent! Lydia stands in stark contrast to Jezebel as a woman of success. She was a worshiper of God-not of herself or position. She opened her heart to Paul's message rather than pull rank on him. Both professionally and spiritually, the tone of Scripture suggests she was a servant leader.

  Now also notice another difference.

  2. Jezebel abused her feminine gift of influence. "By her teaching she mis­leads my servants" (v. 20). I am convinced women have a unique God­-given gift of influence. I am married to a very strong man. He no doubt wears the cowboy boots in our family. But, if I used my feminine wiles just right (or just wrong), I fear I could talk him into almost anything. I have to be very careful because he loves me and wants to please me. You see, in some ways I am his weakness.

  Do you understand what I mean? Many accounts in Scripture attest to the power of a woman's influence. Eve and Sarai represent some biblical blights, but, thankfully, we can find more scriptural examples of positive womanly influence than negative. Lydia is certainly one of them. She influ­enced her whole household to follow Christ.

  Then note another difference between the two women from Thyatira.

  3. Jezebel misused her sexuality (v. 21). Sisters, I'm not sure our culture has taught us to use anything more powerfully than our sexuality. Don't think for a moment that seducing someone into fornication is the only way a woman can use her sexuality to manipulate. We can be completely clothed and in broad, public daylight and still misuse our sexuality.

  I might have a sister in Christ who is horrified right this minute by our discussion of this tawdry topic. True, she may never have dreamed of using her sexuality seductively or manipulatively. Then again, this same woman may wield it like a massive weapon in her marriage.

  Sexuality was given by God as a gift. Not a tool. Just because we're mar­ried doesn't mean we don't horrifically misuse our sexuality to get what we want. Routine withholding is just one example. Recently, my precious first­born and I had a very intimate talk. I wasn't naive enough to think she didn't know the facts of life, but I wanted to make sure she knew the eti­quette of the godly marriage bed and the misuse of sexuality as a weapon. We were both a bit uncomfortable but loved each other even more and laughed all the harder in the wake of our talk. Perhaps your mother had a different kind of talk with you. Or none at all. I'm still waiting for my mother to have "the talk" with me. Sweet sister, I'm not your mother, but I am honored to be your friend. God created us to be women complete with all our gifts, contributions, and influences. But let's be women well.

  Part 9

  FROM A

  THRONE'S-EYE VIEW;

  Second only to the sense of Christ's presence in my life, I crave His voice. I want to hear Him speak more than I want my next breath. Christ's words are life to me even when they must hit hard to plunge to the depths He desires. As we continue our study of Christ's messages to the seven churches, we stand to learn as much from the rebukes as the commendations. Christ meant for His church to be a blaz­ing torch in the blackness of a desperate world. When He uncovers our weaknesses, His motivation is always to uncover the light He has placed within us. After we com­plete the journey through the seven churches, we'll conclude with an earthly glimpse of a heavenly throne room followed by a Lamb worthy to open the sealed scroll. Let's ask God to help us discover hidden treasures in the mines of Revelation.

  Chapter 41

  TO THE CHURCH

  IN SARDIS

  Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. (Revelation 3:2)

  With the winds of Thyatira at our backs, let's set our sights about thirty miles southeast toward the ancient city of Sardis. As we travel together, I wonder if you are as sobered as I am by Christ's meticulous attention to all who gather in His name. We, the people of His churches, carry the rep­utation of Christ in our cities like those holding banners in a town parade. What do our banners say about Him? Christ isn't looking for perfect churches because He knows they are comprised of imperfect people. He is looking for churches that glorify God and lift up Christ by correctly esti­mating their worth through worship, teaching truth, and living love.

  Like you, I do not attend a flawless church. In the wake of difficult times caused by the departure of key personnel, I've watched her develop a strangely purer kind of beauty. A beauty that comes from desperation. With the loss of five ministers, we no longer had a person's name from which to draw our reputation. Days turned into months, and months turned into several years with no permanent replacements. We had to find out who we were as a church without a man's name. I believe we have. Our church stands for many things but none more strongly than missions. Though I fear we'd have some less noble graffiti scribbled elsewhere on our banner, I believe the banner of our church might read, "Take your faith to the streets and the nations."

  I would not encourage you to think critically of your church, but every member is wise to take stock of the reputation of Christ his or her church carries. If the church you attend and serve carried a banner representing Christ, what positive statement would it make? Such thoughts prepare us for our visit to ancient Sardis. Our passage is Revelation 3:1-6.

  Identification. "These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars" (v. 1).

  Commendation. Christ delivered no commendation to this church.

  Rebuke. Christ severely rebuked the church: "I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead" (v. 1).

  Exhortation. "Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you" (vv 2-3).

  Encouragement. "Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels" (vv 4-5).

  If we studied the seven churches of Asia Minor and seven hundred more in our cities today, we would quickly discover a disturbing fact. The personalities and mo
ral attitudes of any given city permeate its churches unless the church works to deliberately overcome. For instance, churches in wealthy areas with upper-crust attitudes will have to overcome mis­guided superiority to keep from portraying the same things. Why? Because the people who comprise churches are also products of their societies. Likewise, churches in cities of deeply ingrained prejudice will carry the same banner unless they deliberately risk being different. A church can be refreshingly dissimilar to its surrounding society only through deliberately renewing their minds.

  We might accurately say that the city surrounding the church of Sardis had nearly killed it. Christ had little to say in favor of this ancient church. In fact, I can think of few indictments more serious to a group of believers than these three words: "You are dead" (Rev. 3:1). Perhaps you'll be as interested as I was to learn that Sardis was best known for a necropolis called the "cemetery of the thousand hills" about seven miles from town. A city preoccupied with death, Sardis looked on a distant skyline of burial mounds. Can you imagine a city known for its cemetery?

  One thing I've learned about Christ through years of studying His life is that He is a master of words. His wordplays in Scripture are fascinating, and they are concentrated in His letter to the seven churches. The church in Sardis could not have missed the parallel Christ drew concerning their renowned necropolis when He confronted their deadness. He also said, "You have a reputation of being alive" (Rev. 3:1). The KJV and the NASB both use "name" rather than "reputation"; either is a good rendering of the Greek word onoma. One commentator suggested that Christ might have performed a wordplay concerning the name of the present bishop of Sardis. His name Zosimus or Zotikus is associated with zoe in Greek, meaning "life." Whether or not Christ implied the irony of the bishop's name, He was incensed over the church's deadness.

  I believe dead churches are one of the most confounding mysteries to the hosts of heaven. The ministering spirits that invisibly flood the atmos­phere must look on the church then back on the radiance of Jesus Christ and wonder how anything that carries His name can be dead. Above all things, Christ is life!

  I am convinced that few things mar the cause of Christ like lifeless churches. Before we all shout amen, let's keep in mind that lifeless churches are made up of lifeless Christians. Thankfully, Christ still raises the dead, but His serious warning was to wake up and respond without delay! Like an athlete who let his muscles atrophy before the end of his season, the church needed spiritual rehab-beginning by strengthening the little that remained.

  What invaded the church of Sardis with such deadness? The history of this ancient city suggests three permeating contributors:

  1. The people of Sardis were fixated on death rather than life. Where bur­ial mounds become idols, thoughts of death overtake thoughts of life. In a previous study I received a letter from a sister in Christ who was alarmed that I mentioned visiting the graveside of a friend. She was not unkind. She was simply surprised that anyone who believed so strongly in heaven would esteem meaningless remains by visiting a grave. Though I didn't agree with her philosophy, if I were more focused on my believing friend's death than her life, my sister would have a point.

  Some might ask, "Why would any of us be more fixated on death than life?" We don't have to idolize burial mounds like the Sardians to focus on death more than life. Worship in its simplest essence is attentiveness. One way we can focus on death more than life is to possess a life-inhibiting fear of it. I have known people who were so scared of death they could hardly live. You might say they were worshiping burial mounds much like the Sardians-whether or not they realized it. A chronic fear of death can inhibit a believer's entire life and ministry.

  My beloved grandmother was petrified of death. Perhaps she had good reason after losing three children and a husband. Having been greatly affected, my mother also had a troubling fear of death. I witnessed the adverse effects of such fears on both their lives and determined I did not want to follow suit. I have had to be very deliberate about not allowing the attitudes of my surroundings to permeate my belief system.

  2. The people of Sardis relied on their past achievements. Commentator William M. Ramsay wrote, "No city of Asia at that time showed such a melancholy contrast between past splendor and present decay as Sardis." Sardis was like a leading lady in a Greek tragedy who waltzed around town in riches turned to rags thinking everyone still saw her as she was thirty years ago. In essence, Christ wrote the church of Sardis to hand this self-­deceived woman a mirror-just like He's handed one to me a time or ten. Christ does not hand someone a mirror to destroy, however. He hands her the mirror to wake her up!

  Last year I was invited to attend some special homecoming festivities at my college alma mater. I greatly enjoyed renewing friendships and acquaintances. I was mystified and somewhat amused, if the truth be told, as I watched other people "time warp." I saw people with a death grip on the past, trying to use the same smooth lines that didn't work twenty-five years ago. Some even attempted to comb the few hairs they had left the same old way. May I simply say the 70s weren't a great time for hair. If time warping weren't so pitiful, it would be hilarious. Sardis was warped by time. She lived off her past fame, and the results were tragic. Unfortunately, the church within its walls followed suit.

  I have the privilege of knowing a number of people who stand in res­olute contrast to the time warp of Sardis and my old university. They held startling achievements in their pasts, but you'd never know it unless some­one else told you. They are much too busy being who they are in their pre­sent. My mentor, Marge Caldwell, is one of those. She is too busy contributing in her eighties to rest on the laurels of who she was in her fifties. How I praise God for her! She reminds me of Paul's life philosophy, "Forgetting what is behind [past achievements] and straining toward what is ahead [serving Christ], I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:13-14).

  3. The people of Sardis likely interpreted rejection as a deathblow. Though Sardis housed an incomplete temple ofArtemis, the city lost its bid to build a temple to Caesar in A.D. 26. Smyrna won the bid instead. Though the church of Sardis had nothing but disdain for pagan practices and temples, my hypothesis is that the people of the church unknowingly wore the same cloak of dejected identity as their surroundings. After all, they, too, were pagans until the gospel reached their gates-most likely under the preach­ing of the apostle Paul. I'd like to further hypothesize that the people of Sardis knew they needed a fresh shot of life and vitality when they bid Rome for the new temple. When they were rejected in favor of a rival city, I wonder if they took on an attitude all too common after rejection: Why should we even try? Who cares anymore? Unless good reason exists to respond otherwise, rejection can cause people to lose heart faster than almost anything else.

  By any chance, have you or someone you love interpreted rejection as a deathblow? We can all too easily slip into a pattern of considering our­selves worthless due to rejection.

  Perhaps the following commentary best sums up the deadness of Sardis at the time of John's vision: "Sardis was a city of peace. Not the peace won through battle, but the peace of a man whose dreams are dead and whose mind is asleep. The peace of lethargy and evasion." I find that statement stunning not because it speaks so perfectly to an ancient city's decay but because it speaks to many of us today. What has happened in our lives to take the wind out of our sails? To cause us to drop arms and cease defend­ing ourselves against our enemy? To leave works incomplete? Have we grown lethargic? What would we rather evade than face? If Christ has given us life, who has the right to impose deadness upon us with their rejection?

  Christ's identity to the church in Sardis is also the key to their resur­gence. Christ is the one who holds the "seven spirits of God" or the seven­fold perfect Holy Spirit. Like the day of Pentecost, life infiltrates our churches when God pours out His lavish Holy Spirit. Spirit-flooded churches are built one way: through Spirit-flooded peop
le.

  Chapter 42

  TO THE CHURCH IN

  PHILADELPHIA

  I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. (Revelation 3:8)

  My spiritual journal is running over with lessons learned the hard way from our travels to Pergamum, Thyatira, and Sardis, but I could use a breather, couldn't you? I think our next destination will provide one. Our travel time is briefer too. We only have about twenty-eight miles to travel southeast of Sardis to find Philadelphia, a high plateau city. About that breather: I guess I should mention that the city was built on a dangerous volcanic area. Barring an eruption, our visit should be refreshing.

  Very few ruins are visible today because the modern Alasehir perches on top of them. Interestingly, the most prominent ruin is that of an ancient church dedicated to John.' What ruins cannot tell us, the Word of God can. We find the message to Philadelphia in Revelation 3:7-13. It follows the pattern we have seen before.

  Identification. "These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open" (v. 7).

  Commendation. "I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name" (v. 8).

  Rebuke. Christ delivered no rebuke to this faithful church.

  Exhortation. "I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars-I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you. Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth" (vv 9-10).