Dartmouth Bible Notes Notes from the Pulpit Ministry of Dartmouth Bible Church Series: Dealing With Discouragement Lesson 9 Scripture: Revelation 2:12-17 Speaker: Rev. Neil C. Damgaard, Th.M., D.Min. Date: September 27 th, 2015 Only Part of the Story Revelation 2:12-17 And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: The words of him who has the sharp two- edged sword. I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it. Introduction In Revelation 2 and 3 we have seven letters from Jesus Christ, Himself, to seven specific churches in what is now western Turkey and what, two thousand years ago, was called Asia. These are seven direct communications from Jesus to the leadership of those seven churches. Don t think of them as seven church buildings. There were no church buildings yet, in A.D. 95 and would not be for at least two hundred more years. The seven churches were connected home-fellowships in each of the seven ancient cities mentioned (Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia--not the one in Pennsylvania--and Laodicea.) They are amazing and remarkable little letters. Six of them include a mixture of commendation and rebuke; only the church at ancient Smyrna receives a pure commendation with no But I have a few things against you clause. The other six ancient assemblies had problems with their character. Jesus was not slow to commend them for the positives. But He also pointed out that they were contradictions in some respects for their compromise with evil. This illustrates the discouragement I want to look at today: getting only part of the story. A ministry, a church, a pastor, a preacher, a writer emphasizes one aspect of truth, but gives only PART of the full story and thus, discourages people.
In the current series Longmire, there is a young attorney who is hired by a high-power law firm for a hefty salary. At first she is delighted and then as she learns she must now involve herself with shady casino dealings, she objects and when she quits, she is frighteningly threatened and intimidated by the partner who hired her. She had only been told HALF the story. If I told people who had just been married, it is going to be a challenge to be married with all kinds of struggles, and did NOT tell them the many blessings of being married I would be a discouragement. If I shared with you, that if you allow yourself to get close to someone, you are going to suffer disappointments along the way, and perhaps frustration as well as having to learn how to communicate with that person which will, in itself, make you tired and that is all I told you, with no mention of the joy of making a new friend, it would be a discouragement because I am only giving you half the story. If I suggested to you that if you vote in the elections that are upcoming, from a Christian perspective, you are probably going to be disappointed and feel very alone because what candidate in ANY election really and genuinely believes about things as you do, and I did NOT say anything about the privilege that it is to live in this country, imperfect as it is, compared to many other places to live in the world, would that gloomy and dark perspective be an encouragement to you or a discouragement? We face discouragement as a regular part of life. Other people discourage us; the enemy discourages us; we discourage ourselves and sometimes things just happen maybe even random things, and those things get us down. I am seeking to address some of the forces that discourage us. Some of the things that bring us down are spiritual not all are though. We should guard against a spirituality, a view of living which reads spiritual meaning into every negative thing. I think that is sick. Sometimes we get discouraged for just normal, human reasons: illness, defeat, accidents and things like that. We do not need to see a demon behind every rock when any difficult challenge comes along. But there are spiritual events or realities that bring us down too. Today I wish to uncover four conditions that we sometimes deal with that, because they are only part of the story bring us down and discourage us. With any one of these four conditions we should expect to get discouraged. If we find ourselves living with all four, discouragement is a guarantee. The upside of this message, is simply to deny any of them to take root. If we see any one of these beginning, stomp on it. Crush it. Rub it out. Obliterate it. Refuse it. Rebuke it. Shout the name of Jesus over it. Perhaps the most subtle discouragements are the ones which include a half-truth. We hear something which sounds kind of right though it doesn t smell quite right either. There are examples of people teaching, putting forth half-truths all over the place in the Bible, in both the O.T and the N.T. To the 2
Ephesian elders, Paul reminded them that he had not shrunk back from teaching them the whole counsel of God, in other words NOT half-truths but the whole package of truth and in many ways. (Acts 20: 20, 27). The four conditions we want to avoid, are not the sole domain of the Christian life or the church or the Christian family. They can take place and take root anywhere. They can take root in a school system, in a company, in a government agency, in a whole country. And since these are so subtle, I think the devil loves them. To counteract the discouragement which is guaranteed to spread, here are the four conditions we want to DETECT and work on denying are: 1. LAW WITH LITTLE GRACE For many people when they first come to real faith in Christ, they are intrigued, convicted and moved by a new and alive understanding of the law of God. For some new Christians, just the idea that there even IS a code by which to live, that God actually cares how we live, is a wonderful realization. It feels more secure, I think, to live in a lifestyle where there is a revealed will of God. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality (1 st Thessalonians 4:3) and many other verses. When we come to Christ by grace, then start getting used to living by the law it can mutate into a lifestyle where it is MOSTLY law and not much grace any more. The law is only half the story and many Christians get frustrated and even angry with the gradual realization that we cannot live by the law. It is only half the story to say and to teach and to model that we must live by rules. Yes that is so, and my heart is continually wanting to live by God s holy and good law. Three thousand years ago, David wrote, O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day. (Psalm 119:97) But we can only BEGIN to do that, and grow within ourselves gradually the desire and the insight to live by His law, when we have come to understand grace. The Christian life begins by grace. It is sustained by grace. It is fueled by the continual understanding and remembrance that God GAVE us His Son in the first place, because of His love, and gives us the chance to believe and trust in Him by grace, which we do not earn or deserve. We just receive it as a free gift! If we smell like rule-watchers to the world, we will gain little for the kingdom and we will attract few people. There s plenty of religions in the world where keeping rules is the heart of their faith. Ours is more like the song by Big Daddy Weave in 2012, Fields of Grace: There s a place that I love to run and play. There s a place that I sing new songs of praise. Dancing with my Father God in fields of grace 2. EVALUATION WITH LITTLE AFFIRMATION A second theme we need to beware of and stomp it out if it crops up is the tendency to value evaluation with little affirmation. This is the religion of the 3
Pharisees. We can get very down on the Pharisees without appreciating that they in fact, were one of the more theologically orthodox of the ancient Jewish groups. But their tendency to value keeping track of even the most miniscule and tiny infractions, the rules for which they had made up, is a grace-killer. I am not saying that we as Christians never analyze or hold each other accountable for sin and sinful drift in our lives. But without a heavy dose of affirmation for the GOOD things we see in each other, evaluation is counterproductive, and I would even say an evil half-practice of the truth. In none of the letters to the Seven Churches did Jesus rebuke them for affirming one another, recognizing giftedness, value to the body, effective outreach and spiritual growth. We can have too much silly slobbering over trivial accomplishments over and over. But we ought to be watching for true spiritual heroism and risk-taking which is driven by faith in Christ, and sacrifice. We affirm the things that the New Testament affirms and we follow Paul s example, for instance in 2 nd Cor. 8:1-5, where we read: We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. Here Paul AFFIRMS the sacrificial giving of the believers in Christ in ancient Macedonia. There are a great many examples of building people up by pointing out their good qualities, their value and good actions. This is motivating. This is how Jesus would relate to His own. 3. DUTY WITH LITTLE JOY Another mis-message we can fall prey to sending, is to talk about people OBEYING God, SERVING God, USING their gifts, MAKING THEMSELVES AVAILABLE, etc. just out of duty. I pointed out to someone this week that we are currently involved with, tracking and trying to pay attention to 403 adults in and around the ministry of this church. I was then asked, Why do we only average 179 adults on a Sunday then? We are in competition with many other things on Sunday mornings AND we don t hit people with duty-only as a motivation. If you are not hungry enough to be here every week, telling you that despite that you SHOULD be here every week is going to suck all the joy-oxygen out of the room. It is only half the story and I think it is a great discouragement to tell people that regardless of how much joy they feel, they should be here every week anyway. Now it is true, that duty can be a good thing. We depend on soldiers and firefighters and nurses and teachers to dutifully serve us, whether they feel joy or not. It isn t ONLY about joy and feeling good about what you do, but to dismiss joy and just expect the church or ANY ministry or service to run on duty is frankly, to miss the point of grace or to have forgotten it. 4
Our survey of interests and ministries that we are doing right now is NOT another way of getting you to feel guilty or become motivated by duty only. It is supposed to tap into the joy of serving and help you find good ways to plug in and help the ministry of Dartmouth Bible Church at the same time! Paul wrote to the Philippians (4:10-13) about joy, from their helping: I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. 4. DOING WITH LITTLE REST We can also buy into only half the story by doing, doing, doing and never resting. You will remember that this was the original intent of the Sabbath, for God s people to rest one day out of seven and to do it EVERY seven. It shouldn t deteriorate into being evaluated as to how well we do it, or into Law and no grace, or into duty only. God created the Sabbath for man, not the reverse (see Mark 2:27). When I first entered the ministry I was trained by a fellow who carefully took Mondays off from the ministry. He was just not around on Mondays. You couldn t find him. He took the need for refueling and a different pace which is how we rest quite seriously and I respected that. I am not so good at this one, and if I communicate to you that we should just go, go, go in order to build this ministry or feel good about ourselves or whatever other motivations might drive us, call me out for that. It is only part of the story that we should all be hard workers for the ministry of this church. We all need to rest and to do so often. It is only part of the story, and an unhealthy message, if all we do is drive one another till we drop. We want to beware of things that are discouragements and replace them with practices that build each other up: grace, affirmation, focusing on joy and enjoying rest from time to time. We need the full story! May your Christian life be filled with encouragement, and a sense of His good presence in your life. He is good. All the time! Be still for the presence of the Lord, the Holy One is here Come bow, before Him now, with reverence and fear In Him no sin is found, we stand on holy ground Be still for the presence of the Lord, the Holy One is here. 5