Dan Boone Sermon - 3 Days in the Life of a Leatherworker

We are in the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John again this morning, chapter 2, verses 18 to 29, the church at Thyatira. And the sermon this morning, "Three Days in the Life of a Leatherworker," day one. It's Friday morning, the last day of the week in the Thyatira business community. Tom has been reading the Scriptures early in the morning. He has been reading from portions of the Torah, and today he has read the Shema, the great call of the Jews that says, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our Lord is one, and we shall love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and strength." And the Jews within Thyatira First Church have encouraged him to make that a part of his worship, and he has read the Shema and he has thought about "The Lord our God is one" in the early morning hours of Friday on day 1 in 3 days in the life of a leather worker. He makes his way as the sun begins to break to his little shop. He is a leather worker. He's been in business there for 2 or 3 years, and his specialty is horse reins. He has a friend named Bill who is a metal worker, and Bill supplies the rings and the other metal parts that are a part of that, the bridle and all, and the thing that goes in the mouth. My mind— the bit. Thank you, Fenley. And he supplies all that, and Tom brings to it the leather work and provides that. Now, he also makes sandals and belts and things like that, but horse reins happen to be his specialty. He has something of a corner of the market on horse reins. The Leather Workers Guild has been very good to Tom, for when he began business 2 or 3 years ago, they decided that none of them would compete with him in this area and they would send all the business for horse reins to Tom. And they've been good about that, and his business has gone quite well. It's grown leaps and bounds by referrals from his brother— brothers in the Leather Workers Guild. Now he realizes that he is entering a new socioeconomic class, and where his own family was down in the lower classes, that he is beginning to accumulate wealth and things are going well for him in his life. And Tom and Mary are beginning to enjoy some of the privileges of the upper middle class. And they kind of like it. He has a pension plan now, and he also has a savings program for his kids who are soon going to be college students, who are going to attend SMU, Smyrna Mid-Asian University, and they're planning on going there, and he's saving up for it. Well, Friday goes well. It's a typical Friday, very busy day. Orders which were placed on Monday are ready by Friday., and folks come by the shop and it's pretty much a customer day and everything is ready and he gives them what they ordered and they pay him and it's a great payday kind of a day for Tom. Some of the members, his fellow friends at Thyatira First Church, drop in to see how things are going. They comment about how well the business goes these days and he says, "Yes, the Lord is really blessing my business and things are going quite well." Some of his friends from the Leather Workers Guild drop by and ask him, "Are you going to make the big football game tonight?" Tom says, "Oh, wouldn't miss it for anything. The Thyatiran Tigers are taking on the Pergamum Panthers for the territory championship tonight." The Leather Workers Guild, for which he is a member, is one of the key sponsors for the Thyatiran Tigers. Bought a big block of tickets on the 50-meter line, and they sit there as a big group together, and they cheer the Thyatiran Tigers on. Matter of fact, the Leather Workers Guild provides the footballs for the games, and they sew them and give them everything that they need. See you at the big game tonight. And Tom bids his friend farewell. That evening, Tom and his wife Mary go to the football game. The end of day 1. Mary goes, but Tom knows that she doesn't like to go. All the football games are okay, but it's just the fact that all those Guild brothers sit together, and there's a lot of beer drinking and reveling and rabble-rousing, and pretty soon guys are drunk, and the kind of language that goes on isn't the kind of language that Mary is comfortable with. Tom, really would rather not be there, but it's business. You know, it's business. These are the guild brothers. These are the ones that 2 or 3 years ago said to me, "We're going to give you the horse rein business and you can have everything. We'll send you all our business." And if it weren't for these brothers, well, he just probably wouldn't have made it in business in Thyatira as a leather worker. He should be there. The game is exciting. The Thyatiran Tigers pull out a 20-16 win with a touchdown in the closing seconds of the game. And most of the guild from that point heads to the bars, but Tom and Mary make lame excuses of it having been a long week and them being tired, and they head on home while all the brothers head to the bars. The last thing one of the brothers says to Tom is, "See you tomorrow night at the weekly guild meeting." And Tom responds, I'll be there. Day 2 in the life of a Thyatiran leather worker. Saturday is a laid-back day. Tom sleeps in. When he gets up, he has his honey-do list and begins to work down through that list. Gets mid-afternoon and he thinks, "I want to get away a little bit. It's been a busy week." So he gets out his favorite camel and goes for a ride with his son out in the country, and they go camel riding out there for a while together. When he gets back home, Mary says to him, "Tom, Jezebel called while you were out and wants you to return her call." And Tom says, "Sure, I'll be glad to do that." Jezebel is their Sunday school teacher, one of the finest Sunday school teachers that they've ever had. Matter of fact, this woman has a tremendous reputation as being able to discern things out of the text that no one else can see. She knows the deep, deep secrets of God. She has a keen mind. She has a charismatic personality, and under her leadership, the class has grown by leaps and bounds, and more and more people are just coming into the class every week. So he gives her a call and says, "Jesse," which he calls her for short, "this is Tom. Mary said you would call while I was out camel riding." "Tom, what can I do for you?" "Well, Tom, we're going to have 4 new couples in our Sunday school class tomorrow morning, and I thought it'd be good for you to welcome the class and welcome these visitors. You're an up-and-coming businessman here in the community, and for these new couples who happen to be a part of my wool workers' guild, for them to see an up-and-coming executive like you up in front of the class, I think it'd really encourage them. It'd be an impressive thing." "for them to see someone like you." Tom agrees, and so he consents to welcome the visitors. He hangs up and says, "Well, that ought to be good." His wife asks him, "Tom, what's the lesson about tomorrow?" Tom scratches his head for a moment and he says, "It's something about our making a stance for Christ out in the business community. Ought to be a good lesson." Mary says, "I wonder if the tension will come up in the Sunday school class that's been in the church recently. He says, "Well, you know, I don't know, Mary. There are those ultra-conservatives in the church that are all bothered by so many of our members which belong to the guilds, but I don't know. Jezebel will probably address that in a way that we can deal with it. She will see insights on that that no one else has." Well, we'll see. Says Mary. Saturday evening, Tom bids farewell to the family and attends the weekly meeting of the Thyatiran Leather Workers Guild. It is held at the Sardonian Temple each Saturday night, and Tom goes to the Sardonian Temple, shows his membership card. He's a card-carrying member of the Thyatiran Leather Workers Guild. After he shows his card, he goes over to where they store the hats, and he gets his hat, and he puts his hat on, and he goes on into the big banquet hall where it's all set up for the meeting. Over on the side is a big side of beef that has been barbecued all day long and prepared, and the aroma fills the room. You can hear the laughter and the revelry and the fun and excitement of all these guys getting together, and they're talking about how business has been going. They're talking about the quality of leather they're getting these days from Smyrna, and they're just rejoicing. In just a few moments, the president of the guild bangs his gavel, on the front table and says, "Let's come to order," and everyone finds their seat in the big banquet hall at the place where they will be eating. The president begins the ceremony by saying, "Let us honor the god Sardanus, who has prospered us in our business and given us health, wisdom, and success." Everyone stands and removes their guild hat, and Brother Samuel comes up and says, "May we pray a prayer of invocation?" and he begins to pray. We praise you, oh Sardanus, for your many kindnesses toward us. We dedicate ourselves to your service to our dying day. Keep our brotherhood strong, our family ties healthy, and our guild united. Bless the cattle slaughter this year, and may the leather be top grade. We honor you, and we offer this side of beef as a sacrifice that would be pleasing to you. And may you respond in a pleasing way to us out of this. And all the men resounded, "Amen." The meal begins with the cutting and serving of this side of beef, and the aroma fills the whole area. About this time, they bring out the big kegs of beer, and wine and beer begin to flow throughout the hall. And as it spreads its way into the stomachs and minds of men, you can tell that the laughter and the revelry and the party spirit increases with every 10-minute segment of time. After a little while, the meal is over. The men are pretty well sauced by this time, and the president gets up, and he says, "Fellas, the entertainment tonight is being provided by Murray's Leather Upholstery, and we all know that when Murray has the program, it's gonna be good." And about that time, the lights begin to dim, and two scantily clothed girls come out pushing a huge cake about 6 feet tall, that's on rollers, and everyone knows who's in the cake and what she will do when she comes out of the cake. Tom begins to think, "I've been looking for a good spot to slip out. This would probably be it while the lights are dim." And very quietly, he slips out the side door, leaves his hat there, no one notices, and as he moves on down the road toward his home, he hears in the background the revelry and the drunken voices the loudness and knows that they'll probably be there all night long partying and just having one great time. He gets home about midnight and quietly slips into bed beside Mary. In her sweet sleepy way, she says, "Good guild meeting tonight?" "It was okay," he responds evasively. Day 3. Bright and early the next morning, the family is on the way to Sunday school. Tom meets the new families and greets them. He welcomes them. He asks them how they happened to come, and they said, "Oh, Jezebel, she invited us. We're all in the same guild together, and she was telling us about the church and how it's growing and how things are going so well, and we just wanted to come." Jezebel stands after Tom has greeted the guests, and she says, "The lesson today is on standing for Christ in the midst of the business community." Jezebel always teaches a great lesson, and this topic should be particularly interesting in light of the tension in the church about the guilds. She begins by telling the class that there are 3 good reasons why it is permissible for Christian to belong to the guilds in town. The first reason, she says, are that these gods do not really exist anyway. We all know that they're fake. We all know that there is no such thing as Sardanus. We are enlightened Christians, and we know that to pray a little prayer and offer a little sacrifice to a god that really doesn't exist doesn't do anyone any harm, and our enlightenment makes it okay for us to do this. The second reason why it's okay for us to belong to and participate in these guilds is that what better way is there for us to witness to the keeping power of the Holy Spirit in someone's life? For us to go to these guild meetings and be surrounded by sexual immorality and drunken revelry and all that's going on, for us to be there in the midst of all that and to keep ourselves pure, to participate in it in body if we wish, but to know that it does not touch our mind or our spirit, but we can keep mind and spirit pure and clean even though the body might participate in that. What an awesome testimony to the keeping power of God and his Holy Spirit. And the third reason that it's okay, if those ultraconservatives in the church are right and we ought not be there and the devil is wrapped up in all that going on, we can be there as spies and we can infiltrate his ranks and we can learn the deep secrets about Satan and we can know how he operates "And by knowing what the enemy knows, we will be able to defeat him." 3 good points. Tom nudges Mary and says, "See, I told you it was okay. Isn't any big thing to it." Jezebel has a little afterthought that she wants to put into the lesson that morning, and she says, "And anyway," "My husband is the treasurer of the church, and I happen to know that those of us who work in the guilds are the ones who keep the doors of the church open. We pay most of the bills. The other folks work such low, menial jobs, and our Sunday school class is the one which makes most of the money, and if it weren't for us, this church wouldn't even be able to make it." And everyone says, "Amen." Class dismissed. Tom goes to Jesse and says, "Jesse, what a lesson. "You can't believe how I needed to hear that this morning. I've been struggling with this, you son, in my own heart, and to hear someone of your insight and your capability teach in this way is a real help to me." They move on into the sanctuary, and it's time for worship to begin. The pastor begins with a serious look on his face. He says, I have a letter here from Brother John. You know Brother John that until 2 weeks ago was serving time over on the island of Patmos. Ladies and gentlemen, in this letter Brother John tells me that he saw the risen Lord on the island of Patmos. The description of the risen Lord was awesome. I— I shook in awe as I read his letter. And he says that the risen Lord gave him a letter for our church, and I believe I ought to read the letter to you this morning. Now, there's been a tension within our church about this thing of belonging to the guilds, and you folks know where I've stood on this. And what I read to you this morning does not come from me, John says it comes from Jesus, and I think we ought to hear it. But I want to prepare you for what I'm about to read because in this letter Jesus speaks very sternly to one of our own teachers in our local church, and he says some things that, to be honest with you, are quite frightening, and he calls for repentance. Or else he will come and judge. And I don't want to minimize the struggle that many of you are facing in this issue. I realize we're talking about your jobs and your businesses and your careers, but I think it'd be wise for us to hear what John said that Jesus told him to write. Tom tightens his grip on Mary's hand as they sit and listen. To the pastor, read the letter from Brother John that Jesus gave to him. To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze: I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first. Nevertheless, I have this against you: you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess—one who speaks the words of God. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent, —of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely unless they repent of her ways. I will strike her children, her followers, her class members dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan's so-called deep secrets, I will not impose any other burden on you. Only hold on to what you have until I come. To him who overcomes, and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations. He will rule them with an iron scepter. He will dash them to pieces like pottery, just as I have received authority from my Father. I also will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. You could hear a pin drop in the sanctuary. There are tears in Mary's eyes as she looks at John. And John sits there, or Tom sits there, looking to the front with a blank stare on his face. His mind is reeling. It's economic suicide. It'd be chapter 13 for my business. It'd be social rejection in the business community. It would be a slap in the face to the guild brothers. It's a stupid businessman, and his mind reminds him of all those things. But the eyes of Jesus, that are in the letter, the blazing eyes of fire that search the heart and the mind and the attitude. He feels those eyes boring into his soul, and he realizes that he is naked and bare with his reasoning. In the presence of the risen Lord. And the direct reprimand, "Repent or I will bring sickness and death as a judgment upon you." This isn't a Jesus who said, "Let's do lunch and talk about it." He's left no room for discussion. He says, "Repent now or I will come in judgment." And then I do want to have a share in that great reign of Jesus when he comes and with those bronze feet crushes like pottery things like the worship of Sardanus. I do want to have a share in that day of the glory that comes from the bright and morning star. I want to be a part of that reign and rule. I want to be a part of his kingdom, but it's economic suicide, and they go home. Tom plays with his lunch on this third day in the life of a Thyatiran leather worker. Can't eat. That afternoon he says to Mary, "I think I'm going to take a long walk." And Tom takes a long walk with himself. And some of the questions that he's needed to ask for a long, long time, he asks in this long walk. Does Christianity, and in particular, does Jesus Christ have the right to dictate my career? Are there some jobs that a Christian just can't do? Do. Is my goal to be an upper middle class person who enjoys life an appropriate goal for a Christian to have, or have I missed the motive of living out a life in service to mankind for the glory of God? And Tom begins to cry on this walk as the piercing eyes of Jesus bore into his soul, and he asked himself the question, "Is my own enlightened liberalism nothing more than a proud sin in the eyes of Jesus Christ? Have I gathered my own reasoning to convince myself of business practices that I know are wrong, of ethical things that I know are wrong for the sake of making money and being accepted in the business community? Does Christianity— does my Christianity conform to my job, or does my job conform to my Christianity? Which shapes which? Which takes its cues from the other? Am I the kind of Christian that a businessman ought to be, or am I the kind of businessman who tries to be a little bit Christian in the midst of it? What is it in me, he asked himself, that makes Jezebel sound so rational and so reasonable? What is it in me that wants so much to agree with her? Where is this compromise in my spirit that longs to hear somebody say what I want to do so I can justify myself in doing it? Why is Jesus so stern about this? Why is it that he has— come down so hard on us in the church about identifying with him in costly ways. He knows, certainly his all-seeing eyes know that if I do this, my business will suffer. Tom sits with Mary late Sunday evening and says to her, "Honey, Tomorrow morning I'm going to send a letter of resignation to the Leather Workers Guild. I can no longer compromise my loyalty to Jesus Christ. I've not been clear about the issue until now. I really had learned to live with my own reasoning, but honestly, as I view myself, I've obeyed the commands of Jesus that were convenient. I've obeyed the ones that didn't cost me anything, and I've gotten fuzzy and apathetic in my witness, and I think I'm even a little proud of my enlightened position on what a Christian can do in the midst of the world. And honey, do you know what it is that has brought me to this point? Not your gentle nagging, even though you've been so kind to pray for me. And not the conservatives down at the church and not all the preachers' messages about what I ought to do and ought not to do, but it's those eyes of Jesus, those eyes that see through my rationale and through my enlightenment and through Jezebel's teaching and through my materialism and through my motives and see my heart. It's those eyes. It's those eyes. I can't escape them. And honey, this afternoon when I was walking, not only did he see me, but I saw him. And I looked into his eyes and I saw there such a mixture of disappointed love and righteous anger and helping mercy. And I repented. It won't be easy. The kids may not get everything we promised them, but my mind is made up. And Mary says, "Tom, I'm so glad that you've got ears." that hear what the Spirit says to the church. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Father, in this moment of our quiet meditation before a word that shakes, a word that shakes everything that is not kingdom-rooted, A word that shakes everything that is not rooted in the mind of Christ, a word that shakes everything that is not pleasing to the Spirit. Before this kind of word that the Spirit speaks to the church today, we pause. Even now we know that we are under the gaze of the eyes of Jesus Christ, those eyes that see past everything, every reason, every rationale, every enlightened explanation, those eyes that bore deeply into our hearts, those eyes that see and know what we work for, and what we're willing to do to make a buck and why we're willing to do it and our desires to be esteemed and liked and accepted by those whom we work with. You see us, Lord. Grant us for a meditating moment this morning Enough honesty that we would come into your presence and hear with obedient ears what the Spirit says to the church today. Grant us your grace as we listen in your presence in these moments, Lord.