I Know Your Lukewarmness

Sermon from November 8, 2009

Based on Revelation 3:14-22

The Church in Laodicea

We are drawing near the conclusion of our tour through the seven churches of the Revelation, all located in what is now western Turkey. Judy and I want to end our tour with a positive example, and so we are delaying our trip to the sixth church on the list, Philadelphia, until next week. So this week, we will be visiting the seventh church on the list, the church that gets the most negative report from Jesus, Laodicea.

Laodicea was one of three cities clustered together in the Lycus River Valley, the other two being Hierapolis and Colossae. Laodicea was at the junction of three major trade routes and was a center of mercantile banking. Agriculturally, it was famous for its black sheep and for the fine textiles produced from their wool. Laodicea was also the home of a famous medical school and was famous for ear ointment and eye salve, the latter of which had been known to save people from blindness. Laodicea was prosperous enough that, when a devastating earthquake struck in 60 A.D., it proudly declined help from the empire and rebuilt itself.

Laodicea had one major natural limitation. Whereas Hierapolis had hot springs famous for healing qualities and Colossae had a cold, clear, dependable stream for excellent drinking water, Laodicea lacked dependably good water. In the summer, the Lycus River tended to dry up. Then Laodicea had to depend on an aqueduct transporting hot springs water from some miles away. The water entered the aqueduct hot and clean, but reached Laodicea lukewarm and impure, tasting of algae, think pond scum. One historian said it was fit only to be an emetic.

What Jesus Said to the Church in Laodicea

3:14 “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation. 15 “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. 17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. 21 The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

The risen Jesus has one major concern about the Laodicean church, so major that he finds nothing good to say about them except that they still have time and opportunity to repent. The Laodicean church, like the city water, was neither healingly hot nor refreshingly cold, but stagnantly, sickeningly lukewarm. “I will spit you out of my mouth,” is a very mild translation of what Jesus actually said. “I will throw you up from my mouth,” would better convey the sense of the Greek word.

What about the Laodicean church would reduce the loving Lord and Savior to such disgust? Of what did their lukewarmness consist? Recent commentators are almost unanimous. Hot springs water and cold springs water are each useful as beverages when they are fresh from their source, but algae-filled, second-hand, lukewarm aqueduct water with high mineral content is useless except for inducing vomiting. Hierapolis and Colossae had pure water, straight from the source, reliably present as a continual means of healing and refreshment. Laodicea did not. Its water was second-hand, impure, foul-tasting, unreliably present. Jesus is saying that the water offered a good picture of their spiritual life. Their spirituality was second-hand, impure, unreliably present, not practically useful. So the point Jesus is making is that we are to go directly to the source, to him. He will supply what we need.

Like the church at Sardis, Laodicea could at times put on a good front. Their prosperity allowed them to camouflage their desperate spiritual condition. They could even fool themselves; “I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing,” they could say. Jesus had a jolting response, in effect saying: “You may be a mercantile banking center, but, in comparison to me and my plans for you, you are pitifully poor; you need to acquire gold refined in fire, pure and eternal wealth which you can acquire nowhere but through faith in my gospel. You may market medical knowledge and treatments for blindness, but in comparison to what I can show you about this world and the next, you are totally blind and need the Holy Spirit’s eyebalm which only I can give to you. You may sell the finest wool in the world, but in comparison to the righteousness in which I long to clothe you, you are stark naked, and you need to open yourselves to my offer to graciously clothe you.”

I Stand at the Door and Knock

Jesus renders a harsh analysis of the Laodicean church not to condemn them, but to awaken them to the fact that, while they appear religious, they lack firsthand relationship with Christ. He offers to transform that. “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”

Do you hear what Jesus is saying? Christian life cannot be fourth hand or third hand or even second hand. Rather, Christian life happens when we individually respond to the gospel of a living Christ and invite him into our lives. We do not have to seek him out. He has already sought us. He has already found us. He has already paid for our redemption. He has already won the victory over every enemy who would hinder us, even the last enemy death. He already has prepared for us a spring of living water welling up to eternal life. Behold, he stands at the door and knocks. He is waiting for us to believe the good news, to repent of our wasted years without his living presence, to invite him into our lives to be our living Lord, and to let him supply us with the living water of the Holy Spirit.

How Our Adventure Begins

The adventure with Jesus starts when we hear his knock on the door and invite him in to sit and dine with us. Those who have hosted Jesus at the supper table in their hearts may expect to be hosted by Jesus at the victory dinner in the new heaven and new earth. And in anticipation of that great future, those who invite Jesus into their lives, receive even now the gift of a spring welling up within them to eternal life, a Spirit who enables them to say, “Come! Whoever is thirsty, let him or her come; and whoever wishes, let him or her take the free gift of the water of life.”

Most of us will happily drink iced tea or iced lemonade in the summer and hot tea or hot coffee in the winter. Not many of us would happily down room temperature pond scum water at any time of the year. If what we offer is not dead religion, but vibrant faith in a living Lord, there will be people who want that. If they see that we are open, honest, transparent, sincere, AND that we are guided and empowered by a living Lord—if they see our relationship with Jesus making us loving, compassionate, generous, merciful, and creative—they are likely to want some of what they see. Our job is not to give them a second hand drink, but to lead them to the source, to Jesus himself.

Focusing on Worship Style Preferences Gets Us Off Track

One of the things I discovered in the listening sessions for our mission, vision, and plan statements—and in follow-up conversations later--is how many of us spend time thinking about whether various components in the worship service are our style or not, or whether certain components disturb or inhibit our style. We also spend time worrying about whether something that may not be objectionable in itself may lead to something later that would be objectionable.

As I have listened to these conversations, I have become aware of several things: (1) how very wide the style preferences in this one small congregation range, and (2) how little sympathetic understanding we have for preferences other than our own, readily placing on other preferences the worst possible associations and having no idea of what they actually mean to the people who hold them.

I am not picking on anyone in particular with this comment. I am picking on all of us at once. A person who prefers a liturgical worship service is not necessarily a spiritually dead formalist, but more likely is concerned about ungrounded manipulative fads that distract our focus from worshiping God. On the other hand, a person who prefers an expressive worship service is not necessarily wanting to see people running down the aisles shouting in tongues, but may simply be concerned that we make authentic, transparent responses to God’s presence among us.

If the person with liturgical preferences wanted something that was spiritually dead, there are lots of places they could go to find that. If the person with expressive preferences wanted something that had no checks against fanaticism, there are lots of places they could go to find that. I have visited both kinds of churches within fairly easy driving range.

Let’s assume that people who come here to worship want some combination of balance, sanity, and vitality that would not be available if we were either dead formalists or crazy charismatics. Let’s notice that what holds the liturgical and expressive preferences together is that both want something authentic, God-focused, and Christ-centered. Then, let’s trust one another and make allowances for one another as we go for it.

Three Things to Keep in Mind

As we move ahead, it seems to me that three things are very important to keep in mind.

(1) We are grounded in the Campbell-Stone Restoration Movement that locates authority in the Scriptures, and the Scriptures contain adequate correctives against most extremes; we are not going anywhere contrary to the Scriptures. Alexander Campbell and Barton Stone had very different style preferences, but they figured out how to work together because they let Scripture govern.

(2) We owe it to one another to seek to understand each other’s spiritual needs with some sympathy. Sometime next year, I would like for us to study together Richard Foster’s Streams of Living Water which describes six great traditions of Christian spirituality, each of which can bring enrichment to our Christian experience. We do not have to give up our own preferences in order to learn to value other preferences.

(3) Presently, we are having to stretch ourselves in one service to meet a variety of spiritual needs. As we move ahead with our plan, we hope to implement a second worship service perhaps as soon as next autumn. This will allow us to have distinctive worship styles in two services, one a little more expressive than our current service and the other a little more traditional. We will not have to stretch ourselves quite so far because we will have choices. But, apart from style, the basic beliefs and values of this church will be expressed in each service.

It's All About Jesus

That’s enough about worship style. The key is not whether the service is hot or cold, not whether it is traditional or spontaneous, but whether it is filled with Jesus, whether it makes direct connection with the Source. It is not about worship style at all; it is about Jesus.

Our job in worship is to connect to Jesus ourselves and to help others connect to Jesus. Jesus promises that wherever two or three of us gather in his name--that is, in accord with his purposes--he will be in our midst ministering to those who call on him.

He stands at the door knocking. He is ready to come in and fellowship with us and to minister through us to the needs of real people. He can be a refreshing cold drink or a warming hot drink. The one thing he will not abide is second-hand stagnancy. That makes him want to throw up—his words, not mine. Let’s avoid stagnancy and go for the real thing: the refreshing, loving, life-giving presence of our living Lord.

(P.S. As the service drew to a close, our Music Director, David Bell, did a couple of things that unmistakably and admittedly came from a Baptist heritage. I commented, "I spoke in my sermon of our liturgical sub-culture and our expressive subculture, but I failed to mention our largest subculture." I did not have to say more as we laughed together at ourselves.)

I Know Your Deadness

A Sermon Based on Revelation 3:1-6

November 1, 2009

The Church in Sardis

We are in a series of sermons in which we are looking at Jesus’ messages to the seven churches of the Revelation to John. Today we come to the fifth church, which was located in Sardis in what is now western Turkey.

The city of Sardis was capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia. Like nearby Thyatira, its wealth rested largely on the textile industry. It had reached the peak of its wealth and grandeur in 700 B.C. The main part of the city was located on a high cliff which was thought to be invulnerable. A city or portion of a city located in such a situation was called an acropolis. Nevertheless, Sardis was captured five times, including by Cyrus of Persia, Alexander the Great of Macedonia, and Antiochus the Great of the Alexandrian empire. In the cases of Cyrus and Antiochus, their troops at night scaled the precipice on which the city sat and discovered that the city had posted no guards. In other words, the city in its complacency was asleep.

There were in Sardis, as in other Asian cities, temptations and pressures for Christians to participate in the cults of the emperor, of the trade guilds, and of the Asian Great Mother Goddess. But these are not the issues Jesus raises as he addresses the church in this town.

What Jesus Said to the Church in Sardis

3:1“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. “‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. 4 Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

The Sardis church has the reputation of being a strong and vital church. To the outward eye, it is faithful. But something is seriously wrong. Jesus has little good to say about the Sardis church except about a small faithful remnant within it. To the church as a whole, Jesus says, “You have a reputation of being alive, but are dead. Wake up!”

Since there is no specific listing of their misdeeds, it seems that their devotion is halfhearted, that their hungering and thirsting for righteousness is never more than a vague yearning, that their avoiding of blatant sins does not lead them into daring adventures for God, that there is not enough reality and vitality to their spiritual life to make an impact for Jesus.

He warns, “If you do not wake up, I will come to you like a thief in the night, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.” Why will they not know? Because like their city historically had been, the church in Sardis is spiritually asleep. They are sleeping through the spiritual warfare of their times. As Rip Van Winkle missed the American Revolution, so they are missing the point of their Christian lives.

As Paul wrote to the nearby Ephesian church, Jesus in effect speaks to the Sardis church, “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

To What Does Jesus Want the Sardis Christians to Awaken?

Allow me to suggest some things that sleepy Christians typically do not understand. I could list dozens, but I only have time for three. Sleepy Christians do not comprehend:

1. the holiness of God and the perfection he has planned for us.

2. the wonders of the costly grace of God.

3. the power and presence of our living Lord in our daily lives.

Let’s look at these one at a time.

1. Sleepy Christians do not comprehend the holiness of God and the perfection he has planned for us. God has a perfect plan for his creation. His plan leads to love, harmony, freedom, justice, peace, beautiful variety, and endless creativity. That is not the condition of the world in which we live. Our world is filled with hatred, strife, oppression, injustice, war, ugliness, and dullness. So are our hearts, which have been filled by our world. God cannot forever tolerate our compromises with sin, the compromises by which we hold back from living the perfection he has planned for us. God cannot let sinners carry their sin into eternity. As long as sin reigns over our lives, death reigns over our lives, and we cannot enjoy God’s perfect plans for eternity.

Anyone who says, “I was brought up in the church. I was never lost,” just does not yet grasp the holiness of God, the perfect plan of God, does not yet grasp what must happen in our lives if we are to enter eternal life. Being brought up in the church and never being unbelievers are wonderful things but they are not sufficient to address our holiness gap. However, if we wake up to the holiness of God, we will know that it is not sufficient to linger complacently in our shortcomings as children of God. Something’s got to give. Let’s wake up to God’s holiness!

2. Sleepy Christians do not comprehend the wonders of the costly grace of God. The fact is that we cannot by our own efforts alone root the sin out of our own lives, let alone out of anyone else’s life. Without a miraculous and incalculably costly redemption, we are lost in unholiness, and so is everyone else. Nonetheless, God has in Jesus Christ provided the miraculous redemption; Jesus took the cost of our sins on himself; we may be saved by sheer grace—a gift we do not deserve-- through our faith in Jesus’ righteousness. He will cover us with his righteousness while the Holy Spirit works in our lives to grow our actual righteousness degree by degree. This is wondrous good news for us and for all who will believe and open themselves to the process. This is a matter of eternal life winning out over an eternal living death, of righteousness winning out over sin; it is a matter demanding our deepest response of gratitude, of joy, of celebration, and of love. It must express itself in our highest worship and in our deepest service. Let’s wake up to the wonders of God’s costly grace.

Brief Intermission: The Relation of Holiness and Grace

Let’s take a brief intermission before we go on to the third thing that sleepy Christians do not understand. No, this is not a time to go get popcorn and a soft drink, but to consider the relation of holiness and grace. Holiness does not cancel grace, nor does grace cancel holiness. They must be held together.

Those of you who have been reading James Bryan Smith’s The Good and Beautiful God have been giving thought to this in the past couple of weeks. In Chapters 5 and 6, Smith describes two young women who show to us the importance of grace and holiness.

In Chapter 5, he tells the story of a young woman who as a teenager had wandered away from the ways of right living and had ended up pregnant. Later, having recognized the errors of her ways, she returned to her church only to face several harsh and judgmental rejections from the pastor, not only of herself, but also of her baby. She went to a different church that graciously accepted her and her child. In time, she and her daughter ended up serving as missionaries in Africa. What a wonderful transformation was made possible by the graciousness of the second church!

In Chapter 6, Smith tells the story of a young woman thanking him for his sermon on the grace and unconditional love of God. What she had gotten from his sermon was this: “You see, I’ve been living with my boyfriend for the past six months, and I was raised in a church that said that this was a sin, and I felt really guilty. But this morning you said that God loves us without condition and that Jesus has forgiven all our sins, and then I realized that my guilt was unnecessary. Jesus paid it all! So I just wanted to say thank you for such a liberating message.”

Smith was crushed because he had no intent to say that our behavior is of no consequence. He got a second chance to talk to the young woman a few months later. He explained how important and good for us God’s holiness is. He explained that the reason premarital sex is wrong is that God designed sex to be a sacred act of intimacy within a marriage covenant, and that the reason to wait is that we are created to be sacred and special people. The young woman saw that her boyfriend was not viewing her and their sexual activity in this way. Smith advised her to cut off the sex until she was married. She foresaw that her boyfriend would leave her, but did it anyway. She was happy to spend the next couple of years discovering her sacredness as a child of God. Then she looked up Smith to tell him that she was headed into a marriage based on true and mutual respect.

In thinking about this sequence of events, Smith concluded that the young woman had to hear him affirm the unconditional love of God before she could begin to deal with his more challenging message about the holiness of God. It is a practical reality that many people will not hear a message of holiness until they have been assured of a message of grace, but it is also true that in this culture, in which the predominant cultural religion involves an imaginary teddy bear God who has no moral concerns, many people cannot really understand the significance of grace until they understand the perfect, holy standards of God and how far they have fallen short of them, and hence how much they need grace.

Holiness and grace go together. Leave out either one and the cross of Christ at the center of Christian faith has no meaning, and we have no saving, transforming, compelling message. Grace and holiness, holiness and grace, you can’t have one without the other. We must wake up to both! End of Intermission.

3. Sleepy Christians do not comprehend that we have a living Lord whose power and presence we can experience in our daily lives. In our cultural religion, God is a remote and impersonal force governing the universe toward total love and acceptance. Christian faith is quite different. The God of the Bible has specific purposes, reveals his will through inspired Scriptures, has sent his perfect Son to demonstrate his reign over all life and to deal with our sin issues. His Son Jesus was crucified, entombed, raised from the dead, and exalted as living Lord of the universe. Jesus continues to make himself known to his followers through the Holy Spirit, guiding, transforming, gifting, and empowering us, working supernatural miracles in and through us, embodying his love for the world through us. Being empowered by Jesus does not make us any more invulnerable to human suffering than he was, but it does enable us to live extraordinarily meaningful lives. Knowing that Jesus is involved in our history, in our biographies, in our daily experience of life, makes every day a great adventure.

This is my testimony. I had a dead faith until Jesus with the Holy Spirit came to wake me up and to become a living force in my life. I cannot claim to have awakened myself. Jesus did it. My part was that I had studied the Bible and was prepared by that study to recognize and to welcome what was happening when it happened. Let’s all wake up to our living Lord and to his powerful presence in our lives.

Conclusion

Our part in waking up is to study, pray, and be ready. Jesus will do the rest. In this letter, the one who wakes up to holiness, wakes up to grace, and wakes up the living Lord is described as one who conquers and receives a great promise from Jesus: The one who conquers will be clothed in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. That’s a good thing! Claim it! Wake up to all that Jesus can mean for your life.

I Know Your Spirituality

Sermon, October 25, 2009
Revelation 2:18-29

The Good Things Jesus Said to the Thyatiran Church

We are examining the messages of Jesus to the seven churches of the Revelation. Today we come to the fourth church, Thyatira. I want to start with the good things that Jesus had to say to the Thyatiran church.

2:18 "And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: 'The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze. 19"'I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first…..

Jesus commended the church at Thyatira for these things:

(1) it was characterized by the hard work for which the Ephesian church was noted, but it had not fallen away from its first love as had the Ephesian church;

(2) it shared with the church of Smyrna the patient endurance of persecution;

(3) it had stood up to external threat of emperor worship as well as the church at Pergamum;

(4) moreover, the church at Thyatira was improving, doing more in its second generation than it had in its first generation.

There were some in Thyatira who deserved gold stars on their brows.

The Not So Good things Jesus Said to the Pergamum and Thyatiran Churches

Now we turn to the not so good things Jesus had to say.

Last week, when we focused on the problem of the Pergamum emperor cult, we skipped over the cult that had infiltrated the Pergamum church. Here is what he said about that:

2:14But 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. 15So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.

Here is what Jesus said about a similar cult in the Thyatiran church:

2:20But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. 21I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. 22Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, 23and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.

Jesus gave nicknames to the false prophets in the Pergamum and the Tyatiran churches; he called them Balaam and Jezebel respectively.

We know that, in the Old Testament, when Israel was in the wilderness, Balaam led Israel into sacrificing to idols and participating in immoral fertility cults.

Centuries later, when Ahab was king in Israel, Queen Jezebel also led Israel into sacrificing to idols and participating in immoral fertility cults.

Balaam of Pergamum and Jezebel of Thyatira were leading gullible church members into the same sorts of impure spiritual practices. In both cases, the churches of those cities failed to protect their members from being misled.

The Balaamites of Pergamum and the Jezebelites of Thyatira were somehow persuaded that what they were doing was not wrong. I imagine that the false leaders said something like: “We know that these false gods don’t really exist, and that these worship practices are meaningless, but they are important parts of our culture, and it is prudent to go along with the culture in order to get along with the culture.”

The Thyatiran Trade Guilds

Some scholars think that Jezebel led Christians of Thyatira to join the local trade guilds. Thyatira was the Asian center for trade guilds. There were associations for bakers, bronze-workers, wool-workers, linen-workers, leather-workers, garment-makers, cobblers, tanners, weavers, dyers (most notably purple cloth dyers), potters, and more.

In Thyatira, one had to join the trade guilds in order to practice one’s trade and to sell one’s products in public markets. Now, there is nothing wrong with trade guilds in and of themselves, and the main problem with having to join them was this: in the Asian province, the meetings of the trade guilds were held in temples and involved eating food sacrificed to local gods, most likely in Pergamum to the emperor, and most likely in Thyatira to the god Apollo. Such occasions often included fertility cult practices and ended in debauchery. It seems likely that the false prophets whom Jesus labeled as Balaam and Jezebel somehow made attending such rituals seem acceptable, even wise. The church at Thyatira allowed Jezebel’s false teachings to go unchallenged and left her free to mislead members. Jesus took a hard line against them on this matter.

What Are We to Do?

What are we to do when spiritual impurity comes into our midst?

It is our job to welcome everyone who wishes to learn about Jesus, and we have to expect that some people who come intending to follow Jesus will bring some baggage of spiritual and moral confusion with them. In most cases, we can gently, kindly, patiently, lovingly, and firmly help them straighten that out over time. It does not please Jesus when we become overly rigid, obsessed with searching out and destroying the weeds among the wheat. He wants us to keep spiritually confused people within hearing range of his gospel, which is where they need to be.

But sometimes we have to take strong stands. That happens when people are leading the church or its members or the people to whom it is in mission astray. I knew a small Lutheran Church that had a middle class family, managers of a local franchise of a major restaurant chain, join their church. The family waited until they thought they were solidly in with the congregation before they began to distribute literature about Lucifer whom they said was a misrepresented angel of light who could provide the church with extra power. This was not just a case of spiritual confusion on the part of the new members, but a deliberate and strategic attempt to gain a foothold for Satanic worship in a church. The spiritual leaders of the congregation did what Jesus blamed the leaders of the Pergamum and Thyatiran churches for not doing. I believe that Jesus was pleased with their strong stand.

My Annual Halloween Message

It is time for my annual Halloween message.

From the Christian standpoint, All Saints’ Day, November 1, is intended to honor Christian martyrs and other faithful, deceased Christians. There is nothing wrong with it.

But from the pagan standpoint, the night before All Saint’s Day (All Saints’ Eve or Halloween) marks the end of the growing season and the beginning of “the dark half of the year.” It celebrates the spiritual forces of darkness in a way that is completely contrary to Christian spirituality, ways that are related to ancient pagan cults. There is much wrong with that.

Like many of you, I grew up unaware that evil spiritual forces were real or to be taken seriously. Halloween was a time for the fun of pretending to be scared and the even greater fun of pretending to be scary. But I have since learned in Bible study and pastoral practice that Halloween is not so innocent.

What the Bible Says about the Occult

The Bible has much to say on the subject of the occult. Israel’s participation in autumn and spring fertility cults was utterly and consistently banned by God throughout the Old Testament. King Saul’s dealing with a medium—witch—spiritualist—whatever you call her--was completely contrary to God’s law and will (Leviticus 20:27; 1 Samuel 28). Examples of the seriousness of spiritual impurity may be found in the New Testament with the narratives of the sorcery of Simon Magus (Acts 8:9-24), the magic of Elymas Bar-Jesus (Acts 13:6-12), the demonic fortunetelling of the slave girl (Acts 16:16-40), the magic books and crafts associated with the Ephesian temple of Artemis (Acts 19:18-41), and the listing of sorcery as among the works of the flesh that may prevent us from inheriting the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19-21). These matters are wrong because they do not fit with faith in the holy, loving, and sovereign God we know through Jesus Christ. The occult may masquerade as loving and helpful at first, but it turns out to be disturbing and destructive.

It Still Happens; We Need to Be Prepared

Many people in our culture have been destructively caught up in the world of the occult. At times it even creeps into the church. In the church I served in Indianapolis, while an elder was assuring me that we had no problems with the occult in Indiana, maybe in Arkansas where I had come from, but not in Indiana, a bright but troubled young man in the youth group was dabbling directly in Satanism. His parents had confidentially shared with me the troubling evidence. It is no accident that the young man also was considering suicide. Satan comes to destroy. Christians need to be prepared to rescue and to protect Satan’s targets.

Don't Be Killjoys

We need to search for a path that is at once sane and spiritually pure. We do our faith no favors if we make Christians look like paranoid killjoys. There is nothing wrong with celebrating the end of the harvest season, with using our artistic imaginations and creativity to design interesting costumes for a party.

Don't Be Satan's Accomplices

But there is something terribly wrong with granting the forces of darkness access to our children’s spirits or to our own. We need to take charge of our family’s costuming, decorating, party games, and so forth to see that we do not glorify things that are contrary to our faith. Once we have done that, we can with clear conscience have a great deal of seasonal fun. Finding the right balance calls for prayerful discernment that we may learn from Scripture and the Holy Spirit.

It is not just Halloween. In this culture, we are not infrequently exposed to spiritualities that are rooted in something other than Christian faith. God wants to guide and help us in ways that glorify his Son Jesus Christ. He has given us five senses and reason, plus the Bible, the Holy Spirit, and the church. Beware of substitutes. Beware of astrology, Ouija boards, palm-reading, healing crystals, seances, psychics, spirit-guides, and so forth. They do not glorify Jesus Christ, and, although they may seem innocent at first, they tend to put us under the influence of the enemy. Jesus takes such matters seriously.

It Would Not Be Loving for Jesus to Stand by Helplessly

Forget your Sunday school image of a wimpy, sentimental Jesus. It would not be loving for Jesus to stand by helplessly while our spiritual impurities are poisoning our souls. Jesus acts strongly to cause us to question the spiritual origins and the spiritual consequences of our actions. He demands that we become spiritually pure.

What Jesus Promises to the Spiritually Pure; Claim the Promises

Jesus has glorious promises for the pure of heart: To those who adhere to a pure faith, he adds: 2:25 I do not lay on you any other burden. 25Only hold fast what you have until I come. 26 The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, 27and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. 28And I will give him the morning star. 29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'

That is what we want Jesus to say to us, that we will share his rule over the nations and that we will receive the bright morning star, that is, eternal relationship with Jesus himself. If we have the all-penetrating light of Christ, we do not need to try to supplement it with the false lights of Satan. This is a call to spiritual purity. Do not let this call pass unanswered. Come to Jesus, to Him and to Him alone.