Going, Going… Gone??

Going, Going… Gone??

Rev 2:18–3:6

I love to see things done well. It can be football, or it can be ballet. If something is done well then, I enjoy watching it. Some things I do enjoy watching more. One thing that is particularly interesting to me is auctioneers.

Auctioneers craft skills to maximize sales. 

The strategy begins with introducing the items and not just introducing the baseball, but the baseball that was owned by Mickey Mantles… second aunts, friends, neighbor. They give the story or background and start the bidding at a strategic price. People bid more when they perceive importance or scarcity.

Most known for their auction chant or bid calling that combine skills, techniques, and psychological strategies to engage bidders and drive sales up. 

They also have a call as they announce bids using rhythm, repetition, and cadence (fast talking or “chanting” style). Example: “$100… do I hear $150? $150, yes, thank you…” 

Keeps energy high, maintains momentum, and prevents awkward pauses or silences. Rhythmic calls stimulate urgency and excitement.

Using Eye Contact and Gestures. Scan the audience, point to bidders, nod, or raise their hand toward a bid to encourage participation. 

But one big technique they use is the close: going, going, gone! Ever heard that? It's not just an immediate “sold!” “Going once… going twice… sold!” It’s a masterful tool for creating suspense, urgency, and finality in sales. signals the final opportunity to bid. Gives potential buyers a last chance to consider raising the bid.

As we look at Jesus' words to his struggling churches, we see another appeal for them to cast aside distractions and fully embrace his purpose for them. They are going, going, but not yet gone, and he is holding out hope also and he will do that to the very end. 

We are spending three weeks on the seven churches. It's not enough time. But I feel like seven months wouldn't be enough time either. We are looking at churches 3-5 today. There is a clear structure to this section.

1. Going Down Hill

Churches are a mixture of success and failure. 

These people live in a fallen world. They are holding on to Jesus, and the world is pulling them away. Back in 2:13 and church of pergamum it says,

13 “ ‘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. 

They are being faithful in opposition. Where Satan's throne is. They live in a bad part of town. Don't buy property there! But they are holding fast.

The cities of Ephesus, Smyrna and Pergamum clashed as to which was the most important for the imperial cult, and it seems that Pergamum won the title. This affluent city owed a degree of its prosperity to having sold its soul to the devil. The church is holding fast to the name of Jesus even in this setting. There are even some of the Nicolatians who are compromising God’s word and probably teaching that it is OK to indulge in the deplorable worship (prostitution) to the imperial cult. 

This is not to say all governments are bad. But it does show that we do not fight against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces and principalities in the heavenly realms. What God created as good, satan will manipulate. People feed that darkness. It's one thing to want to support your leaders. Any organization that desires to go anywhere wants and needs that. But it is a leap to worship them as God, as the most important person in the world and in your life. But people want that loyalty. Always have. Always will. When that desire is present Satan has established a throne. 

Told of Antipas, bishop of Pergamum, ordained by John the Apostle. He was condemned for refusing emperor worship. Tradition says he was roasted alive inside a bronze bull (a torture device associated with pagan sacrifice). His martyrdom became a powerful witness to the church in Pergamum.

There is opposition but Pergamum is holding strong. But the next few churches 

2. Going, Going… Down Hill

The Progression. revolve around false teaching. Remember Ephesus said they could not bear with those who do evil, and they had tested those who claimed to be apostles and found them false. These other churches do not do the same. 

Jesus had something against Ephesus, they lost their first love. Now he has a few things against pergamum. 

Pergamum holding strong but also playing with fire. There are some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam v14, and the teaching revolves around idolatry and sexual immorality. It doesn't say they are doing this but does say they are holding on to this teaching. They have not pushed it aside. Entertaining it. 

14 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. 15 So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

Thyatira is the next church after Pergamum and before Sardis. Look at the progression it has with false teaching:

20 But 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. 21 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent her sexual immorality. 

The thing happening here is that the people are not simply holding to the teaching, they are actively practicing it! They are engaging in it. They are tolerating this false teacher, Jezebel. Jezebel probably is not the real name, but John is referring to the evil Old Testament figure, the wife of Ahab who callously slaughtered God’s people, oppressed the prophets, and fueled the worship of Baalism. The church should have kicked her out. 

There is a process for church discipline. Matt 18. You go to the person and point out their sin, if they do not repent you bring another and appeal to the person. If they still do not repent you tell the church and treat them as an unbeliever. Doesn’t mean you hate them or never talk to them again. You treat them as an unbeliever who you wish to see repent and come back to faith. The church has failed to do that. 

We are to show all people the love of Christ, but that does not mean we allow and enable all behavior or tolerate all teachings. This church was dying because of its tolerance of evil. In our culture today there has been no greater attack on the church than the call for tolerance. There has been nothing more intolerant than tolerance. We are called to be loving and patient with those with whom we are seeking to share the gospel. But today’s call to tolerance is to approve of and celebrate what God does not approve of, particularly on sexuality. If you don't tolerate you are out of society. We have seen this in clear ways. 

Let me help you see what is going on with these churches. Here is an outline of the seven churches. 

Thyatira is the center of this, and the focus is on its toleration of false teaching. The primary threat is not outside, but inside. This is when the outside culture has caved and infected the church. These churches handled satan’s throne next to them. Resisted to the point of dying. But when the church is seduced to saying the same thing as the world there are major problems. 

Progresses to Sardis. The church that is dead. Sardis is not even commended. It is a church that is almost dead.  

“ ‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 3:1

This reputation is a facade. It is the social media posts showing how great life is, but when the camera is not on you are depressed, confused, lost and joyless. Creating the reputation for the outside, but there is no reality on the inside. God finds their works lacking. 

It is hard to know what exactly is going on in Sardis, but the promise at the end helps us understand what it likely was. 

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. 

The other churches were undergoing opposition from the imperial cult, to make sacrifices to the emperor as the Lord and God. They were under pressure to worship in sexual immorality. Those things are not mentioned to Sardis. 

It seems Jesus made the promise to confess them because the church in Sardis was tempted to avoid confessing Jesus before men. 

There was a thriving Jewish community in Sardis, the largest synagogue excavated from the ancient world. It could have held 1000 people. Most think the church was not compromising with Rome, but instead with the Jewish community. Judaism was granted exemption from the imperial cult, and for a while Rome viewed Christianity as a part of Judaism. Jews clearly did not view Christians as being Jewish. If people remained under the label of being Jewish, they had freedom, but if they confessed to following Christ then they were separate and no longer under protection. 

There was a Jewish teaching of this time that had 18 benedictions to be prayed, and one was the curse of Minim: “May the Nazarenes and the Minim suddenly perish, may their names be blotted out of the book of life and not enrolled with the righteous” (Jim Hamilton, Revelation, p106).

Jesus promises those in Sardis that he will confess them,

 I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. 

Consider this. They were tempted to sit back and not say anything. Toe the line. Little white line. Affirm parts of the Old Testament and conceal certain key elements of the new. Affirm what you agree with but don't ruffle any feathers. However, it’s a denial of Christ.

I believe this is a stark critique of the church in America. We sit back and don't share Christ. Stay silent. Don't ruffle the boat. Witnessing is taught as an advanced course that very few need to participate in. People say things like I'm not gifted in evangelism; I'm an introvert, I need more time. At the root of that is cultural accommodation. And then we begin to tolerate denying Jesus. When the church does that, it has lost its light. It is dead.   

A few years ago, I began to realize how seldom I shared Christ with others. I had been in ministry a long time and felt growing conviction on how little I shared my faith with people (outside of an official teaching time in the church). Texts like this weighed on me, and I couldn't justify my negligence. I felt like that was one of the biggest reasons churches were failing in America. People are not flocking into the church, we need to go outside the church, but most are not interested in that. I want a Christianity that has no risk, no cost. We want the appearance of being alive, but we are dead. The witness has gone out. Christ isn’t that precious to us. I think we need to deal with this in our own lives. We need to sharpen and encourage one another in our witness. We cannot be content to sit back and not talk about our lack of witness. We need help ministering to others. 

Sound bite culture. I would often stay silent because I didn’t know what to say. 

The death of the church is its abdication of confessing Christ as Lord. You can try to build a church with a lot of things but if you don’t have this you have a dead church. What is our witness like as individuals? What is it as a whole? Are we encouraging this, promoting this or are we promoting a lukewarm acceptance, a toleration of denial, …

Things do not look good for God’s people. But there is hope held out here. Going, Going, but not gone. 

3. Saved (possibly)!!

Turning to The Solution Jesus Provides. Jesus is giving a final call, a closing call to these churches. To the church of Sardis.

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. 

They are sleeping. They do not see the danger of what they are doing. The disciples were sleeping in the hour of Jesus need and he told them to wake up (Matt 26:41)

Wake up. This is your opportunity to wake up. Be sure, those who do not repent and trust in Christ are told they will stand before God in judgment. If you have ears to hear you can turn to God. Now is the chance. Stop sleeping. Stop saying, “It’s not that big of a deal’ or “it’s just a little…” If something displeases the Lord, it is a big deal. Jesus is calling his church back to him. He is giving them an opportunity to return.

3 Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief,

What is the solution to a dead church? What do you do when something you have doesn't work. You go get a new whatever. A different one. If you bought a phone and it doesn't work you take it back and get a new one. 

The phone doesn’t work because it is broken. It doesn’t work because it doesn't fit your needs. Or it doesn't work because you don't know how to use it. You have not learned it. 

Some will see the problems in the church and think we need a new solution; we need a different teaching. 

Insert some potential heroes for you. The new prophet who had a new revelation from Jesus and knows what the churches really need to do. Chrisitan heresies such as Islam and Mormonism. 

Montanus (early church heretic) viewed the established church as too worldly and dead, and claimed to have the true “Spirit-filled” church of purity and prophecy. Need a new word/teaching 

Muhammad presented the Qur’an as the final, uncorrupted word of God — restoring Abrahamic monotheism without church “errors.” 

Mormonism. After the apostles, the church fell into “the Great Apostasy.” True authority and doctrine were lost. Joseph Smith claimed to restore the original church through new revelation (Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants).

Christian Science (Mary Baker Eddy, 19th century). Christianity lost the true power of healing and spiritual truth. Claimed a purified understanding of Jesus’ teaching as metaphysical truth — restoring “real Christianity” as spiritual healing, not institutional religion.

Common theme of 1) claim the mainstream church fell into corruption or apostasy. 2) Assert they are the true continuation or restoration of Christianity. 3) Present new revelation, prophet, or teaching as the “pure” way. 4) Often reject historic creeds, councils, or orthodox doctrine.

And when you understand this, you start to dissect the dominant contemporary position today that the church is messed up and corrupt, I have a better understanding of Scripture that says I am fine without it. 

Whether it is a faithful but struggling church or a church that is virtually dead, all are addressed in the New Testament. 

**There is no church issue to come up in church history that was not first dealt with in the New Testament.** And what you see here is that the solution is never to abandon Jesus' original design for the church. The solution to a dying church is not a new revelation. It is not a new strategy or a different strategy from the strategy of planting and developing churches. Jesus' work and sacrifice is sufficient for the church, and when the church stumbles outside pressure or succumbs to false teaching from inside the solution is a return to Jesus. 

3 Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief,

Sometimes the hardest thing isn’t to do something new but to go back to what you already have. It is easier for people to change things than to repent. And look at this, 

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. 

He is pointing out those who are faithful even in a dead church. Those who are strong, who are faithful don't abandon the church. They are an example for others. Their hope is in the Lord and what he will do in future. They are still fighting for the purity of the church. 

24 But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. 25 Only hold fast what you have until I come. 

It’s common for people to throw a little critique on the church and then state that is why they don’t participate in church any more. Don’t believe that. There is something deeper in that. It is a rejection of what Jesus calls his people to. 

They are to remember. Go back to what you have heard. The word of God is sufficient. 2 Tim 3:16 God has given you everything you need for life and godliness. 

Keep it. 

Repent. Change of direction. 

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.

Discussion Questions

1. How are these churches being faithful? What ways are they critiqued?
2. How do you see a downward trajectory of these churches and their problems?
3. What is the solution Jesus gives to these churches and how does he hold out hope for them? How does this show you the grace and love of God?