Tolerance that kills a Church

Hello Church Family:  This week we walk with the church of Thyatira in Revelation 2, being reminded that Jesus had a big problem with this local church.  I am sure that you are with me when I say, "I do not want Jesus to have a problem with GCT!”  So, what was their problem?  Tolerance.  Now, you may be thinking what is the big deal with being tolerant?  Yes, some specific tolerance is required to live in families and neighborhoods and the workplace.  We are to be a tolerant people, right?  Well, yes and no.  As believers and the Church, we cannot be tolerant of all things because God is not tolerant of all things.  We are to love the things God loves and hate the things that He hates.  Now today in 2020, any thinking that involves any form of intolerance is seen by our secular society as the most serious sin on this planet.  Our culture sees intolerance as intolerable and they see the most intolerable people being evangelical Bible believing Christians.  

The Thyatiran church was erring in tolerance.  They were tolerating an evil lady who was teaching and prophesying a message opposite of the message of Jesus Christ and His apostles.  Jesus called this lady Jezebel, because of how evil she was and for the destruction of her teaching.  And the Thyatiran Church did nothing to stop her from teaching and leading others into her false teaching and her sexual immorality that accompanied the teaching.  Basically, Jezebel was declaring that she had a special word from the Lord, speaking as from the Lord, while giving a false gospel and a freedom to indulge in idol worship and sexual immorality.  The fruit of the Thyatiran church’s tolerance had grown rotten and threatened the life of the the church.  And Jesus was not going to tolerate this compromise.  G.K. Chesterton says it beautifully, “tolerance is the virtue of those who really do not believe anything” and this is where the church was heading.

Jesus was very intolerant of the church’s tolerance and He called them to not tolerate Jezebel or her disciples.  This kind of intolerance by Jesus was not tolerated by the culture of first century Asia Minor nor our culture today.  Our secular society tells Christians, we will not tolerate you because you will not tolerate everything.  Our culture that comes against the church says, authentic tolerance is to tolerate every ideology or practice that is tolerant and we must be intolerant of those ideologies that are considered intolerant.  Did you get that?  Jesus is saying that absolute undiscerning tolerance does not work!  We must be spiritually discerning and discerning in our reasoning.  Jesus wants the church to know that tolerance of heresy and sin leads to spiritual ignorance and a life absent of holiness, obedience, faithfulness and will quickly lead to spiritual death and the death of the church.  Tolerance as the believer is a shutting down of the Holy Spirit’s work of conviction and the closing of the Christian mind.  This type of tolerance is destructive!  Jesus did not like this and demanded it to stop or He was going to come and take care of this heresy Himself (Revelation 2:20-23) and it involved putting people to death.  He was serious!

Church, we are called to much more than tolerance.  Jesus did not say, tolerate your enemies.  He said “you shall love your enemies."  And loving our enemies is lovingly pointing them to Jesus Christ who says, “repent and believe, follow me by following my commands and I will give you peace with God and great purpose in His kingdom, and I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  Is there anything or anybody in your life that has the "Jezebel spirit" leading you to tolerate a false gospel, a false doctrine, impurity and immorality?  Repent and hold fast, Jesus says (Revelation 2:24-25).

Revelation 2:28-29 And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. - Jesus

This Sunday we will be meeting in person at the church building if you would like to join us in person at 10am.  And for those who will be staying at home, we will  be live-streaming on our Grace Community Church Topsail YouTube Channel. Push the blue link.  We can also be found at https://www.gracetopsail.com/

We have been having issues Sunday mornings with our YouTube broadcast due to the overloading of the internet at that time.  We are trying several things that will help remedy the situation.  If you do not get a good broadcast at 10am, please check back later in the day or week for a recorded version.  I am very sorry about this.  

I look forward to worshipping our sovereign God, Jesus Christ with you Sunday. - Steve