The AMI QT Devotionals from May 22-28 are written by Phillip Chen, college pastor intern at Church of Southland. Philip, a graduate of University of California, San Diego, is currently studying at Talbot School of Theology. He is married to Esther.
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS FOR TODAY
Revelation 2:12-17 (ESV): “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 fait] even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. 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. 16 Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. 17 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.’
Richard Neibuhr, in his book Christ and Culture, outlines the several different approaches people have taken to reconcile how Christians ought to interact with their culture: views range from “culture is evil” to “culture is ultimately good.” It a difficult challenge, as many of these views have been regarded as insufficient; and this has been a hot topic for the church for many generations. We definitely face this same challenge today. In today’s passage, Jesus speaks to the church in Pergamum, which was a place riddled with immorality and idolatry.
The city of Pergamum was one of the religious capitals of the Roman province in Asia, where there were many temples devoted to many different cults—including emperor worship and idol worship. This is the place where “Satan’s throne” dwells. The Christians are doing their best to hold fast to His name—denouncing idol worship—and Jesus commends them for that. Yet there are still some who hold the teaching of Balaam. What is the teaching of Balaam? He was the one who gave the Israelites poor counsel to intermarry with foreign women, which led to idol worship and sexual immorality (cultic prostitution) in their midst. This ultimately led to punishment from God through a plague that came upon their congregation. For the church in Pergamum this was an indictment but probably more of a warning for the church to remain pure. Not only were they to maintain sound doctrine, but they were to be very careful not to be caught up in the adulterous ways of their culture and society. Temptation was all around them. To the faithful, they were warned to remain pure and steadfast, but for those who had fallen into temptation, they were warned to repent.
In the same way, our culture and society has myriad of things that are not approved by our God, but we are reminded to remain pure and steadfast. Don’t get me wrong, there is much beauty in culture—but there are also many cultural acts and traditions that are twisted and perverse. In Neibuhr’s book, one position is called “Christ the Transformer of Culture,” and I believe this is the position we ought to take. We do not distance ourselves from culture, nor do we passively go along with culture, believing in its beauty; rather, we are to seek to bring Christ into our culture, allowing Him to transform our culture. With that in mind, we must also remember that above all, the battle we fight against isn’t against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12). Let’s devote ourselves to prayer and purity, so that we might win the culture for Christ!
Prayer: Father God, it’s so easy to get caught up in the currents of society. We want You to come and transform our culture and our society. We confess that we have not prayed enough for our cities, for our societies, for our culture. But this morning, we invite You to empower us so that we could be used by You as agents to transform our culture. May You be lifted up. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Bible Reading for Today: Deuteronomy 22
The church in Smyrna was going through tribulation and poverty, yet God recognized how spiritually rich this church was—in fact, no indictment was given towards this church. The Greek word Smyrna can be derived from the Hebrew word marar, which means “to be bitter.” One commentator writes that “the trials in life can make one bitter or better.” Oftentimes, persecution and poverty act as the tipping point for us, causing us to become bitter at God or to better appreciate God. As this church went through trials and tribulations, Jesus’ encouragement to them is this: “Be faithful unto death.”
John was writing this to the church of Ephesus that was planted out of an awesome fear of the Lord. There was a great display of God’s greatness and power and might, which led to true repentance. Acts 19 tells us that the Holy Spirit moved so mightily in their midst that even handkerchiefs that Paul touched were used for the healing of people—these were people of incredible faith and incredible expectation. The accounts go on that the seven sons of Sceva tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus as some sort of ritual or sorcery. Basically, they were trying to copycat what Paul was doing but to no avail. It says that they were overcome by evil spirits, and most importantly, when people saw this and heard of this occurrence, there was a great fear that fell upon them. People repented to the degree that they came and confessed their sins; not only that, they brought their books of sorcery and occult, and burned it.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to see Jesus face to face? There was a popular song in the early 2000’s by MercyMe called “I Can Only Imagine” that poses this very question. What would it be like to see Jesus face to face? What would we do in His presence? In today’s passage, we see that John is terrified and falls at His feet as though dead. This is not a unique reaction, as many others who saw Jesus face to face on this earth fell down in fear and trembling. Take a moment to re-read the description that John gives Jesus. Imagine if you were in John’s shoes: how would you react? I believe the sheer vastness and awesomeness of our Lord would compel us to also fall down in fear.
When I was in college, I loved to plan for the future. Rather than just thinking about it, I took it to another level: I made an Excel sheet with major milestones that I would accomplish as I reached certain ages—such as when I would get married and when I would have my first child. Whereas most people try to have a 5-year plan or a 10-year plan, I decided to—just for fun—plan the rest of my life out. I look back and chuckle at my naïve and immature self because I understand now that I can’t plan out my life so neatly— it won’t ever work out the way I plan it. As I came to this realization, another realization came to mind – God has a plan, and His plan always comes to fruition.
As a teenager, I had a bad habit of leaving the lights on when I left a room—and my mom would constantly remind me of this. I certainly heard her say it—in fact, I can still hear it in the back of my head—and definitely understood why it was important to do so. But for some reason, it was in one ear and out the other, and I continued to forget to turn the lights off. In our passage today, John is writing this letter to the seven churches in Asia with specific instructions from the Lord. He starts out by reminding them that it’s not only important to hear these instructions, but to keep them. On a larger scale, we also must be reminded that it’s not only important to hear God’s Word, but also to earnestly obey what He has commanded us.
Paul began his letter to the Corinthians with a benediction (literally means “a good word”) of grace: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 1:2); and now ends with a benediction of grace. His message begins with grace, the middle is full of grace, and again ends with grace.
The AMI QT Devotionals from May 15-21 are provided by Pastor Barry Kang, who heads Symphony Church in Boston. Barry, a graduate of Stanford University and Fuller Theological Seminary (M.Div.), is married to Sunny (an amazing worship leader, chef and math wizard). They are the proud parents of Caleb and Micah.
One of my seminary professors refused to give exams in his class because he had been scarred by all exams and tests he’d endured in his own education. Even though I did fairly well with exams, his class was still one of my favorites in the seminary! Few of us like the idea of exams: We delay going to the doctor; we dread what we will hear from our auto mechanics. There is even a school of thought in education that wants to eliminate high-stakes testing (i.e. state wide exams) in our public schools. But we know that—even if we don’t like it—exams at some level are necessary. They are necessary because sometimes we get off-course (even if we don’t want to acknowledge it). That’s why we need to check where we are and figure out where to go from there.
Humble yourself and God will exalt you (James 4:10); the first shall be last (Matthew 20:16); free from sin, slaves of righteousness (Romans 6:18); live through dying (John 12:24); lose life to find it (Matthew 10:39); when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Cor. 12:10)—the New Testament has many seeming paradoxes. Culturally and societally speaking, they don’t always make sense, but spiritually—they make all the sense in the world.
Everybody has a thorn. Your thorn is that place in your life where you feel most vulnerable or broken or defeated. You don’t want to talk about it; you’d like to pretend it’s not there. Paul says that he pleaded with God three times to take his thorn away. This was not a casual request. Paul poured his heart out before God, but the heavens were silent. We’ve all been there.