A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars[1] on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon[2] with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns[3] on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth.
The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.”[4] And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days[5]…
The dragon pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle,[6] so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time,[7] out of the serpent’s reach. Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent.
But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.[8] Then the dragon was enraged at the woman[9] and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus. (Revelation 12: 1-6, 13-17)
Did you know that was a Christmas story? Here’s what part of it looks like in Matthew’s Gospel.
When [the Wise Men] had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” (Matthew 2: 13-18)
What happens after Christmas? “The dragon will wage war against those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.” I think John intended his audience to understand Rome/Herod/Caesar as the dragon. It would make sense considering how biblical writers used the image of Babylon.
Babylon, the actual city, become an image of all great cities and empires whose love of pleasure, indulgence, and excess wreaks havoc among God’s people. In Revelation, she is represented as a prostitute seducing the people of God.
Rome, the actual city, represents the power empires used to undermine and attack God’s people.
We can be attacked by both; we can fall in love with both. Revelation’s ‘prostitute’ (Babylon’s pleasure) and ‘dragon’ (Rome’s power) have made war with us for 2,000 years.
I think John was reminding God’s people that what the old map-makers wrote was right: “Here there be dragons.” Except now it’s everywhere. Isn’t Revelation the first version of Huxley’s Brave New World (Babylon) and Orwell’s 1984 (Rome)? In the United States, I think we get to battle both: the spiritual war we face in a culture infatuated by both pleasure and power.[10] But that’s another sermon….
* * * * *
We've already talked about life in between the two Advents, the birth of Christ in the return of Christ. We've already talked about how while Advent begins in the darkness it ends in the light. We have the hope of Jesus behind us and in front of us. There is a stabilization in our lives because of this. The Advent focus on peace, hope, love, and joy all depend on the reality of the life, death, resurrection and future return of Jesus.
That foundation is in place.
But we see how life unfolds between the two advents right away in scripture. After Jesus is born, Mary and Joseph have to flee with him to a foreign land, a land that represented a history of bondage and slavery to the people of Israel. They live separated from family and perhaps livelihood for months, perhaps years. In the area from which they fled, Herod promptly slaughtered children.[11]
The dragon was unleashed. Just like that, the darkness begins to push in to the light. As John made clear in his apocalypse, that war would continue. Indeed, it has, in great and small ways. The dragon hates the light of truth, love, goodness, hope, joy, peace…. When life feels ‘kingdom good,’ expect pushback. Expect war. It’s after Advent begins and the gymnatorium gets decorated and peace on earth starts for feel tangible after a hard year that a fire forces us to pivot yet again in a year with an exhausting number of pivots.
It's often after great moments of God's revelatory light that the darkness pushes in hard.[12]
I’ve not been persecuted in any meaningful sense of the world, so I don’t want to compare my experience with that of the persecuted church around the world. When I talk about the dragon in my life, I’m talking of the ways in which spiritual/emotional/relational darkness presses in to spiritual light. I don't know if you've experienced this in your life, but I've often found moments of great depression after times of great satisfaction.
I go teach in Costa Rica, and it's a profound experience, and I come home and I wrestle with physical and emotional health.
It's the sermon that feels really good followed by a Monday of doubt and anxiety and second-guessing.
It's the fantastic vacation with my wife, and two weeks later feeling like there is a relational chasm between us.
It's feeling really good about my fathering one day, and then having the wheels come off the next.
It's thinking one day how much I love the people in my life and the next day having my heart torn out by one of them.
It's having a much better financial year at church than I would have anticipated because of Covid, only to realize we have to cut budget for next year because we lost momentum in the latter half of the year.
It’s going from a moment where I think, “I am finally grounding my identity in Christ” to days of thinking, “Dear God, I am such a screw-up.”
Sheila and I both had bad experiences with dreams this past week. We went to sleep after a meaninful evening at home, and woke up from inexplicable chaos in a way that darkens and disorders our day. I told Sheila, “I think the dragon is making war.”
This is the pattern.[13]
But how does it end? With the resurrection and life. How will history end? With the return of the king to make a New Heaven and New Earth. What happens when my life ends? Joy unspeakable and full of glory.
So we know the beginning, we know the middle, and we know the end of the story. We're just in the middle right now. The light shines, the dark pushes in, the light shines, the dark pushes in. This is life between the advents.
This, too, is an apocalypse of sorts, an unveiling that the Bible makes clear to us and that is confirmed throughout our life. We think of the apocalypse as something earth-shattering and perhaps catastrophic, but in some ways it's the ongoing pattern of our life. Truth is constantly being unveiled to us by the grace of God. We see through a glass darkly on this side of heaven (1 Corinthians 123:12), so there is a constant need for an unveiling.
· It's when we finally understand that obscure passage of scripture.
· It's when we finally see how a biblical truth applies to our life in a life-changing way.
· It's when we begin to actually understand the power of repentance, and grace, and justice, and mercy.
· It's when the biblical interplay of both grace and works clicks.
· it's when we see the flow of our life in the reality of God's plan.
· It's when one our Christian brothers or sisters speaks truth into our life that opens our eyes.
· It's when we see ourselves as God sees us.
· It's when we learn how to lift up our heads (Psalm 27:6; 3:3; Luke 21:28)
· It's when we understand how God in his mercy and power could take people like us and tell us to arise and reflect his light (Isaiah 60:1) in a way that will bring glory to him.
These, too, are unveilings. We participate in an ongoing apocalypse. So one of the questions I have between the two advents of God is this: “How do these dark valleys work in our favor? How does God take the war leveled by the dragon and use it for our good and God’s glory?”
Apocalyptic literature in scripture was always literature of Hope. How does my life participate in that kind of story?
Think back to what we've read the last two weeks from the prophets in the Old Testament. What was the key to living in the light? It was repentance.
Those who walked in darkness had often walked in the darkness of their own making. In fact, the Bible has far less to say about the attacks from the dragons “out there” than the ones that have burrowed into our hearts. We tend to think of dragons like Smaug in The Hobbit: huge, overwhelming, flying over out towns or churches and just breathing fire, and so we pick up weapons and fight the dragon that came from over there, on that mountain. Let’s go take that mountain! That feels like a noble quest, right? It fits with the image in Revelation nicely.
To be sure, the dragon will make war against the saints in a very public way, no doubt. There are Smaugs that fly over our spiritual Laketowns. The church for 2,000 can give testimony to persecution and martyrdom. In those situations, we are told to be strong. The story ends in glory for the people of God, even if we wade there through blood.
But that’s only part of the story. God’s people in the Old Testament didn't get taken into exile in Babylon and bondage in Rome because Babylon and Rome were overwhelmingly strong. Israel had Yahweh. If Yahweh was for them, who could take them?
God’s people ended up there because they trashed their covenant with God and reaped the consequences of what they sowed – consequences God had made clear. And if Old Covenant physical realities are meant to teach us truths about New Covenant spiritual realities – and I think they are – I find myself with this conclusion: Our greatest threats as Christians and as a Church are not out there. Diablo- the devil, the dragon - is in here too, ever since Eden. “The call is coming from inside the house!”
There is no person, politician, law, educational system, Hollywood star, or organization that can make us give in to Babylon or Rome. There is no dragon that can force our hand or batter down our spiritual doors. The gates of hell cannot prevail against a holy church. But… we can embrace temptation.
They may not be able to force my hand, but I can choose to lie in Babylon’s bed or sit on Rome’s throne. They can’t storm the gates of heaven, but I can begin to worship their power and influence and pleasure. The most thoroughly conquered people are not those who are too weak to plot resistance; it’s those who see no reason to resist.[14]
If you read through the Old Testament prophets, they don't pull any punches. God's people gave in, and they did not see their sin. They did not see the darkness as darkness, and they embraced it.
“Arise, shine – absorb the light and shine in the darkness.” A crucial step to staying in the light of salvation in the Glorious kingdom of God is to repent. Since we started with a passage from Revelation, let’s look at where John goes with this.
Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven. (Revelation 18:4-5)
God told his people through the Prophet Jeremiah that if they humbled themselves and sought the face of God, their nation would experience the blessings that God told them were in store for them if they were true and loyal to God. If they didn't (as Jeremiah warned so vividly), it wasn't going to end well for their nation at all. They were always going to be God’s covenant people, but their experience of that covenant, their experience of life, was going to be radically different based on the posture of their hearts.
Their flourishing in the Kingdom God had planned for them had almost nothing to do with what the nations around them did. It had everything to do with how seriously they took the covenant. And if Old Testament physical realities teach us something about New Testament spiritual realities, our flourishing as Christian individuals and as a church will have almost nothing to do with what our Empire does to us or for us. It will have everything to do with how seriously we take our covenant.
This, I think, is the way in which we experience life more abundant, the fullness of the richness of God’s redemption of the world in our lives. And that can’t help but make us the kind of salt and light in the world that God intends.
We want revival in ourselves and in our nation; we want holiness in ourselves and in our nation; we want a rejection of sin and a love of justice and mercy in ourselves and in our nation. We want the light of Christ and his gospel to push back the darkness of sin. Where does this start? In the church (1 Peter 4:17). Revival begins here.[15]
Cultures cannot become more holy if the church does not become more holy; churches cannot become more holy if we fail to repent of our sinful contribution to the brokenness of the world and beg first for forgiveness from God and those we have wronged, and then for God’s wisdom, love and strength to walk in righteousness.[16]
We are going to take time for repentance this morning. I’m going to pull from the list of sins that were undermining Timothy’s church because it’s fresh in our memory.[17] You don’t have to limit yourself to this, but if you follow these categories as far as the Holy Spirit takes them in reference to your life, I think you might be surprised how much territory this will cover.
Areas of Repentance
1. proud/boastful “Boasting to anyone who is foolish enough to take him seriously! This kind of person claims many things he can't really do, so he must always keep moving on to new, naive listeners.” (HELPS Word Studies). Pray for the Holy Spirit to give you humility. God gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5) “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.” (James 3:13) “Better to be lowly in spirit along with the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud.” (Proverbs 16:19)
2. arrogant/haughty “Literally, ‘hyper shiny’. These are they who contemptuously look down on others beneath them, either in social position or wealth (the boasters), or perhaps in natural gifts (the proud).” (Ellicott’s Commentary) Pray for Holy Spirit to help you “honor everyone” (1 Peter 2:17) “above yourselves” (Romans 12:10). “God has put the body [the church] together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.” (1 Corinthians 12:24-25) “Don't do anything from selfish ambition or from a cheap desire to boast, but be humble toward one another, always considering others better than yourselves.” (Philippians 2:3)
3. abusive “Revilers/railers/blasphemers. Reverses spiritual and moral realities” by calling evil good, and good evil. (HELPS Word Studies) Pray for the Holy Spirit to give you gentleness and truth. “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” (Ephesians 4:2) “Let every word you speak be drenched with grace and tempered with truth and clarity. For then you will be prepared to give a respectful answer to anyone who asks about your faith. (Colossians 4:6)
4. Treacherous; Traitors.—Or, betrayers… of their Christian brethren. It does not mean traitors to their king or country, but generally betrayers of the persons who trust in them, and of the cause of the trust committed to them; perhaps specially… of their brethren in times of persecution. (Pulpit Commentary) Pray for the Holy Spirit to give you loyalty. “Never let loyalty (steadfast love) and kindness leave you! Tie them around your neck as a reminder. Write them deep within your heart.” (Proverbs 3:3) “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1) “Be devoted to one another in love.” (Romans 12:10)
5. Reckless - Better rendered “headstrong” in words, or thoughts, or actions. Rash. "Headstrong" rather denotes obstinacy which will not be influenced by wise advice… the person who acts from impulse, without considering consequences, or weighing principles. (Pulpit Commentary) Pray for the Holy Spirit to give you prudence and self-control. “Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city.” (Proverbs 16:32) “Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control.” (Proverbs 25:28) “The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways, but the folly of fools is deception.” (Proverbs 14:8)
6. Self-important - Highminded.— blinded by or inflated by pride. (See 1Timothy 3:6.) Pray for the Holy Spirit to give you humble self-awareness. "Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord." (Lamentations 3:40) "Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like." (James 1:22-24) “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” (Romans 12:3)
7. Rebellious against parents [authority] ’Unwilling to be persuaded (by God), which shows itself in outward disobedience (outward spiritual rebellion).” (HELPS Word Studies) Pray for the Holy Spirit to help us honor our parents/spiritual authorities. Pray for the ability to “add wealth” or “give weight” (biblical imagery) to godly voices in your life. Paul planted and Apollos watered (1 Corinthians 3:6-7); we all need holy planters and waterers in our lives. Hebrews 5:12 says, "you need someone to teach you." Pray for those that ‘have weight’ in your life; they are in desperate need wisdom, grace and truth.
8. Ungrateful – “properly, without God's grace (favor) which results in unthankfulness (literally, "ungrace-full"). (HELPS Word Studies) Pray for the ability to respond to God’s grace by “presenting our bodies (lives) as a living sacrifice” as a “reasonable act of service” (Romans 12:1). Pray for the Holy Spirit to enable you to pass this grace on to others.
9. Unholy - “A lack of reverence for what should be hallowed.” (HELPS WORD STUDIES) Pray for Holy Spirit to help you treat with reverence, or set apart as holy, all that should be hallowed. What are those things? God, clearly, and people (who are all image bearers (Genesis 1:26-27, 5:1-2); followers of Jesus are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3 and 6). Now ask yourself, “Am I treating everything in God’s created world with appropriate honor, with appropriate care and reverence?
10. Without restraint - “Incontinent.—Having no control over the passions or urges – emotions, words, appetites of all kinds.” (HELPS WORD STUDIES) Pray for the Holy Spirit to give you temperance and restraint, especially when it comes to moral and relational issues. Between the Holy Spirit, the guidelines of God’s Word, and the company of God’s people, there is no temptation to sin that we cannot bear (1 Corinthians 10:13)
11. Savage (bestial) - Fierce.—Inhuman, savage, or merciless, harsh, cruel. They are both soft and hard, incontinently indulging themselves and inhuman to others, when they should be hardened to self-indulgence and soft toward others.” (Pulpit Commentary) Pray for the Holy Spirit to give you the ability to be hospitable (merciful), or “soft toward others.” God is described as “abounding in mercy.” Jesus told people to learn what it means that God desires mercy more than sacrifices (Matthew 9:13). Blessed are the meek and the peacemakers (Matthew 5). Greater love has no one more than laying down your life (John 15:13). Serve others sacrificially. Turn away wrath with a soft answer (Proverbs 15:1). Overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21). If someone strikes you or takes your cloak, don’t seek revenge (Luke 6:29). ‘Shame’ them with kindness (Romans 12:20). Give food and water to your enemy, and the Lord will reward you. (Proverbs 25:21-22)
12. Haters of anything good - “Despisers of those that are good; that is, hostile to every good thought and work and person.” (HELPS Word Studies) Pray for the ability to be lovers of good (good thoughts, actions and persons), the things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report (Philippians 4:8). Pray for the ability to not only dwell on them, but to celebrate them everywhere we see them.
13. “Uncaring, coldhearted; without natural affection.” “Careless and regardless of the welfare of those connected with them by ties of blood, like spouses, parents and children. Plato says, ‘A child loves his parents, and is loved by them;’ and so, according to St. Paul's judgment in 1 Timothy 5:8, were "worse than infidels." (Pulpit Commentary) Pray for the Holy Spirit to give you the ability to love your spouses, parents, children and extended family. This may be a hard prayer. Remember: you are praying for a miracle, as supernatural gift from God. Also, pray for the wisdom to know what genuine love looks like in your situation. This may be a good one to pray in a small group of people who can offer wisdom.
14. Slanderers/false-accusers - the word is diabolos. People who a) have no regard for truth and b) like quarrels. Pray for the Holy Spirit to guide you into all truth (John 16:13), beginning with Scripture and extending into the rest of the world (Proverbs 23:23). Pray for the ability to know which ‘hills to die on,’ and which ones to give ground. Pray for the abilit to listen before you speak, and long for peace rather than thrive on conflict.
15. Despisers of covenant - Those unwilling to embrace bonds of treaty or covenant….one who will make no truce or treaty with his enemy.” (Pulpit Commentary) Pray for the longing to enter into biblically covenanted relationships (spouses (Genesis 2), friends (1 Samuel 20), family (see #13), church (Hebrews 10). Pray for the strength and grace to endure. Pray for wisdom to know how to be faithfully present in the covenants in your life.
THREE QUESTIONS
In what ares of your life do you need to repent?
To whom, besides God, do you need to repent?
What does it look like for you to move forward in a lifestyle of repentance?
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[1] “The woman is commonly thought to represent Israel. The imagery is similar to the sun, moon, and 12 stars that bowed down to Joseph in his dream (Genesis 37:9–11). In Revelation 12:2 we see Isaiah’s prediction (Isaiah 66:7–8) of a woman (Israel) bringing forth a man child fulfilled.” (Halley’s Bible Handbook Notes). The 12 stars are the faithful remnent from the Tribes of Israel. “The prophets portrayed righteous Israel as the mother of the restored future remnant of Israel (Isa 26:18 – 19; 54:1; 66:7 – 10; Mic 4:9 – 10; 5:3), and also as the mother of the leader who embodied Israel’s restoration (Isa 9:6; cf. Mic 5:2 – 3).” (NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible) In this case, the mother of Jesus, Mary, arises from ‘mother’ Israel.
[2] The dragon is commonly understood as the Roman empire.
[3] These symbols represents great power.
[4] This is Jesus, the Messiah. See Isaiah 7:14 and Psalm 2:7–9.
[5] “1,260 days. The time of spiritual protection corresponds to the time of persecution (see Revelation 11:2; and 13:5). (NIV Study Bible Notes)
[6] Exodus 19:4
[7] See Daniel 12:7. This is also 1,260 days.
[8] Jesus is delivering them from bondage, just like Moses. Thus the borrowing of image from the Exodus. “A flood of water could represent any sufferings (Ps 32:6; Jer 47:2), including unjust opposition (Ps 18:3 – 4; 69:1 – 4,14 – 15; 124:2 – 5); serpents’ mouths represent slander in Ps 140:1 – 5. But God would be with his people through the waters (Isa 43:2).” (NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible)
[9] “The victory that God has previously accomplished over Leviathan is the pattern for the woman’s triumph over the dragon.” See Isaiah 51:9-10; Psalm 74:14; Job 41. (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary)
[10] “If God is dead, somebody is going to have to take his place. It will be megalomania or erotomania, the drive for power or the drive for pleasure, the clenched fist or the phallus, Hitler or Hugh Hefner.” – Malcolm Muggeridge
[11] “Advent is the right time for the asking of hard questions. Advent comes to a climax, not only on Christmas Day but also in the massacre of the innocents by Herod. The church has historically observed the Feast of the Holy Innocents on December 27, a remarkable conjuncture that remembers a massacre of infants in the same season that we rejoice in the birth of Christ. The great theme of Advent is hope, but it is not tolerable to speak of hope unless we are willing to look squarely at the overwhelming presence of evil in our world.” Fleming Rutledge
[12] It’s a pattern found in Scripture.
· After God calls light into the world in Genesis 1, in Genesis 3 the darkness moves in with serpents and sin.
· After God Saves Noah and his family, Noah falls into sin almost immediately.
· Joseph gets miraculously insightful dreams from God, and it turns him into an arrogant, boastful jerk.
· Moses meets God on the mountain, and yet his sin keeps him from entering the Promised Land.
· Israel gets the promised land and then ends up in Exile when it all falls apart.
· Mary gives birth to the Messiah, but will eventually lose her husband and watch her son be crucified.
· Paul’s account of what his life was like after a personal apocalypse of the Risen savior is characterized by persecution.
[13] It doesn't surprise God. He entered into a world in which he experienced life in this pattern. He was revealed in the light of God's glory, only to go to a wilderness to endure temptation. (Matthew 3-4) He entered Jerusalem to adoring crowds who would eventually kill him. (Matthew 21:1–11, Mark 11:1–11, Luke 19:28–44, and John 12:12–19).He surrounded himself with 12 disciples, only to have one of them betray him. (Luke 22)
[14] Me. I just put it like a quote so I could read it word-for-word J
· [15] Isaiah 30:15 “This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.”
· Psalm 139:23: “Search me o God and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in me, and Lead Me into life.”
· Acts 20:20-21 "I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus."
· 1 John 1: 8 "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
· 2 Peter 3:9 "The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance."
· Acts 3:19 “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.”
· Acts 2:38 “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
· Matthew 3:8 “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”
· Romans 2:4 “Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?”
· 1 John 1:8-9 “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
· Revelation 2:5 “Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”
· Proverbs 28:13 “Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.”
· Acts 26:20 “[They] declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.”
[16] What about Ninevah? Jonah told Ninevah that there was one particular thing God was going to judge them for: violence. They paid attention. There is every reason to believe the rest of life in Ninevah remained as pagan as ever. They did not become holy. What about Constantine’s embrace of Christianity for Rome? That, too, did not bring about holiness. It doesn’t appear much changed in daily Roman life except that Christians weren’t persecuted. And because Christians (understandably) were quite pleased not to be killed, they eventually began to support the nationalistic agenda of Roman to stay on Rome’s good side. And that, friends, is called syncretism.
[17] We went through in our 2 Timothy series in the three “Roots and Fruits” sermons.