Summary
“I have this against you,” says Jesus, “that you tolerate that woman… that teaches my servants to practice whoredom… I will strike her children dead.”
WOW! What’s wrong with porneou (whoredom), and who, or what, are her children?
Whoredom objectifies, quantifies, and qualifies. It “commodifies” love.
Whoredom seeks to consume love, but will not be consumed by Love.
Whoredom seeks to buy and sell Love, but Love is free.
Whoredom is not free and so it is not love but the death of Love. To seek the power and beauty of Jesus instead of Jesus is whoredom.
Whoredom seeks to crucify Love in the flesh.
God is Love and Love in the flesh is Jesus . . . our Husband.
It was the spirit of porneou that tempted Eve to take the fruit of knowledge from the tree in a garden.
It was the spirit of porneou that tempted the Pharisees to justify themselves with law and then take the Life that is Jesus on a tree in a garden.
It was the spirit of porneau that tempted Jerusalem to chant, “Crucify, crucify, crucify” and “We have no husband but Caesar.” We are Jerusalem.
In the Vision, we meet the Great Whore and she looks just like Jerusalem, as well as Rome, and any city governed by the economy of consumption. She is the mother of “earth’s abominations.”
Jesus said to the Pharisees, “You are those who justify yourselves… What is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.”
What is exalted among men is our pride—the offspring of the Great Whore.
Our pride tells us that we can justify ourselves, as so, pay for Love—which means that we are trying to pay for God and playing the whore . . . with Jesus.
Jesus destroys the Harlot with a covenant of Love that transforms us into the Bride.
The blood of that covenant flows from a throne that is a tree in a garden.
It flows from a slaughtered lamb who is our Husband.
The blood burns away pride and cleanses us of whoredom.
To drink from His cup is to say, “I do.”
We overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of our testimony: Jesus.
He will give us His power and beauty, but first He will give us Himself.
*Discussion Questions are available for this sermon here: Discussion Questions “Thyatira & Love That Can’t Be Pimped”