LOYALTY TO JESUS
DR. JIM DIXON
REVELATION 2:8-13
JANUARY 30, 1994
In the 16th century, King Henry VIII sent a delegation to Rome. The delegation was headed by the Earl of Wiltshire. He was to have an audience with the Pope. It’s rather humorous that the Earl of Wiltshire took along with him his dog, of which he was very fond. Of course, it would never happen today. The Vatican would not allow it, but when he had his audience with the Pope, he took his dog with him as well. In that audience as he approached the Pope, the Earl of Wiltshire prostrated himself. He fell down before the Vicar of Christ. He offered to kiss the Pope’s feet. The Pope was more than willing to receive this homage and he thrust his foot forward towards the Earl of Wiltshire. The dog misunderstood. The dog took it as a kind of threatening gesture. Instead of receiving a kiss, the Pope received a mouthful of teeth. A painful moment.
The Vatican guard was so enraged they killed the dog on the spot. The Earl of Wiltshire was not pleased. He was so shocked at the loss of his dog that he just walked away from his audience with the Pope, returned to England, and never came back. King Henry VIII never sought reconciliation with Rome again. From that point on, England and Rome went separate ways. One might even say that it was the loyalty of a dog that really spawned, in a sense, the Anglican church, which replaced the Catholic church in England.
Now, of course, dogs tend to be very loyal to their owners, loyal to their masters. A dog will oftentimes defend his master no matter who the opposition is. But people are not necessarily like that. People are not necessarily so loyal. In fact, sociologists and psychologists tell us that this generation of Americans called the “boomer generation” and even the next generation called the “buster generation”—that this generation of Americans is less loyal than any prior generation of Americans. That’s what they say… less loyal to marriage, less loyal to their company or corporation, less loyal to their churches, less loyal. Now, perhaps, that’s an overstatement. And yet certainly it is true that times have changed.
I know that most of you have heard of Knute Rockne. Knute Rockne graduated magna cum laude from Notre Dame University. He could have been a brilliant professor of chemistry. In fact, he did teach chemistry at Notre Dame for a few years, but he became renowned as one of the greatest football coaches in American history. In 1921, Rockne’s Notre Dame squad lost a critical football game with the University of Iowa. They returned to South Bend. Knute Rockne and his football players returned on the train to South Bend dejected, but the whole student body, all the students on the Notre Dame campus, (this was 1:00 AM), walked three miles to the train station to greet those players even in defeat. They lifted Knute Rockne on their shoulders and carried him back to the Notre Dame campus and he was moved, moved and touched, so much so that he said that as long as Notre Dame was willing to have him, he would never leave the University of Notre Dame.
And he never did. He remained there until the day he died, when he died in that tragic airplane accident on a Kansas hilltop. He received many other offers through the years, many other offers to other colleges, other universities, even to corporations. He was offered a great deal more money and he turned it all down that he might be loyal to Notre Dame.
I know that many of you have heard of John Havlicek. In the world of sports, he is one of the great players for the Boston Celtics. He played for the Celtics years ago. In his career, he never had a year when he made more than $100,000. Yet there came this incredible moment when the ABA offered him a contract for more than $2 million if he would leave the NBA. $2 million, an unheard of sum of money in those days. John Havlicek turned it down. He turned it down with these words. He said, “I’ve worked all my life and have always tried to do what is right. I never thought I’d earn more than $25,000. I just can’t believe the money we’re talking about, but to tell you the truth, I love Boston. I value my reputation. I value what I think is right. So my answer is this: Even if they offered me another $2.5 million, I’m going to stay with the Boston Celtics.”
Now today that would be called dumb. I mean, that’s what this generation would call that—dumb. But back in those days, that was called loyalty. Now perhaps Knute Rockne and John Havlicek were somewhat atypical even in their time but, you see, today such people are nonexistent. It seems like more and more people are loyal only to themselves, loyal to the highest bidder.
The Bible has much to say about loyalty. God is looking for a loyal people. This morning, from the pages of scripture, I’d like is to examine this subject of loyalty with two references. First of all, loyalty to Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, the Apostle Paul makes a strong statement. The Apostle Paul says, “No one speaking by the Spirit of Christ can say Jesus be cursed. And no one says Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Spirit of God.”
Now, at first glance that statement might be seen as simply saying that if we have the Holy Spirit we’re going to confess the lordship of Christ and if we have the Holy Spirit we’ll never renounce Christ. But in the context, the statement is far stronger than that. In the historical context, Paul was speaking in the midst of a Greek, Jewish and Roman world. In the Jewish community, if a person became a Christian, if a man or a woman became a Christian, even a son or daughter, they were told to say, “Jesus be cursed.” They were told by their families to renounce their faith. They were told by their families to say, “Jesus be cursed.” If they would not say that, they were more or less excommunicated, banished from their home, banished from their family, stripped of their careers and employment, sometimes banished from the entire Jewish community if they said, “Jesus is Lord.” Yet if the Spirit of God was really in them, if they had really received the Spirit of Christ, they were loyal. They would not renounce Christ and they would say, “Jesus is Lord.” Though the cost was great and they would be banished from their home and family, they would say, “Jesus is Lord.”
In the Roman world, it was not uncommon for Christians to be dragged before Roman authorities in Roman cities, brought to the Roman temples where they were told to burn incense on the altar and to say, “Caesar is Lord.” If they really had the Spirit of Christ… I mean if they really belonged to Jesus Christ, in that moment they were loyal unto death. They would say, “No, Jesus is Lord.” Many paid with their lives. It’s in that context that the Apostle Paul said, “No one speaking by the Spirit of God says, ‘Jesus be cursed’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.” It’s a context of loyalty.
How loyal are we? Perhaps some of you have heard of Gaspard de Coligny. Gaspard de Coligny was the Christian who led the great Protestant group called the Huguenots. Gaspard de Coligny was murdered in the massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Day on August 24, 1572—murdered by order of Catherine de’ Medici, who was the mother of King Charles IX, King of France. Somehow she thought this Christian man… somehow she thought this Protestant was a threat to the sovereignty of her son. Of course, the Huguenots were persecuted throughout Europe. One hundred years later, many of those Huguenots came over to colonial America, including the family of Paul Revere. But through their history, the Huguenots always highly esteemed Gaspard de Coligny for his loyalty to Jesus Christ, his love for Christ and his courage.
It was said that in 1557, when Gaspard de Coligny was in a frontier town on the borders of France in a town called St. Quinton, a fortified town with a walled city, he was under attack, he and his people, by royal forces. It is said that the armies of the king sent arrows over the wall with little parchment attached to each arrow. The writing on the parchment said, “Surrender. Accept the authority of the King and your lives will be spared and your property returned.” It is said that Gaspard de Coligny took a javelin, attached parchment to the javelin, wrote two words on the javelin: “regim havimus.” “We have a king.” And he threw the javelin back over the wall. Truly his king was Jesus Christ, and he was willing to die for that king.
Through history there have been many Christians who have accepted earthly kings, but all true Christians have acknowledged that the highest authority, the King of Kings, is the King Jesus Christ. We’re called today to be loyal to Him. I think today in some ways it’s most difficult. I think there are many of us… If we were brought before Roman authorities… If we were brought before Jewish authorities… and of course today this would never happen, but I mean if we were brought before any authorities, what would compare with Roman or Jewish authorities in those days and told to renounce Christ or die, my suspicion is that many of us would die.
My hope and prayer is that all of us who are called by the name of Christ would be willing to die for Christ. I think the loyalty that it would take to be faithful to Christ in that moment perhaps would not be as great as the loyalty it takes to live for Christ day by day. I think sometimes the greater loyalty is required of this generation. To be loyal to Christ day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year in the midst of such a fallen culture… I think it’s hard, and many of you call yourselves Christians, my guess is most of you. I think God wants us to search our hearts today and ask ourselves how loyal we are. I’m always amazed the numbers of people in our church who are living with a man or a woman, not their wife or husband, having sex, premarital sex, and taking the name of Christ all the while. Do you not understand that is disloyal to Christ? That’s not being faithful to His word. Do you understand what the Bible teaches? That God has said in the Word that sexual relations are set apart for marriage? That sexual relations are to be part of the spiritual, emotional, physical union of marriage?
Who do we seek to honor? When we lie, when we cheat, when we steal, when we gossip, when we slander, who are we being disloyal to? We’re being disloyal to Christ. And it doesn’t matter, what the world says. We live for an audience of one. There’s only one person before whom we will stand or fall. That person is Jesus Christ. We’ve been called to loyalty to Him. He wants us to understand He’s loyal to us. He has said, “I’ll never fail you or forsake you. Lo, I am with you always, even to the close of the age.” He said, “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.”
Speaking of His loyalty and ours, He said, “I know My sheep. They hear My voice. They follow Me. I give them eternal life. No one is able to snatch them out of My hand.” Loyal, He to us, us to Him. That is the call of God. Loyalty to Jesus Christ. I think sometimes it’s kind of hard. I think sometimes we have divided loyalties. Sometimes we weigh loyalties. I know a few years ago I got a phone call from a policeman telling me that he had Drew in his custody. Of course, this was a few years ago when Drew was not so wise. What Drew had done was he had gone out with some friends. They had taken some eggs from a friend’s refrigerator, put them in their coat pockets and gone out egging. Do you know what egging is? They’d gone out and were just kind of throwing eggs. They threw eggs that night at various things, including a few cars. Someone called the police and the police came. All of Drew’s friends got away. The only one caught was Drew.
So the cop calls me and I drive over there. I think this policeman was laying it on a little thick, but I was kind of glad he was because I think Drew was learning a lesson. He seemed to be really shook. But he was being loyal, loyal to his friends, because, you see, the cop wanted to know the name of every friend that had gone egging with Drew. He wanted to know their phone numbers. “Give me the names of your friends and their phone numbers,” and Drew was being absolutely silent. I could understand. I mean, we can all understand that tension. Right? You want to be loyal to your friends. You don’t want to get them in trouble. I talked to Drew about another kind of loyalty, loyalty to the law, loyalty to the government, the country in which you live and of which you are a citizen. Another kind of loyalty.
Sometimes loyalties come into conflict, don’t they? I mean you look at 1 Samuel in the Bible and you read about Jonathan and his divided loyalties. Two people were most important in his life, David and Saul. David was Jonathan’s best friend. Saul was Jonathan’s own father. And Jonathan loved them both. He loved David. He loved Saul. The problem was King Saul was trying to kill David. Divided loyalties.
We can understand that, but God wants us to know this: He wants us to know there’s no loyalty higher than our loyalty to Christ. If ever we feel a division of loyalties, there’s no loyalty higher than our allegiance to Christ. We are to honor Him in all things every day we live, to seek to honor Him, to be faithful to Him. The Greek word “pistos,” which literally means “loyal,” is used in our passage of scripture for today. “Be loyal unto death. I’ll give you the crown of life.” Loyal.
I’d like us to take a brief look at loyalty in a different context, and that’s loyalty to the people of Christ. Biblically we are not simply called to loyalty to Christ, but we’re called to be loyal to His people. I know you have all heard of Esther in the Old Testament, the Book of Esther. Esther was, of course, the Queen of Persia. She was the wife of Xerxes I, whom the Bible calls Ahasuerus. Esther was chosen as queen because of her great beauty. She was Jewish but she did not reveal her Jewish blood to the king. She did not let the king know that she was Jewish, and she withheld this information because she was counseled to do this by her cousin, Mordecai, who somehow was in the court of the king, an official in the king’s court.
Mordecai had said to Esther, “Don’t ever reveal that you are a Jew.” But you see, ultimately circumstances arose where Esther had to publicly, at the risk of her life, in order to be loyal to her people confess her Jewish blood. It was because the king had an advisor named Haman. Haman became the king’s chief minister. He was an evil man. Haman had an inflated ego and an insatiable quest for power. When he became the chief minister, he issued an edict that all of the people, all of the officials in the court of the king, had to prostrate themselves before him whenever he passed. Whenever he walked by, they had to fall down before him, but Mordecai refused to do it. He refused to do it and so Haman hated Mordecai as he hated all the Jews. He built gallows. One day, he hoped to hang Mordecai.
Well, the king had different feelings towards Mordecai because Mordecai had once saved the king’s life when he had overheard an assassination plot, revealed it to the king and the king’s life was spared. Though it was sometime later, the king decided he wanted to reward Mordecai. He wanted to do something special for him. He didn’t know what to do so he called Haman, his advisor, and said, “What do you think I should do to honor a man who has served me greatly?” Haman in his arrogance thought the king was talking about him. Haman said, “You can’t do enough for this guy.” Haman said, “You need to put a royal crown on his head. You need to put royal robes on him. You need to call all the people and you need to bring them out in the streets and you need to march this man through the street of Susa, the capital city, and let everyone know this man’s greatness.” The king said, “Very well, I want you to arrange this for Mordecai.”
You can imagine how Haman felt, but it got worse because Haman had tried to poison the king’s heart toward the Jews. He tried to poison the king’s heart towards all the Jewish people. He had talked the king into signing a declaration that allowed him to kill all the Jewish people in Persia and confiscate their property. You see, this is what caused Mordecai to come to Esther and say, “You can no longer hide your Jewish blood. You need to reveal yourself to the king. At the risk of your own life, you need to go to the king and say, ‘I am a Jew. Don’t allow my people to be killed.’ You need to stand with your people though it may cost you your life.”
This she did. She went to the throne room of the king unbidden, risking her life, but the king’s heart was for her and the king spared her people. Haman fell.
Now, God wants us to understand if we confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior we have a people. They are the people of God and they are called Christians. If we confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, then we have a people and they are called Christians. They live all over the world. We have been called to loyalty. Loyalty to the people of Christ. But this is hard because it’s so vague. How do you express loyalty to the church universal? How do you express loyalty to Christians the world over?
Biblically, we express loyalty to Christians the world over when we commit ourselves to a local church, when we commit ourselves to a group of Christian men and women and we make ourselves faithful to them. Loyal to a local church, faithful to a local church. Now, perhaps I’m not the best to speak concerning this since I’m the pastor of a local church. I must say, by way of clarification, loyalty to a local church is not the same as loyalty to a pastor. Your loyalty to the local church must transcend your loyalty to that church’s pastor.
One of the maladies of the church of Christ in America at the end of the 20th century is that so many people are so enamored with pastors. Pastor worship is sick. The only thing sicker is pastors who want to be worshipped. Loyalty to the local church transcends any loyalty to a pastor. I do believe that as Christians we should respect the call and service of pastors. Loyalty to the local church transcends all that.
My mom and dad have been members of the same local church for 40 years, for more than 40 years—Glendale Presbyterian Church, Glendale, California. They’ve seen many pastors come and go. They’ve seen a lot of staff changes through the years. In fact, my dad was a council member at the time one of the pastors was removed, Dr. Bruce Thielman, who just passed away recently. When he was removed as the pastor of Glendale Presbyterian Church, my dad was on the committee that removed him and my dad was asked to go to Dr. Thielman and tell him that it was the will of the Session that he pursue his giftedness elsewhere. It was not easy for my dad. But in doing that, my dad was not being disloyal to the local church. He really cared about Bruce Thielman, but the truth was Dr. Thielman had some personal problems and for the church’s sake he needed to leave. Your loyalty to the pastor cannot transcend your loyalty to the church. What a mistake.
At another time in the history of Glendale Presbyterian Church my brother, Greg, was an elder and he was on a committee that removed another pastor. This only happened twice in the history of the church. They removed another pastor and Greg was the guy that was told to go and tell this other pastor that he needed to leave. How tough that is. How tough. But, you see, when I say loyalty to the local church… When God tells us to commit ourselves to some brothers and sisters in Christ, God calls us to faithfulness to a local church, that transcends loyalty to a pastor. It transcends all that.
And certainly loyalty to the local church is different than loyalty to the building. I think some Christians seem to think the local church is the building they go to. I had two ministers call me this past week, one from California, one from right here in Denver. They said that they and the leadership of their church was considering pulling out of their denomination. They wanted to know what to do because they knew that I had at one time been involved in a church that did that. They wanted to know what they should do. They wanted to leave the denomination with which they were affiliated. Of course, that’s a tough issue because there’s loyalty that should be given in some measure to a denomination if you’re affiliated with one. But they said that they really believe that this denomination was no longer loyal to Christ and they were tired. They had tried to be salt, they said, but they felt like they were just being salt in a garbage can. Both churches felt like it was time to leave the denomination. What should they do?
I said, “Well, you know, in the denominations you’re in, you’re going to have to leave your church building because constitutionally, by law in those denominations, the way they’re structured, they own the local church buildings. If you as a leadership team and as a congregation want to pull out of that congregation, you’re going to have to walk. You’re going to have to leave the bricks and mortar. You’re going to have to start all over again.” They were stunned. Leave the building… what a shock.
Well, of course, we’re leaving this building. I hope you don’t feel like that. I hope you don’t feel that your loyalty is to the building. If you do, you’re going to have to convert to Judaism because, you see, we’ve sold this building to the Hebrew Alliance.
Loyalty to the local church is loyalty to a group of people, men and women, who love Christ and with which you are bonded together in Christ. This is the call of Christ, that we would learn loyalty. We live in a generation where so few are loyal to local churches. So many Christians just church shop today. Studies show most Christians just change churches every year or two. They might go to many churches—one program at one church, another program at another church, another program at still another church. There’s no real faithfulness or loyalty there.
How about you? Do you have any sense of loyalty to this church? 10 or 20 years from now are you going to be here if you’re still living in South Denver? Are you going to be here when there’s different pastors perhaps, different staff? Dixon, Beltz and Angone aren’t here anymore? Dick and Marcia not here? Are you still going to be here? If you’re still living and the Lord tarries and you live in South Denver, are you going to be here? Is there a sense of loyalty?
I think Christ is looking for a people who are loyal to Him and a people that are learning loyalty to each other, just as we express our commitment to the church universal through a commitment to a local church. I think in the local church it is so essential to find a commitment to a smaller group. That’s why I think the ministry that Lou and Ginger are involved in with the cell ministry is so important. We might learn what it is to commit yourselves to a group of brothers and sisters in Christ. If your friends in Christ are here, you’re going to have a commitment here greater than if you’re just a spectator. This is the call of Christ. The future of this church Cherry Hills Community Church, I promise you, is no stronger, no greater, than the measure of your loyalty to this church. This is the call of God upon His people. “Be loyal to My Son, Jesus Christ. He is King of Kings. He is Lord of Lords.” You live for an audience of one. Someday you’ll stand before Him. You’ll want to hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Learn loyalty to the people of Christ, brothers and sisters in Christ, bonded with them in service in this world. Let’s close with a word of prayer.