Hold On/Be Faithful

Warren Brosi

12-1-24

Dominant Thought: Hold on to Jesus, our crowning King.

Objectives:

I want my listeners to understand the importance of holding on to Jesus.

I want my listeners to feel encouraged to hold on to Jesus in times you feel like giving up or giving in.

I want my listeners to choose some practices to help them hold on to Jesus.

My freshman year at Ozark Christian College I tried out of the basketball team. At the first meeting, there were 30 boys in the locker room for 15 spots. After coach passed out the 10 day conditioning program, only 18 showed up the next day. Each day, we ran 10 miles of including the hill on campus, sprinted across the soccer field, did plyometrics across the soccer field, jumped ropes, ran stairs, and probably did something with a medicine ball. We didn’t touch a basketbal for 10 days.

After the first couple of days, the only food I could eat was jello. I visited with a former coach at church that weekend and was crying my woes. He asked me if I was committed to the training to make the team. If I was committed, then he said he would pray for me. I thought to myself, I’d like for you to pray regardless. He wanted a commitment from me before He went to the Lord in prayer for me. Then, he said, “Success if failure turned inside out.” Later, I found that line in a poem by John Greenleaf Whittier, “Don’t Quit.”

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,

When the road you’re trudging seems all up hill,

When the funds are low and the debts are high

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit,

Rest if you must, but don’t you quit .

Life is strange with its twists and turns

As every one of us sometimes learns

And many a failure comes about

When he might have won had he stuck it out;

Don’t give up though the pace seems slow

You may succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,

And you never can tell just how close you are,

It may be near when it seems so far;

So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit

It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.

For all the sad words of tongue or pen,

The saddest are these: “It might have been!

One of the clearest messages from Revelation is an encouragement to troubled and worn out believers to hold on to Jesus no matter what life brings. In a world of evil governments and crooked commercial interests, the Revelation of Jesus encourages the faithful ones to remain faithful to the Faithful one.

Sometimes you feel like giving in…hold on to Jesus (Revelation 2.13-14).

Let’s be honest sometimes you feel like giving in to the cultural pressures and peer influences of the day. The people in Revelation and in Pergamum had similar struggles. Jesus recognized that Satan’s throne was in their city (Revelation 2.13). He commends this church for remaining faithful and not renouncing the name of Jesus. They remained faithful even as the faithful witness, Antipas, was killed for following Jesus (Revelation 2.13).

While Jesus commends them for their faithfulness, He confronts them for giving into false teachings. There were some who were holding to the teachings of Balaam and the Nicolaitans (Revelation 2.14-15). These teachings broke faith with food sacrificed to idols an sexual immorality.

Those in Pergamum were tempted to give into the cultural teachings and pressures of the day instead of holding on to Jesus. What would it look like in our day in America? Many churches are bowing to the cultural pressures of the day instead of defining marriage as God created between one man and one woman. Some churches want to talk generically about God so they don’t have to offend people by mentioning Jesus. We are a Jesus church. This Revelation is the Revelation of Jesus Christ (Revelation 1.1).

Sometimes you feel like giving in, but Jesus commands His church to hold on to Him. He promises to reward the church in Pergamum with “a new name” (Revelation 2.17).

Sometimes you feel like giving up…hold on to Jesus (Revelation 2.25).

The church in Thyatira felt like giving up. Jesus warns them that giving in will lead to giving up. They tolerated the teachings of Jezebel. Jezebel had been dead for 800 years when Revelation was written. Jezebel was queen in the northern kingdom of Samaria with her husband king Ahab. Jezebel had many prophets of God killed and threatened the great prophet Elijah. She was evil and a bully. Jezebel is not a compliment. There’s a reason parents don’t name their daughters Jezebel.

Toleration had led to assimilation to Satan’s deep secrets (Revelation 2.24). Jesus tells them, I only have one command for you, “Hold on to what you already have” (Revelation 2.25). A clear motivation for not giving up is remembering what you have. Husbands, remember your wife and children when you are tempted toward pornography or that after work meeting with someone who is not your wife. Students remember your identity as a child of God when you receive a less than desirable grade on an assignment or an insult in the lunchroom or locker room. Remember what you have before you readily give it up.

There’s a reason why married couples choose to symbolize and publicize their wedding vows with rings. Those rings remind each other the precious value of their marriage covenant and the vows they made before family and friends. Remember what you have before you give up.

Jesus reminds the church in Thyatira, “To everyone who conquers and continues to do my works to the end, I will give authority over the nations” (Revelation 2.26, NRSV).

All the time hold on to Jesus, our crowning King (Revelation 3.11).

Sometimes you feel like giving in. Giving in left unchecked will lead to giving up. All the time, Jesus invites us to hold on to Him, our crowning King. To the church in Philadelphia, He commands in Revelation 3:11 (ESV), “I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.” He warns that He is coming soon. Hold on, seize, grasp, hold tight to what you have. Jesus our crowning King has crowned us as citizens of His kingdom. He wants us to hold onto it so no one will take away our crown.

I can remember hearing from our youth minister’s wife, Susan, tell our youth group after serving in the name of Jesus. She would say, “That’s another jewel in your crown.” Maybe a reminder that we need remember that Jesus in King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Why would we want to forfeit His kingdom or trade our crown for anything less.

I did make the basketball team but the lesson I learned that year was the benefit of staying with something even when it gets difficult.

My friends, Jesus our King is the one who prayed for the cup of suffering to pass from Him in the garden of Gethsemane the night before the cross.

A couple of weeks ago, Charlie Duggins shared the lyrics from the hymn, “The Old Rugged Cross.” There’s a stanza from that song to help us hold on to Jesus.

So I'll cherish the old rugged cross, Till my trophies at last I lay down; I will cling to the old rugged cross, And exchange it someday for a crown

“I will cling to the old rugged cross, and exchange it someday for a crown.” As we are formed by the cross shaped life, remember the crown our King has for us. Jesus is introduced to us as the faithful witness and firstborn from the dead in Revelation 1.5. Hold on to the faithful one even when you feel like giving in or giving up because He didn’t give in or give up.