Please turn in your Bibles this morning to Revelation chapter 3 as we look at the letter that Jesus wrote to the church in Laodicea. This morning we are going to finish up looking at this seventh letter that Jesus wrote to the church in the Roman Province of Asia Minor or the western part of modern day Turkey. And as I said before, these 7 churches that Jesus wrote to were for a specific reason, He was making a point to each of them and to us.
On Thursday we looked at this church HISTORICALLY speaking, that it was a real church that existed in John’s day. The city of Laodicea was located about 40 miles southeast of Philadelphia and about 100 miles due east of Ephesus, where we started with these letters that Jesus wrote. The city of Colosse was 10 miles to the east and Hierapolis was 6 miles to the north and they were all located in the Lycus valley and part of a triad of cities.
This city was rich, they were a strategic banking center. They raised these black sheep whose black wool was produced into clothes and rugs and sold at a very high price and very sought after. And they produced this much sought after eye salve at the medical school located in the Phrygian god Men Karou temple. They had it all it would seem, they needed help from no one. In fact, back in 60 AD a devastating earthquake leveled the city but instead of looking to Rome for help, as some of the other cities did when they suffered a calamity, they rebuilt the city on their own.
They also didn’t have enough of a water supply in the city so they had to have it pumped in from several miles away and by the time it reached the city, probably from Colosse, it was lukewarm, it no longer was cold and refreshing. If it came from Hierapolis, these hot therapeutic waters, by the time they reached Laodicea they were no longer hot but lukewarm and not very therapeutic.
Once again the light of the Gospel probably pierced the darkness of this city while Paul was in Ephesus for two years as we are told in Acts 19:10, “And this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.” And as we saw on Thursday, Epaphras may have planted the church there or at least ministered there, (Colossians 1:17, 4:12-13). Also, it is possible that Archippus, the son of Philemon was the pastor there, (Colossians 4:17).
But as great a start as this church received, now some 30 to 40 years after Paul wrote to the Colossian church, this church was spiritually dead, they were lukewarm to the Lord. In fact, Jesus is on the outside of this church knocking to get in! And so Jesus writes this letter to the lukewarm church in around 96 AD, it was a real church!
Also on Thursday we looked at this church PROPHETICALLY speaking. We saw that it represented the apostate church of the last days and this church is focused on SELF and there is no room for the Lord in their lives or in their church! Listen to what Paul Proctor wrote regarding the state of the church today, the apostate church:
Contemplative Spirituality is finding its way into the church these days largely through youth groups, events, conferences, concerts, and coffee houses where Emergent leaders and their wayward wisdom wow young wannabes into mind-numbing mysticism right under the noses of ignorant and/or delinquent parents and pastors who assume their teens are being instructed in the faith of their fathers, having, in absentia, abdicated their spiritual duty over to change agents so they themselves can passionately pursue their own purpose driven lives.
The seeker-sensitive pulpits of America long ago jettisoned the fear of the Lord and the Gospel of repentance in order to partake in the pragmatic pleasures of personal experience and cuddle in the cozy compromise of consensus, spawning a generation of “Christians” that care not about the absolute truth of God’s Word but only about turning inward for gratification and guidance and outward for adulation and affirmation, just like their PDL [Purpose Driven Life] parents, making them more compliant to the coming one-world religion of tolerance, diversity and unity. Simply put, Contemplative prayer is quickly becoming the transition tool of choice to ultimately unite a compromised church with a wanton world through mysticism.
“Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools . . .” - Romans 1:21-22.
- Paul Proctor, Contemplative Spirituality – the Latest ‘Christian’ Craze,
November 8, 2006, NewsWithViews.com
You see, I truly believe we are seeing before our eyes the emergence of the apostate church of the last days. This is the church that is consumed with self, as I have said. What I find interesting is that the name of this city, Laodicea, means, “ruled by the people.” And look at these purpose driven, seeker friendly, emergent churches and they have moved away from God’s Word and are led by the philosophies of man, the feelings or experiences a person has! They are focused on self!
Now, this morning our main focus is for us to look at this letter INDIVIDUALLY, or how it relates to us, what we need to do in our lives, in our own walk. We need to be open to what the Spirit of God is saying to us this morning and apply it to our lives so that we may grow in Him!
Now over the past few months we have hit this issue of apostasy hard, finishing up with Roger Oakland sharing with us on this subject. So I am going to have our focus a little different this morning. You see, you are already aware of the apostasy that is growing and if not, you can get the CD’s of the studies. The issue is now, what are you going to do about it? Before we get to our text this morning, let me share with you this story that will point us in the direction we will be going this morning. We are told:
The most famous ship of all time is possibly the Titanic, the supposedly unsinkable ship that went down on its maiden voyage. Many movies have been made and many books written about the fateful journey. Few will include the story of Scottish evangelist John Harper. Harper was a passenger on the Titanic.
In 1912 Harper was traveling to Chicago to take up his new appointment as Pastor of Moody Church. He had his daughter Nana on board with him. His wife had died a few years earlier. When the Titanic struck the iceberg and began to sink he put Nana into a lifeboat and then ran throughout the ship yelling “Women, children, and unsaved into the lifeboats!” When the ship finally went down he had already given his lifejacket to another passenger. Survivors report that to the very end Harper was witnessing to anyone who would listen. One survivor recalls clinging to one of the ships spars when Harper floated near him. “Man, are you saved?” cried Harper. “No I’m not,” replied the man. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved,” pleaded Harper. The waves carried Harper away and brought him back a little later. “Are you saved now?” asks Harper. “No, I cannot honestly say that I am” says the man. Again Harper pleads with him, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Shortly afterward Harper went down. The man who survived was one of only six people rescued, but in a public meeting four years later, recounting this episode he said, “There, alone in the night, and with two miles of water under me, I believed. I am John Harper’s last convert.”
- Elesha Coffman, Christianity Today
With that said, let’s look at Revelation 3:14 and see what the Lord has for us this morning as we look at this lukewarm church and what we should be doing, how this relates to us individually.
Once again as Jesus opens up His letter He speaks of writing to the angel of the church of Laodicea or AGGELOS in the Greek. It is a word that can be translated angel or messenger and I believe in the context it is written, that Jesus is writing to the pastor of this church or the messenger of this church or the one who is overseeing this congregation. He then was to pass this along to his people, these words of God like any pastor does as he teaches.
As I said on Thursday, Jesus does not use the description of Himself from Revelation chapter 1 but His description is very fitting for this church. And out of that description of Jesus we are going to look at how that applies to our own lives. The three areas we will be looking at this morning are: IN YOUR LIFE DOES THE LORD HAVE THE FINAL AUTHORITY? IN YOUR LIFE ARE YOU A FAITHFUL AND TRUE WITNESS OF HIM? IN YOUR LIFE DO YOU BELIEVE JESUS IS GOD?
Before we look at that, let me share this with you to help you take a good look at your walk with the Lord. Tim Hansel wrote these words:
I would like to buy $3.00 worth of God please, not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don’t want enough of Him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please.
- Wilbur Reed, from When I Relax I Feel Guilty by Tim Hansel
Folks, it is not time to play church or to follow the Lord half-heartedly. Our hearts desire should be more than becoming containers to hold God but we should have that passion to be channels from which God can not only flow into but through, to touch the lives of others. Remember what John the Baptist said in John 3:30 in speaking of Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” That should be our hearts desire and as we are told in John 7:37-38, the promise of Jesus for us, “On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” May we have that passion, that love for the Lord that He is the most important, the most precious thing in our life!
Now, with the remainder of our time this morning we are going to be looking at those 3 areas to see how we may grow in our walk with the Lord as we examine our lives because the Lord wants us on fire for Him so that others may see us burn for Jesus and catch that fire!
1. IN YOUR LIFE DOES THE LORD HAVE THE FINAL
AUTHORITY?
I think that is an important question that we ask ourselves. I think most of us would respond by saying, “Yes He does, that is, until He goes against what I want to do!” We probably would not say it exactly like that but do you understand what you are saying? “No, the Lord does not have the final authority in my life, I do!” You see, when Jesus describes Himself as “the amen” He is saying that He is the one who has the final authority in all matters. Why is that? Because He is God! The word “amen” was used to punctuate a statement. It is a word that means, “so be it.”
When God says something He means it. He did not give to us the 10 suggestions but the 10 Commandments! It is not that we don’t know what God desires of us or we don’t understand what God desires of us, but we choose not to agree with Him because we want to do our own thing. Let me give you a couple of examples and you will see what I mean.
People often ask what the will of God is for their life. Well, it is not that difficult, God is very clear many times. In I Thessalonians 4:3-8 we are told, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.”
Thus, sex before marriage, adultery, homosexuality are not God’s will for your life. You need to control those lustful desires. And folks, I have heard the arguments against this. “In God’s eyes we are married, so we are not doing anything wrong!” Yes you are! “We really love each other and we are going to get married, so this is not wrong!” Yes it is and if you really love each other and you love God you will wait until after you are married. Paul very clearly tells us in Hebrews 13:4, “Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.” Now if you reject that you are rejecting God’s will for your life! Do you see how clear that really is!
Here is another one where people have argued with me over this and you know what, they are not arguing with me, they just don’t agree with God and they can’t fight against Him, so they fight against me. But God is giving a very clear warning on this one and He wants us to not only listen but also obey. Paul, in I Corinthians 6:14-18 tells us, “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.’ Therefore ‘Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the LORD Almighty.’”
You see, you can’t have intimate fellowship with an unbeliever because light and darkness don’t mix. And the reality is, they will bring you down, you won’t lift them up. Now I am not saying you can’t talk with an unbeliever, but you can’t share deep things with them because they will give you worldly advice, worldly council. And many times that is what we want and that is why we do it, but it is wrong. And here is the one that many struggle with. You can’t date an unbeliever! There is no such thing as missionary dating where you date them to see them saved! That is not Scriptural and most of the time it will get you into trouble! You may not agree, but God knows best and He needs to be the final authority, not you or any other person!
It is as Trench wrote, “Every man is lord of the house of his own heart; it is his fortress; he must open the gates of it. He has the mournful prerogative and privilege of refusing to open. But if he refuses, he is blindly at strife with his own blessedness, a miserable conqueror.”
Do you see, it really is not that difficult to understand, it is just, many times we don’t’ agree with the final authority in all things and we must be wiling to die to self and allow Him to increase in our lives! That can happen as Paul tells us in Galatians 5:16, “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” Obey what the Spirit of God is saying to you, for the Lord is the amen, He is the final authority and may we listen and obey!
2. IN YOUR LIFE ARE YOU A FAITHFUL WITNESS
OF HIM?
The next description that Jesus uses of Himself is that He is a “faithful and true witness.” Remember in John chapter 14 as Philip asked Jesus to show them the Father, that is all they needed, that is all they desired, and Jesus responded by saying,
“ . . . ‘Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.’” John 14:9-11. You see, Jesus was a faithful and true witness of the Father and thus, if we want to know the heart of the Father, we can look at Jesus!
In John 10:30 Jesus said, “I and My Father are one.” The word that Jesus used here for “one” is the Greek Word HEN and it does not suggest that the Father and the Son are the same identical person. But what it is saying is they are one in essence or one in nature. You see, the Father is God, the Son is God, but don’t make the mistake as some do and say that the Father is the Son and the Son is the Father as the Jesus only people do! That is not what is being said here!
Spiros Zodhiates put it this way in his book, The Complete Word Study New Testament: “Heis means one numerically while hen means one in essence, as in John 10:30; “I and my Father are one (hen)” (i.e., one in essence although two different personalities). Had it said heis, it would have meant one person.” You see, He is speaking of unity and not identity! If you have seen Jesus you have seen the Father!
Let me ask you this, are you a faithful and true witness of Jesus Christ? The saints in Antioch, in Acts 11:26 were called Christians, “Christ-like” as a put down by their enemies. What about you? If you were taken to court, would there be enough evidence to convict you of being a Christian? Paul tells us in II Corinthians 3:2-3, “You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.” Our lives are to be like open books for people to read. And you know what, they are! And they will either reflect the nature of Jesus or the nature of this world. People are reading you, what are they reading?
That word “witness” is the Greek word MARTUS (mar’-toos) and it is a word from which we get our English word martyr from. You see, Christians were not only ready to live for the Lord but to die for the Lord! Their entire life was a witness of Him!
Now, are we faithful to the Lord as we represent Him to others? Will people look at our lives and will they see Jesus? Now truthfully, we all fall far short of painting a clear picture of Jesus in our lives, in what we do but is there that passion in our hearts to be more like Him? Are we more like Jesus today than where we were at last week, last month, last year, 5 years ago, 10 years ago? You see, we should be growing in Him and as we do our witness of Him will be faithful.
Jesus also says that His witness is true, how about ours? You see, we can misrepresent the Lord and thus, we are not giving a true representation of Him to others. It is as Paul said in II Corinthians 5:17-20, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.”
Now I can think of that pastor out west who is misrepresenting God with his website, godhatesfags.com. Folks, that is not a true witness of God because Jesus said in John 3:16-17, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” Folks, if He didn’t love us we would all be toast! We all would be wiped out because none of us deserve the life He has given us but because He loves us with that great love, that unconditional love that while we were still sinners He died for us so that we can live in Him!
You see, the Lord wants us to love as He loves. You may say that is impossible and that is very true, with man this is impossible. Here is the thing to remember, God never calls us to love apart from Him but by His Spirit, as we surrender to Him, as we walk in the Spirit, as He fills us with His love, we can love others with that kind of love! Folks, do you love the brethren? “You don’t know what they did to me!” “You don’t know what she said to me!” And the list goes on of the excuses why we don’t love the brethren and as you continue down this path you are not representing the Lord truthfully. You see, they will know we are Christians by our love, period! That is the distinguishing characteristic, that AGAPE love or unconditional love we have. People are watching you and how you are living out your faith. You are a living epistle or letter that people are reading and from what they read, they are making a picture of the God we serve. May you represent Him faithfully and truthfully in all you do!
And folks, if we have this Good News of Jesus, we need to share it as this story illustrates for us. We are told:
George Sweeting, in his book The No-Guilt Guide for Witnessing, tells of a man by the name of John Currier who in 1949 was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Later he was transferred and paroled to work on a farm near Nashville, Tennessee.
In 1968, Currier’s sentence was terminated and a letter bearing the good news was sent to him. But John never saw the letter, nor was he told anything about it. Life on that farm was hard and without promise for the future. Yet John kept doing what he was told even after the farmer for whom he worked had died.
Ten years went by. Then a state parole officer learned about Currier’s plight, found him, and told him that his sentence had been terminated. He was a free man.
Sweeting concluded that story by asking, “Would it matter to you if someone sent you an important message – the most important in your life – and year after year the urgent message was never delivered?”
We who have heard the good news and experienced freedom through Christ are responsible to proclaim it to others still enslaved by sin. Are we doing all we can to make sure that people get the message?
- Our Daily Bread, November 6, 1994
Folks, may your life be a witness of the Lord and if you have to, use words! What do I mean by that? Simply, I mean that if your walk doesn’t add up with your talk your words are meaningless. It is as Paul said in Ephesians 4:1, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.” And keep this in mind, as Paul says in Colossians 3:23-24, “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.” May we be faithful and true in our witness of Jesus!
3. IN YOUR LIFE DO YOU BELIEVE JESUS IS GOD?
When Jesus says that He is “the beginning of the creation of God” He is not saying that He is a created being as some like to teach. That would go against what the rest of the Scriptures were saying and if something is out of place, dig deeper and you will see the answer. That word, “beginning” is the Greek word ARCHE (ar-khay’) and it speaks of origin. Thus, what Jesus is saying here is that He is the origination of creation or He is the one who has created all things, He is not a created being for the Scriptures teach that He is eternal! John tells us in John 1:1-2, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” Also, in Micah 5:2 we are told that Jesus is eternal, He has always existed, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.” You see, as far back in time you go Jesus existed and this is an attribute of God and thus, Jesus is God!
Now keep in mind that the church in Laodicea was governed by the people, the Lord was not on the throne of their life. They were the lord of their destiny! Folks, we need to keep Jesus on the throne of our hearts or our lives will be filled with chaos! You see, He keeps things in order and even when things look a mess from our perspective, He is in control, if we would only follow and allow Him to be Lord of our life! You see, if He is God, and He is, then He also needs to be Lord in your life.
Thus, is the Lord the final authority in your life? He needs to be! Are you representing the Lord as a faithful and true witness of Him to others? You need to! Is Jesus not only the true and living God but is He Lord of your life? He needs to be! As I begin to rap things up this morning, let me give you this little self-test to see how you are doing in your relationship with the Lord. You see, the church in Laodicea was lukewarm towards the Lord. How about you, are you on fire for Him or not? A friend of mind shared this test with me several years back and I think it is great. Be honest and see where you stand. Now we are going to look at 5 points and you number them 1 through 10 where 1 is the lowest end of the scale and 10 is the highest. Keep track and see where you stand.