The Lukewarm Church (Laodicea)
Notes
Transcript
Bookmarks & Needs:
Bookmarks & Needs:
B: Rev 3:14-22
N: Pointer
Welcome
Welcome
Good morning, and welcome to Family Worship with the church body of Eastern Hills Baptist Church. It’s great to gather to praise the Lord and spend a little time in fellowship together this morning. Thank you to our praise band, Worship 4:24, for leading us so faithfully each week. I’m Bill Connors, senior pastor, and I appreciate all of you being here today both in the room and online.
I would like the opportunity to greet you personally if you’re visiting for the first time in person today, so at the end of the service, would you please plan to come down and say hello? I have a thank you gift to give you: a mug filled with chocolate.
We would also like the chance to send you a card to thank you for joining us this morning, whether you’re in the room or online. You can text the word “WELCOME” to 505-339-2004, and you’ll get a text back that will have a link to our digital communication card. If you’d rather fill out a physical card, you’ll find one in the back of the pew in front of you. You can bring those to me when you come to say hi, or you can drop those in the offering boxes by the doors as you go out after service later this morning.
Announcements
Announcements
Trevor’s 5th anniversary on staff was officially July 1, but he was on mission trip last Sunday, so we’re acknowledging it this morning.
Women’s ministry Christmas in July on 7/22 from 10-2.
NM School of Christian Leadership classes through the Central Baptist Association this Fall: OT Survey, NT Survey, and Christian Theology 2. Cost per class is $160 plus books. Flyers available in the church office for more information.
WHDR ($6K goal) through July.
Opening
Opening
This morning, we wrap up our series that we’re calling “Seven Words to the Church Today,” where we have been considering the messages to the seven churches in chapters 2-3 of Revelation. We’ve used a map from the CSB Study Bible to get the picture of the delivery of these letters in the order they were written, but because of something important in our study of this last message, this morning I decided to make a satellite map showing the likely path that the delivery of these messages would have taken.
MAP
Today, we come to the last church on the list: the church at Laodicea. The message to the Laodiceans is probably the most well known, but also perhaps one of the most misunderstood of the seven. Laodicea was about 60 miles southeast of Philadelphia, and lay at the connection of two major highways in Roman times: The Ephesian road and the Syrian road. The Ephesian road went to the busy port of Ephesus (where we started this study), about 100 miles west, and the Syrian road led into the east.
The city of Laodicea was founded in around 260BC, and it was quite wealthy because of its trade location. It boasted a rich wool industry, producing wool that was black and incredibly soft. There was a famous medicine and healing center just outside the city itself, and Laodicea was greater in importance that its two sister cities nearby, Hierapolis and Colosse. The churches in each of these cities were likely founded by Epaphras, according to Colossians 4:12-13.
Whereas the churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia had the distinctions of being the only two of the seven without condemnation, the Laodicean church has the distinction of being the only church who receives no commendation from the Lord. Let’s stand as able as we read Revelation 3:14-22:
14 “Write to the angel of the church in Laodicea: Thus says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the originator of God’s creation: 15 I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot. 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth. 17 For you say, ‘I’m rich; I have become wealthy and need nothing,’ and you don’t realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. 18 I advise you to buy from me gold refined in the fire so that you may be rich, white clothes so that you may be dressed and your shameful nakedness not be exposed, and ointment to spread on your eyes so that you may see. 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be zealous and repent. 20 See! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. 21 “To the one who conquers I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.”
PRAYER (Sagebrush Community Church, Pastor Todd Cook)
If you didn’t know, I’m a fan of coffee. Now, to be fair, I’m not as into coffee as some people I know. I just like drinking coffee. Have since I was a kid. My mom and dad both put cream and sugar in their coffee, and drinking their coffee was like drinking liquid contentment. And then came all the fancy coffee shops. Lattes, macchiatos, mistos… all with real flavors, real sweetener, and real cream. Mmm. Last year, I made the switch to black coffee, and that’s basically what I drink now.
But for me, my coffee needs to be one of two ways for it to be enjoyable: It has to be hot, or it has to be intentionally cold… like an iced coffee. Room temperature coffee is just terrible. I can choke it down in order to empty my mug for a fresh hot pour, but I’d rather not. This is so important to me that I used to have mug warmers in two locations in my house—by my recliner and on my desk—before my wonderful wife bought me a powered mug. I have three mug warmers in my office right now: two on my desk, one for each direction I might be facing; and one by my usual chair at the conference table. I really want my coffee to not get tepid, or lukewarm.
The church at Laodicea was condemned by the Lord as The Lukewarm Church. They were like my coffee when it’s spent too much time off of a mug warmer: tepid, distasteful, gross. Jesus opens His message to the Laodiceans as He did with the other six churches—with a declaration about Himself.
1: Christ (v 14)
1: Christ (v 14)
Christ’s self-description in verse 14 is, like in the message to Philadelphia, only loosely connected to the first chapter of the Apocalypse.
14 “Write to the angel of the church in Laodicea: Thus says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the originator of God’s creation:
First, Jesus here identifies Himself as “the Amen.” The English word is the Greek word is the Hebrew word… they are all basically the same: “Amen.” We say this word almost without thinking sometimes, because it’s normally how we end our prayers. However, the word itself is a declaration of agreement and confession meaning, “Surely it is true!” In Isaiah 65:16, God is called literally “the God of Amen,” translated in the CSB as “the God of truth:”
16 Whoever asks for a blessing in the land will ask for a blessing by the God of truth, and whoever swears in the land will swear by the God of truth. For the former troubles will be forgotten and hidden from my sight.
This is another indicator of Jesus’s divinity. God is the God of Amen, and Jesus is the Amen. So Jesus is saying that He is certainly and altogether true. In fact, by Him and in Him and through Him all of the promises of God to humanity are fulfilled, as Paul wrote to the church at Corinth:
20 For every one of God’s promises is “Yes” in him. Therefore, through him we also say “Amen” to the glory of God.
The only clear connection between this self-designation by Jesus and the beginning of Revelation is found in chapter 1 verse 5, where Jesus is referred to as “the faithful witness.” However, there is a clear connection to how Jesus is referenced at the end of Revelation, when He comes back to bring judgment on the world in chapter 19:
11 Then I saw heaven opened, and there was a white horse. Its rider is called Faithful and True, and with justice he judges and makes war. 12 His eyes were like a fiery flame, and many crowns were on his head. He had a name written that no one knows except himself. 13 He wore a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God.
Jesus is the Amen as God is the Amen. He is faithful as God is faithful. He is true as God is true. He is, as the Nicene Creed says it, “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God...” He is God the Son, and is also referred to as the Word of God, as we see in 19:13, and in John 1:
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created.
This brings us to the final part of Jesus’s self-identification in verse 14: that He is “the originator of God’s creation.” Paul wrote about this reality in His letter to the Colossians:
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and by him all things hold together. 18 He is also the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.
The Laodiceans had certainly seen the Colossian letter, as Paul instructed that it be read to them, and that the church at Colosse read the letter that he wrote to the church at Laodicea (which we likely do not have) in Colossians 4:16. They had read this passage before. Jesus was connecting them to what they had been and known.
This kind of designation and understanding should lead us to worship and praise for Jesus. However, Jesus wasn’t giving this introduction to the church at Laodicea just so they would worship Him. It turns out that this introduction contrasts Himself with the people of the church of Laodicea, which we see as we look at the next section:
2: Condemnation (v 15-17)
2: Condemnation (v 15-17)
Again, the Laodiceans are the only church who receive no commendation from Jesus: there is not a single thing that He says positive about them:
15 I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot. 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth.
We often take this in our more modern sense of metaphoric language. Hot as on fire for God, cold as far from Him, perhaps even unbelieving. But this can’t be what this means, for several reasons:
First, Jesus specifically says that He knows their works. This means that this issue is more about fruitfulness than it is about faith. While the two certainly go together (see James 2), the “cold or hot” picture isn’t first about their faith: it’s about how the church lives.
Second, the way this is stated in these two verses, with the two being of equal worth… even to the point of being reversed in priority between 15 and 16, begs the question: Would God really put complete lostness on the same level of acceptability to Him as being “on fire” for Him? I don’t think so. God’s desire according to 2 Peter 3:9 is that He doesn’t want any to perish, but all to come to repentance. There would certainly not be rejoicing in heaven over one lost person who stays lost, but there is over one sinner who repents.
And third, we need to remember that all of these messages had something to say to each church’s specific context. This letter is no different. It’s not talking about their faith. It’s a picture from their water.
MAP 1 I have a map here that’s zoomed in on the locations of Hierapolis, Colosse, and Laodicea. Laodicea was about 6 miles south of Hierapolis, and about 8 miles west of Colosse. Hierapolis was known for its therapeutic hot springs. They are still there and used today, a placed called Pamukkale (Pa-MU-ka-le).
Colosse to the south was apparently known for its refreshing cold mountain springs.
Laodicea on the other hand, didn’t have a direct water supply. It was higher in elevation than Colosse, so their water had to be brought in via aqueduct from the mountains about 4 miles southeast of the city. MAP 2 However, these were hot springs, not cool mountain springs. The water started out hot, and just cooled to lukewarm as it traveled across the aqueduct. People today in the area (Denizli, Turkey) apparently still put water into jars to allow it to cool more after it comes out of the tap.
The water didn’t refresh. But because of the distance it had to travel, it wasn’t useful for therapeutic purposes, either. In fact, it was just about useless. But that’s not the only problem it had. It was also laden with minerals: calcium carbonate, to be precise.
The combination of heavy calcium carbonate in the water mixed with its tepid temperature not only wasn’t very enjoyable, we would likely want to spit it out as soon as we put it in our mouths. But further than that, the water had some emetic properties because of that combination, and the word that Jesus uses that the CSB translates “vomit” is exactly that: the Greek word emeo, from which we get our word for something that causes you to throw up.
In essence, Jesus was saying: “You Laodiceans make me as sick as your water makes you.” They would not have missed this reference. Then He goes on to explain what He means in verse 17:
17 For you say, ‘I’m rich; I have become wealthy and need nothing,’ and you don’t realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.
In the year 17 AD, the same earthquake that greatly damaged Philadelphia and Sardis damaged Laodicea as well. And like those two cities, Laodicea appealed to Rome for assistance, which it received. But in 60 AD, another earthquake hit Laodicea, again doing massive damage. However, this time the city decided that they had become wealthy enough to rebuild on their own, which they did. The city was reportedly more beautiful AFTER then earthquake than it was before (Tacitus). This was a source of great pride for the Laodiceans.
The issue here with the church was one of self-sufficiency. Just like the city itself with the earthquake in 60, the church prided herself on her wealth. They were apparently under the impression that financial stability was an indicator of God’s blessing, of being right with God. And while it is one thing to give thanks to God for these kinds of things, it is altogether different to allow those things to take the place of God in our hearts , minds, and practice. Their works were self-focused: they didn’t bring healing or refreshment to anyone. In their minds, they literally needed nothing: not even Jesus. They had their money. They had their peace. Notice that there is no mention at all of persecution in Laodicea.
But according to Jesus, they really had nothing. Their pride and self-focus was so pervasive that they couldn’t see the truth of what they had become. They had no idea what their true condition was. Jesus lists five adjectives that together describe their general state (wretched and pitiful), and the specifics of their situation (poor, blind, and naked).
Jesus was warning the church in Laodicea of the same thing that he condemned the Pharisees for in John 9:
39 Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, in order that those who do not see will see and those who do see will become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things and asked him, “We aren’t blind too, are we?” 41 “If you were blind,” Jesus told them, “you wouldn’t have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.
Notice the contrast between Jesus’s introduction of Himself and the blindness of the Laodicean church. He is true, but everything they think about themselves is false. He is faithful, and they have been faithless in their worship of Him. He is the originator of everything, and everything is sustained by Him, and they think that they sustain themselves and have provided themselves with all that they need. Pride blinds us.
I believe that the church in the West today, and especially the church in America, has the greatest tendency to be like the Laodiceans out of all seven churches in Revelation. We equate financial prosperity and relative peace with being blessed by God, and while those things could be true, we can see in the situation at Laodicea that that is not necessarily the case. And more and more, we see churches turn inward, no longer reaching out to the community. No longer desiring to see people come to faith. Sure, we say that we want those things, but this is precisely what makes us lukewarm. Our ministries no longer impact people, no longer bring healing to the hurting, no longer refresh the souls of those in need of the living water of Christ.
Corporate worship becomes about our wants and preferences, not about magnifying Jesus. Our resources become about our desires and plans, not about obeying Christ. Our roles of service become our rights of power. And all the while, we believe that we are right with God, pleasing to Him, salt and light in the world. But the truth is that we’re blinded by our pride.
I’m not saying that this is Eastern Hills, but I think that nearly every church of moderate size will have Laodiceans in it. Which means we have to ask ourselves two questions: 1) Am I a Laodicean? and 2) If so, what can be done about it?
This brings us to the cure.
3: Cure (v 18-19)
3: Cure (v 18-19)
Like all of the messages that contain a condemnation, Jesus reveals that there is still hope for the church at Laodicea. There is a cure that they must administer:
18 I advise you to buy from me gold refined in the fire so that you may be rich, white clothes so that you may be dressed and your shameful nakedness not be exposed, and ointment to spread on your eyes so that you may see.
Since the church does not realize their wretchedness, Jesus advises them so that they may know and act appropriately to remedy the situation.
It’s interesting that Jesus’s solution to the problem in the church at Laodicea—including the fact that they are “poor”—is that they “buy” things from Him. The truth is that the “wares” that Jesus offers to the Laodiceans are things that cannot truly be purchased: they can only be given by the risen Christ. Fortunately, Scripture tells us that this is how our Lord operates:
1 “Come, everyone who is thirsty, come to the water; and you without silver, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without silver and without cost!
6 Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will freely give to the thirsty from the spring of the water of life.
Each of the things that Jesus advises the Laodiceans to purchase from Him are the counterpart to the truth of their pitiful situation. They are spiritually poor, so Jesus advises them to buy gold. They are blind, so Jesus advises them to buy ointment for their eyes. They are naked, so Jesus advises them to buy white clothes. Each of these purchases represents something that the church at Laodicea was missing because of their self-sufficiency and resulting lukewarmness.
Even though the Laodicean church was wealthy and had no material need, still they are encouraged to buy “gold refined in the fire.” In 1 Peter chapter 1, gold refined by fire is compared to a faith that is galvanized by trials and suffering:
6 You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials 7 so that the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
The church in Laodicea was not suffering any difficulty or persecution as far as we can tell. Unfortunately, in a place such as Laodicea, where temples stood and idol worship was certainly still commonplace, as well as where there was a sizeable Jewish population, this would have been an indicator of their uselessness, not their blessing. If they were going to be cured of their poverty, they were going to have to walk with Christ into persecution and difficulty for the sake of the Gospel.
What kind of gold is the church of today more concerned with?
The white clothes represent Christ’s righteousness. We saw this imagery in in Sardis:
Revelation 3:4–5a (CSB)
4 But you have a few people in Sardis who have not defiled their clothes, and they will walk with me in white, because they are worthy. 5 “In the same way, the one who conquers will be dressed in white clothes...
The white clothes that Laodicea was to purchase from Jesus were specifically to cover their “shameful nakedness.” Gentiles of the time had little problem with nakedness. They competed in their games in the gymnasium without clothes on—which makes sense given that the term “gymnasium” literally means “naked exercise.” However, the Hebrew people did not compete in the games or participate in the gymnasium because for them, nakedness was shameful. Jesus takes this position about their spiritual “nakedness” here. The clothes that they were to wear were white, in contrast to the fine black woolen garments Laodicea was famous for. In this way, they were to “put on” righteous, which likely was a reminder for them, and for us, of Colossians 3:
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. 14 Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
And finally, Jesus calls on them to purchase “ointment to spread on [their] eyes so that [they] may see.” The famous school of medicine at Laodicea, which was connected to the temple of Men Karou, a “god of healing,” produced a compound for curing eye ailments called “Phrygian powder,” which added to the city’s fame and wealth. However, this kind of ointment was useless for the blindness that afflicted the Laodicean church. They needed Jesus’s eye salve so that they could actually see themselves and their lowly state, as well as see others and Jesus Himself correctly. It’s the fact that it’s Jesus’s cure that makes it productive. He touched the eyes of the blind (Matt 9 & 20), spit on their eyes (Mark 8), and even made an eye salve of spit and dirt (John 9), and the blind could see.
Where are we pridefully blind to our brokenness and in need of new sight? Are we willing to humbly take the cure that Jesus offers for our own blindness?
The fact is that we need these things from Jesus as well if we are going to walk with the Lord in faithfulness and truth. While these might not be altogether enjoyable or comfortable, the reality is that without them, we will find ourselves in the same situation as the Laodicean church: poor, blind, and naked from a spiritual perspective because we have become lukewarm.
There is one more aspect to the cure that Jesus brings. While Jesus didn’t say anything positive about the church in Laodicea, He does say something very positive to them:
19 As many as I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be zealous and repent.
Jesus says that He loves His people, even though their actions make Him sick. This isn’t a positive thing about them, but it is a positive thing about Jesus! The Lord says that He chooses to rebuke and discipline those He loves, and this certainly qualifies as a rebuke. However, the fact that He warns them is an act of love. We also should readily accept the rebuke and discipline of the Lord when He brings it our way to correct us in our sin. Proverbs 3 speaks to this clearly:
11 Do not despise the Lord’s instruction, my son, and do not loathe his discipline; 12 for the Lord disciplines the one he loves, just as a father disciplines the son in whom he delights.
The truth is that Jesus could just take corrective action, and He would be completely justified to do so. But instead, He commands the church to literally reverse course: to “be zealous,” which literally means to “set their heart” in the right direction, which requires them to “repent—” to change their attitude about sin and righteous so that it matches His perspective.
The fact is that if we have what Jesus offers, it will never fade, never run out, never go out of style, and never rust or break. Because ultimately, what Jesus offers is Himself. Everything the world is selling is going to wear out and come to ruin—even intangible things like our careers, accomplishments, and reputations. Jesus offers eternity to us. And if you have never believed in Jesus, then you’re blind just like the Laodiceans. You can’t see your true spiritual bankruptcy. But you need to hear that apart from Jesus, none of us have any eternal hope. We all have sinned and failed to meet God’s standard for salvation. All of us except Jesus. Jesus perfectly lived and sacrificially died for you and for me, so that we could be forgiven if we will believe in His sacrifice to save us, and not in ourselves. And after He died, the Bible tells us that Jesus conquered the grave, rising to eternal life. If we belong to Him through trusting in His death, then we will also be with Him in eternal life, and that can never be taken from us. Surrender to Jesus, trusting Him for your forgiveness and your forever as your Savior and Lord.
His call goes out to everyone in this room this morning:
4: Call (v 20)
4: Call (v 20)
This is an extra point for our outline, because it is slightly more than just a part of the cure. Instead, it is a call that Jesus makes to all who would hear Him:
20 See! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
He calls the spiritually blind to see. Because He loves us, He stands at the door and knocks. This is not just a little knock, but an ongoing emphatic pounding. He wants to come in. It’s easy for us to see how this could be used for evangelism and salvation, and I don’t think that that interpretation is necessarily wrong. But that’s not exactly what Jesus is saying. This door is the door of the church, and Jesus is outside in the cold. Why is He outside the church? It’s because they didn’t think they needed Him any more. They had ceased pursuing fellowship with the Lord.
Last week, when we looked at the church in Philadelphia, they had been given by Jesus an open door that no one could shut. But in Laodicea, they had given Jesus a shut door that could only be opened from the inside. They had basically kicked Jesus out of the church. Ouch.
Remember that this issue was first and foremost about how the Laodiceans were living, not about their salvation. They were playing church. In Sardis, the church had a reputation for being alive, but was dead. In Ephesus, they were very zealous, but not loving. In Laodicea, they weren’t anything. Just useless.
But even still, Jesus stands at the door knocking because He desires to restore that fellowship with His people. Sharing a meal together in these cultures meant a great deal. To share a table meant to share life. Jesus desires to have intimate fellowship with the church, to draw near to them, and to be reconciled to them. He wants to be like the master from Jesus’ parable in Luke 12:
35 “Be ready for service and have your lamps lit. 36 You are to be like people waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet so that when he comes and knocks, they can open the door for him at once. 37 Blessed will be those servants the master finds alert when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will get ready, have them recline at the table, then come and serve them. 38 If he comes in the middle of the night, or even near dawn, and finds them alert, blessed are those servants.
His call is meaningful both for us individually and collectively. He is writing to the church, but He calls on “anyone” in the singular to hear His voice and open the door.
He calls to you. He calls to me. He wants that deep relationship with each of us and all of us, but sadly, sometimes we don’t really want Him. We’d rather not come to Him with our sin, because we love it. We’d rather not come to Him with our problems, because we don’t want to face them. We’d rather not come to Him with our marriages, our families, our friends, and our careers, because we think that we can do a better job with them than He can.
Jesus doesn’t want a half-hearted fellowship. He wants a total relationship. And from that relationship flows His challenge to the church.
5: Challenge (v. 21-22)
5: Challenge (v. 21-22)
The challenge that Jesus issues to the church at Laodicea, the promise to the one who conquers, is perhaps the most straightforward of all of them, and sets up the next part of the Apocalypse.
21 “To the one who conquers I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.”
The one who conquers is the one who takes Jesus’s advice, receives His cure, and turns their heart toward Him in repentance. That person will have the right to sit with Him on His throne, which He shares with His Father because Christ Himself has conquered. This looks forward to the throne room of God in chapters 4-5.
5 Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Look, the Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered so that he is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”
Jesus has conquered the world, death, the grave, and the devil through His work on the cross, and because of that, we can have peace in the midst of turmoil, and we can be courageous in the face of suffering:
33 I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.”
And we will be given the opportunity to join Him in His work of judging the nations, to share in His rule and reign when He makes all of creation new again:
28 Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, in the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
2 Or don’t you know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the trivial cases?
We have this hope before us as an eternal hope if we belong to Christ by faith. Let us not be lukewarm, but let us strive to be both a people who serve to heal the broken and a people who strive to refresh the weary.
Closing
Closing
So closes our series on the messages to the seven churches of Revelation, and the words that they bring to us today. From Ephesus, we are called to keep our love for Jesus fresh. From Smyrna, we are challenged to be willing to suffer for Jesus, and to do so well. The message from Pergamum reminds us not to allow ourselves to be distracted, while the message from Thyatira calls us to a healthy intolerance of the things of the world. From Sardis, we are challenged to not be so satisfied with our past ministry successes that we stop serving others now, and from Philadelphia, we are called to continue to endure to the end. We must not become complacent and self-sufficient like the Laodiceans, and we look forward to an incredible future of ministry and blessing in Christ.
Believer, if you are living a lukewarm existence, Jesus is knocking on the door of your life, calling you to open the door through repentance and faith. Turn from your self-focus and set your heart on Jesus.
The call of the Gospel goes out to those hearing this morning who have never believed in Jesus. He came, He died, He rose, He ascended to heaven, and He will return and reign as Revelation promises. Trust in what He has done, and surrender to Him as Savior and Lord.
Church membership
Prayer
Offering
PRAYER
Closing Remarks
Closing Remarks
Bible reading (Job 19)
Pastor’s Study tonight
Prayer Meeting Wednesdays at 5:45 pm
Business Meeting next Sunday night at 5:30 pm
Instructions for guests
Benediction
Benediction
13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty? It’s no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
Go and be hot. Go and be cold. Just don’t be lukewarm.