The Church at Laodecia
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Good morning church!
It is good to be in the house of the Lord this morning! Please turn with me in your Bibles to Revelation 3 we will begin in verse 14.
“Write to the angel of the church in Laodicea:
“The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Originator of God’s creation says: I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I’m rich; I have become wealthy and need nothing,’ and you don’t know that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked, 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. As many as I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be committed and repent. Listen! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and have dinner with him, and he with Me. The victor: I will give him the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I also won the victory and sat down with My Father on His throne.
“Anyone who has an ear should listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.”
(Let’s Pray)
This is the last of the letters to the 7 churches in Asia minor. This is the letter to the church in Laodecia, and Jesus has obviously nothing good to say to this church, there is no commendation at all it is all condemnation.
But before we look at this letter it is important to know that the apostle had a relationship with this church, but apparently only by aquaintence.
For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you, for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me in person.
So Paul is saying to the church in Colossae here that they haven’t met him personally but he wants them to know that he was was working for them in his ministry.
But it is clear here that Paul does not know the church at Laodecia personally.
Then later on in that letter he says
For I testify about him that he works hard for you, for those in Laodicea, and for those in Hierapolis.
Give my greetings to the brothers in Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her home.
When this letter has been read among you, have it read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea.
So even though there was a church there is no real reason to believe that they had an intimate close fellowship with one another.
Here Jesus is going to speak to this church at Laodecia and were going to look at what he says:
The Greeting
The Greeting
“Write to the angel of the church in Laodicea:
“The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Originator of God’s creation says:
The Amen
The Faithful and True
The ruler of Gods creation
“AMEN”
We hear this word often we tack it on the end of our prayers and even sometimes little kids think we are saying THE END but actually AMEN is an affirmation.
It basically means YES I AGREE TRUE
So when Jesus says I AM THE AMEN
He is basically saying I AM THE TRUTH!
I am what is true and what is right and so forth
I can tell you the truth, I can ask you to please tell me the truth, there is one thing I cant say and niether can you and that is we cannot say I AM THE TRUTH
Only Jesus can and he says it
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Jesus doesn’t just tell the truth HE IS THE TRUTH AND AS THE TRUTH HE IS THE EMBODIMENT OF WHATS TRUE ABOUT GOD
Jesus says I am the amen
(MATH)
IT IS AN ATTACK ON SOMETHING THAT IS ABSOLUTELY TRUE
Jesus is the amen and He is the truth
When HE speaks he is going to speak truth even if it is hard to hear. You need someone in your life who will speak the truth and bc He is the truth Jesus always will be honest with you.
It’s not always easy to hear but we need it
2. Faithful and True Witness
What does this mean?
Very simply he is faithful to bring a true witness, he is not repeating what someone else said about the church at Laodecia he knows and can bear eyewitness accoutn of what they were doing because he is in the midst of the churches
He is faitfully is going to tell you the truth.
Remember what Jesus told you about Satan?
He is a liar even says he is the father of lies
When Satan soeaks his native tongue it is lying.
JESUS IS THE EXACT OPPOSITE
People often joke about what languae we are going to speak in Heaven, I dont know but I think were going to speak truth and nothing but the truth.
But Jesus is Truth
3. I am the ruler of God’s Creation
“ORIGINATOR”
Jesus started it all!
HE is the creator
DID YOU KNOW THAT JESUS CREATED EVERYTHING?
PEople sometimes get wierd on that...
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
So He is the beginning of Gods creation
I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot.
So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of My mouth.
It is important to understand what Jesus is saying when He refers to this church as Lukewarm the reason its important is bc one thing we have done is misunderstand lukewarm...
I have even done this myself
we often think of backslidden Christians as backslidden Christians
you know what as I have studied out this passage I have come to realize that that is not what it means.
PETER WAS HOT IN HIS SPIRITUAL TEMPRATURE HE LOVED JESUS AND HE WAS ZEALOUS PASSIONATE ABOUT JESUS
If you will remember back when Jesus walked the Earth he would say somethings and some of the people who followed Him would say your crazy and they would walk away?
Jesus as one time says are you gonna leave too?
Peter was the one who spoke up and said “where are we gonna go? You are the only words who have the words of life”
So that was the kind of man Peter was
COLD
The thief on the cross (not the one who repented) this is the one who threw insult after insult at Jesus and mocked JEsus along with the crowd even though he was being crucified himself.
This is a man who cared nothing about the Lord
He didnt care
When push came to shove he still didnt care, have you even talked to someone about that you are talking to them about the Lord and they just crack jokes and dont really care?
Thats cold and shut off
LUKEWARM:
PHARISEES!!!
People who are LUKEWARM think they have everything dialed in they think they are good, WERE GOOD GOT THINGS ALL WORKED OUT but they are decieved
Because you say, ‘I’m rich; I have become wealthy and need nothing,’ and you don’t know that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked,
you say IM GOOD but they key is you don’t realize the religionist thinks that bc I have worked this out in my mind I am fine your not fine but I am man.
That is how he looks at things he follows rules and guidelines and principles that are basically manmade he keeps this and that and fufills the requirements of those things and he thinks he is good to go and thinks God is impressed with him.
That is the Lukewarm person and they dont mind talking about God he likes talking about God he doesnt mind quoting scripture he’ll do it. He likes it as far as he can tell the Bible is good.
but the problem is he has never let the Word of God shine its light in His heart to show Him his true condition.
His true heart condition
So what happens is that bc he has never let God explain to Him whats going on inside he basically believes what seems to be a figment of his own imagination.
He tells people he is ok but he is not
Thats the thing about the religionist he is decieved into thinking he can please God by his own goodness
DO you remember there was a young man who came to talk to Jesus once, were told he came and he was rich and he was some kind of leader and he came to Jesus and this is what happened
A ruler asked Him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“Why do you call Me good?” Jesus asked him. “No one is good but One—God.
Now Jesus is not saying he is not God He is challenging something this man believes. what was this young man believing that was so wrong?
THAT YOU CAN BE GOOD!
It is amazing how many times we can read this passage and it not be absorbed in our hearts and minds
We can read this over and over again and still miss the point
IF YOUR NOT GOD YOUR NOT GOOD
I am assuming that none of you are God and bc of that you are in the category of being not good and that bothers some people and really bothers the religious person it bothers him alot bc he desperately wants to believe that he is good he wants to believe that he is really good and God is impressed with his goodness, b ut he desperately needs to see his true condition.
Jesus tells the people of Laodecia whats really going on in thier lives
They think they are good but Jesus says your not good things are bad!
YOUR BLIND POOR PITIFUL AND NAKED
IT IS THE TRUE CONDITION OF EVERY SINGLE PERSON WHO DOES NOT AND HAS NOT MET JESUS CHRIST
We as Christians should be the first ones to own up to it
We should be the first ones to acknowledge how wretched we are
Paul said IN MY FLESH DWELLETH NO GOOD THING!
Paul knew himself well he understood
We like to say about people shes a good girl or good guy
Actually Jims not good he might be good compared to you and I or others but compared to Gods standard!!!????
NOBODY CAN STAND BEFORE GOD WITHOUT FIRST BOWING TO THE LORD JESUS CHRIST!
The first step to knowing God Jesus tells us in the beatitudes
“The poor in spirit are blessed,
for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.
There are 2 key words in that passage that we need to understand and theya re poor and spirit
POOR=DESTITUTE
NOTHING IN MY HANDS I BRING ONLY TO THE CROSS I CLING
Blessed are those who are destitute in themselves
Their eyes have been opened to see thier own spiritual condition I have nothing that God will be impressed with. There is a blessing attached to that bc those are the ones who gain the kingdom of HEaven
When Jesus is dealing with Laodecia about their spiritual tempreature he says you know your niether hot nor cold I WISH YOU WERE ONE!
Have you ever thought about that?
I mean I can understand why Jesus would wish we were hot bc that means your on fire for the Lord but why would Jesus want us to be cold?
I mean wouldn’t be better to be lukewarm bc at least you were on the way to being hot?
IT IS EASIRE TO REACH SOMEONE WITH A COLD HEART THAN IT IS TO REACH SOMEONE WITH A LUKEWARM HEART
I would rather share Christ with someone whose heart is cold than someone whose heart is lukewarm bc they think their good!
They have no need to hear anything you have to say and they essentially believe they have no need of a Savior
They have things dialed in in their own mind “I am a good person what?
They are lukewarm and when you dont see your true spiritual condition?
You are not going to make any moves to do anything about it/...
I would rather talk to someone about Jesus who was absolutely cold but came to a place in thier life where they were convinced of thier spiritual condition.
I would rather talk to someone who doesnt care about God but knows their a sinner and knows they make mistakes.
That person is probably closer to the kingdom of God being cold, than someone who is lukewarm and thinks Im good!
Ive got this
Because you say, ‘I’m rich; I have become wealthy and need nothing,’ and you don’t know that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked,
From the outside the lukewarm individual appears to have it kinda put together but they are missing something, they are missing something vital.
again they will talk about God they will talk about the Bible theyll come to church but they are missing something in thier life.
Paul says in the last days this will characterize people.
But know this: Difficult times will come in the last days. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid these people!
Notice he says they have a form of godliness in other words they have an external appearance of godliness but they deny the very power of the God they claim to worship.
Whenever the church or even individuals go through a time in their lives where there is a lot of prosperity we have a tendency to forget the Lord.
Do you guys remember this story?
In Acts John and Peter are on thier way to the temple to pray and there is this man who is begging they guy is begging along this road that people take to go up to the temple to pray and Peter and John stop and take notice of this man, and the man thinks he is gonna get some money from them.
He has been crippled for a long time
Peter and John look at him and say this: Silver and gold have I not but what I have I give you in the name of Jesus rise up and walk.
The man stood up on his feet but not only did he start walking the Bible says he started dancing. Dancing a jig for joy, bc the power of God has healed Him.
There is a story told about a man named Thomas Aquinas and he went to see the pope and when he was visiting the pope in the 12th century Thomas Aquinas who was a theologian came upon the pope who was counting some of the vaitcans many treasures.
The pope said to Thomas “Well I guess the church can no longer say silver and gold have I none..”
“Thomas Aquinas said yes, and it can also say rise and walk in the name of Jesus.”
that is a powerful story about how it is possible to put on a huge picture that looks to everyone as being religious or even godly but has no power
The power of God is no longer present in Laodecia
So what does God say to this church?
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.
As many as I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be committed and repent.
He gives them some things to do:
1. Buy gold from Him refined in the fire
2. Put on white clothes from me to cover your nakedness
3. get salve from me to put on your eyes so you can see
This is interesting bc these things specifically spoke to the Laodecian church this was a very wealthy city. You can actually see the ruins of Laodeica and they had a very prosperous banking industry and bc of that they were a very wealthy people who lived there.
Which very well could have translated to the church who said we are wealthy we have everything we need were good to go… Jesus said no actually thats not true your poor.
You may have alot of the worlds goods but Im telling you your poor. So I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire. Not just gold but gold refined in the fire
He is telling us about what is really valuable in life
Sometimes eve as Christians we can see what the world has or runs after and we can start to see them and value those things.
(Lottery)
We invest in what we believe has value so his hard earned money he plopped it down on the counter bc he believed this was an investment and he valued it.
He valued wealth He wants to hit the pot at the end of the rainbow
Do we value things that Jesus dont value! Jesus says buy from me that which is truly valuable something you can take with you into eternity!
The most valuable thing we can get from Him is our eternal home bought and paid for in His blood.
That is something you can take with ya everything else stays right here when you die but this is something you can take with you when you die
Forgiveness of sins
and an eternal inheritance
The next thing he tells them to do is to buy from him white clothes so they can cover their shameful nakedness listen when we decide to stand before Jesus clothed in our own works in our own good do you know what God sees?
Filthy rags
He sees something that is shameful.
bc our best possible righteous deeds are as filthy rags. Are you going to come to God clothed in your ow deeds or are you gonna come to God in what God wants to give you.
I greatly rejoice in the Lord,
I exult in my God;
for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation
and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness,
as a groom wears a turban
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
The world thinks were selfrighteous but we cant even be Christians if were seflrighteous
WERE EMPTY!!!
(GOSPEL)