If we understand what He's saying
to these churches and the theme through which Jesus speaks, we're
going to be able to better understand the whole of the letter, the
whole of the rest of the book, if we can call it that. So let's
start there by first reading chapter 2 and chapter 3. Follow along with me in your
copy of the Scripture. But hopefully as it rings in your ears, you
will see and get a sense for exactly the tone, the timbre,
the voice, the urgency that Jesus has as he writes to these churches,
as he looks here and begins to help us to see the picture of
what's actually happened amongst these people. This is not hidden
for them. Understand that, beloved, that
these churches and these Christians who received this letter understood
perfectly the warnings of Jesus. They understood perfectly exactly
what He meant when He said, you tolerate the woman Jezebel. They
understood perfectly when He said, I will come and take away
your lampstand. They knew what He was speaking
of. Much like a child knows when a parent says, what have you
done? We always, as children, go, what? Like we can worm our
way out of it. But they know. And when they
speak of things, we know that they know what we know. And we
know that they know what we've done. And we know that they will
bring recompense if they are indeed that type of parent. Well
friends, Jesus is no different. God our Father is no different.
And I want you to understand the transcendent reality of this
letter to the Church of Jesus Christ. Though it is not written
to us, it is absolutely written for us. So that we might be encouraged
and rebuked and admonished this day so that the reality of the
Gospel of Jesus would give us the strength and the courage
to be the people who are displaying the glory and the manifold wisdom
of God powerfully. Let me walk through this. I will
not read this text again, but I will emphasize each church
as we get to it. And let me just go through this
in a very rapid way to show us a couple of key things. First,
there is three things that we see for every church. The first
thing that we understand is that there's an evaluation by Jesus
Christ. Jesus looks at the church and
evaluates the church. It says in many places, I know
your works. I know your works. I know your
works. And sometimes then, the second
thing that we see that's common for all seven of these churches
is that there is a word of commendation or a word of condemnation. Sometimes
both. And then there is a call or a
warning to continue, or a call or a warning to repent, and sometimes
both. So here is this evaluation of
the church by Jesus Christ, the condemnation and commendation
by Jesus Christ, and then finally a promise. A promise by the Lord
Jesus. Something He is certain He will
do. if the conditions are met. And sometimes we see that there
is something He will do because He has met those conditions,
the righteous requirements. To the church of Ephesus. Now,
I don't have a lot of time to go through a lot of these churches,
but Ephesus is one that we need to really pay attention to. Why?
Because Paul wrote to them. And not only did Paul write to
them, But Paul appointed one of their chief elders in that
town who was a very young teenager by the name of Timothy. And Timothy,
being a teenager at the time, was frowned upon about his youth. He had a lot in the negative,
as people would look at him. How does a man who's called the
older one, the elder, be so young? Paul says, do not let people,
what, look down upon you because of your youth, but throw away
youthful passions, throw away youthful things, put those things
away and strive for godliness, strive to be the man that I've
called you to be, God would say. But Ephesus was no longer a thriving
church. Ephesus was one of these churches
at this time that, not that they were too much in the world, but
that the world was too much in them. And we'll find that as
a common theme for most all of these churches who are condemned.
We'll find that there's a common theme that we see Jesus is not
happy with the fact that worldliness has invaded the church. That
Jesus is going to do something which is to remove the church
from the public light. He's going to remove them in
the sense that He said He would take out some churches. He would
kill the children of Jezebel. And as we'll see, that is referring
to the church. But for Ephesus, He says, I know
your works. I know your toil. I know your
endurance. I know your orthodoxy. You cannot
bear with those who are evil. You stand for truth. You work
hard. Toil is not a word that we use. We use the word work very lightly. But if we were to translate toil
with the present day expression, it would be much like a woman
in labor. the heaviness, the burden, the
work, the pain of working. Jesus commends the church of
Ephesus for their work. But He says, I have this against
you. You have forsaken, you have abandoned
the love you had at first. Some translations say the first
love or your first love. What is this first love? Friends,
it is really very easy. What is the greatest of all the
commands? To love the Lord your God with all your heart, with
all your mind, and with all your strength. And what is the second
of equal importance on which these two, all the laws of the
prophets, hinge? To love your neighbor as yourself. And if this is true, and Jesus
says they have forsaken or abandoned their first love, it means they've
abandoned the Lord in love, most likely by abandoning their love
for one another. For our love for each other is
indeed the litmus test of all of Christendom, all of the history
of the church, all of the epistles of the New Testament, that if
we are not measuring our affection for Christ, also by our affection
for each other, there is no affection for Christ. We cannot love Christ
without loving His body. It is an impossibility. And love,
of course, is not how we feel. Because even our bodies get sick,
so will our fellowship be sick. And sometimes when we're sick,
we're not as easy to love. But love is seen perfectly in
that we lay down our life for one another. That's why I've
been in Romans 15 a good bit today. For many of you have recognized. Yeah, I sent out this little
prayer update about it churchwide. And with this, Jesus says, if
you do not go back and love Me again, I am going to remove your
light. Now what does it mean for God,
for Christ, to remove the light of a church? Well, ask yourself
this question. When Jesus says, you are the
light of the world, A city on a hill. What is it? What does
it mean? What is that imagery supposed
to reckon inside of our minds and souls? That we are to be
a beacon of hope. A beacon of glorious expression. A beacon of those who herald
the power of God, which is His good news, of which we're not
ashamed. Ephesus, because their love has
gone, though their work and their endurance and their orthodoxy
remained, Jesus said He would take away their beacon. He would
take away their light. Church, don't let us ever become
a church that has no light, for we will fold into the dough of
most all congregations known to the world. Why is there 70
plus churches in Claxton, but yet few, few, few people even
know the gospel, much less proclaim it. Let us not be that type of
Christian. Let us not be that type of people.
Friends, this letter was written to this church so that they would
know and so that they would change. The second letter to the church
of Smyrna Jesus says, I know your tribulation. I know the
suffering that you have. I know your poverty. But parenthetically,
He says, but you're rich. Though you have nothing, though
you're suffering greatly, you are rich. And I know that those
who slander you are causing you great pain. Sounds very familiar,
doesn't it? But they are not the Jews. They
are the synagogue of Satan. The devil's children. Who are
they? The Jews of the synagogue are
slandering you. They're causing you suffering.
They're causing you pain. You can't even buy and sell anymore
in your cities because they will not do business with you. Because
you have claimed me. But what does Jesus tell them?
Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Look, behold, the
devil is going to throw you into prison, and he says to them,
please know that the devil is going to do this, that you may
be tested and have tribulation. But he commands them, be faithful
unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. Have you ever
thought about what it might be like to be a martyr? Not for
someone to blow up our church and thus kill wheat and tares
alike. Not for someone to just blow
up a missions office or throw a grenade or a firebomb into
a church office. I mean to be held by the hands,
shackled by the feet, tied to a stake, and individually told
to renounce Jesus. To say that Caesar is Lord, not
Jesus. and to boldly cry, Jesus is Lord! Jesus is Lord! They set us on fire. This church, the church of Smyrna,
lived even though they were put to death by men. And Jesus commends
them. No word of condemnation to this
church. Jesus commends them. He says, I will give you the
crown of life. It reminds me of what Paul says in 2 Corinthians
chapter 4, always being given over to death, the body, but
being made alive, the spirit. Friends, if we want to be a church
that gets a commendation from Jesus, what does it mean to say,
well done, my good and faithful servant? You know what's really
interesting about that? It is written in a very individualistic
way. But he's talking to a plurality
of people when he says it. Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity. Now we may have some among us
who live as though they're a Smyrna Christian. But are we known as
such a church? Are we known as a people? Is
our congregation known as a church who is faithful unto death? Friends,
how many of our brothers and sisters would rather stay home
and deal with a hangnail than come to the fellowship? Oh, what
death would bring to those. The next church, to the church
in Pergamum. The Lord knows our hearts. He
said in all these other two letters thus far, I know your works. The Lord knows our works. The Lord knows our place. God
knows, as He says there, I know where you dwell, where Satan's
throne is, yet you hold fast to My name. So God knows the
circumstances in which we live. God knows the regions, the boundaries. God knows that our brothers and
sisters in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian believers who have
come to faith in Jesus Christ, who are suffering not only by
their own people, but by Israel. God knows where they are. God
knows what we're going through. There is no place where we might
find ourselves out of the reach of God and His sovereignty. And
this young church, this church here, was in the worst city known
to man. It'd be like a friend of mine
who planted a church in Las Vegas, Nevada. In the first few weeks there,
they handed out handbills. If you've ever been, I've been
to two Christian conferences in Nevada. The strangest place
to have them, but they did. A Christian bloggers convention,
and then something else that was so unremarkably boring, I
forgot what it was. I think I left three days before
it ended, and it was only a four-day visit. But handbills are constantly
being handed out. And if you don't take them, they'll
touch you on the chest and move their hand away, and you have
to not litter by catching it. And it could be everything from
adult themed handbills, to casino handbills, to free alcohol handbills,
to now I guess it'd be Uber, I don't know, or whatever. Party handbills. And he thought,
well everybody's handing out handbills, let me hand out handbills. Let's go out on the streets and
hand out handbills. Jesus Christ handbills. And people
take them automatically because it's just what you do. But Sin
City, as it's known for, people quickly begin to learn, don't
take handbills from them. We don't like you here. Even
Christians who visit there don't want to hear about Christ for
what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. That's the theme. That's
their national mantra, believe it or not. Maybe it'd be like that if they
began to talk about taking the heads off those Christians. Maybe. Maybe. If they burned them alive,
it might be rough. But church, no matter where we
are, there is a place where Satan's at work. And no matter how hard
he works, he works at the mere pleasure and the will of God.
He cannot overpower us. He cannot defeat us. Everything
He does is because God sends Him and lets Him and wills Him
to do it. The Lord knows our trials. The
Lord knows our temptations. But He says to this church of
Pergamum, I have something against you. There are some there, not
all of you, but some there who hold the teaching of Balaam.
who taught Balak to put a stumbling block for the sons of Israel.
And do y'all know that story? Is that in Numbers 22 somewhere? Anyway, Balaam was told to what? Prophesy against Israel. And
every time against Israel, every time he opened his mouth to curse
them, blessings came out. And so in a way, he's like, I
can't curse them. I can't do it. So he devised
another plan to get the daughters of the people to seduce Israel
and bring them into idol worship, pagan feasts, and sexual immorality. Now, of course, Balaam hasn't
come to Pergamum. He's long been dead. But Jesus
is reminding them that there are some who hold to the teaching
here. Some who have held to the teaching of the Nicolaitans,
who are very worldly and sensual, promiscuous people. Therefore
repent, move away from this, stop sinning this way, or I will
come to you and I will war against them with the sword of my mouth. The Lord knows our sins, beloved.
And we can hide amongst the fellowship of the church that is thriving
and holy and pure, but we are found out already. We cannot
hide our sins from God. And there are some times that
God will take a whole church out when it does not take the
sin out. If a church does not practice
church discipline, God has already removed their lamp. He has shut their eyes. He has
shut their mouths. He has shut their hearts. It's
a promise. And they may be excited. They
may be huge. They may be rich. But it's why
so many congregations continually have to push the Word of God
to the side and find some other alternative to fire someone up.
Well, that didn't work. Get the Bible a little closer.
Get the Bible a little further, rather. Let's get the Bible a
little further. Let's get the Word of God a little... Let's just don't
even use the Bible anymore. Let's just talk a little bit.
How about I tell you this? Let me give you some cool, real,
amazing things for you to do in your life, and let me pump
you up like Tony Robbins. You don't know who he is? Don't worry about it. Motivational
speaker. Zig Ziglar. There's the one everybody
knows. Let's just get excited about life. Yay! Yay! You ready to have fun? That's
not how we start a worship service. We can't hide from the Lord.
The Lord favors repentance, and He favors His people. Look what
He says there. Repent, if not, I will come to
you soon and war against you. Them, with the word of my mouth.
To the one who conquers, I will give him some of the hidden manna.
and I will give them a white stone." What does this mean?
What is manna? It's provision. You could do
nothing with it. You couldn't keep it. You couldn't
store it. It's provision. It came just when it was supposed
to, and it perished just as quickly. We trust in the Lord. The Israelites
trusted in the Lord with the manna. I will give them manna.
I will provide for them. I will give them a white stone.
What is a white stone? In ancient times, it was a judicial
expression of innocence. Exoneration. Acquittal. And that's what Jesus is showing
here. The church of Pergamum. The next church to the church
in Thyatira. This is one of the smallest cities
in this circle. So small that a lot of biblical
archaeologists wonder if it's not a mistake. Wonder if it's
not something that maybe John just wrote down wrong. Or maybe he wasn't writing to
them at all. Maybe he was just writing and he was just going
through a map and he picked the city and didn't really know.
It's such an insignificant place. Thyatira is of least importance. It's like Daisy. It's like Undine. I'm not talking about your places.
It's like Claxton. What is Claxton in the scheme
of the nation? What is Statesboro in the scheme of Georgia? Not,
yeah, we got, oh, actually we pretty are famous, aren't we?
Yeah, we got fruitcake twice and chickens to boot. Wow. It's
the people. We're fruitcakes and chicken.
There you go. Huh? We're scared of fruitcake.
You should be. But Thyatira, he says what? I know your works. You love Your
faith, your service, your endurance. I mean, I'm going to tell you
something. If we stop right there, this is the greatest praise of all
seven of the letters. This sounds like Paul wrote that.
Man, I want you to have love and faith and I want it to endure
and I want it to be more than it ever has been and I want you
to continue in it. Doesn't this sound like the Apostle
Paul? I pray that you would just love each other as you are already
doing All the more, more and more, and more and more, like
Paul would say to the Thessalonians, and I love you with all the affection
of Christ, and I pray that I may come back to you that your love
would abound. And abound and abound. And Jesus
says your love is abounding, your faith is abounding, your
service is abounding, and you're holding fast patiently. And that your latter works exceed
the first. But I have this against you.
What is it? You tolerate, what? You tolerate
that woman Jezebel, the seductress, who calls herself a prophetess
and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual
immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to
repent and she refuses to repent. I'll throw her into a sickbed
and those who commit adultery with her, I'll throw them into
great tribulation unless they repent of her works and I will
strike her children dead. I want you to hear about this
for a second. End this and just bear with me
for time. You just have to sort of take
my word for it. We can deal with it next week if you want to ask
some questions. But Jesus is talking about the Spirit that
expressed practices that Jezebel was known for. Not Jezebel explicitly. that this type of immorality
had come into the church and that the church in itself actually
was excelling, listen, was excelling in service and love. He didn't
say you were doing it. He said there are some of you. And it wasn't necessarily even
the fact that many of the church were practicing this. It's that
they tolerated it. The sin was the toleration. You
put up with it. You kept your mouth shut. You
closed your eyes. You put your blinders on. You went, Jesus
is mine. Who cares what's happening over
there? And we just kept on doing exactly what we wanted to do.
We're a holy puddle and we're fine. Let's put blinders on the
windows and not look outside. Jesus says there's some of the
children of God who have gone and followed after the ways of
Jezebel and He said He would strike them dead. And then all the churches will
know that I am He who searches mind and heart and give each
according to your work, put to the rest of you, but to the rest
of you in Thyatira who do not hold this teaching, you're okay."
You see what he's saying there? I'm not talking to you. But to
those of you who tolerate it, I'm coming for you. this great
commendation, this spirit of compromise, idolatry, immorality,
a license to sin, learning the deep things of Satan, meddling
with this worldliness. And believe it or not, guys,
you might think, well, what kind of cult does this? Listen, Christians
fall prey to these things. People who are born of God fall
prey to these things. That's why the community of faith
is essential to the holiness and the purity of the practice
of the church. That if we see each other falling
into sin, we pray that God would deliver one another and we go
out of love and restore each other passionately, zealously,
with tears in our eyes, that we might see a brother or sister
come to repentance and God be praised for restoring His body
to purity. But when we see sin, and we turn
a blind eye, or we just let it go, or we just follow into it
and live a double life. Friends, the Bible says tolerating
evil is a condemnation by Jesus. Jesus knows the hearts of all
people. We see that in John 2. What's the context of John 2?
Many people believed in the name of Christ because of all the
works and wonders that He did. But Jesus Himself did not entrust
Himself to them, for He knew the heart of man. No one had
to tell Him what was in man. And the example of that wide
view, one-on-one in the discourse, is in chapter 3, verse 1. Now there was a man named Nicodemus
of the Pharisees. So all those who believed, Jesus
knew better. They didn't believe. He knew
what was in the hearts of man. Now let me show the example of this,
John writes, Nicodemus. Nicodemus. We can't hide from Christ. But
if you're not following this sinful way, if you're not tolerating
this wicked stuff, He says, I do not add a burden on you. What
would be the burden? You know, if somebody else is
in trouble in here, like we were all siblings, and Daddy was really
getting on us, and like two of us had done it wrong, but the
rest of us hadn't, we try to go overboard to butter Daddy
up, right? You know, I didn't do anything,
Daddy. Well, I love you, Daddy. I'm going to sweep this house, Daddy. I'm going to do
the yards, Daddy. The Lord is saying, I'm not going to add
a new burden on you. You don't have to become this overwhelmingly active, legalistic
Christian to do extra stuff. to make me not notice you. You
stay where you are. You hold to that which I've already
given you. You hold to me. And you're fine. But that's not
what we do. Or maybe we found ourself. Maybe we find ourselves
maybe being a little tolerant. And then instead of just believing
on Christ and repenting and going and loving Him and holding to
Him, we go overboard. Okay, I'm going to sell everything
I've got. I'm going to go start whipping myself. I will sell
my children into the monastery. That's not a bad idea, but they
don't buy. So you have to give them. I'm
not going to hold the burden over you. Hold fast. Keep the word of God and you
gain the crown of life. That's what Jesus is saying.
Friends, there's a blessing there. There's a blessing in all of
these thus far that if we hold fast to the confession of our
hope in Christ Jesus, if we hold fast to His Word, to Him who
is the Word, we are not going to fail. If we meditate on the
Word of God day and night, as Paul would tell Timothy, that
all of Scripture is breathed out by God and useful for what?
teaching, correction, rebuke, instruction of righteousness,
that the man of God may be equipped for every good work, all good
works. The power of God in 2 Peter we see is all we need is divine
power to live according to His will and for His glory. And it's
all done through the Word. We hold fast. Hold fast what
you have until I come, the One who conquers and who keeps My
works until the end. To Him I will give authority
over the nations. So not only are you just just saved. I mean, I can save something
and put it in a box and hold it around. Look, I saved something. I can
save someone from a burning building and let them live in the woods
homeless. And they've saved. God saves us through Jesus Christ
and sets us on a throne. I want you to get that picture.
That's the point of it. It's a picture. Revelation is all about pictures.
The picture is, if we're the body and he's the king, hallelujah,
we sit in the position of rule. He rules, we sit. In fact, we see Paul even arguing
in 1 Corinthians that, don't you know you ought not judge
outsiders? But you ought to judge each other, is a paraphrase.
Don't you know that God, that the church will judge the world?
Later. Why? To the measure of righteousness
that we've been given. To the perfection of the holiness
of Christ, who is God. He will cast a shadow of his
righteousness upon. It reminds me of the old Scantron
tests. Do they still do that now? Are you feeling the bubble?
Are they still do those? Wow, that's amazing. That's like
one of the oldest technologies in the world. But the Scantron
test. But before it was actually one
of those things like at Claxton. They got the Scantron worksheets
a long, long time before they had the thing that would grade
them. And so the way they'd grade them is they'd take another piece
of paper and they'd poke out the holes like a template. Well,
in that sense, Jesus has poked out the hole of the template
of righteousness in His church and He holds it up against the
world. And if the world doesn't look like Him, it goes to hell.
So how does the world look like Him? We believe on Him. He saves
us. He transforms us. He glorifies
us one day. You know, the most righteous
person on earth is still so far from the glory of God, it's infinitesimally
impossible to see God's glory in comparison. You can't see
any righteousness in comparison to the most righteous human being
that would walk this earth today. Now, justified we are, but glorified
we're not. Because when we're glorified,
we are the body of Christ. We're connected to Him as if
tissue. Jesus does not have a hand that's wicked. It's pure, just
like Him. And brothers and sisters, we're the hand, we're the feet,
we're the shoulders, whatever. To the church of Sardis. You have the reputation of being
alive? I really... Sit on this for a while. You
have the reputation of being alive. But you're dead. Wake up and strengthen what remains
and is about to die. For I have not found your works
complete in my sight and the sight of my God. This quick condemnation. Jesus doesn't even say, hey,
you know what? You're beautiful. You smell nice. At least you're clean
behind the ears. He said, you're dead. First words,
you have a reputation for being alive. What's the reputation?
That's how others viewed them. A reputation is how they were
looked upon by the world and by the people of their city.
And the church in Sardis was probably praised by everybody.
Oh man, you know that church down there, that church over
there, that church. Man, if our church could just
be like that church. If we could just have the things that they
have, we could be doing the stuff that they do. If we could just
be like, you know, get the point. You're alive. We're alive. You
know, those are the ones who get the invitations to become
on staff and train people. I stand before big, big crowds
on big, big stages. The lights are so bright you
can't see that anybody's out there. So you're standing there talking
like a crazy man to yourself. You ever try to communicate on stage
with light in your face? I hate it. Lights on, please. I talk
to people, not blackness. I like to see your face. By the
way, at the new members class Sunday, I made the point that
I haven't made to hardly everybody yet. But I look at your faces
a lot more than you do. And I know when things aren't
quite right. But that's the thing. This is
the church that everybody wants to hear from. How'd you do it?
How'd you baptize 300 in 2001? It's very easy. You don't baptize
300? Get 6,000 to come. And preach
baptism. Are you saved? Are you sure?
Have you been baptized? Oh, you're disobedient. Maybe
you're not saved. Oh, you want to be baptized? I figured that.
I mean, it's a real easy thing. Hey kids, you hungry? Nah, you
want candy? Clean your room. Alright. You know, they won't
do it, but they'll put the effort for it. And then they'll try
to steal the candy. We know. This quick combination. You're not alive. You're dead. As a whole, you're dead. All
of you are dead. Your church is dead, Jesus says.
You are dead. Wake up. What is dying? Or I will come against you. I
mean, it's sort of like, I don't, I've said a lot of parental type
analogies because that's really what it sounds like. Jesus, the
Father of the church. The Lord of the church. And I
remember being a kid, and you know, when you don't even really
know what you've done, but your dad's a little tired of talking,
and he says, that's enough, son. And you're like, I don't even
know where they come from. I was thinking about candy, but
I'm gonna be quiet. I don't even know what's happening.
Yes, sir. You know, I learned that the hard way the first few
times. Enough of what, dad? I mean, I was curious. I wasn't
being smart. I'm just like, enough of what? Because I wasn't. I
was daydreaming. I was counting clouds. I don't know. I'm going
to come against you. Don't make me come in there.
Don't make me come upstairs. You know, that's real good parenting. Yelling across the house. I hear
you. I'm coming. While you're sitting
in the recliner, you know, that sound right there, that was the
sound I hated as a kid. Or the jingle of the belt buckle.
It's amazing how fast you can go into a coma when you hear
that. Jingle, jingle. I mean, it's
over. Jesus is saying I'm going to
come against you. You're dead. If you don't wake up, if you
don't get strong, I'm coming against you. Do you understand
Jesus is saying? I'm going to come and you're
never going to know it. There are some, there are a few names.
You know, I find that interesting that it's written that way. I
believe that it's actually literally meaning there are a few people
that I know of. And these people in Stardust knew them. Oh yeah,
that's Pete and Rob and Sally and Joe. And those are the ones
that are not living for the devil. They're really on fire. We thought
they were extra awesome Christians, but they're really normal. And that's the way we all should
be. Jesus is saying we ought to be. We're not alert. We're
not sound. We're not pressing. We're not
laboring. We're not doing anything. We're just sitting around. We're
not living out the Scripture. We're just looking in the mirror
and not even noticing our reflection. We're not living for the sake
of others. We're not encouraging one another. We're not rebuking
each other. We're not strengthening each
other. We're not living for each other. We're living for ourselves.
We like our little fellowship, but it's my church. It's my seat. It's my pew. It's my doctrine. It's my building. It's my ministry,
we'd say. And Jesus says, you're dead.
Wake up. And I like this positive-negative
that he says. The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white
garments and I will never blot his name out of the book of life.
See, that's a positive statement. It's a negative reality. You
notice that. Jesus is sort of being like a
little passive-aggressive there. I'm not going to blot you out
for all of eternity. I won't throw you into hell and smash
you in the wine press in my father's fury. No, I'm not going to do
that. You're going, wait a minute,
that's an option? That's a possibility? Yeah, it's a possibility. What
does it mean? Friends, it's a picture of having your name erased from
glory. Wake up, church. Finally, the Church of Philadelphia. There's a lot more I could say
about all these. I mean, I preached an hour each on these when I
did them years ago. I probably could do more than
that, because there's a lot there, but for the sake of learning
to read it, We're going to learn it this way. The church in Philadelphia,
I know your works. And he says, behold, I've set
before you an open door. I love this. What is it? I set before you an open door
which no one is able to shut. Church, I prayed today that the
churches of this area would be this church like this. would have that. I said, listen,
we can do anything we want to do in the name of reaching and
preaching and going and serving. But if God has not opened the
door to His Spirit, opened the door to the fruitfulness of those
efforts, opened the door for us to go out into the community.
I mean, Pax Romana is probably what he's talking about. The
peace that comes through Rome and the fact that this church
in Philadelphia was a major center It was something that Jesus is
saying, I opened these works around you. I opened these doors
so that you could go out and be fruitful and able to do the
work of the ministry. We cannot effectually reach people
without the grand mercy of the grace of God opening the door
to do so. I don't care how educated we
are, how precise we are, how enthusiastic we might be, how
loving or passionate we might be about others and even the
Word. If we aren't asking the Lord
and praying for the Lord to open these doors, nothing happens. And as I read through that today
and I thought, Lord, have mercy. Is that why certain seasons of
my ministry have been fruitless? Like I'm preaching to a microphone?
Is that why I could say something one minute and then 45 minutes
later the same question comes from the same mouth as though
I have not even been speaking English? Is that what's happening
God? Because I was so abled in my own ability that I felt like
I could explain it. God, give us an open door for
understanding, an open door for ministry, an open door. He says,
you have been set before you, has been set before you an open
door and no one will shut it. And I know that you have little
power, and yet you have kept My Word and have not denied My
Name. Those who persecute you, the synagogue of Satan, those
Jews, I will make them bow down before you. Isaiah 62, I believe,
it tells us about that. I will make them bow down before
you. I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming
on the world. Hold fast, that you may seize
your crown. The trial is coming, but your
hope is in me." This is what Jesus is saying. Because listen,
for every church that God opens the door of revival for, I'm
using that word very loosely, Thank you much. I'm not talking
about Moody or Graham revival. I'm talking about gospel revival.
I'm not talking about the revival that we plan. I'm talking about the revival
that God does. And we call it the revival meeting. I'm talking
about actual revival. New birth. Regeneration. Gospel
power. For every time that comes, it
comes then eventually to opposition and persecution. Isn't it true
in our own lives? Those seasons of life, I've never
been so spiritual in my life. And it's either, something's
gonna happen either on one side or the other. We're either coming
out of a really, really bad season of persecution. Wow, I'm so close,
look how the Lord has sanctified me. Or we're getting ready to
go into one. And I say both are true each time. What Jesus says to the church
of Philadelphia, I've opened it up, and though you're weak and powerless,
what does Paul say in 1 Corinthians 1? He uses the stupid things,
I'm going to paraphrase it so it can make sense to us, to profound
the wise, the weak things of this world to overcome the strong,
the nothings to overcome the things that are. Why? Because
that's how God gets glory. People were amazed at the disciples.
And how unlearning, ignorant men who could barely write Greek,
Luke could but Matthew a little bit, how unlearning men could
preach with such power and authority. I'm not saying we shouldn't learn,
we should learn, but we should learn in the context of the local
church. We should learn as we go. When you graduate from seminary,
when you graduate from med school, when you graduate from your kung
fu sash, your taekwondo, whatever it is, you're least worthy of
the title and rank that moment. You've mastered the minimum requirements. You know the minimum requirements
to serve the Lord with an open door? Faith. Because if God has
saved you, you can share that with someone else. And you don't
have to have the answers. Some of the greatest answers
I've ever said in my life are, I don't know. But if you die
in your sins without trusting in Jesus, you will suffer the
wrath of God. That's simple. We can teach our
two-year-olds to say that. She doesn't want to, but we can.
The trial is coming, but I will keep you from it. The final church
tonight is this, the church in Laodicea. And this is a church, if you hear dispensational theology
taught, if you hear these people who come to that understanding,
all these sermons, all these classes are online on the church
website now if you want to listen to the last four or five weeks
and catch up or revisit it. This is where people say we're
in the age of Laodicea. or in the time frame of the church
of Laodicea. I don't believe that, but I will
concede to the fact that most churches are here in some sense. And if you'll listen to your
own heart and the Spirit of God through His Word as He convicts
it, we'll realize that there's a little bit of all of these
in all of us. We're all in there. Laodicea,
I know your works. You're neither hot nor cold. And because of that, I'm going
to spit you out of my mouth. You know what the point is? What
does it mean? When you have hot water, I don't
want cold coffee. And when I'm outside cutting
grass, I don't want hot water. There's a use for both. Did you
ever had a drink for the day and it's in your cup holder?
And you think it's the same one that's in your cup holder when
you get back in the car, but that was yesterday's drink. You ever
had it? Yeah. And you're like, your mind's
like, cool, refreshing. You spit all over yourself. Or
you open the cup back, or you go out, or I don't swallow it. Thankfully it's not sugary, because
sugary drinks probably have like, I don't know, a cure for cancer
in there or something. We don't want to drink that stuff.
Jesus doesn't want to drink that stuff. It's an expression of
showing how worthless, lukewarm churches are. The church here
in Laodicea says, I'm rich. We've prospered. We've made it.
We don't need anything. Not realizing that you are wretched,
pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. If I remember some history correct,
I think Laodicea was a banking and hospital center. I do believe that. And if you've
got big fat study bibles, it might say that in there for you.
But I find it odd that this would be like your high church. And
I've pastored a first church. I'm not talking about all first
church, but I've pastored a first Baptist church. And for the most
part, first churches have people come to them because they're
first churches. There's an expectation. There's a proper stance. I cut the mold out and throw
it away when I go in those places. There's a proper liturgy. It's just common among first
churches. I don't know if the church in Nazarene has that or
not, but I mean, you know, there's a high church, there's a not-so-high
church. We're a not-so-high church. We're meeting at a gas station,
about to be a wig shop. Love it. Two bathrooms. Les toilettes. But here we are, this church
saying they've got it all, and Jesus says you've got nothing.
And He says to them, I counsel you to buy some gold refined
by fire from Me. And if you do, you'll be rich.
I counsel you to get some garments and clothes yourself to cover
the shame of your neckiness, and to put some salve on your eyes
that you may see. He gives us a great word here in verse 19,
because it's real easy as we finish this up tonight for us
to go, man, we're just really wretched. Okay, we are wretched,
but by God's grace, we're glorious. We're unworthy, but because we're
in Christ, we're worthy. We're depraved, and without the
grace of God, there's no hope for us. But because of the grace
of God, we can actually walk free from sin. But if we say we have no sin,
we lie. And in verse 19 there, those whom
I love, I reprove and discipline. So be zealous and repent. See,
that's a word for all these churches. That if Jesus were not talking
to His children, He wouldn't talk with them at all. Because
what the Lord Jesus says to those who are not His is, depart from
Me, you workers of iniquity. I'm going to cast you in the
lake of fire with the devil and his demons, hell and death. All of
you go forever to suffer the recompense of the wrath of the
righteousness and the justice of God. Same thing, by the way.
So this is a beautiful thing. When we feel conviction, when
we feel discipline, it's because we are legitimate children. The
writer of Hebrews would say that if we are not disciplined, we're
illegitimate children. So we are legitimate children.
We are not being spit out of the mouth of God. What does all these things mean?
Well, maybe this church was materialistic. I believe that's what it's talking
about. I think this church and its ministry had become something
to really look at. I believe this church, just like
the reputation of the previous church, was not only something
to look at, but like a church that I've heard about recently
that has $2 million in the checking account and there's less than
30 people in the building. I'm like, missions? Come on!
How about some church plant support, people? Put two toilets in here
for the next group. A thousand dollars. How about
fund the director of the food bank, for crying out loud? She
doesn't have to go to work. Six jobs. Why not fix the stinking stop
sign at Smith and Ralph's so people will see it? Do something. Oh, we just better hold on to
that. The lights in the bathroom might go out. I think that's
what we have. Huh? No, they just split over
it. They didn't want to buy a new
soundboard because they didn't think they needed a sound system.
They split. That church split. Two months
ago. Over 700 dollars. Yes, and they
fired everybody. They changed the door locks.
and the pastor quit. God bless them. They got a lot of stuff. They
got a lot of fame. They got a lot of flash. They
got a good image, but they're really poor and blind and naked.
They can't see where they're going. They're a laughing stock
in the context of what they ought to be. They should be ashamed. And they've got nothing. They covered up with self-glory,
and Jesus says, why don't you stop and buy gold from Me? Why don't you buy gold that's
been refined? You know, why don't you buy purity
from Me? Why don't you come to Me and
let Me be your light? Why don't you let Me be your
righteousness? Why don't you let Me be your glory? Cover your
nakedness up with my righteousness, with these white clothes. Put
salve on your eyes, which is the glory that you think you
can't see. You can see something that you're
not even looking at because you're blinded. Let me show you what
something beautiful really is. Be a church by my grace, for
the sake of my glory, and let me show you something. I love
you. I reprove you. I will come to you if you repent. In verse 20. I want to quit with
this. I know I'm a minute and four
seconds over, but just hold tight. Three minutes and four seconds. Behold, I stand at the door and
knock. Y'all seen this picture? You
got one in your house? Uncle Billy, the blonde-haired,
blue-eyed hippie, standing outside with a nice set of Birkenstocks.
I mean, he's standing there knocking. Y'all didn't catch that. You've
never been to the Bay. Birkenstocks are sandals that were created
in Berkeley. And all these long-haired, blonde, blue-eyed people. It's
not Jesus. It's not a Palestinian knockout. It's Uncle Billy. That's
what me and Luke call him, Uncle Billy. That's Uncle Billy. We
see that picture constantly. And that verse is taken out of
context. And we heard it in context tonight. It's not at all what
people say it is, is it? It's not an individual plea of
evangelism. Behold, I stand or not. It's the counter of the
consequences of self-glory. You hear it? Jesus has been shoved out of
that church. That's the point he's making. You look grand and
glorious, but there's no glory in you. Ichabod is above your
doorpost. If you know your Old Testament
history, you know that that name means the glory of God has departed.
Ichabod. It's gone. And Jesus is outside
the door. And He's saying, if you repent,
it's like opening the door to Me. If you stop living for self-glory,
I will eat with you. Now you know what the Lamb, the
Marriage Supper of the Lamb, epitomizes in Revelation chapter
19? We're going to spend a whole class on that. It is the perfection
and the glorification and the culmination of what Christ did
on the cross for His people. When we take the Lord's table
as a family, here it is nothing but a shadow that means nothing. It points to what Christ has
done, and it points to what Christ is going to finish. Jesus says that churches like
this, He's not even at the table, much less going to eat with them.
Imagine the Lord's Supper without Christ. What is it? Gluttony. Imagine the Lord's
Table, the marriage supper without the bridegroom. What is it? Dinner
party. There's no wedding, there's no
consummation, there's no intimacy, there's no communion, there's
no life. It's just a shadowy, dead, nothing. That's what a lukewarm church
is. Insofar as much that Christ is
not even with them. Church. But He says, the one who conquers.
Paul says, for more than conquers, I'll grant Him to sit with me
on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on
His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit
says to the churches. So what about us? And what about
you? Where does this put us this night
after seeing this information come from John's letter? It should
put us in three places. It should put us in check, which
would cause us to tremble. It should put us in a place of
godly sorrow, Because we've all got this in our lives from some
time to another. Four places. You should put us
in the place of living more intimately together that we may watch out
for one another. I see your faces more than you
see your faces. Unless you're just really narcissistic
and you stare in the mirror for 90 minutes a week. At one time. No, we don't. I could live without
a mirror. I don't know if I even look in
one. That's probably where I find it. Anyway. When my kids say,
Dad, you need a haircut, I look in the mirror. Oh yeah. What
was I saying? Oh yeah. We need to look at each
other. We need to be careful to love each other in an intimate
way so that we can see. The point I was making is that
others can see things in our lives way before we can. And
if we're not together, we very well could get snared in sin.
That's why accountability is always a must for the local church.
Thirdly, we ought to rejoice knowing that we are children
of God and through this we have no fear. Because that's the point
of where this letter goes. I'm writing to you, there's some
things I want to clean up, because I love you. Clean them up. Now
let me show you just how powerful and absolutely supreme I am,
and show you what my sovereignty looks like as I said, let there
be light, and when I said, it is finished. and everything in
between. It's why Jesus calls Himself
the Alpha and the Omega. He started it, He's going to
finish it. And that's what the rest of Revelation is about.
What God has done in starting and how God's going to promise,
how He promises to finish it for His church. For His church! For His glory! Beautiful. I think that's ultimately the
last thing that we need to know, is that as we see Revelation
chapter 4 and 5 that we'll get to, what's the outcome? What
does Paul say? To the praise of His glorious
grace. The culmination in our hearts
and minds, when we're perfectly glorified, we'll be able to praise
Jesus Christ in spirit and in truth without any hindrance from
the flesh. There won't even be opportunity
for making a place at the table for my sinfulness because it'll
be destroyed. And I'm looking forward to that.
Until that time, we walk together in this. And I know this night
has been a little more preachy than teachy, but I want you to
know that it's very difficult not to just flat preach this.
But God is faithful. Let it stay where it's been put,
and pray that God would bloom it into a great harvest, and
that we, not only as a congregation, would grow from it, but that,
brother, the Nazarene church would grow from it. And then
as we go out into our lives, that we would see others hear
the good news of Jesus Christ. and that we would be a church
that is not known for our selfishness, but is known for our selfless
death for the sake of those who even hate us, so that Christ
might be glorified through us. Let's pray. Lord, may you never knock upon
our door. Because if you have to knock,
it means we've put you outside. Lord, teach us that our sufficiency
is really foolish. Teach us that our hope and what
we do and even how we learn is just never going to work for
the sake of Your sovereignty and Your work. But Lord, in the
simplistic, simple discipline of obeying Your Word, first unto
faith and then unto living, by faith, by your power, by your
Spirit, not in the flesh, that you take the simple, foolish
truth and you bring people to salvation just through hearing
it. In the same way, Lord, you work
in us simply Though there was a lot of work there, and it's
a majestic work, as far as we are concerned, we believe, and
You make us into the people that You've called us to be. So we
praise You for that. We praise You for Your mercy,
for Your grace, because only through those things could You
love us. Only through Your justice set
against Jesus Christ the righteous could You have ever loved us.
And before eternity began, And not hyperbole, Lord. You've loved
us in Christ, so that at the fullness of time, You put forth
Christ as our propitiation to be received by faith, so that
we might see You as just and righteous, as the just God of
heaven, who pours out wrath upon the Lamb that You sent. We praise
You for that, Father. And we pray as we continue to
study this letter on Tuesdays that it would put a fire in us
to be a church that is loving, sold out, and willing to die
for the sake of the Gospel. Can we at least have urgency
to know that there are those who are dead and who are passing
from this life who need to hear the Gospel, that they may believe
and live. In Jesus' name, Amen.