Are You Listening to Christ?

You know, Jesus died almost two months before the New Testament church started, before the church of God began. There was a separation there between his physical involvement with the disciples and the later involvement that he would have with the church. Of course, later on we know he would work with ministers, with the church, through inspiration, through the Word of God, through the Holy Spirit. But wouldn't it be interesting if Jesus Christ came back and examined the church and told us what he thinks? Told us how we're doing?

Gave us a critiquing, some things to work on. A few pats on the back where we're doing things right. What if Jesus Christ did return and actually gave us his perspective on the church? Of course, what if, say, you know, they're artificial and they're not worth a whole lot, are they? Except in this case, because it's not a what if. You'll turn with me back to the first chapter of Revelation. We're going to find that Jesus Christ actually did come back.

And he did assess the church, and he did critique the church, and he did give the church a pat on the back, and he also gave them some things to work on, or gave us some things to work on. It's interesting because when you think about it, have we listened to what he said? Were any of us unaware that he came back and critiqued the church and told us some things about ourselves? How have we responded? How important is it to us? In Revelation 1, verse 18, here's Jesus in red letters and some translations that print them in red, if he has directly stated something.

He said, I am he who lives and was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys to Hades, to the grave, and the keys of death. I have power. I have decision-making power, and I am back. Most of us, unfortunately, have ignored these words to the church that he has given. Most don't even realize that he spoke to us. He is the one who we should listen to, and yet too many times few people have paid attention to what he has said.

Today we're going to listen to the head of the church, the chief cornerstone. He said some things that I think we as a church have been ignoring, some things that we have considered to be statements long ago to people who have been long dead. But if we don't listen to Jesus, why are we even here?

Thank you. And so, brethren, today let's open our ears, and let's hear what Christ says to his church. Jesus was patient in assessing the church. He didn't just return right away and sum up things when the church had just begun or when it faced certain problems that Paul addressed in Peter and James and John.

No, he waited a while. He waited about three generations, some 60 years. He was patient. The apostles, by the time Jesus Christ spoke and gave his assessment, were long dead, except for one, an old man, Apostle John. The church, through that time, had experienced a lot. It had begun with the eagerness and the youth of springing up and people grabbing a hold of it and having emotional attachment to it. The numbers sprang up and there was growth everywhere. People were exciting. There were growing pains through the years, some maturity issues, some tired of well-doing.

Some began to become more and more tolerant of other concepts. There was a general tiredness that set in because doing the same thing long-term over and over can become routine. Nevertheless, they were the church. And the world around the church was changing. It wasn't the same church.

It wasn't the same environment as when Jesus had left it, when he had started it. It had been 20 years since the Jews had been displaced from Jerusalem. Since the temple had been torn down, the city burned and Jews disallowed from being in Palestine. The church didn't live there anymore. The church had moved a generation before Jesus Christ gave his assessment. It moved all the way up into Turkey, into a province called Asia of the Roman Empire. What has changed between the church then and the church now?

They had the Roman Empire. We are awaiting the 10th revival of the Roman Empire. They were out of Palestine living somewhere else. Guess what? So are we. We have no members today in Galilee or Palestine in that part of the world. They were surrounded by false religions that were pushing at them.

So are we. They were influenced by a decadent society. And so are we. They sought the second coming of Jesus Christ at any time. And so do we. They had false doctrines and false teachers come in among them, just as we have witnessed. They were lax sometimes in their resistance to sin. And we too are lax sometimes in our resistance to sin. Here in Revelation, the first chapter in verse 20, it says, The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw are seven churches.

In Revelation, these seven lampstands, or the seven churches, refers to the total church of God. Seven is the number of completion. And so here we see lampstands consisting of the entire church, each with an angel, each with an individual who reports to Jesus Christ. They're also referred to as the seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, also the seven spirits of God. You'll find this in Revelation 4, verse 5.

In this sense, they serve as God's eyes, His ambassadors, His emissaries. One explanation of the Greek is that they are the ones sent by God. And the church is represented by these lampstands. A lampstand is not the light, and it's not the oil. It's the stand that facilitates the light. It's what holds the light. They hold the oil. They hold the fire. And so the lampstands, or the church of God, they're the receptacles of the oil, the Holy Spirit, and also they are the lampstands.

They help reflect the light. They help send out the light, which is of Christ and comes from God the Father. We must receive both the oil and the light. And if we don't, then we are not gods. We must be careful to have both, maintain both. This is what the parable of the ten virgins was about. Individuals who had oil and light, but how they dealt with it and how careful they were with it was what was very, very important.

Revelation 2 and 3 is Jesus Christ speaking to seven churches. The seven churches. The church of God. And he draws the analogy here of seven individual congregations at that time that were along a mail route in that province of Asia, which is modern Turkey. But you know, it's not all Jesus Christ said to those churches. We tend to think, well, chapters 2 and 3 to those seven churches, that was for them, or that was about church errors. And so we push that away.

Let's read something in verse 11 of Revelation 1. Jesus said, I am the Alpha, the Omega, the first and the last. And what you see, John, the Apostle John, you write in a book and you send it to the seven churches which are in Asia to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea. You are to send the entire book of Revelation to the churches, not chapters 2 and 3, not a letter to each one. This book of Revelation was written to the seven churches and to be sent to them in its entirety. We find at the end of the book something similar stated in similar words.

In chapter 22 and verse 7, Behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy or the teachings of this book. In verse 12 of Revelation 22, Behold, I am coming quickly and my reward is with me to give everyone according to his word. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. The very things he was saying in chapter 1, he repeats in chapter 22, and the whole package, the whole book of this prophecy, of this teaching was to go to the seven churches.

Now, I have a question in my mind. I personally don't think that this book ever went to those literal seven churches on the mail route because it was given to John in prison, in isolation on the Isle of Patmos. John may have died there. It was a long time until the Bible was ever canonized. The Bible was never really printed and distributed until really our time, until long after the printing press and the translations to where you and I have it today. And it really is a work written to the end-time church of God.

And so it's found the church, all of the church, the seven, as it were, complete aspects of the church. Whether it was ever discovered or ever reached the seven churches on that mail route, I don't know that anybody knows. But the Revelation is instruction for all Christians. Revelation 1 and verse 3, the third verse of the book says, Blessed is he who reads, and those who hear the words of this teaching, of this prophecy.

Blessed is that individual. The Greek word there means, oh, how extremely blessed is the one who reads and hears the words of this teaching and keeps those things which are written in it, for the time is near. Let's now look at what Jesus Christ said to the church or to the churches. We begin in chapter 2 and verse 1 with Ephesus.

It says, To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, These things says he who holds the seven stars were the angels or the messengers, those sent. In his right hand, in other words, he has control, he is the leader, he is the controller of those, and who walks in the midst of, he's shepherds, he's the overseers, he walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands.

In other words, Jesus Christ shepherds his church, the whole church. Verse 2, I know your works. Works, that Greek word means the toil that results in weariness. Your labor, your patience, that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars. There were a lot of Gnostic teachers and other influences on the church back at that time.

Verse 3, And you have persevered and have patience and have labored for my name's sake and have not become weary. Those are good things being said about the church in Ephesus. Ephesus, as a word and as the name of the city, meant desirable. The city itself was a very beautiful and affluent city. It was at a major Roman crossroads, and it had a large harbor that was constructed to accommodate the largest ships from around the world that would come into the Roman territory.

So it was a fabulous place, but it also was full of idolatry. It was the center of Diana worship. It had pagan temples filled with immorality. Paul founded the Ephesian congregation there at Ephesus in the early 50s AD. And in 60 AD, he wrote in Ephesians 1.15, he said, Therefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.

They started out well. They were doing well. Jesus Christ complimented them on some of the things they were continuing to do. But just 30 years after Paul wrote that about their faithfulness and their faith and their love for all the saints, we read here in Revelation 2 and verse 4, Jesus said, Nevertheless, I have this against you that you have left your first love.

You have left your first love. Just 30 years later, this group that was praised for their love had left their first love. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, you have compromised. You're doing something different.

Repent and do the first works. What are the first works? Obedience, repentance, zeal for godliness and doing the work of God. Or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. This isn't just unique to that group at Ephesus. In fact, it's very typical of human beings. We weary of doing well. We weary of doing the same thing. There were many among us who a few years ago said, you know what? I'm just tired of fighting human nature, fighting human nature, fighting human nature, fighting human nature. I'm tired of what Paul said, that which I want to do, I don't do. That which I don't want to do, that's what I do. We can weary in well doing. We can begin to have itching ears for something else. We can relax our zeal. We can grow tired.

Jeremiah 6 16 speaks to this where it says, thus says the Lord, stand in the ways and see and ask for the old paths. Ask for the old paths.

Like John said back in 1 John, that which you have heard from the beginning.

Ask where the good way is, Jeremiah says, and walk in it. Then you will find rest for your souls.

The Bible tells us in verse 7, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Do you have an ear? If so, this is speaking to us. This is speaking to those whose ears are not shut, whose eyes are open, who are not blinded to the truth. And if we have ears, then we are to listen to what Jesus Christ is saying. To him who overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Smyrna was the next church on that route.

Revelation 2, verse 9, he says, of them I know your works, tribulation, and poverty, but you are rich.

And I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are of a synagogue of Satan.

That area was just full of temples and all type of idolatry.

Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer.

Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. That's a long time, prophetically.

Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. Now, what was so unique about Smyrna? Jesus Christ is using various aspects of these seven cities, and some of the history, and some of the local economy, to teach the church some things.

It wasn't that one church here was going to go through something unique, that a church 30 miles away wasn't going to go through.

Smyrna, it turns out, was a very rich and prosperous city, just 40 miles from Ephesus.

It was one of the finest cities in Asia. It was called the lovely crown of Iona, the ornament of Asia.

It was built, or therein was built, a temple to Emperor Tiberius. It was an honor to be able to build a temple, and this little town was so enthralled with the honor of being able to build a temple to Emperor Tiberius, that it started worshiping the emperor. So the cult worship of the emperors began here, and they began to teach that the emperor was a living god while he was alive. This would go on in time under such emperors as Nero and Domitian.

And great persecution would come in the first and second centuries AD against the church, especially in the second century. And they went after the true church with a vengeance, not in Smyrna, per se, but the true church as a whole, which again shows that these teachings of Christ is for the church. When you didn't worship the emperor, then you were considered to have a fanatical religion, and maybe one that, if you spoke of a coming king who was going to rule the world, was challenging the Caesar himself. There are some terrible things written about what happened to the true members of the church back during that time, and that provided the impetus for persecution against the church for 10 days, for quite a long time. We learned from this that everyone has to be determined to be faithful to God. Jesus Christ promised in Matthew 24 that one of the signs at the end was intense persecution on the church, and the killing of the church members. He's teaching us and telling us that we need to be determined to remain faithful, no matter what. Verse 11, He who has an heir, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. These are all part and parcel of being in God's church. These teachings that He's giving us, the encouragement and also the lessons, are things that every one of us needs. We'll now look at Pergamos and Thyatira. Both were given essentially the same message, because both had members who gave into the same sin, though each city had a uniqueness in the way that those sins were fostered and perpetrated. Pergamos, or Pergamum, as it was also called, became the capital of the Roman province of Asia. It had such a good library that Mark Anthony gave the books of the library to Cleopatra, and all the volumes were moved down to Alexandria.

This was a large governmental center, it was an educational center, and it was also a medical center. But Thyatira, in contrast, was much smaller, and it was a working man's town.

You might call it a working man in woman's town, because you might remember that Paul's first Gentile convert was Lydia, and she was a seller of purple in Thyatira. Find that in Acts 16 in verse 14. But this city here, this town, was made up of businesses and working people, and the businesses were controlled by trade unions. Yes, they had unions back then, and the trade unions had certain pressures that they put on people to conform. And back then, the trade guilds often involved pagan customs, union feasts, where the food was meat sacrificed to idols in the various temples. They also had loose sexual morality associated with the customs and practices of those trade associations back at that time. And so Jesus says in Revelation 2 in verse 20, Nevertheless, I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce my servants to commit sexual immorality, and to eat things sacrificed to idols. He uses what was going on in that area to teach a lesson.

There's a problem that we have as human beings, and that problem is we can be influenced to compromise. We can allow society around us to wear us down, and we can at first be strong against it, and then find excuses to compromise, to make things work out, fit in with society, to fit in with economics. Bible Soft states that some members of the church at Thyatira refused to separate from the local guilds, where moral interests were often seriously compromised. Lax principles or tendencies made for a connection with foreign and compromising associations, and these people would pride themselves upon their enlightened liberalism. It's just human nature figuring out a way to make it all work together somehow. You know, a similar woman is described back in further in the book of Revelation is writing on the beast. And this woman, this Jezebel type of woman, entices and encourages people for economic gain to be immoral, to break God's laws, and she causes people to disobey God in order to buy and sell. This is what you and I face in our future, and our children, our grandchildren, and future generations until Jesus Christ's return. Pressure, that even someday the Bible says you will be killed if you don't bow down, if you don't cave in to this type of pressure and receive this mark of the beast, this thought process and the deed of breaking God's law in order to get along, in order for things to work out. It's very, very important that we learn this principle, that we are to come out of her and not to compromise. This is a timeless lesson for the people of God.

Now we come to Sardis, Revelation chapter 3 and verse 1.

Revelation chapter 3 and verse 1. These things says, He who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars, I know your work, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Now what's that about? Why did Jesus Christ use Sardis? And what's that about having a name that you are alive, but you are dead? Once again, he's going to use something here that the locals understood in order to teach a principle to his church. Sardis, hundreds of years earlier, had been one of the foremost cities in the province of Asia. That was hundreds of years ago. Now, at this time, Sardis was in great decline. It was a has-been city. You might compare it in a way to Venice, Italy.

Everybody wants to go to Venice, because hundreds of years ago, Venice was the capital of a political, economic, and religious, big, almost an empire. It was one of the powers that be. It was the power of the oceans, the power of the waves. It had influence and might.

Today, we like to go there because it has cute gondolas and old buildings falling into the water with waterways. But it can boast, we used to be the center of the Western world. We used to be.

We used to be. Well, that's kind of like Sardis. Sardis was a former city with tales of past glory.

One of the tales they could tell was Sardis is where coins were first minted, first place that ever had struck coins. Under King Croesus, they struck silver and gold coins. So Sardis could say, this is where coins began, hundreds of years ago. This is where we used to be the big city, hundreds of years ago. But Sardis did not endure. It became kind of a sad contrast to the other cities in the area that were booming. Somehow it had lost its way. It just didn't have anything but decay. And so Jesus said, you have a name, you have a reputation for being alive, but you're dead.

Verse 2, Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die. That little bit that you still have, hang on to that. Sometimes in the church we find ourselves, or some find themselves, they used to be really dynamic. They used to be part of the church. They used to be involved in the church. They used to participate and they were growing. And now they're kind of like a church. Sometimes they're a church. They'll come to the feast. Sometimes they'll be in the room.

They're there. They have the name, but it's kind of like the person who received that Mina and he put in his handkerchief and buried it in the ground. They're not doing anything with it anymore. In verse 3, he says, Hold fast and repent. What? Spiritual drowsiness. How? In verse 2, By being watchful, watchful, and if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief.

This is a warning that Jesus gave many times to the church. Not to some little group in Sardis. This is to the whole church that we can never let down. We can never not be attentive to our state.

See, Sardis had suffered a couple of military defeats. That's why the whole thing fell apart.

And it was Sardis' fault because both of those military invasions were surprise attacks and Sardis wasn't watching. You'd think after the first one, they'd really be watching, but it happened twice. And it just removed their power and prestige because they weren't watching. And so he uses this. You need to watch. From two United News articles, it states that the Greek word Gregorio translated watchful and watch in these true verses is used of keeping awake, of spiritual alertness. Vines' expository dictionary of words defines that. Spiritual alertness. When the Bible talks about watch and Jesus talking about watch, what we need to really be watching is our spiritual condition. Otherwise, when he returns, we'll be like the five foolish virgins whose oil had run out. They weren't attentive.

This word combines the sense of being physically awake with spiritual discernment.

It is a spiritual condition of readiness and being alert.

And those who do not maintain this approach will be surprised by Christ's return.

So the message to Sardis was the importance of spiritual preparedness. Again, the ten virgins.

Jesus Christ mentioned several times that concept. Don't go to sleep. Don't become lackadaisical. Don't lose the zeal. Maintain a vigilance. Otherwise, you'll be surprised in the end. It might be one of those, Oh Lord, you came back. Good. We've been waiting for you.

Been publishing the good news and getting the gospel out. He said, I don't know you.

You know, I don't know you. You weren't spiritually alert. You've got lawlessness in. You've got breaking my laws. In verse four, it says, you have a few names, even in Sardis, who have not defiled their garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments and I will not blot out his name from the book of life.

But I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. Here Jesus draws on something else there that's unique to the Sardis area. The Sardis, the Sardis town took a census. It's common for people to take a census and you were written down as a member of that city if your name went into the census, but they wouldn't write anybody's name in there who was dirty. That was just one thing they had in that town. You wouldn't get your name in there if you wore dirty clothes.

So Jesus builds off of that and he says, you know what?

Those who have not defiled their garments will walk with me in white for they are worthy.

And not only will these local citizens in the church have their name written in the local book, but Jesus said, he who overcomes will be clothed in white garments and I will not blot out his name from the book of life. That's the book you really want to be written in. And so what a great parallel to help us understand that we should not let down our guard about having white garments, about having righteousness in our life. Jesus Christ's instruction here to Sardis, their universal instructions for God's people. Verse 6, let him who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the church is what Jesus is saying. We've got to listen to this.

In verse 7 of chapter 3, we now come to Philadelphia. A lot is made of Philadelphia. People get goosebumps and feel real good when Philadelphia comes. Everybody likes to identify with Philadelphia. Let's be realistic. Philadelphia, the term came from the founder of the city. His name wasn't Philadelphia, but they called him that. His name was Athalas II. He was given the epitat Philadelphia's or brother lover because of his love for his brother. The guy really liked his brother, his personal brother. And so they called him kind of a slang term, Philadelphia. But that wasn't the only name for the city. The city actually had many names. Another name was Decapolis because it was one of ten cities in the area. Neo-Chiaseria probably doesn't jump out at you, but a coin from the day of Christ saying this would have said Neo-Chiaseria. That was the name of the town. And it was on the coins. I guess you might say that was the official name of the town.

It was also called Flavius or Flavia. It was also called Little Athens because, like Athens, it was a little version, but it had a lot of temples and administrative buildings that were made with columns and looked really nice. Philadelphia, as we know it, as Christ referred to it, was a very wealthy trade center. It grew in power, in fact, more than probably all these other cities for centuries to come. In fact, by the time of the Byzantine Empire, after the fall of Rome, this town of Philadelphia was still very prosperous and doing very well. And so in Revelation 3 and verse 7, Jesus said, "...and to the angel of the church at Philadelphia, write, these things says, He who is holy, He who is true, He who has the key of David, He who open, and no one shuts, and shuts, and no one opens." Now, some mistakenly assume that their church is the Philadelphia era because we have the key of David. We understand the identity of Israel.

Well, sadly, nothing could be farther from the truth because this is not referring to any church having anything. It's referring entirely to something else. Let's see what God says here, not have some pre-assumed notion. Notice, we find that it is Jesus Christ alone who has the key of David. It says, these things says, He who is holy. That's Jesus. He who is true. That's Jesus. He who has the king of David. Jesus has the key of David. He who opens, and no one shuts, and shuts, and no one opens. That's Jesus who have it. Don't even think about assigning that to any group or church or people. Keys in the ancient time were used to control the gates to cities. If you had the key to the city, the key to the gate, you were in charge of it. The key of David here in this whole statement he just made actually refers to the next phase of something said in Isaiah. Go back to Isaiah chapter 22 verses 20 through 23. You'll find that a man named Elaiachim replaces an unfaithful Shebna as the secretary of state in Judah. He was going to be responsible. He was going to have the governmental authority. And here's what is said. God said, I will commit your responsibility into his hand. The key of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder. So he shall open and no one shall shut, and he shall shut, and no one shall open. That's what this is referring to. It's referring to the fact that Jesus Christ, he is of David's lineage. In other words, he is the Messiah.

And he alone controls access to the city, New Jerusalem, the kingdom of God.

We find that the Father has given him all power in heaven and in earth. Many scriptures talk about that in Matthew and John. That he has received all the power. It's Jesus Christ who has the key of David. He has the key of the kingdom. He has the key of New Jerusalem. He is the one who opens the door and people can come in or shuts the door and no one can open it. No people, no person has that, and it would be wrong to even think that way. In Revelation chapter 3 and verse 8, he says, I know your works. Works. See, I have set before you an open door and no one can shut it. For you have a little strength, have kept my word and have not denied my name. You know, God's work is what God does. But the work of God is what we do with him and for him. God's work is what God does. But the work of God is what others do along with Christ in assisting him. We must be about our Father's business of preaching the gospel. You know, Jesus is the Logos. He is the Word. He is all about preaching and teaching, and he's transferred that to us to preach this gospel into all the world before the end comes. That is our job. And so this work of God is what he is doing through others.

A door was an opportunity to preach the gospel. You know, in Colossians 4, 3, Paul asked the brethren to pray for us that God would open a door for the gospel, the mystery of Christ, to be spoken, that Word of God. It says in 1 Corinthians 16, verse 9, that he said, A great and effective door has opened to me to do the work. That's what this work and doors are all about. So God has continually given his church down through time the commission of preaching the gospel. It's not just for one group, not just for one age, not for one era, not for one church.

It's for everybody because we all do the work of God.

Next, Jesus praises the Philadelphians. He says, you have, in verse 8, a little strength. You've kept my word. You've not denied my name. In other words, these people are taking advantage of the spiritual and the physical opportunities of spiritual growth and preaching the gospel, doing the work of God. This has been available to everyone, is available to all of God's people today. And he's using this aspect of Philadelphia to teach us this about faithfulness and encourage us to do the work, even though we have a little strength on our own. He talks about protection. Because you have kept my command to persevere, I will also keep you from the hour of trial, which shall come upon the whole world. The hour of trial, that's a small hour of trial that's going to come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on earth. There are various trials that have come on people. If you read in Hebrews 11 about the trials that the faithful went through before the time of the Apostle Paul. Down through history, we've seen them after the times of the Apostle Paul. We know of a three and a half year time of trial and testing that will come upon the whole earth and the tribulation. But brethren, that's small in comparison to the big trial that's coming.

I don't know what he is referring to here, but wouldn't we love to miss the hour of trial that's coming upon the whole earth to try and test everything that's there? If you want to know about that one, read 1 Peter chapter 3 or 2 Peter chapter 3, when the whole heavens and earth will be burned up and everything that is not godly will cease to exist in a very short time, what we call the lake of fire. But if we keep his command and persevere, we will be kept from any type of cleansing, great testing that will come upon this earth. No one escapes being tested, by the way.

Everybody wants to run from it. Well, if this is an error, then we can jump into that error and we'll be protected. Well, nice try, but nobody isn't tested. Everybody gets tested. The only question really is, how do you want yours? How do you want yours? You know, sometimes we can be a tough nut to crack and might need to go through the tribulation. In the Bible, James talks about serious trials, if need be. We all will be tested, but how and when can be up to us?

In verse 11, he warns that he is coming quickly and that the saints should hold fast to what you have, that no one may take your crown. Philadelphians are at risk. We in God's church are at risk and we have to hold on to those things. Sure, we can be praised, but that doesn't mean much, does it? It can be like Sardis. It could be a historical event. We got praised and now we're coasting. Hold fast. Hang on to it so that no one takes your crown. He who overcomes, I will make a pillar in the temple of my God and he shall go out no more.

Now, that sounds like a nice statement. It's reassuring, but once again he's trying to teach us something. Because one thing about Philadelphia was it was shaken and rocked by earthquakes.

That city was leveled in 17 AD and continued to just be shaken and shaken. So, the people didn't like to live in Philadelphia. Not very many people would live in town.

There you had a bunch of old columns sticking up in the air, a lot of columns falling down on the ground. Every time there was a little rumbling in town, everybody ran out of town. A lot of people, I guess most people, lived outside of town where you couldn't have things fall on you. But those who were in town would always run out. So now he's going to show something about the blessing.

He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more.

You don't have to run out anymore. In God's temple in New Jerusalem, the pillars are going to be there. It's going to be sound and stable. They're going to stand, and you won't have to go out anymore. You have a secure, stable place in his spiritual temple. And I will write on him some names. Remember how many names Philadelphia had? They're used to a lot of names. So he says, I'll give you a few more names. I'll write on him the name of my God, the Father, and the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God. And I will write on him my new name. And then he tells us to listen if we have ears. Keep his word. Faithfully go through the doors that are open. Now we come to what he said about Laodicea. Laodicea. Now, there's something with a very unpleasant connotation. No one wants to be associated with that. In fact, many people err by pointing fingers at others and saying, yeah, Laodicea. Which just proves that they're not Philadelphian, because a person with brotherly love would never say that about somebody else. But it says here in Revelation 3, verse 14, to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans, write, These things say the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.

I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot. So then because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth, because you say, I am rich and I have become wealthy and I have need of nothing. And yet you do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. Naked. You know, this message applies to God's church from its inception to the time when Jesus Christ returns. What can we learn from it? Jesus here is using some well-known facts of the day to teach a lesson to the church.

Laodicea was well known for its wealth. I don't know if it was as wealthy as Philadelphia.

But there was something about the wealth at Laodicea. There were enough people there and there was enough wealth that when their city was shaken down by an earthquake in 60 AD, they rebuilt it without help from Rome. And this is one of the lessons, or this is part of the lesson he's going to use here to teach us. Laodicea earned its wealth in the textile industry, in the production of black wool. Also in the banking industry, it was known for its medical school, the School of Ophthalmology. It concocted a spite-nerd for the treatment of the ears and also an ISAF. The major weakness of Laodicea was the fact it didn't have its own water supply. It had no artesian well, had no spring, no river. It had to bring water in from six miles away.

And that water came in through a stone aqueduct, carved out of stone above ground. And so whatever temperature the water started out from, whether it was cold or whether it was hot, by the time it got to Laodicea, it was what you might call room temperature. It was just the temperature of the ambient air. So water conveyed to Laodicea through these pipes was tepid, you might say, by the time that it finally reached the city. So Jesus uses these things, four things, to teach a single lesson.

The illustration number one was wealth. Did Christ criticize them for the wealth? No. Actually, wealth is an admirable thing. It wasn't the problem. They had worked hard for it. They were industrious. They had various industries there. The town worked well together. They were harmonious.

But here we find disaster forced them to rebuild. And the fact that they did it without any outside help was what Christ is focusing on. Something they were well known for. I'm sure it was worthy of credit. You know, they didn't have to draw on the government monies and things like that. But that's not the point. He wasn't criticizing them for that. He was using it as a point for a spiritual point.

They were self-reliant, self-sufficient.

Jesus, in verse 17, quotes somebody, perhaps an official from Rome. He is quoting somebody, and he says, you say, I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing.

See, it's a quote. Jesus isn't saying that of them. You say, we are independent. We're doing this fine. The Laodiceans, then, that Christ is talking about, are people who feel more comfortable relying on themselves from recovering from a disaster, from being independent when there is a need, self-sufficient for what they perceive their needs to be, unrelated and not interdependent with others. He brings this along in the second example as well.

Clothing. He wasn't criticizing them for the prosperous textile industry that they had.

That was very successful. But here, Christ is using the symbolism in regards to the righteousness, which they weren't putting on. They felt like they were fine. They felt like they were clothed.

Do you remember they had black wool. I guess they had black sheep.

The Bible has always talked about garments of white in reference to righteousness.

He says, you think you're dressed, you think you're fine, you've got black garments on, but in a spiritual sense, black garments aren't really clothing. It's really nakedness. If you're coming into the kingdom of God and you only get in in white linen, then your black wool doesn't cut it.

And so it is with us in the church. If we become self-sufficient of an independent mentality, I don't really need the church, I don't really need the teachers. You know, I have my Bible. Somebody told me recently, I have my Bible and I have God. That's all I need. Oh, really?

Another read of Ephesians 4 might tell you a little differently, because that's not how Christ works. And Christ does not teach us individually. It doesn't happen that way. And if we separate ourselves, if we are sort of over on the side, non-participatory, non-involved, the next thing you know, we're six miles away from the water. See? And we're neither cold nor hot. We're not participating. We're not drawing that from God. We don't have the right clothes on. Yet we think we're fine. That's the point here. Members can be involved, as Ephesians 4, 16 says, in the building up and the edifying of the body, each contributing to itself. And Christ the Shepherd, working through the ministry to stop the clever deceits of the various wrong doctrines that are always blowing, you know, through individuals. And if we're outside of that, or feel ourself superior to that, or somehow independent of that, then we're going to have, we're going to be caught up short. Another thing that he used was the health care of Laodicea. He talks about the ISAV. Laodicea did have an ISAV. It was called colirium, and it was applied as a plaster or a poultice. And it was good. They were helping people. But helping others, you know, with an ISAV, helping others can be like a doctor. You know, they say doctors make the worst patients. You can be a doctor helping other people get well, but don't touch me. I'm fine. Nobody's going to help me.

Teachers can be that way. I'm a teacher. Teach, teach, teach, teach, teach, but no one's going to teach me.

Ministers can be that way. You know, preach, preach, preach, preach, but better not preach to me.

The Apostle Paul recognized that, and he said, I have to watch myself, lest I slip away, lest I fall, after having taught the truth and been a teacher to many others. Again, if we isolate ourselves, and it's always, well, you people need to know, we need to tell the world our sins. We need to be like Elijah. Get up and tell the world our sins.

That's not what the Bible says. It said, tell my people their sins.

God's not teaching the world right now. He wants his people to understand our sins so we can get cleansed of them. The fourth illustration was the water, and it came through this conduit for five or six miles. It was in contrast to the neighboring areas that had water, such as Colossae, where the Colossean Church was. It wasn't cold like theirs. They had really cold water at Colossae.

And over at Heriopolis, they had hot water, thermal water. But wherever Laodicea got its water from, and whatever temperature it started out at, when it got to them, it was tepid.

So here's a new teaching tool he uses to emphasize the same warning. Self-sufficiency, independence, isolation from the source. It's a spiritually weak quality. Now, his advice in verse 18 of chapter 3, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire.

Everybody says, oh, yeah, see, it's going through the tribulation. Don't want to be in that group. Oh, wait a minute. Let's back off here just a second. Desensitize a minute. See what Christ is saying. Remember this isolated group? He's saying, I counsel of you to buy from me. Get the water from me. Get the righteous clothes from me. Get the gold, the pure gold from me. That's what gold tried in the fire is. It just means gold that's pure. We want to be pure Christians. He wants us to be pure Christians. He's not saying they're going to go through the fire. He's saying, I counsel of you to get the things that you need. Get them from me. Not from six miles away over there and some other thing over there.

Quit being independent, disconnected, standoffish. Get involved. Become part of the harmonious church.

Draw from Jesus Christ. Get your bread from Him. Get your water from Christ. Don't look for it from somewhere else. This is what He's trying to say. Not trying to say, this is what He's saying.

By extension, He's saying, get your clothing from me. Get your eye salve from me. In contrast to making it yourself. So He wants them to reverse their pulling back from Him.

You know, it's not enough to be rich in spiritual strength and then think we can pull back when the going gets tough and think that we'll be okay. Remember what happens in Matthew 24 again?

Jesus said, then the love of many in the church He was talking about, the love of many will grow cold. And when the pressure comes on, the persecution comes on, the love will wax cold when the going gets tough. And you can't continue to live godliness on things that you've done in the past or learned in the past. We need to maintain that relationship with Jesus Christ in all circumstances. So He's saying, don't isolate yourself from the flock. Notice verse 20, how powerful how powerfully this is stated, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Your door is closed to me. You shut yourself off from me. And there are times when we can do this, brethren. We can get a little too busy, we can get a little too distracted. Maybe we have an issue with a personality in the church. I don't like that personality, so I'm going to withdraw. I'm going to come over here on the edge, or I'm going to stay at home, or I'm going to be in my living room, or go somewhere else. And this personality thing distances us from God and from the body.

Jesus gave the means by which to solve our personality problems. That's Matthew 18.50, to go to your brother privately. You, one-on-one. Deal with those issues. Don't let them mount up.

But he says, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, reconnects, then I will come in and dine with him and he with me.

God wants that relationship with us through his church. He wants us to be in a strong, unified relationship where each member is edifying the body in love and all is working in harmony with Jesus Christ right there in the middle, shepherding and overseeing. And I will come in to him and I will dine with him and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne. Does this sound bad? This is what all of us go through at times or can go through if we're not careful. To sit with Christ on his throne? That's a wonderful thing. As also I overcame 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 here we see Jesus Christ has come back and he has assessed the church and he's taught us, he's examined us, he's showing us the tendencies of the church down through time. Now how we look at these seven churches can be many different ways. One is you can say there were seven churches in ancient time on a mail route and that's fine, they were. You could say there are seven churches in ancient times. They are seven eras of the church down through time whose attributes generally reflected and that's fine. I'm happy with that. You could also say that those seven churches all had those same attributes because Jesus said that the whole package, the whole book of Revelation was to be given to those seven churches and you would be accurate there as well. Or you could say those seven churches represent the church of God at all times and you would be accurate there as well. Or you could say those seven churches represent each individual in the church of God and the tendencies that we have and you would be accurate there as well. There's something even, I think, greater that exists in these two chapters than just looking at what Christ said to the church.

Each church or congregation or era or group or combined attributes of the whole whatever Christ you feel He is addressing here, He addresses each one differently. I'd like to just go back and review what our supreme commander, our role model, states here about Himself because He uses different terms for Himself every time He addresses a church. Let's notice these different terms to each of the seven churches. In Ephesus, he says, "...he who holds the seven stars in his right hand, those seven angels who work with Him with the churches, the ones sent, His emissaries, He holds in His right hand." Jesus Christ is the head of the church. "...who walks in the midst of the seven golden land stands." He says, I'm the shepherd I'm in the middle of these. I'm not in heaven far away and not involved. No, I am among the seven lampstands. To Smyrna, He says, I am the first and the last who was dead and came to life. He reminds us that He is the way. He is the truth and He is the life. To Pergamos, He says, I'm the one who has the sharp two-edged sword. He was the logos and is the logos, the Word of God.

Thyatira, He says, the Son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and His feet like fine brass.

To Smyrna, has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. Again, He is the head of the church.

By the Father's will. He didn't usurp and take the church. He said, I am the one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. That's what God has given Him by the Father's will. To Philadelphia, He says of Himself, He who is holy, He who is true, He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts and shuts and no one opens. It shows He is righteous, He is truth, He is the descendant of David, He was the Messiah, and now He has the power, He has the decision of who will enter New Jerusalem. He has the authority of the Kingdom of God. And to Laodicea, the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the Behold of the creation of God. These tell us that He was faithful in fulfilling the will of His Father. He was faithful in being crucified for our sins. But also, He was the Creator who became the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. He is the first one to be resurrected into the family of God. And we are called the Church of the Firstborn. So these things show the preeminence of Jesus Christ as He then speaks to His Church. He is involved in His Church. Brethren, as we seek to grow up into the fullness and the stature of Christ and to become perfect like our Father in Heaven is, we need to listen to the Great Shepherd. We need to hear His voice and have our ears tuned to what He says. The number seven is the number of completion in totality. And these seven messages apply to the totality of the Church. They assess us, they address us, they encourage us, they correct us. And with these, you and I can make our way towards the Kingdom of God. Let's appreciate what Jesus said. Let's listen. Let's be attentive. And let's put these lessons to use so that we can join God in the presence of God. And His Father in His Kingdom forever.