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We've been going through the churches of Revelation 2 and 3. And two weeks ago, I stopped, I was going through each church one by one, and stopped and went through and showed that there's a certain message to each of these churches. And there's a prophetic message to each of these churches. And of course, the message is overcome. We are to be overcomers through God's help through God's Spirit, through Christ's leadership. We are to overcome and be prepared when He returns. But I also showed that when you look at the seven churches, you not only have seven churches that existed at that time, and anytime through history you can find a church with that similar attitude. But we also realized that these churches prophetically were seven time periods of the history of the church. And that at any given time, all these attitudes exist. And I really want to stress that they are attitudes. Because what we'll do, oh, that congregation is like Sardis. That congregation is like this. That congregation is like that. But they are attitudes. They permeate God's people. But because they are eras that we know that at certain time periods, certain of these attitudes dominate the church at that time. We have two churches left to talk about. Both of them are very, very important in understanding the messages given to the church, churches, and the message that we are to take away from this. We're up to the sixth church in the list, which is the church of Philadelphia. Let's go to Revelation chapter 3.
Philadelphia was the sort of the newer of the churches, or newer of the cities. I'm sorry. When we talk about the cities of Revelation 2 and 3, many of them were very ancient at this time. They've been around for five, six, at one point one of the churches had been around for 800 years. Well, this church was founded somewhere around 150 BC, so it was only 250 years old. Or, I mean, I see this church, this city. So this city was only about as old as the United States of America is today. It was the younger of the cities. We have in this country, we have a different viewpoint of time because we tend to, we're such, we're still young compared to so many of the other cities and countries that have been around for many, many, many, many more centuries than we have.
The name itself, of course, means the city of brotherly love.
They were a city that had to keep rebuilding, and the reason why is they kept getting hit by earthquakes. Philadelphia and Laodicea were hit by earthquakes on a regular basis, and so they had to keep rebuilding and rebuilding and rebuilding because there were minor earthquakes, and sometimes major earthquakes there every few years. Let's go to verse 7 here. We see that the message that was given to these people.
And to the angel of the church of Philadelphia write, these things says, He who is holy, He who is true, He who has the King of David, He who opens and no one shuts and shuts and no one opens. So here Jesus Christ describes Himself as the head of the church. Here's the message He gives, and He tells these people that He has the key of David, and He opens and shuts doors. What is the key of David? Because Jesus Christ claims He has it. It's interesting, there's only one other place in the Bible where you find this reference, and it has to do with a corrupt official in the Israel government, or Jewish government, back in Jerusalem, and God's message to Him. Let's go to Isaiah 22. Isaiah 22.
Shebna was this government official who was a very corrupt government official. Thus says the Lord God of Host, Go proceed to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the house and say, What have you here, and whom have you here, that you have a eunicepichler here, and who use himself a suffichler on high, who carves a rock tomb for himself in a rock? In other words, this man was building a monument for himself before he died.
And he was setting up that he was going to have a monument to himself and his importance. And what you see as you go through here is that God tells him that He is going to replace him because of this. He's going to bring him on to someone else. And he says in verse 20, Then it shall be in that day that I will call my servant, Elaikea, the son of Elchiah, and I will clothe him with your robe and straighten him with your belt. And I will commit your responsibility to his hand, and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the house of Judah. And the key of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder. Now this is very important. The key to the house of David.
David and his family was chosen by God for kingship.
And it was through David's family that the Messiah was supposed to come. And so when Jesus Christ says, I have the key of David, He's talking specifically about I am the descendant of David. I am the prophesied king. Look at Isaiah 11. How many times do we go to Isaiah 11?
Around the days of another... or the feats of tabernacles? Isaiah 11.
Because here we have a prophecy that Jesse, who was the father of David through his family, this king was going to come. This person who would have the key that was given to David. The prophecies concerning this king.
It says that he goes on and talks about how the lamb and the lion will lie down together during the reign of this king. It says in verse 10, There was a promise made. And here we see, we saw in the one situation where the only other term, you know, key of David is used in which God is telling one corrupt official, I'm going to replace you. And he goes to another person. He says, I'm giving you the key of David. In other words, you're going to take over the role of David's family here. You're going to take care of the people of Israel. And Jesus Christ comes to the Church of Philadelphia and says, I am. I have that key of David. In that declaration, he's declaring himself as the Messiah. He's declaring himself as the Christ. And that's very important to this church. They see him as the one who holds the key of David. It's also interesting that we won't go there, but in Matthew 16, Jesus told his disciples, I give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
He told them, you're going to go out and through you, I'm going to create a church. I'm giving you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. And so Jesus Christ established himself as the head of the church. It is Jesus Christ who has this key. Philadelphia Church recognizes that. And I only stress this because I want to show you the difference between the church of Philadelphia and Laodicea. It's interesting to look at the difference between these two churches. Now, we've looked at Ephesus. We've looked at Sardis, a dead church. We looked at what happens to a church that dies. And we keep, we should be looking and say, okay, what attitude do I have? It's very interesting to compare these two. What, these two different attitudes, these two different approaches to Christianity, to our relationship with God. He says He gives them a door that is open that no man can shut. Now, in the New Testament, there's a number of places where this term is used. That God has opened a door. Look at Acts chapter 14. Acts 14. Verse 27.
Acts 14, 27. Now, when they had come and gathered the church together, they reported all that God had done with them. This is the disciples that had gone out and preached to God, or preached about God, and reported all that God had done to them, and that He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. He had opened the door of faith that their message had been given. So the open door here has to do with spreading of the message. You know, when you look at the Ephesian church, the church in Ephesus, it doesn't say they'd be given an open door, but when we look at their history, the church in Ephesus reached an entire city of hundreds of thousands with the message, with the gospel. Philadelphia is also very involved in the preaching of the gospel. 2 Corinthians 2, 12. 2 Corinthians 2, 12.
Paul says, Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, and a door was opened to me by the Lord. See, here once again we see this term and how it's used in the New Testament. A door is opened has to do with that He was given the opportunity to preach in this certain city. And the gospel was preached there. Colossians 4. Colossians 4. Verse 2. Here Paul says, Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving, meanwhile praying also for us that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains. Paul was, when he wrote Colossians, he was actually under house arrest, he was in prison. And what he says is, Please pray that even in this confined situation, God will open the door for the word to be given to somebody that it can be preached. And so what God told the Philadelphia Church and what they experienced in 95 A.D. is that they, in their way, preached the gospel to the people that were there, to the people that they had the opportunity to come in contact with. So we have a church that Jesus Christ reveals himself to. He says, I had the key of David. They, they saw Jesus Christ as the leader of their church, and he had opened a door for them to preach the gospel.
Now let's go on back to Revelation 3 and pick up what else he says to them. Verse 15. I'm sorry, verse 8. I'm skipping ahead here. Verse 8. He says to the church of Philadelphia, I know your works, see, I've set before you an open door, and no one can shut it, for you have a little strength and have kept my word and have not denied my name. So he says, I've given you an open door. I've given you an opportunity to preach the gospel. But this church also has a little strength. You know, in the context of the world around them, the church of Philadelphia, in the city of Philadelphia, was not a dominant church. They just had a little strength.
He says, you have kept my word that Philadelphia church held on to the basic teachings of the scripture. They held on to the promises of God. They held on to the basic doctrines. And you have not denied my name. They continued in faith and dedication to God and to Christ as the head of their church. Verse 9. Indeed, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews that are not but lie, indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you. So he tells them, you know, those who claim to be Christians and aren't, don't worry about them. I'll take care of that. Just do what you're supposed to do. And Philadelphia is one of the few churches, you know, out of those seven churches, only two of them remain totally faithful. Smyrna, that was persecuted and in poverty in Philadelphia. Philadelphia had this opportunity. They saw who their leader was in Jesus Christ. They followed him. They stayed true to the teachings. And a door was open to them.
He says, verse 10, because you have kept my command to persevere, it wasn't all peaches and cream for the Philadelphia church. They had great difficulties in the history of their church. Because you have kept my command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial, which will come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth. And here we see why each of these messages has also a prophetic meaning.
You know, he said he was coming to Thyatira to kill their children.
In other words, those who had grown out of the Thyatira church, those churches, those groups of people would be destroyed. He says he's coming back to the people at Sardis, and if they didn't repent, he was going to blot their name out of the Book of Life. So there's actually a eternal judgment that is threatened on the people of Sardis if they don't repent. Here, Philadelphia receives an interesting promise that they will be protected from the time of trial that comes on the whole world. We tie this in with Revelation 12, where part of the church is taken to a place in the wilderness and protected during the tribulation.
So the people with this attitude, the people who approach God this way, the people who live their lives this way, he says, I will protect you from the time that is to come. I will protect you from the great tribulation that comes. Now, back in 95 AD, there was some time during their period where they were protected from some persecution that came on the church, you know, because this had a former fulfillment and a latter fulfillment.
But in this latter fulfillment, to the message to this church, this church is told they will be protected. Verse 11 says, Behold, I am coming quickly. Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown. Here's the only warning given to the Philadelphia church. It's an interesting warning. You know, the other churches are warned because of their immoral lifestyles. The other churches are warned because of their heresies. The other churches are warned because of their, in the case of Ephesus, they just didn't have any love. But they had the doctrines. Philadelphia is warned because, he says, don't let somebody else take your crown.
He says, you must persevere. Don't let people take your crown. Don't let people discourage you. Don't let people wear you down. Don't let other people convince you differently. Don't let another person take away from you from what God has given to you. That's an interesting statement. Over the years, I've seen people give up their relationship with God, give up what they've been taught because of stresses they were having with family members, or because of problems they had with people at work, or because of problems they had with each other in the congregation. And over the years, I've watched people let, you know, they believe the way, they tried to live the way, but they let somebody else take their crown.
They let another person take their crown. And this is the great warning to Philadelphia. Don't let another person take away what God has promised to you. Don't let another person wear you down. Don't let somebody else make you give up. Then he goes on, he says, verse 12, He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more.
And I will write on him the name of my God 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. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Philadelphia is a church that is promised, given a great promise from God. And in its prophetic sense, people with this attitude towards the end will be protected from the tribulation. Now remember, all seven of these attitudes will be extended to the church.
But we also know that there will be one predominant attitude at the end. And that predominant attitude will be the attitude that was extent in 95 A.D. in the church at Laodicea. And the church at Laodicea receives one of the sternest warnings, because Jesus Christ says, I will spew you out of my mouth if they don't repent. The church at Laodicea is threatened with being no longer associated with Jesus Christ. That He removes them from being with Him, in relationship with Him. What was it like to be in the church of Laodicea when John wrote this?
What were those people like? It was a wow! That would have been a bad place to be. You know, Jesus Christ saying, I'll spew you out of my mouth. What I contend is that you and I would have found the church at Laodicea to be one of the most comfortable churches to be in.
Walking into Laodicea as a congregation, we would have been comfortable with them. Unlike walking into Thyatira, where we would have said, whoa! These people mixed paganism in with their beliefs. These people are just using grace as a license to sin. There's all kinds of fornication going on. All kinds of people really don't keep the Sabbath. We would have seen that and said, whoa! There's a real problem here. I don't mean individual. There's some problem in the church all the time. Remember, the church of God is a hospital for the spiritually sick, and it is the only hospital in which the doctors and nurses are also sick.
That's what it is! We keep walking into the church thinking it's going to be something other than what it is. We were called because we were spiritually dying into a place where we're still sick. We're just getting better, that's all. We're just getting better. The church of God will always be a hospital.
So what was it like to be in Lai'idah Siyyah?
The city was built around 250 BC, and it was a very rich city. It was a prosperous place to be. They were known for three things. They were a financial and banking center. In fact, because they were so much of an entrepreneur spirit in Lai'idah Siyyah, they were very, very proud of their self-sufficiency. In 60 AD, an earthquake devastated Lai'idah Siyyah. They refused financial help from the Roman government. They rebuilt the city by themselves. They believed so much in their own self-sufficiency. They believed so much in that they didn't need help from anybody. They could do it themselves. So it was a place that, in some ways, you and I would find very comfortable as a city. Very similar to the sort of the entrepreneur, financial-driven society that you and I live in. They also were famous because around Lai'idah Siyyah, they raised a certain kind of sheep that had a black wool to it that had a sort of a purple tint. It made beautiful clothes, beautiful clothing from it, a black wool that had a purple tint to it. So they exported this clothing. They manufactured this clothing and exported it all over the world. It was also a medical center. One of the things they were famous for was there was an eye salve that was made in Lai'idah Siyyah that they exported all over the world that was supposed to help people that had certain eye problems. So they're a financial center, they're a clothing manufacturing center, and they're a medical place that creates this eye salve that's known all over the world. But it's also interesting they had a very large Jewish population. Now let's go to Revelation chapter 3. And that's, I think, important, the fact that they did have a large Jewish population. There would have been an effect on the early church there. There would have been a lot of Jews that would have been in that church in Lai'idah Siyyah because that's where the church always started. Always started in the Jewish community. As I say, the large Jewish community, I think it's safe to sort of surmise that, hey, there were a lot of Jews that had come into the church there in its beginning.
Verse 14, to the angel of the church of Lai'idah Siyyah is right. These things say as the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. Now it's interesting here if you go through, I haven't taken time, but each time Jesus Christ reveals Himself to the church, He reveals Himself to each church in a very specific way.
You know, to Philadelphia, He says, I am the Messiah. I am the Christ. You see Me that way. And I've opened doors for you. To this church, He says that He is the faithful and true witness at the beginning of the creation of God. Then verse 15, He says, I know your works, that you were neither cold nor hot. I could wish that you were cold or hot. So then, because you were lukewarm and neither cold or hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.
It's a terrible judgment on this church if they don't repent. He says, I'm just going to get rid of you. You will no longer be in relationship to Me. You'll no longer be part of the body of Christ. Now, what does it mean to be neither cold nor hot? It's interesting. They're not accused of holding the doctrines of Balaam. They're not accused of holding to the Nicolae Iotans. They're not accused of great sexual immorality, like some of the other churches. They're not accused of not following basic core doctrines. They would have had certain problems in the church and certain doctoral problems in the church. But they're not the same kind of problems the other churches had. They have their own unique set of problems. And He says, because of that, I may remove you from being part of My body.
What is that attitude? What does it mean not to be hot nor cold? What does it mean to be lukewarm? Now, there's two ways to look at this.
One way is that what He's talking about is in being lukewarm, they are neither hot nor cold, in that they're neither hot for the work of God, or the word of God, or hot for God's way, or they're neither just outside of God's way, absolutely cold. They're partly living part way in God's way and part way in the world. That's one explanation, and that's one of the most common explanations of this. That what He's saying is, I would rather you were hot for Me or just didn't even know Me. But there's another explanation that may fit closer to what it would have meant to those people in 95 AD. And if this is true, it helps us understand what happened to this Church.
Laying to see a had no natural water supply. Had no natural water supply. In fact, outside of Laocia today, there's still some ruins of aqueducts. They had to ship their water in. Now, there were two places close by that did have water.
Six miles away was Areopolis. Areopolis was renowned for hot mineral springs. Now, if you go about less than 10 miles away, you have Colossae. The church there is who Paul wrote the letter of Colossians to. That they had a really cold water supply.
Now, it didn't matter which of these aqueducts came into Laodicea. By the time the water got there, Laodicea was famous for water that tasted absolutely terrible. Water that traveled over these stone aqueducts, either from a very cold source or from a very hot source, but when it got there and it dumped into the community, you know, pool that they would have had, that when people took a big drink of it, if you weren't from Laodicea, the first thing you usually did was spit it out. Looking at that in that environment, in that way, then we may have a different explanation of this.
You know, when you look at the scripture, John talks about saving people through fear and saving people through love. There are people that are hot for God's way and they're driven by it and they're excited about it and they, you know, it's just there's certain personality types that are just moved. It's all they talk about. It's what they think about. There's another personality type that is moved with relationships. They love. Both groups believe in God. One's hot. One's hot in healing. The other's cool and refreshing. It's interesting that in that day, they would have seen these two water supplies differently than just, you know, oh, these people are hot for God, these people are cold for God. They saw both of them as something good. And they were like, oh, I'm not going to do this. I'm going to do this. They're hot for God, these people are cold for God. They saw both of them as something good.
You have a group of people that's hot for God and they're healing and you have a group of people that are refreshing. They're cold. What you receive from them is something good. Both of these water supplies were good things, not negative. But by the time it got to Laodicea, it didn't matter where it came from. It was tepid and smelled bad and tasted terrible. Laodicea was either healing and hot or refreshing and cool.
Then you think of Jesus saying, if you give just a cool cup of water to one of the least of these, my little ones. He talks about the other places of being driven and hot for the Word of God.
In 95 AD, the meaning of this probably would have been very clear in terms of, well, in Areopolis the water is good. Middle springs, it's healing. In Colossae, the water is good. It's cold and refreshing. It gives you strength. And Laodicea, it just smells bad and tastes terrible. It's lukewarm. There's no qualities to it. There's none of the healing qualities. There's none of the refreshing qualities that existed in this Church. Verse 17, Because you say, I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing, and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.
I guess it'd be easy to spot a Laodicean. All you have to do is look for a poor naked blind guy. Obviously, he's talking about what they are spiritually.
They neither have a fire for God, or neither are they refreshingly loving to people. They're neither.
But these people believe, now this is what's very important, I am rich and become wealthy and have need of nothing. That's a spiritual state of mind. A lot of times what we think of when we think of Laodiceans, we actually think of Sardis. Remember the dead people? The people who if you would have asked which is worse, lack of knowledge or apathy would have said, I don't know and I don't care.
Right? That's not Laodicea. Laodicea knows. They think they know. Laodicea cares. They think they care.
This wasn't a dead church. This is a church in which the people are absolutely sure that they're okay. The one thing a person with a Laodicean attitude knows for absolute surety, I am not Laodicean. They know that. A person with a Laodicean attitude believes with his whole heart, I'm not Laodicean because I'm rich. I'm spiritually okay. I got this down. I'm doing this right. I'm right with God. But they do not know, he says, Christ says, that they are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. Verse 18, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined with fire, that you may be rich and white garments, that you may be clothed, the shame of your nakedness they may not be revealed, and anoint your eyes with eyesave that you may see. Interesting. Three things they were known for was banking center, quality of clothing, and an eyesave. And he said, spiritually, spiritually, you have none of those things. You're not rich. You think you are. You're so sure that you are. You're not rich. And you think you have white garments on, but you don't. And you think that you see, but you're blind.
This is a real indictment and understanding seven church eras. This will be the predominant attitude in the church at the end.
This will be the predominant. It won't be the only one. All seven of them will be there, but this will be the predominant one. And there's a real judgment from Jesus Christ on these people.
Verse 19, he says, as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore, be zealous and repent. Find some zeal.
This isn't the same as a Sardis church. No, I don't care. I know I should get better. See, the people of Sardis didn't care. The people of Sardis would have known, there's nothing to my church, there's nothing to my spirituality. I just don't care.
I've had people tell me before, you know, I know I should pray every day, and I know I should be studying the Bible every day, and I know I should be doing this, I know I should be doing that. I just don't care. It's just too hard.
That's not the lay of the seeing. The lay of the seeing says, all but I do study, and I do pray, and it's enough. It's enough for me and God.
The lay of the seeing is absolutely sure of themselves and herself, and their relationship with God. Verse 20 says, Behold, Christ says, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and die with him and he with me. To him overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne as I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne. We covered that last time. He was an ear. Let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
And so Christ says to them, I'm outside your church knocking on the door. Do you notice that?
Jesus Christ is not central to the thought process of the lay of the seeing. What God is doing through Jesus Christ is not central to their thought process. Jesus Christ is not leading their church. Remember, when we went through Philadelphia, he says, I am the key of David. I am your leader. They saw him as their leader. Ephesus saw Jesus Christ as their leader. They just had lost their love, their first love for God and for the truth. But here we have in this church, they are so sure of themselves that Jesus Christ is not leading them. Remember, if this is an attitude, you and I have to ask ourselves, is this me? If we're sitting here saying, I get that lay of the seeing stuff and you know, then maybe you are a lay of the seeing. That's the first thing a lay of the seeing does. It can't be me because I'm rich and creased with goods and need of nothing. But I know other people that are lay of the seeing.
This is a scary attitude. The lay of the seeing attitude is so scary because you can be right. You can be right in your sort of daily behavior and yet have such a wrong attitude that you've shoved Jesus Christ out of your life. When we go through the series of sermons, we'll start next week on the minister of reconciliation, you'll see what I mean. How it's possible to be doing a lot of right behavior and yet shoving Jesus Christ out of your life. These people believed in God. They believed in Jesus Christ. There's no reason to believe they didn't keep the Sabbath in the holy days. There's no reason to believe that they had some great doctoral issues in terms of what we usually call doctrines. Their doctoral problem is an understanding of Jesus Christ and their relationship with Him. He's outside their church, knocking on the door. Hey, you know who I am? And they're in singing their hymns. They're singing their hymns and listening to their sermon and saying, I feel really good in this Sabbath because I'm good. I'm okay.
There is, we say, well, okay, how do we learn about the laityseans? How do we know what their problem was? There's an easy way to know it. Go to Colossians 4. Remember Colossae is less than 10 miles away from laitysean. I say less than 10 miles. I have read that it's anywhere from 9 miles to 12 miles. And since I've never been there and actually walked it off, it's close. That's the best I can get. It's 10 to 12 miles, 9 to 12 miles somewhere.
Colossians 4.16.
Now, when this epistle is read among you, see that it's read also in the church of the laityseans, that you likewise read the epistle from the laityseans. Now, we don't have the epistle from the laityseans. That's gone. God did not choose to have that one kept and put in the scripture. But we have the one that was written to the Colossians, and He said, you make sure that after you read this, that a copy gets over to the church in laitysea, and they read this. So if we want to understand some of the problems of laitysea, all we have to do is go to the book of Colossians, and it tells us the problems that were in laitysean. Colossians was written to by Paul around 60 AD, and they had a certain interesting set of problems. One is, you know, Colossians 2, 16, and 17 is always used to say that we don't have to keep the holy days, we don't have to clean unclean meats. We know that that's not what that means. What does it mean? It means that they were very, very strict, right? Let no man judge you in eating and drinking, or the observance of a holy day. We know that that should be the translation. We cover that all the time. So we know that one of the problems they had is that they were judging each other on all kinds of issues. We also know that they not only were judging each other, but that they had absorbed some very strange doctrines. One is the worship of angels. Now that means they would have been praying to angels. Now that's not uncommon in today's world. You know, it's amazing in modern sort of the New Age way the Protestantism was going, that praying to angels is quite common. So they had angel worship, as part of what they believed.
And they were very, very strict in their asceticism. You know, look at chapter 2, verse 21.
Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle, which all concerned things which perish with the using, according to the commandments and doctrines of men. These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom and self-imposed religion, false humility and neglect of the body, but of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. So they were very caught up into their customs. These people were very caught up in their customs, but in doing so they weren't actually dealing with their sin. So in their customs they appeared to be very religious people. They were very sure of themselves because of their customs. But they had a very serious set of problems. If you start looking through the book of Colossians, and I'm just going to do a brief overview, you start to see what their core issue was, why they were judging each other, why they were very strict in their customs, and yet they were missing what God was doing so much in their lives that Jesus Christ is outside their church. In Colossians 1 through 18, Paul establishes that Jesus Christ is the firstborn from the dead, that God created the earth through him, and that he is the head of the church. Look at verse 9.
For this reason we also, since the day we heard you not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to his glorious power for all patience and long suffering with joy, and giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. So he says, you have become an inheritor with the Father. He stresses God as the Father. God is creating a family. It's a main concept that's taking place here that he's trying to get these people to understand. These people were very religious, but were they the family?
We can be very religious, but we have to begin to really understand. We are the family of God. And what that means is this just isn't about you and me and God. It is about me and God and Christ, and it's about you and me and Christ and God.
We just can't make this about me personally and God, because if we are a family, it's about me and God through Christ, and then it's about us.
But we can easily get to the place where I am rich and increased with the goods in need of nothing. I got it down. I got it straight.
And forget what God is really doing. Verse 13, he has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of his love, and whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. Then he goes in and talks about Jesus Christ. The whole book of collagens is explaining what God is doing through Christ, and this is what the Laodiceans don't get. It's what the people of Colossae were having a hard time getting. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. We know that he became the firstborn through a resurrection. He is the first one to be resurrected. So let's see. He is the image of the invisible God. So when you see Jesus Christ on earth, he says, what you saw was the image of the Father.
He is the firstborn from the dead. For by him all things were created that are in heaven, that are on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through him and for him. So Jesus Christ was the instrument by which God created the earth. So he says, let's go back and understand. Jesus Christ is standing outside your door. Here's what you don't understand. Jesus Christ is divine. He is the eternal Son of God. Jesus Christ is the image of God. Jesus Christ was the firstborn from the dead. It is Jesus Christ whom God the Father used to create everything. Everything. Verse 17, he is before all things and in him all things consist or all things exist.
The universe is kept together through Jesus Christ. Now, God the Father is involved in that too, but he's trying to make a point. How does God do what he does? Through his spirit? Who does God put in charge of everything? Jesus Christ. This is what the Laodiceans don't get. That Jesus Christ has been put in charge of everything. You know, how many times, how many times, and see if any of you remember this, do you remember an old man for 20 years yelling at us, John 1-1, you people just don't get it. How many remember that?
What was John 1-1?
In the beginning was the Word, right? The Word was with God and the Word was God. You people just don't get it. And I used to think, yeah, we do. Yeah, we do. No, we don't. This is the problem here. People in Colossians just don't get it. The people in Laodicea just didn't get it. God the Father is who Christ brings us to, but we don't get to the Father without Jesus Christ. Because He created all things. He holds all things together. God's put Him in charge. Notice what He says.
Jesus Christ is the firstborn of the dead. Jesus Christ is the method by which, through His death and resurrection, by which the world is reconciled to God.
Now, you and I all know that, don't we? That's an intellectual knowledge that we have. The Laodiceans would have known that. But it wasn't part of their heart. It wasn't part of who they were. They were rich and accreted with goods in need of nothing, and Jesus Christ is standing outside their church. He's not inside of it. He's not leading it. They don't truly recognize Him as the one whom the Father used at creation. They really don't recognize Him as having come in the flesh and what that meant to come in the flesh. What it meant to give up His privileges, as it says in Philippians. To come in the flesh and get hungry and tired and cold.
That doesn't mean much to Laodicean. This doesn't mean much. His suffering doesn't mean much. Oh, maybe at the Passover. The rest of the year it doesn't mean much.
It's not a motivating factor.
It's not an understanding of the price paid to be reconciled.
Why? Because I'm okay.
I got this down, folks. I'm okay. I really got it right. I'm really spiritually rich here. I know the Bible.
I get white garments on. I keep the Ten Commandments. I'm not blind. And how dare you insinuate that I am?
The Laodicean doesn't know it.
The Laodicean is sure that he is not that way.
You go through all of the... I would like to see all of you take this week and just read Colossians. You know, I almost... Most weeks I give you some little assignment to do during the week. Read Colossians. You read Colossians, you're going to say, wow. He's pointing out that there is a plan. Christ is the Passover. He is unleavened so that we can become unleavened. Because of the wave-sheaf offering, the offering of Himself, the Holy Spirit can be given. He is coming back to rule on this earth. Because of Him, there is an atonement. There is going to be a great millennium. You notice what I just talked about? Passover, days of unleavened bread, Pentecost, feast trumpets, Day of Atonement, feast tavern, afterwards. Great white throne judgment. Guess what happens after the great white throne judgment? Jesus Christ takes the family and says, and He gives it to God. He says, I have finished what you told me to do. I created a family. And He gives it to God. The Laodiceans don't understand that process.
That they are the family of God, and Jesus Christ, all the holy days. Picture the work of God's plan of salvation, and who does it? Who does every holy day? Who was the Passover? Who is the unleavened bread? Who is the wavesheet? Who is the king who returns? Who is the high priest on Atonement? Who rules toward the millennium? Who does the resurrections? He says, I am the resurrections. Who gives the family to the Father? Jesus Christ.
Laodiceans just don't see that as that important. They understand the plan of God, but they are so sure of themselves.
If you really want to understand the Laodiceans, go to Luke chapter 18. I read the scripture a while back, but I'm going to go back to it. I read this, oh, I guess about probably two months ago now. But it's a well-rehearsed section of the scripture.
Verse 9, and he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. The Laodicean is so sure of his or her own righteousness that they measure their righteousness by other people.
We are to measure our righteousness by Jesus Christ.
And when we do, what happens? We are driven back to a humble relationship to God, and we end up saying, please apply Christ's sacrifice for me, and please, in your forgiveness, in your mercy, change who I am. Give me your spirit and have Christ show me how to live. Absolutely centered on how am I supposed to live.
And I guarantee you, if you took Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and only read the red letters, that's it. Just take the red letters, the actual words of Jesus Christ, and write down every commandment or instruction he gives that you don't do, and you will be shocked. You will be absolutely shocked at how many instructions and commandments of the Son of God we don't keep. We don't do. This parable is about a person who trusts in himself that he is righteous. Because of his level of righteousness, he feels absolutely free to despise other people.
Because they're not as righteous as he is. The two men went up to pray in the temple, one at Pharisee, the other at tax collector. Pharisee stood and prayed within himself, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even at this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I give tithes of all that I possess. And as I've said before when I went through this, there's nothing he's saying here that's not true. But this Pharisee did those things. He kept the Ten Commandments. He tithed. You and I had better be keeping the Ten Commandments. We had better be tithing. But remember, really keeping the Ten Commandments in the letter and doing things like tithing, that's the kindergarten of Christianity. That's where we start. We try doing the Sermon on the Mount. Now, you can't do the Sermon on the Mount unless you keep the Ten Commandments and you tithe. But then you have to move onward to other things. The Sermon on the Mount?
I'm fear, folks, that we haven't even begun to do the Sermon on the Mount.
We don't have to. We're okay. We're rich and accreased with goods. We got this commandment keeping stuff down pretty good. We got this Holy Day stuff down pretty good.
You see how so easy it is to become the way you see it? You become so sure of your own righteousness. He says, verse 13, The tax collector, standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
Verse 14 is what's so amazing in all this. I tell you, remember, this tax collector is a Jew, by the way. He's in the temple. This tax collector isn't some man. He's despised in society because he's working for the Roman government. There's no reason to believe this man didn't keep the Sabbath. He's in the temple. He's allowed to come into the temple. There's no reason to believe, by the way, that this man was committing adultery. If you probably looked at this man's life, he may have been keeping the letter of the law just as much as the Pharisee.
He's a fellow Jew. The Pharisee isn't looking at a pagan and saying, Oh, God, I thank you that I am not as a Hindu.
He's looking at a fellow Jew and saying, I'm glad I'm not like that Jew.
He didn't come to God and recognize the righteousness of God. In a Christian sense, we don't go to God and we don't recognize the righteousness that comes from God through Jesus Christ into our lives. We think it's our righteousness.
Now, we have a part to play, right? I mean, you and I have to participate. I'm not saying that this is all given to us. I'm saying we have to participate in it. But he gives it to us. We do something with it. We respond to it. We grow from it. We are in a relationship with God through Christ. Well, we believe that somehow we have earned this when we believe that somehow God has to look on us and say, whoa, now there's a righteous person. He says, verse 14, I tell you, this man went down to his health justified. Justification means you are given the right to have a relationship with God.
This man went down to his health justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. The thing about the Laodiceans is that they see no need for humility because they know how good they are. They know that they're rich and increased with goods and need of nothing. They know they have it all together.
And so they don't understand that their personal relationship between the almighty righteous God. They don't understand it.
And they're so sure of themselves.
I once talked to a man who had been a practicing Orthodox Jew, and he'd come into Christianity.
And he was talking about these seven church errors. He made an interesting point. He said he had learned that there were seven eras of the history of Israel in the Old Testament. And he used to teach that. I think he actually was a rabbi. And he said, what I find interesting, he said, is that understanding that there are seven church eras, he said they correspond with the seven eras of Israel. And he explained to me what they saw as the seven eras of Israel. The Maccabean revolt and the return of Israel to worship was what he saw as the Philadelphian era. In other words, he put these things together and they all corresponded with each other. He said, you know what the Laodicean era of Jewish history is? He says, the Pharisees. He said it was the Pharisees. They appeared very righteous. It's not the Sardis, just absolutely dead. They did stuff. But they were neither hot in their actual relationship with God, neither were they cold or refreshing and caring to others, right? Why should they be? They're better than others. And in that sense of superiority and in that sense of their religious customs, they actually circumvented the law of God. That's Laodicean. In a sense of superiority, absolute sense of superiority, and in a sense of looking down on others, in a sense of custom, they circumvent the law of God. But it doesn't appear that that's what they're doing.
It is very important that we study all seven of the messages given to the seven churches. All those attitudes will be extended at the last time. Christ comes to all those churches. It's important that we know not to become any of those attitudes that are condemned. But to look and see if we can be that Philadelphia attitude. The city of brotherly love. The city where they held on to the right doctrines, the right ways. The people there saw Jesus Christ as the key of David, and they followed Him as the head of their church. And be careful not to fall into these other attitudes, knowing that at the end time, it will be more and more easy to become a laodicea.
Gary Petty is a 1978 graduate of Ambassador College with a BS in mass communications. He worked for six years in radio in Pennsylvania and Texas. He was ordained a minister in 1984 and has served congregations in Longview and Houston Texas; Rockford, Illinois; Janesville and Beloit, Wisconsin; and San Antonio, Austin and Waco, Texas. He presently pastors United Church of God congregations in Nashville, Murfreesboro and Jackson, Tennessee.
Gary says he's "excited to be a part of preaching the good news of God's Kingdom over the airwaves," and "trusts the material presented will make a helpful difference in people's lives, bringing them closer to a relationship with their heavenly Father."