Laymen of Laodicea

Actually, before we do that,
let’s go to the first chapter and just see a little bit of
of what we’re talking about, who’s writing this and establish
a little groundwork before we get into the meat of this. So
in Revelations chapter one, we will read the first six verses
again, just to see whose words these are and why they were penned.
Verse one, the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him
to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known
by sending his angel to his servant, John, who testifies to everything
he saw. That is the word of God and the
testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the one who reads
the word of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear it
and take it to heart what was written in it, because the time
is near. John, to the seven churches in
the province of Asia, grace and peace to you from him who is
and him who was and him who is to come and from the seven spirits
before his throne and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness,
the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the
earth. To him who loves us and has freed
us from our sins by his blood and has made us to be a kingdom
and priest to serve his God and his father, to him be glory and
power forever and ever. Amen. That gives us a nice prayer,
a nice segue into what we’ll be looking at. There were seven
different churches that were addressed here in the first parts
of the book of Revelation. And each different church seemed
to take on a different personality. They seem to take on some different
characteristics. And Jesus, through the words
of John, had an interesting way of putting things to seven of
these different churches. And one in particular, the one
we’ll look at today, is the church in Laodicea. But if we think
back even before this was written, And we think of maybe what is
the most tragic story in the entirety of redemptive history,
we can look at it as the nation of Israel. It’s clear that apart
from nothing they had done, God sovereignly chose Israel to be
His people, to father a nation through Abraham and his descendants.
If you think of the unprecedented spiritual blessings that they
received, they were adopted by God. They were given the law
and all the different covenants. They were freed from enslavement
in Egypt and from Pharaoh. And they were taken to the promised
land and given protection from their enemies. If you even think
about modern day times, if Israel were to lay down its arms, there
would be no Israel left. But even in spite of all the
hostility in that region, God has protected them and provided
for him to show that he keeps his promises. Now, there’s a
lot of rebellion, as you can see, even despite of so much
blessing. And it might even be reasonable to ask yourself, how
could a people that have received so much supernatural blessing
from God ever turn their back on Him? Well, it’s the same story
for this church in Laodicea. They were blessed with innumerable
things, the grace of Christ, the ultimate sacrifice for their
sins and the payment on the cross. But we’ll see how these people
turned astray from Him and didn’t even know it. Israel’s disobedience
from God, I think we can clearly say, brought grief and sorrow
to God. And we’ll see that the Laodiceans
do the same thing. Now, today we’ll look at a couple
of things. The first thing I want to do is just introduce you a
little bit to who are these people? What is this region and what
is going on? And then the second thing, we’ll
look at a rebuke that is given to them. And then thirdly, an
invitation that is given to them by Christ himself. Laodicea. is a rich city, had about 7,500
Jewish men in it. And if you know, that’s how censuses
were taken. It wasn’t just fill out your
taxes and then, you know, fill out your W-2 and we’ll figure
out everyone that lives there. It was taken by the men there.
So if we just say every man was married, we’ll call it 15,000.
And let’s say they had a couple of kids, a town of about 30,000
people. OK, so for this time, a pretty
big place. And geographically, it’s on the
road to Colossae, about 40 miles southeast of a place called Philadelphia,
and not the one in Pennsylvania. Now it’s a very rich city, and
you’ll see there’s three industries that the Laodiceans really acquired
all this wealth from. And you’re going to see how all
three of those play a significant part in the rebuke that’s given
to them. The first thing is they had a
great banking industry. They were very wise stewards
of money and as well as they handled the funds of many outsiders. As well, they were very influential
in their cloths and the wool they would make because they
had a special type of black wool that they would make garments
out of. Thirdly, they had a teaching hospital and this teaching hospital
would be one where many people from the region would come there
to learn as well as to receive something that we’ll get into.
Now, we don’t have any record that the Apostle Paul ever visited
this people himself, but he speaks about them a couple of times
actually in Colossians. And one is in Colossians 2, just
the first two verses. He says, I want you to know how
much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea. And
for all who have not met me personally, my purpose is that they may be
encouraged in heart and united in love so that they may have
the full riches of complete understanding in order that they may know the
mystery of God, namely Christ. Secondly, in verse four, chapter
four, verse 16, this is set after this letter has been read to
you. see that it is also read in the church of Laodiceans,
and that you turn and read the letter from Laodicea.” So you’ll
see, Paul had these folks on his mind. Now, why? Well, I thought
this was pretty interesting. You know when you hear maybe
a great sermon, or you read just a great passage in the Bible,
and it’s heavy on your heart, and you’ve studied it, and you’ve
just acquired a great truth from it, and then some person or a
group of people start popping in your mind and you think, well,
they need to hear that. Or I know there’s an area that
they’re kind of blown and they need to hear that and maybe that
will help them. And I kind of get the picture of this is what’s
going on in Paul’s head. He said, this letter I’m writing
right here, these people need to read that. They have some
error and they need to turn from their ways and see this. And
so Paul doesn’t personally go there to him, but obviously his
influence had spread there because we don’t have any record of really
how this church started. But again, how close it was to
many of these regions that he visited. We can see that his
influence was a heavy one there. Now, let’s let’s read the beginning
of the passage, starting in verse 14. And I know in the bulletin
it goes through verse 22. And we’ll see if we get there.
Now also written in the bulletin is the NAS version of it. And
many of you know, I use the NIV. And so any of the areas that
you might have a problem with there, we’ll make sure we clean
those up and touch those up. And so we can get through that.
Verse 14, to the angel of the church in Laodicea write, these
are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witnesses,
the ruler of God’s creation. Now, I thought we talked about
Jesus is the one that has authored these words. And it says these
are the words of the Amen. I mean, when you think of the
word Amen, when do you primarily think about that? Well, you think
about when you pray in a group, right? And you close a corporate
prayer with Amen. And really that translates to
us as to be so be it or that we’re all in agreement. Now,
this isn’t just saying this is from all of us are all in agreement.
Where this is coming from is a reference to Isaiah 65. And
on Isaiah 65, God refers to himself as the God of truth twice. In
the Hebrew word there used is amen. And it’s the same term
that it’s given here. Now, remember, there’s a rebuke
that’s coming and on its way here. And so he’s establishing
himself as this is the one that is bringing the message. Now,
Jesus is sovereign. He is the Christ. He speaks to
everything as truth. We understand that. Who is He
talking to? Primarily the Laodiceans. But look in verse 22. Who else
is this for? It says this, He who has an ear
to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
And so, if you can just put your hands up and feel one of these
and one of these, this message is for us as well. There is an
ear for us to hear, and I must hear.” Now, he’s saying, listen
up. I’m God. I’m truth. I’m not a
created being. You’re the clay. I’m the potter.
I’ve got something important for you to hear. Now, you can
tell what’s coming. Something probably not very nice
afterwards. Now, I have an initial question
for you. How do you accept rebuke? How do you accept it when somebody
approaches you with an issue? Or when somebody approaches you
of something they may see in your life that they don’t necessarily
agree with. Do we initially shut down and
become hard in our hearts and think, no, they don’t know what
they’re talking about. But I want to challenge you not to give
yourself too much credit. I think a lot of times when we’re challenged
with questions like that, we think, oh, yeah, I’ve got that
under control. That’s no big deal. Well, as you see, the toughest
thing to deal with is a heart that is deceived. Now, there’s
maybe two things you’re thinking as well. When somebody approaches
you, they think, well, they don’t know all the facts. This guy
or this gal is coming to me to talk to me about maybe a sin
issue that they think I might have in my life, but they don’t
really know the situation. They just know the tip of the
iceberg. And so, yeah, they may have seen these mistakes I’ve
made, but really on the bottom of that, I’m doing OK. I’m a
pretty good person. All right. They don’t really
understand. Let me just give them my side of the story and then maybe
that’ll just clear things up. Or another thing that we might
think of is who do they think they are? Who do they think they
are that they have the right to come to me and talk to me
about maybe some area in my life that’s not crystal clear? I’m
sure they have things going on with them and in their heart
that aren’t perfect as well. But does that discount the accountability
that we have to our sin? No, absolutely not. But this
is not your friend. This is not your acquaintance.
This is not your coworker. that comes and says, I want to
talk to you about something that maybe doesn’t know the facts
or maybe is just trying to place themselves above you by discouraging
you. This is Jesus Christ coming with
this message. He knows the facts. There’s no getting around it.
He knows everything that’s going on. He’s the most high God. And
he says this, he says, I know your deeds in verse 15. I don’t
think any of us would challenge or question the fact that he
knows our deeds. He knows not what is done in
public, but what is done in secret as well. Now, he says deeds specifically. Why would he say deeds? Deeds,
as James talks about, are the representation of a true saving
faith. Many of us in here will claim
to have faith. We claim that we have a faith
to the point where it saves us. But here’s the question for you.
Does your work, does your deeds, do they match up with what you
claim to have in faith? And if not, then I think we may
be judging ourselves wrongly and may be hypocrites. Now, the
word hypocrite today has changed in its meaning a little bit,
but originally it meant an actor that would put on a full body
costume and that would change its form. And so if we claim
to be Christians or we claim to be walking by faith, yet are
acting out something completely different than that, then we
need to rightly assess ourselves in a different way. So today,
let’s listen up to this. Let’s listen up to these words
in specific context to this church in Asia and see maybe if the
word of God has anything that penetrates your heart this morning.
He begins with the rebuke in this way. He says, I know your
deeds that you are neither cold nor hot, and I wish you were
one or the other. Now, cold or hot, is he talking
about temperature? Ladies tend to just be cold all
the time. It doesn’t matter if it’s 85
degrees in the house, they’re cold. He’s not talking about
that. But the cold and the hot refer
to really a spiritual condition. Okay, cold is just blatant rejection
of the truth. And I think many of us know people
like that, that we’ve had to try to have conversations with,
and they don’t claim to be agnostics. They claim to be maybe a flat
out atheist. And they say, whatever you’re selling, I don’t want
it. I don’t want anything to do with it. And it’s almost easier
to deal with a person like that, because you understand where
they are, you understand where they stand. Or you have hot people
as well. And hot people are the ones,
the modern term, on fire, right? On fire for God. And it has to
do with really a zeal or a passion for God in an intimate way. And
so Jesus looks at these folks and he says, you’re neither hot
nor are you cold. You’re not committed to me. You
claim to be, but you’re not. Nor do you claim to have abandoned
me either. You’re just somewhere. You’re
a tweener in there somewhere. And he’s frustrated. And he’s
saying, get on this side of the fence or get on the other. I
wish you were one or the other. And what does that tell you?
Does that tell you that the Lord looks at somebody who’s maybe
straddling one foot on this side of the fence, one’s foot on this
side of the fence, a little bit hot, a little bit cold. And he’s
saying, that’s OK, we’ll just slowly bring you along. No. He’s
saying, get over here or get over here, because in my eyes,
you’re one or the other. There’s no messing around here.
One pastor says this about the Laodiceans. He says, some churches
make the Lord weep, others make Him angry, but the Laodiceans
made Him sick. These people were mocking Him.
They were mocking Him because they claimed to walk in the truth,
as 1 John said, but that’s a lie. Their deeds did not match up.
Now, notice this as well in verse 15. He comes right into it. I
don’t know if any of you have ever had to sit down with somebody
you love, or somebody you care deeply for, again, an acquaintance,
or a friend, or a co-worker, or a family member, and you have
some hard news for them, and it’s never a pleasurable thing,
and a lot of times you couch that in as much love as you can.
You try to encourage as much as you can, and then you kind
of lay the hammer with whatever you’re trying to bring. Jesus
hops right into it. No words of commendation here.
None at all. No encouragement. He just comes
out and He says, I wish you were one or the other, but you’re
not where you are and you’re not where you need to be. And
he uses a specific word for this, lukewarm. Now I have not heard
the word lukewarm ever used. hardly outside of this context.
It’s not a word you walk around and use today. You don’t talk
to people about being lukewarm or the water is lukewarm. You
don’t talk about that. But lukewarm is really the temperature
that physicians used to use to induce vomiting. They would give
somebody water that was lukewarm and it would make them throw
up. Now think about this. If you like coffee, there’s probably
quite a few coffee drinkers in here, and you go to Starbucks
You really get one of two things. You get a steaming hot drink
where the steam’s coming out of the top of it and it’s scalding
hot almost at first. Or you get a frappuccino which
is over ice. Never do you walk into Starbucks
and say, I’ll take a cup of coffee at room temperature please. No,
because it’s disgusting. And if you’re not a coffee drinker,
how about tea? The same thing. You get iced
tea or you get hot tea. You never get lukewarm, room
temperature tea. It’s disgusting. And this is
what Jesus says to these people. He says, you’re lukewarm. And
about as appetizing as having a cup of coffee at a lukewarm
temperature, that’s about how appetizing you are to me. And
so I think I will spit you out. not pleasant waters. Now also
this illustration would have had a lot of weight with them
because of their water supply. This is very interesting. Like
I said, they’re one piece of a triad of cities, of Colossae
and Heropolis. And what would happen is from
Colossae they would have cold water pumped in through their
aqueducts, and from Heropolis they would have the warm water
pumped in, and by the time it reached Laodicea it would be
a lukewarm temperature. So it’s significant that he would
call these people lukewarm rather than use any other analogy because
he knew to them, they would understand that because the water isn’t
warm enough to take a bath in, nor is it refreshing like a spring
to have a cold drink from. And so he calls them lukewarm
and putrid. Now, what made them so lukewarm? It appears as if
he’s calling them out. on their character, on their
deeds. But why would he do that? What would make him have that?
Well, you see, it’s evidenced by their contentment with their
material wealth and then being completely unaware of their spiritual
poverty. Verse 17 says, you say, I am
rich and I have acquired wealth and do not think. I don’t know
if many of us in here believe that we are rich or that we are
bold enough to even make the statement that I’m rich. I don’t
need anything. I’ve acquired enough wealth to
take care of all of my needs. I don’t know if you would have
found many in Laodicea that would have claimed the same thing,
but clearly by their needs, that’s the type of faith they were showing.
Now, it’s always the rich people that Jesus picks on, isn’t it?
Always. You always look at who He’s talking
about or who the prophet’s talking about, and they’re always getting
on the rich people. And it’s not just because they’re
envious. Flip with me quickly to Luke 19. And many of you know the story of
this rich young ruler, but just to quickly fly through it and
review it. Luke 18, verse 18. A certain ruler asks a good teacher,
what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus responds, what
do you call me? Why do you call me good?” And
Jesus answered, no one is good except God alone. You know the
commandments, do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal,
do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.
So he poses this statement to the young man and he says, all
these things I’ve kept since I was a boy, so good, got that
one taken care of. And when Jesus heard this, he
said to him, You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have
and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven
and then come and follow me.” And we all know the man’s response
and reaction to this. He becomes sad, very sad, it
says, because he was a man of great wealth. And Jesus looked
at him and said, How hard is it for a rich to enter the kingdom
of God? Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the
eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
Those who heard this asked, who then can be saved? And Jesus
replied with, it is impossible with men, but it is possible
with God. And Peter said to them, we have
left all that we have had and to follow you. So they hear this,
the apostles and those following him, and they’re upset. They
say, listen, we’ve given up everything. We’ve given up our homes, our
families, our businesses to come follow you. And this is what
you’re telling us? And Jesus says, I tell you the
truth, no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents
or children for the sake of the kingdom will fail to receive
many times as much in this age and the age to come in eternal
life. Now, he’s saying two things here. One, there’s a great exchange
that must take place. And the great exchange is the
things which we treasure the most, the things which we hold
on to the most in this life, We might not necessarily go sell
them all. He wasn’t literally telling this
man to go sell everything he had and then he would be worthy
of the kingdom. But it was an issue of the heart.
It was an issue of the priority of he knew this young man valued
his wealth over his faith. And because of that, it represented
a heart that was dull to the Lord. And the second thing is
this. It tells us that it’s hard. As
a matter of fact, it’s impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom
of heaven. How do we know it’s impossible?
Has anyone in here ever seen a camel go through the eye of
a needle? No, I don’t think so. So that tells us pretty tough. OK, now you might think, OK,
well, good. Jesus picks on the rich guys.
I’m not rich. I’m all right. Well. If I were
to crumple up $2 bills, one in each hand and throw one on this
side of the congregation and throw it on the other side, I
doubt we would see people diving all over each other to get a
couple of $1 bills, right? You can’t even get a soda in
a vending machine for a buck anymore. Well, why that is the
average day’s wage of a worker around the world today. $2, $2. And I did a little research and
a little math and broke this down. The average American salary
of a household income is $48,000. And that equates to approximately
$140 a day. So let’s say we took $70 and
crumpled it up and threw it on this side and another $70 and
threw it over here. There might be a little more action of people
trying to get those things. Now again, I’m not rich. I don’t
even make that much. I make half of that much or less
or less. Well, does your family own a
car? Probably. Do you own a TV? Probably own
four. How about a fridge? Okay. You
can get food whenever you want. If that is true, you’re in the
top one to 2% of the entire world in wealthiness. So it brings
a new tone to us. When Jesus says, it is impossible
for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. When the Laodiceans
were written to by Christ and he says, you say that you are
rich and you have acquired wealth and do not need a thing. Again,
if we are not that bold to say that, do we think about it? Do
we need to pray to our father for our daily bread? No, we don’t. Because why? You can wake up
in the middle of the night, go downstairs and go to your refrigerator
and get food. Do you have to pray that God
would provide good weather for you? No. Because you can get
in your car, you can turn on the heater and drive wherever
you want to go. It’s an interesting pattern and style of life we’ve
grown into and grown accustomed to that we’re guilty of judging
ourselves and judging our material wealth based on those that surround
us. And you drive through a fancy
neighborhood and you think, wow, they’re rich. They’ve got it
made. Well then, think about in your context in the world,
in the top 1% of the wealthiest people. Now what does Jesus say
about them and their spiritual blindness? Well, these are the
adjectives that he uses. He says, you are wretched, pitiful,
poor, blind, and naked. Not exactly how you want to be
described. Not exactly probably what the
guys, the adjectives they use to describe the girl on the first
date. Wretched, pitiful, poor, blind,
and naked. Harsh, harsh words. So what did
Jesus tell them to do? What’s the solution? Obviously,
he didn’t just tell them that they’re lukewarm, he wants to
spit them out, and that they say that they have acquired wealth
and they don’t need him. He gives them an answer. And
this is the answer. The first thing he does is he
tells them to buy from him something. He is selling something. Well,
what is that? He says the first thing is don’t
buy from me just regular gold. Buy from me gold refined in the
fire. And that word refined is very
interesting. Because if you think of Peter,
what did Peter say about gold and faith? In 1 Peter 1 7, he
says, buy from me or acquire a faith more precious than gold,
that our faith is more important than all of the wealth in the
world. What does it profit a man to lose his soul, but to gain
the whole world? Nothing. Secondly, if you think
how precious metals like silver or gold, how they’re refined,
you think of the crucible and how the silversmith or the goldsmith,
they turn the heat up. And it begins to turn the gold
or the silver into a liquid state. And then the impurities rise
to the top. And then they take a long flat stick and they scrape
off the impurities. And then they crank up the heat
a little bit more. And then more impurities rise to the top. And
then they scrape that off as well. And they continue that
process until they believe it’s done. And the standard criteria
to use for when they think The gold or the silver is refined
enough is when they can see their reflection in it. And that’s
so similar to Christ. When is our faith complete? Well,
when he can see his reflection in our lives. A faith more precious
than gold. Again, I said their banking was
a tremendous way that they earned money. So obviously they knew
how to handle material wealth. They knew how to handle gold
in particular as a main currency of the day. But he says, listen,
you think you’re rich, but in reality, you’re poor. You’re
spiritually poor. And so he uses their culture
to address their spiritual needs. It’s the same reason Jesus spoke
in parables. If he came to us today, he probably
wouldn’t talk to us in the same agricultural setting as he did
the people in the first century. So, what did Jesus tell them
to do? The first thing is he said, don’t buy from me ordinary
gold, but refined gold. And buy this from me. It takes
something to do that. It costs a price. The second
thing, he says, and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your
shameful sins. The word white doesn’t refer
to physically wearing white clothes, but it refers to the righteousness
of God. The second most important thing that the Laodiceans did
to acquire wealth and to acquire money was by selling these black
woolen garments. And they would sell them for
a tremendous profit. People would come from all over the region
to get these black garments. And so he says, you’re selling
these garments, but in actuality, you’re naked. You’re spiritually
bare. It’s a commodity that people
generated a lot of revenue from, but they missed the point. Again,
they were trying to acquire wealth over acquire relationship with
God. Now, can you think of any other
incident where somebody has been called shameful and naked? How
about the first story in creation of Adam and Eve? That they realized
they were naked and they were shamed because of their sin.
And Jesus uses this example of a story they would have known
to say, you are naked. Thirdly, We talked about the
teaching hospital that was there. He says, put a salve on your
eyes so you can see. A salve was a roll of eye ointment. And again, people wouldn’t just
come to Laodicea to come to the medical school, but they would
travel because at this medical school they had a special eye
ointment or an eye salve that they would give to people to
conquer a lot of the problems with people’s eyes in the Middle
East. And so you say, put a salve on your eyes. They didn’t have
a problem with their vision, but they were spiritually blind. Laodicea is clearly missing the
mark. But is that so different from today? Is it so different?
No. I would say if you look at Christendom
in America, don’t we feel as if we have acquired wealth, that
we are rich, that we do not need a thing? I would say without
saying it, that’s what we show. Can we say that it’s fair to
say that the American church has become complacent? Well,
what is complacency? In my opinion, complacency is
really the epitome of pride. Many would say that boasting
is really how you can tell if somebody is truly arrogant or
prideful. That’s definitely one way. But I would say more than
that, if you can look in your heart and say, I’m okay where
I am right now. I’m okay. You know, I realize
that I need the Lord, but I’m OK. What does that show? That
shows us saying, God, I don’t need you right now. Let me wait
for crisis situation. Let me wait for trial. Let me
wait till I really need you. Then I’ll go knock on your door
and I’ll take care of it. The greatest saints are the ones
who constantly demonstrate their need, their allegiance to, and
their dependence on God on a daily basis. Those who are most like
Him are the ones that feel that they are farthest away from Him.
The most frustrating kind of person for the Lord to deal with
is who? It’s the one who’s lukewarm and thinks that they are okay.
Who did He have the hardest time with? The Pharisees. Because
the Pharisees, in the eyes of the culture, were the religious
elites. They were the ones that had it
all figured out. And Jesus came to them and said, you may be
clean on the outside, but you are filthy and vile on the inside. The widow’s offering. The Pharisees
would stand at the back of the synagogue and dump in the smallest
denomination of coin to hear it ring so all could see how
holy they were. Or they would pray in public and on the streets
so all could see how holy they were. And Jesus says to them,
you have received your reward in full with the recognition
of men. And so is that the case with
us? Do we play Christianity or do we desire to be Christians? Now, if I asked you to, again,
form a list of people, form a list of people who are lukewarm that
you think you need to talk to. Would you be on somebody else’s
list? That’s the question. Would you
be on somebody else’s list? Do not deceive yourself. The
tendency for us in the nature of our hearts and the nature
of pride is to think of ourselves more highly than we ought. And
in Philippians, as we’ve learned, that’s even God. In Christ Jesus,
did not even think of equality with God, of something to be
measured with, but to think of others greater than ourselves.
Matthew 7. Many will say to Him on that
last day, Lord, Lord, let me in. I knew you. And Jesus will
turn to us and He will say, I never knew you. Get away from me. And
there’s a great illustration. If we were to go to the White
House today and we were to bang on the door in the White House
and say, I know George Bush. Let me in. Would we get in? No. The Secret Service would have
us in cuffs faster than you’ve ever seen. But if George Bush
came out and said, hey, I know him or I know her. They’d let
you in. So it really doesn’t matter if
you claim to know the Lord. Many will claim that. On the
last day, it matters whether he knows you or not. That is
the true test. Now, do you know that you are
wretched, pitiful, poor, blind or naked? Maybe you do, maybe
you don’t. Now, this hits every single one of us a little bit
differently. Some of us may have some massive, massive sin in
our lives. Others, we may be sitting here
knowing that we’ve got some areas in our life that we need to work
on. We’ve got some areas of our life and some sin in our life
that we need to repent of or some battles we need to fight.
And here’s where the invitation comes in. After he told them
what their sinful condition is and what they can buy from him,
he says this in verse 19. Those whom I love, I rebuke and
discipline. So be earnest and repent or be
zealous and repent. Now the word zealous is interesting. We know that to mean being enthusiastic,
but where does that come from? Well, zealous comes from the
Greek word of zeo, which means to boil. So think about boiling
water. You think of a very high intensity.
And that’s what he’s saying. Don’t just repent, but be zealous. And so a way that we can look
or a positive encouragement we can have for us and we can ask
in our hearts, are we zealous for the Lord? Do we boil for
him? Are we hot for him? And if that
is the case, be encouraged. And if not, repent. Now, he says
there’s a reason he disciplines and rebukes us. It’s because
he loves us. And it’s just like when your
mom and dad spanks you and then gives you a hug. It doesn’t make
any sense. But clearly, it’s because they want to correct
you for your best interests. That’s why. And he says this
in verse 20. He says, Here I am. As if we
didn’t know it was him. I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in
and eat with him. And he with me. There’s a process
there that takes place. The first thing is you need to
listen. You need to hear my voice. The
second thing is open the door. And then thirdly and finally,
it’s come in and eat. There’s a process there that
becomes more personal along the way. Hearing Just a passive operation. Okay, if a plane were to fly
over here, we would all hear it Okay, so hearing a voice at
the door is just a passive thing almost what we do now You hear
the word of the Lord then what happens? He’s knocking Now we
must get up and open the door Find out who’s there invite them
in and then thirdly and finally eating with them dining with
them Now that dine there, that word used, is representative
of the last meal of the day. This is not talking about the
drive through at McDonald’s. This is the last meal of the
day, a full evening party. And you remember the Pharisees
used to give Jesus such a hard time because he would dine with
her, he would eat with sinners. And you think, well, why is that
such a big deal? You know, you go out and eat with different people
all the time because the symbolism of that really meant union of
loving fellowship. And so when Christ would eat
with these sinners, it meant that he was desiring to be united
with them, desiring to be one with them. You think of Matthew,
the tax collector. Jesus just gets off a boat. He
sees Matthew with a Roman guard behind him because people would
have killed him for selling out his own countrymen. And Jesus
goes to him and could have rebuked him for his sin and could have
told him a million things he was doing wrong. But what did
he do? Did he do that? No. He went up and he said, follow
me, party at your house tonight. And that’s what he did. What
did he do to the woman at the well? Clearly living in a sinful
lifestyle, clearly in an idolatrous life. And he came up to her and
he says, woman, may I have a drink? And he met her where she was
and then dealt with the important things following that. This is
why, repeatedly in the New Testament, we see Jesus going out to the
center. Going out. Because we cannot
expect that something will just magically happen. We serve a
God that said, go out into the world. Think of a couple other
examples. Flip with me to Luke chapter
19, very briefly. And now maybe you’re asking yourself
the question, I don’t know which camp I’m in. I don’t know if
I’m all right. I don’t know if I’m deceiving
myself. I got a lot of figuring out to do. Well, let’s take a
look at someone who really got it. And then maybe you can compare
yourself and say, is this my heart? Luke 19, Zacchaeus, another
tax collector. Jesus passing through and a man
was there by the name of Zacchaeus and he was a chief tax collector
and was wealthy. Why would somebody ever get into
the business of tax collecting? They would forsake their relationships,
their friendships, their businesses, acquaintances, because their
love of money was so great that that’s what they care about.
He was a wealthy man and he wanted to see who Jesus was. But being
a short man, he could not because of the crowd. So he ran ahead
and climbed up a sycamore fig tree to see him since Jesus was
coming that way. And when Jesus reached the spot,
he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, come down immediately.
I must stay at your house today. So he came down at once and welcomed
him again, inviting himself into somebody’s home. All the people
saw this and began to mutter. He has gone to be the guest of
a sinner. But Zacchaeus stood up and said
to the Lord, Look, Lord, Here and now, I give half of my possessions
to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will
pay back four times the amount. That’s somebody who got it. And
what does Christ respond to him? Today, salvation has come to
this house. Verse 10, for this to seek and
save what was lost. One more story in Matthew 13.
Another question to ask, is your faith truly the greatest treasure
in your life? Is it truly the most important? In verse 44, the kingdom of heaven is like
a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it
again and then in his joy went and sold all that he had and
bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven
is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. And when he found
one of great value, he went away and sold everything that he had
and bought it. This goes against the first law
that you learn in investing, to diversify in case something
goes wrong. What he’s saying is this, the
kingdom of heaven is not something you diversify. You do not keep
one foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom of heaven.
But if Christ for you, is not the pearl of great price. If
He is not worth giving up all that you have, then He is not
the Lord of your life. Now, many will come and say,
you’re dining with sinners. Jesus, what are you doing? You
claim to be God, you’re dining with sinners. And He left them
with this one final thought. He says, it is not the healthy
who need a doctor, but the sick. And if you’re in that room and
somebody calls you the sick, Will you argue with them? Matthew
and Matthew’s friends would have heard that. And there was no
argument because they were truly aware of their condition. And
so today, do we realize that we are the sick or not? And here
is an invitation. Just a final quote I’ll leave
you with from Martin Lloyd-Jones about what repentance is. Repentance
means that you realize that you are a guilty, vile sinner in
the presence of God and that you deserve the wrath and the
punishment of God, and that you are hellbound. It means that
you begin to realize that this thing called sin in you, that
the longing to get rid of it, and that you turn your back on
it in every shape and form. You renounce the world, whatever
the cost, the world and its mind and its outlook as well as its
practices, and you deny yourself and take up the cross and go
after Christ. This is the beautiful invitation
to us given in Revelation. There are striking similarities
between the church of Laodicea and the American church today.
In verse 21, to him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit
with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with
my father on his throne. That is the invitation given
to us freely today, to every one of us. Repent and be earnest. We all have different degrees
of sin. We all have varying degrees of struggle in our life. But
the matter is, do we need the Lord today just as much as we
needed in that first day we fell on our knees and cried repentance? Let’s pray. Father, Lord, we are all just
miserable in a state of what we bring to the bargaining table.
We understand that it’s not a negotiation, it’s not you making an offer
and then us reaching our hand out and accepting, but what we
bring to the table is sin and iniquity, and nothing but being
wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. Lord, we claim oftentimes
to walk in spirit and in truth, but there are many times that
we live out that lie. And so today, for whatever areas
that might be in our hearts, whatever areas of sin or a falling
short that it may be, we pray, Lord, that you would grant us
the courage and grant us the strength to repent of that and
to trust you in newness of life. Our desire is to be a people
not like the Laodiceans. We thank you for the example
that you made of them because you love them and you want the
best for them. And so we understand even this
rebuke that comes to us today, 2000 years later, is from one
of the same loving heart. So our desire is to take these
words and heed them, is to look at them with haste to examine
ourselves, to examine our hearts. And please do not let us be deceived.
If we’re not where we need to be, then show us that. Put the
people around us that can help us and give us a new fire to
be hot for you. For we desire not to be lukewarm,
but to be saints that honor you and love you in everything we
do. And we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.