Lesson 10 - Revelation 3 Concl.

[Music] [Music] we're going to finish up Revelation chapter 3 today and we're going to study the last of the seven letters to the believing congregations of Asia and that congregation is Laodicea which is also properly pronounced Leodis Laodicea either way it's fine but first of all as is our custom we're going to review what we discussed in the previous lesson the sixth letter was to the so called Church of Philadelphia now I want to remind you that to apply the word Church to any of these congregations congregations is an anachronism because no such term existed in that era and because in every case that house of worship where the believers met was a Jewish synagogue it's only that these particular synagogues accepted Yeshua as the Messiah Jewish believers represented the bulk of the congregations at this time was some unknown number of God fears joining them God fears is a term that applied only to Gentiles who worshipped the God of Israel but these particular god-fearers took a further step in that they also accepted Jesus as Lord and Messiah now Philadelphia was one of two believing assemblies the other one being Smyrna and whom God found no fault so he only commended them but to Philadelphia the Lord made a special promise he says he would protect them from the coming trial that the entire world would face and yet even though this promise is made to the Philadelphia congregation it seems to also extend beyond them and to all believers at large now this is a really big question as to what this means is there going to be protected I'm gonna actually talk about this some more in a couple of weeks but maybe the bigger question for the Philadelphians beyond the the who is the win when will this worldwide trial happen and without going into great detail we can find throughout the New Testament that all in time's expectations among the Jewish people especially among issue of followers as well as among the writers of the New Testament was that it was imminent I mean the end times could come any day any thought to them that the end times was hundreds of years away even decades away this is simply non-existent in Jewish writings including the New Testament however with the advantage of hindsight we see that much of what they thought was about to happen didn't so now we look at those same expectations as their imminent for us how imminent are they well as we move through revelation as we examine the prophets that John will allude to perhaps we'll get some answers now one thing we've already discovered is that at some point there is gonna be some name changes for believers and for the City of God Jerusalem not only that but verse 12 of chapter 3 says that the divine being who is narrating this letter and all the others is also gonna have his name changed think about that when a Jew of John's day hears this he understands that a name chain change symbolizes a set of attributes or it redefines a reputation that's what's going on here so it's not that these name changes are just new ways that we call one another Bob doesn't become Bill sue doesn't become Sally it is that there is some underlying fundamental change of nature that's going to occur Ezekiel lends his voice to this by telling us that yerushalaim will no longer be called the city of peace but rather will be known as jehova shamma jehova shamma meaning your Hovey is there well let's move on then to the final letter the letter to Leah dick you open up your Bibles to Revelation chapter 3 Revelation chapter 3 so you can follow along with me we're gonna start at verse 14 so that will be on page 15 36 if you have a complete Jewish Bible Revelation chapter 3 beginning at verse 14 to the angel of the Messianic community in Laodicea right here is the message from the Amon the faithful and true witness the ruler of God's creation I know what you're doing you are neither cold nor hot how I wish you were either one or the other so because you are lukewarm neither cold nor hot I will vomit you out of my mouth for you keep saying I'm rich I've gotten rich I don't need a thing see you don't know that you're the one who is wretched pitiable poor blind and naked my advice to you buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich and white clothing so that you may be dressed not be ashamed of your naked i salve to rub on your eyes so that you may see now as for me i rebuke and discipline everyone i love so exert yourselves and turn from your sins here i'm standing at the door knocking if someone hears my voice and opens the door I will come in to him and eat with him he will eat with me I will let him who wins the victory sit with me on my throne just as I myself also won the victory and sat down with my father on his throne those who have ears let them hear what the Spirit is saying to the Messianic communities lea deke is located about 40 miles southwest of Philadelphia its signature industry was the processing of wool about three centuries old by John's day the city got its name from Leodis who was the wife of the city's founder Antiochus ii now this was a wealthy it was an influential city until the Muslims destroyed it in the Middle Ages so the people living there including the believers what a pretty good life with all the trappings of a wealthy city full of the best that life could offer in that era that fact probably had much to do with what God says about that congregation now as typical this letter opens with the divine being God giving us his characteristics but not his name however in this instance the description fits best not entirely with standard attributes assigned to Yeshua the words are here is the message from the Amon the faithful and true witness the ruler of God's creation let's dissect this to script because I think you're gonna find it informative all men is pretty familiar to us it's the way Christians always in prayers it is a Christian custom it's not a biblical formula for ending a prayer so for an average Christian Amen is kind of a religious sounding word that means the end I'm done now god I'm in see you later however for the Hebrew therefore for the biblical meaning it more means truth or faithful it is mostly used as a statement of affirmation by those hearing a prayer saying a prayer God the Father or the Godhead in general was called the Amun in some places in the Old Testament places like Isaiah Isaiah 65 16 just give you an example thus someone on earth who blesses himself will bless himself by the god of truth and someone on earth who swears an oath will swear by the God of truth for trouble past troubles will be forgotten hidden from my eyes see both times that this verse speaks of the God of truth the Hebrew word that's being translated is Amen so in the Old Testament saying Amen is actually referring to the father of the Godhead well next the description calls the being and calls himself the faithful and true witness Christ is called God's witness and God the Father is not referred to of course as a witness therefore what Yeshua is witness to is the nature and the will and the commandments of God the Father he then brings that witness to the Jewish people whose job it is to take it to the world well then comes the last part of the description that is the ruler of God's creation you're going to find this interpretation in some Bible versions in other translations you'll find beginning of the creation of God beginning of the creation of God so one translation has this Divine Being ruling over God's kingdom the other translation has him as being the first thing that God created why the difference well the Greek word being translated to either ruler or being as RK and it has a wide range of meanings however it seems that in this case what we have here is an expression that means the first to lead in other words the leader the chief the ruler now while I think this is what it means and I think it best fits the context I either way it is a description that best fits God the Son so while the emphasis of the three-part description points towards Yahshua we also see elements of the father again the ahmen and as we've noticed that this is the case with virtually every letter that is we have this mixture of characteristics that are usually assigned to the father with characteristics that are usually assigned to the son but never are we given a name well verses 15 and 16 are probably two of the best known in the New Testament they read I know what you're doing you're neither cold nor hot how I wish you were either one or the other so because you're just lukewarm neither cold nor hot I'm gonna vomit you out of my mouth now and what can be either a help or a hindrance for us when trying to understand what a Bible author is trying to get across is the fact that the ancient authors always thought in a context of life and culture and conditions of their time what else did they have thus the metaphors and the examples that they might use they were always based on everyday things the people of their era encountered Xand they could easily identify with it for example the Bible was written in our time very likely there would be a lot of metaphors and examples using traffic jams and iPhones and Islamic terrorism and computers and television and social media and so on because that's the world that we all recognize what would not be used in ours day as much in the way of agricultural terms are probably not very much goat herding not too much donkey riding or the employment of slaves and bondservants because that is so distant and uncommon to all but a relative few see these metaphors and analogies can help us if we know the culture of biblical times but it can hinder us if we don't so that's why it's so vital that we use all possible means to understand Jewish culture and Middle Eastern society in whatever biblical era we might currently be studying so this statement in verses 15 and 16 is is an excellent example of this and I'm gonna flesh it out for you so that you can see it God says that even though hots best cold is actually second best because lukewarm is the worst and lukewarm is so unacceptable to God that it gets spit out of his mouth and disgust now while cold hot and lukewarm are being used metaphorically as a measure of faith for the late Dickens what's the mental picture that God is drawing on that's supposed to jog the conscience that's supposed to make a firm connection with a common everyday experience for the people of Laodicea what is it well in modern times one would think that if hot is best then cold would be worst and lukewarm would be in the middle and in some ways that would be preferable but God says middle ground that's the worst well Leo Dicky you see did not have a sufficient water supply locally to supply their growing and in vibrant city so they built an aqueduct to pipe it in from some distance away now cold water is actually very nice to drink and piping hot water especially when it has something like tea in it it's also very nice to drink but how about lukewarm water that's kind of yucky water that's not cold it's not hot just tepid lukewarm is just not pleasant to drink by itself nor is tea very flavorful when it's flavorful rather when it's only lukewarm water arriving by means of an above-ground aqueduct lost its natural coolness from the spring from once it came but had also never heated up enough to be hot and so useful for tea or some other drank the is best used hot rather aqueduct water and lay ADEA usually arrived as a pretty distasteful largely unusable in this current state lukewarm and people would have tried to avoid ranking it straight out of the aqueduct as a result so lukewarm is according to God worth only to spit out onto the ground and the people of Leia dick iya would have grasped that readily thus what God is talking about is that the believers of liket lady kia are distasteful and therefore unusable by god god can actually use a spiritually cold person he can use a spiritually hot person but he can't use a spiritually lukewarm person he says the lukewarm are fit only to be jettisoned onto the ground now I find it fascinating how quickly some pastors and Christian scholars jump to the defense of the once saved always saved doctrine after speaking this passage and they declare that God spitting the lukewarm believers out of his mouth of course couldn't possibly mean that those lukewarm of the laya congregation are losing their salvation well think on this for a minute listen carefully so far the warnings in the letters of what happens to the unrepentant believers of the seven congregations in a in Asia are this listen carefully what happens if you do not repent from the sin that God says you have says they may not eat from the tree of life that gives eternal life second they will not receive the crown that permits their entry into God's kingdom I'm taking this directly out of the letters third God will make war against them he says with the sword of his mouth that is they will no longer be at peace with God forth each will receive what their deeds have earned them instead of having their wrong deeds covered by sacrifice fifth says they will be blotted out of the book of life six they will not receive a new name they will not bear the name of God nor will they know the new name of the city of Jerusalem that is their identity with God and his kingdom is going to be removed and seventh now God will spit them out of his mouth rebuked them and refuse to commune with him now this means every identifiable characteristic and advantage of being redeemed has been erased it's been taken away by God but somehow this is supposedly not describing the loss of salvation folks that defies reasonable thinking it defies what the Word of God is clearly warning us about so what does cause the believers of laya Dickey to become so lukewarm that it puts them at risk of having their salvation history reversed it is their personal material wealth that has made them complacent totally insensitive to their actual spiritual condition verse feza how do I know this verse 17 says that the believers only a dick you keep saying I'm rich and as I said earlier Laodicea was a city known for is it citizens being generally well-to-do the believers they're likely feared as do many modern Western Christians that our wealth is a measure of God's favor upon us our wealth is a measure of God's favor upon us in fact the absolutely heretic Oparin favored by many TV evangelists and mega church preachers because it's so self-serving is but a modern way to restate the spiritual condition of the believers of Aliya Dickey is found here in Revelation 3 that God has been condemning it's the same thing by the I am rich statement John is no doubt alluding to Hosea 12 and as we've discussed and past lessons truly understand what a biblical writer is getting at when they quote or allude to a section of Scripture we must not focus on that brief quote or allusion but rather on the larger context that surrounds it so let's go Doce of 12 and examine it it's page 719 if you have a complete Jewish Bible 719 we're gonna read it all well you'll go pretty quick well say a 12 page 719 if you have a complete Jewish Bible I'd like you to follow along with me hosea 12 ephraim surrounds me with lies the house of israel with deceit judas still rules with God and is faithful with Holy Ones Ephraim is chasing the wind pursuing the wind from the east all day he piles up lies desolation they make a covenant with Asher while sending olive oil to Egypt Otto and I has a grievance against Judah he's going to punish Jacob according to his ways pay him back for his misdeeds in the womb he took his brother by the heel in the strength of his manhood he fought with God yes he fought with an angel and one he wept and pleaded with him then at Beit el he found him and there he would later speak with us I don't I ll hey save her oat I don't I as his name so you return to your God hold fast to grace and justice always put your hope in your God a huckster keeps false scales he loves to cheat Ephraim says oh I have gotten so rich I have made me a fortune and in all my profits no one will find anything wrong or sinful but I'm at a naiyeer God from the land of Egypt again I'll make you live in tents as in the days of the established festival I have spoken to the prophets it was I who gave vision after vision through the prophets I gave examples to show what it would all be like is Gilead given to iniquity yes they have become worthless in Gilgal they sacrificed two bulls therefore their altars are like piles of stone in a plowed field Yaakov fled to the land of Iram there Israel slave to win a wife for a wife he tended sheep by a prophet Aden and I brought Israel up from Egypt and by a prophet he was protected ephraim has given bitter provocation so the penalty for his bloodshed will be thrown down on him and his Lord will repay him for his insult notice the context for the I am rich statement in Hosea the people of the northern and southern kingdom Judah and Ephraim we're not only divided but they are also gone far astray and they were in God's doghouse Ephraim is chasing the wind thinks they have caught it because they declare I have gotten so rich I have made me a fortune and in all my profits no one will find anything wrong or sinful so they not only fully believe that their standing with God is beyond reproach they also think that this good standing is indicated by their wealth God says okay for this soon you're gonna be again living in tents that is God is going to reverse their salvation history and throw them back and to endlessly wandering the wilderness of sin and desolation even more God says he spoke through prophets to Judah and to Ephraim to warn them of their destructive path even giving the prophets visions of what it was all gonna be like if they did not repent and turn from their sins and so in Revelation now back to Revelation we see this same pattern John as a prophet is given a vision from God as a warning in this final letter to laetetia God says he will spit the believers of Laodicea out of his mouth he will rebuke them and not allow them to share his throne now this is a prime promise made to all believers if they do not repent and turn from their sins remember ephraim represents what is today called the Ten Lost Tribes the Jews of John's day were well aware of this because it was embedded in Israel's history and culture so this warning that John alludes to and Hosea 12 was quite vivid to the Jewish believers of Laodicea now the I am rich statement of revelation 3:17 it can be contrasted with what was said in the second letter the letter to Smyrna back in revelation 2:9 see here's the thing we need to notice the first letter to Ephesus and the seventh letter to Laodicea is God sternly dressing down the two assemblies that have the most grave problems therefore in the highest spiritual danger the second letter to Smyrna the sixth letter to Philadelphia are addressed to the to believing Assemblies that God is most pleased with he finds no fault in them so while in the letter to faithful Smyrna we read in chapter 2 verse 9 I know how you were suffering and how suffering how poor you are though in fact you are rich we read in the letter to the unfaithful Laodicea for you keep saying I'm rich I have gotten rich I don't need a thing you don't know that you're the one who is Richard and pitiable and poor and blind and naked you see this so while the believers of Smyrna are humble and see themselves as materially poor God sees them as spiritually rich because they're obedient and faithful the haughty believers of Leia D Kia see themselves as materially rich and without need God sees them as spiritually poor utterly blind to their dire condition because they're disobedient and unfaithful you know what a warning this is for believers of all ages it's not that material wealth is being attacked or condemned or made to be an automatic indication of spiritual poverty it is that wealth and abundance must be handled very carefully we must depend on God to help us be good stewards over our prosperity or it can all too easily become our downfall and either the pursuit of it or the attainment of it can just consume us unfortunately often it is automatic for wealthy believers to think that their wealth must be an indicator that they are spiritually exceptional living their lives in tune with God's will therefore they become proud see themselves is not only spiritually safe but at times even above those who are less fortunate the lesson is that our material abundance or lack of material abundance it's not at all connected with our spiritual connection our spiritual condition in God's eyes we can be well-off wealthy and faithful we can be poor and faithful we can be wealthy and disobedient we can be poor and disobedient so what's the solution to this condition the Laodiceans suffer this condition of being lukewarm thinking their wealth is the indicator of their faith in verse 18 God gives us the antidote notice that three negative conditions arise in verse 17 from the Laodiceans belief that their material wealth means they are spiritually sound it is that they are poor naked and blind therefore the antidote involves solutions for each of these conditions first to secure their spiritual poverty they should buy gold from me God says refined by fire now while we can buy gold with money we cannot buy what God offers us with money thus God's gold refined by fire cannot be purchased at any price because no one can purchase the spiritual with the material God's gold is symbolic of our redemption and of the grace he bestows upon us that's essentially completely free it can only be bought at the price paid for by our Savior coupled with our sincere submission allegiance and obedience to him see the Bible shows us that fire can be used for two things it can be used for destruction and it can be used for purification our dependence upon the material gold smelted by fire into money will lead to destruction our dependence upon spiritual gold God's spiritual gold refined by holy fire will lead to our purification now the second part of the antidote to cure nakedness then God says you're naked the second part then is to purchase white clothing in order to cover that nakedness so that they won't suffer shame now white clothing in the Bible always signifies ritual purity nakedness can be just as we think of it nudity but it is also used as an expression that means an inward unclean spiritual condition most commonly associated with idolatry it could be other things but usually idolatry so the idea here in Revelation is that the purity provided by God can act as a garment that covers over the unclean spiritual condition of a human thereby making him acceptable to God but also be clear that the translation of the Greek word is Kuni should be shame not ashamed like we find it in the complete Jewish Bible that's wrong now wow this is pretty challenging for Western Christians to comprehend Eastern societies understand this distinction because the basis of their cultures are shame and honor honor is a positive sought-after social status that everyone of that society seeks to maintain shame is a negative social status and is to be avoided it is so terrible that ashamed person will commit murder even of a close family member without hesitation to overcome it a shamed is an emotion it's an emotion of guilt and it plays little to no role and in his Eastern or Middle Eastern society so it is the shame a negative status the loss of honor due to our unclean spiritual condition that's the issue not our feeling guilty about it the third part of the antidote to combat the Leo Dicky and spiritual blindness excuse me is to purchase God's eye salve to rub on to their eyes in order that the spiritually blind might see the truth so the eye medicine restores the wayward person's spiritual discernment so now verse 19 explains an exceedingly important God principle the Lord rebukes those that he loves thus for the believers of Laodicea for believers of all ages and eras God rebuking us is not his deciding to hate us rather it is an action that he takes in his hope to drive us back to a right relationship with him as in Hosea 12 when God says he will send unfaithful Ephraim back to their tents meaning back into the wilderness indicating their salvation history's been reversed it doesn't have to be the end for them doesn't have to be the end for us there is a means to get back into God's good graces there is a means of rescue by a merciful God from eternal death and they return to eternal life but in his omniscience God knows when it's gonna take some pretty severe action on his part to get somebody's attention James 5:19 20 my brother's if one of you wanders from the truth and someone causes him to return you should know that whoever turns a sinner from his wandering path will save him from death and cover many sins clearly James is not talking about physical death since sinner or saint we all die rather the death that he and all believers ought to be most concerned with is the so called second death eternal death the death of our souls so here is James talking to his brothers meaning brothers in Christ and saying that should a believer fall away renounces salvation someone goes to him convinces him to return to righteousness then such an action has saved a former believer who's wandered away but now here iam braces the gospel truth and he saves him from eternal death so a Christian who renounces Christ and/or the ways of Christ is going to be like Efrem he's gonna have his status as redeemed stripped from him get thrown back into the wilderness but all's not lost God's hope by taking this action is to jar that person into examining his life and then repenting and then returning through that door of face that the father has left open to all who would come to him however if that former believer refuses to repent then it will be as though he had never believed at all the verse continues with the Lord commanding the wayward Lea Dickian believers to exert themselves turn from these sins see Christianity is viewed from afar by Jews and him by Muslims and seen as a cheap religion now it isn't but a Hellenized christianity has made it appear so despite what is too often taught from pulpits repentance does not come to us like a kindly tooth fairy after we've placed a pushed out molar under our pillows and then we just fall asleep that is all we have to do is wish and wait any real efforts up to the Tooth Fairy repentance does not come from a passive attitude of all the responsibility for forgiveness being placed upon the Lord it takes effort our effort to pull ourselves out of our spiritual lethargy and indifference and to turn from the sin that has become our way of life and I'm convinced it takes all the more effort to have first believed then fallen away then trying to come back and that is the scenario that's being contemplated here therefore I'm also convinced that the chances that a former believer will return and believe again is less than for a person who's never before believed in the salvation of Christ and so James comment that a brother in Yeshua that can somehow persuade one who's fallen away from the truth fallen away from the faith how he can persuade him to return he's done an epic thing and in fact is what in reality is what really a rare thing well versed 20 doubles down and what I just said that is God sister the one who's fallen away here I'm standing at the door knocking not gone away from you you've gone away from me so just as a non-believer or a former believer is to be active and not passive in repenting and turning from his sins so will God be active and not passive in his efforts to rescue that fallen believer he will pursue those whom he loves but do not confuse those whom he loves with salvation John 3:16 for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that everyone who trusts in him may have eternal life instead of being utterly destroyed God created every human being he loves every human being but his love for us does not equate to salvation that's even when a former believer is stripped of his salvation God still loves for it still loves him he longs for him to repent and come back and although some believe that this love for all even those who've rebelled against him is a New Testament innovation in fact it's an Old Testament principle Zechariah starting his 1:1 in the eighth month of the second year of Darius Darius the following message from Adonai came to zechariah the son of berechiah the son of ido the prophet audre and i was extremely angry with your ancestors therefore tell them that ad and I say vote says this return to me says out of nice a vote and I will return to you this is either nice a phone don't be like your ancestors the earlier prophets proclaimed to them ah denies a vote says turn back from your evil ways and deeds but they didn't listen they didn't pay any attention to me says that and I your ancestors where are they the prophets do they live forever but my words my laws which I ordered my servants the prophets overtook your ancestors didn't they then they turned and said Adonai has dealt with us according to our ways and deeds just as he intended to well revelation 3:21 offers a reward for the wayward Leah Dickens who repent and turn from their sins that God has identified with in their congregation it is that they will sit with him on his throne but then the words are added just as myself also won the victory and sat down with my father on his throne see this passage is the strongest evidence yet the divine being who has been narrating is Yeshua Jesus the Christ so you schewe holds himself up as the model for believers to pattern ourselves after however at the same time please notice once again the obvious distinction that is made between the son and the father who does the throne belong to the father the son is only allowed to sit with the father on the Father's throne why because the sent son won the victory by being so faithful as to go to his death on a cross once again in John's eyes the father is preeminent and Yeshua the son is under his authority so the particular brand of Trinity doctrine that declares a Co equal status among father Center Holy Spirit is just once again refuted by Scripture but what does it mean for a believer to sit on the throne it is the idea of participation in the kingdom as well as royal authority power and glory thus for those who fell away from Christ but whose eyes have been open and they've exerted themselves in order to return a path leading to a doorway to grace has been established and their reward for this effort will be to share the rule over God's kingdom with Messiah the letter ends with the standard closing protocol that urges the believers of Laodicea to not just read or passively listen to this letters contents but to act because being informed is just not sufficient real tangible change is required exert yourself we're told well as we have now completed the series of seven letters to the seven Asian congregations next time we will look at another vision received by John [Music] you

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Keywords: Son, Holy Spirit, Father, New Testament, John, Streets of Gold, Armageddon, Revelation, Coming quickly, Second Death, Seven Churches, Millennium Reign, Tom Bradford, Bible Study, Torah Class, Jerusalem, New Jerusalem

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Length: 49min 27sec (2967 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 02 2018