Book of Revelation: Chapter 3:14-22 "Laodicea"

The letter to the church of Laodicea...our Lord's final letter to His churches in Asia Minor at the end of the first century. Their report card was not that great. Yet, He still has love and grace for His beloved Church! Listen as we look at the overall condition and history of Laodicea and the church, and see its provocative mirroring of church culture today. In this episode we all are challenged to ask the question: "Have I opened the door?"

Transcript

[Music] w

good morning good afternoon or good evening wherever or whenever you're listening to us right now and welcome to this bonus episode of the Churchosity podcast my name is Heath Brady and I'm Andrea Brady and we are your Churchosity podcast Personnel these are the types of episodes that we like to call the postcript because these are the things that we think and talk about when the record button is off so thank you for listening and welcome to the Inner [Music] Circle well Mrs Brady hi there how's it going good how are you I am fired up and raring to go with this episode good we are about to close out what most Bible scholars would call the first section of the Book of Revelation uhhuh I'm always reluctant to say that because then it implies that something completely different is going to happen and we leave this section that speaks to the churches behind oh by the end of this episode I'm going to reinforce a principle of biblical hermeneutics that I strongly believe in and that is what Bible scholars refer to as the law of expositional consistency okay when we get into the next section starting in chapter 4 we're going to read some things and hear some things that are going to be kind of weird uhuh and yet they do directly tie to what we have accomplished thus far oh cool so that'll make more sense on our next episode but on this episode we are going to tackle the seventh letter in the Book of Revelation the seventh chap Church lead DEA and normally you know a good preacher would want to end on a high

note okay unfortunately this seventh letter while being the second of the two letters where Jesus does not give anything positive in their report card there's not a lot of positive things going on in this church mhm and I think that this letter is probably the biggest reason why I believe that these letters are written on at least four levels of meaning because of that prophetic level that these letters in the order that they are written lay out all of church history from the apostolic era through today MH and that'll make more sense as we go but it may come to surprise you Andy yeah and our listeners notice how I've always said at least four levels of meaning right I'm going to give you the fifth level of meaning by the end of this episode oh and it might creep everybody out a little bit okay which I love doing anyway yeah so just by way of review we are in the Book of Revelation revelation singular the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave to him that would be Jesus Christ to show his bonder servants which would be the apostles and you and me right who those who have made the choice to sell out and belong to the service of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Overcomer the Overcomer right so this book is for all of us mhm remember in each of these seven letters there's the infamous phrase he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches yes these seven letters were written to all seven of these churches each one of these seven churches got all of each other's report cards so they all were well aware of how the Lord felt about one another and we've noticed some provocative things one of the things that we have noticed that is provocative is that each of these churches it it's implied by their report cards they were surprised by how the Lord saw the condition of their Church the churches that thought they were doing good really weren't doing so hot and the churches that thought they were doing terrible were actually doing fantastic and that certainly is provocative and yet it draws attention to our personal Walk With Jesus M each of these letters is a really good sort of litmus test on where we're at in our relationship with the Lord right and we need to be careful when we go through these themes of these letters which are directed to specific churches and start to go down that road of saying oh well that sounds like so and so's church because pointing fingers yeah because the reality is ladies and gentlemen because of that he who has an ear and because because of the church's plural it more or less implies in fact commands this understanding that there are elements of all seven of these churches in all of our churches and I would argue in our very relationships with Jesus our own relationships with Jesus mhm so although we all like to say that we are the of the Church of

Philadelphia I think that we will be challenged by this letter because we may notice some areas in our lives and in our churches that were like lead deia so I think that it would be fruitful for us to Dive Right In and let's start off by reading the letter you can find this in Revelation 3 verses 14- 22 to the angel of the Church of lead deia write the amen the faithful and true witness the beginning of the creation of God says this I know your Deeds that you are neither hot nor cold I wish that you were cold or hot so because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold I will spit you out of my mouth because you say I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed and I Salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see those whom I love I reprove and discipline therefore be zealous and repent behold I stand at the door and knock knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into him and will dine with him and he with me he who overcomes I will grant to him to sit down with me on my Throne as I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches that is the letter to the Church of lead deia

it's pretty heavy yeah there's a lot of bad news in this letter yep uh their report card is not too positive but before we start to unpack this letter and before I give you some history I want you to notice there's a little silver lining in here in verse 19 Jesus says Those whom I love I reprove and discipline Jesus loves this church yeah I was just thinking that he loves this church and just like previous churches that got bad news he's giving them time to repent but he's telling them to be zealous and repent mhm do it quickly in other words be on fire snap out of it and repent and do it quickly I remember in one of the other letters to the churches he said to wake up yeah that was Sardis okay yeah wake up snap out of it you are dead that was uh the other church that had nothing good said about it as well right well let's talk a little bit about some of the history of leod deia shall we it's located approximately 40 Mi southeast of Philadelphia it was founded around 2,000 BC by the ionians as a relatively small town called diospolis in the 19th century BC the Hittites added it to their expanding Empire in 900 BC it was captured by the frians and soon after by The lydians Who renamed it roaz fast forward to around 250 BC it was then taken by the syrians and Antiochus II rebuilt the town and then he renamed it after his wife leodis around 190 BC leoda became part of the kingdom of pergamum which ultimately passed into the control of the Roman Empire and according to Josephus there was a large Jewish Colony there leoda had a very lucrative economy it was comprised of a City full of merchants bankers and gold refiners and because it was situated at a junction of Roads from Ephesus and Smyrna much wealth flowed through lead deia they even had their own Caravan trade which was kind of ahead of its time H and this Caravan trade spread as far east as what we would know as the Yellow River in Punjab by the China Sea so that's a pretty massive Caravan trade yeah and cisero not not only held his court there but he also did all of his banking there huh in 62 ad there was a horrible earthquake which destroyed the city but it was rebuilt by some of its wealthiest citizens and catch this without the help of Rome so it's obvious especially because of those efforts after that earthquake that lead DEA developed this sense of Pride not notice that in the letter oh yes Jesus says they are wealthy and have no need of nothing mhm they independent independent that is correct yeah Leo doia was historically known for its prosperous neutrality they were like the Switzerland of the area and this is largely because it was never militarily defendable so its posture was always one of compromise just trying to get along with everybody and not upset anybody oh that's interesting uhhuh so you're starting to you're starting to see this theme right compromise yes oh they had a very highly successful commercial and financial center there and today there is remains of a theater aqueducts baths a gymnasium and a stadium they all survived to show evidence of its former Lux

the principal products of leoda well they were renowned for textile manufacturing they were known for this quality of black soft glossy wool that was produced from a particular breed of sheep in the lus valley and they manufactured cloths and carpets from it they also had a very famous School of Medicine in there which was known especially for anomic ointment which was a mixture of oil and colorum powder Aristotle described this salv as quote the Fran powder and this salv was known worldwide to bring relief to all kinds of eye problems

interesting okay then there's their water supply you see leoda was part of what they referred to as a Tri City area it consisted of three cities colasse leoda and hieropolis because all three of these cities were within 3 to 6 miles of each other hieropolis which was 6 Mi away from lead DEA was renowned for its Hot Springs so much so that the Turkish government made several attempts to harness this geothermal power source for themselves so lead deia's water supply was fed by an aqueduct from hieropolis but by the time the water arrived in leysia guess what it wasn't hot anymore it wasn't in fact it was lukewarm it wasn't even cold okay and this is because leody de was midway between the hot springs of hieropolis and the cold Waters of coloss interesting huh yeah the church history of leoda was that it was possibly founded by apais who we read about in Colossians 4: 12-14 Paul also addressed a letter to leoda you read about that in Colossians 4:16 in fact Paul's first letter to Timothy was written in leoda oh really 1 Timothy 6: 21 huh it's also a tradition that Arius became Bishop of leoda because some 30 years earlier Paul had warned archus to be more diligent in his ministry we can read about that in Colossians 2 and 4 because of several errors that he had made during the Gnostic period it may have been archus weakness which contribut to the spiritual condition of the church here oh what's interesting is that colosi while being leoda's basic sister city CU it was so close they were instructed to exchange letters with one another and what's interesting is that if you do a study of the letter to the Colossians from the Apostle Paul yeah they got a lot of the same issues in colossi that they do in lead DEA oh so that's lead DEA and its church history in a nutshell yeah now let's start to get into this letter okay and then I'll cause some trouble a little later all right lead DEA is the church who became self-sufficient and arrogant here's the reality folks if you haven't caught this by now catch it now the church is supposed to be Heaven's representative to the world but the letter to the Church of lead DEA shows us what happens when we love our sin so much much that we choose to deny Christ and become self-sufficient while still naming him as our Lord and savior if you go back and read the book of Acts you'll discover the intended behaviors of the church but by the end of the first century the church as a whole as we've seen from these seven letters was already in a lot of trouble mhm and each of these letters with the exception of two who had nothing bad said about them they're meant to serve as corrections to go back to to what the church was supposed to look like so we look at the letter in verse 14 Jesus's title for himself to the angel the Angelas the pastor of the church in leoda right the amen the faithful and true witness that word there amen it's like true verely it's kind of interesting because you know in our culture we usually tack it on to the end of a prayer uh if if you're depending on where you attend church and it's allowed right uh if the speaker says something that really resonates with you you usually might hear an audible amen you know all of those things are certainly acceptable uh and they're also very biblical but Jesus is saying here this is kind of like a deeper version of when he says that he is that that he is the faithful and true witness this is the OB he is the truth like when Jesus says I am the way the truth the life and no one comes to the father but through me mhm that's what all this means okay and here again he borrows a title that he gave of himself in the in chapter one The faithful and true witness was Jesus faithful yes was he the true witness yes and then he says this interesting phrase the beginning of the creation of God well now wait a minute I thought Jesus was God how was he created well unfortunately here once again we look at a place where the English Bible translators chose bad words to put here because in the Greek what he is really saying is that he is the origin or the source of the creation of God kind of reminiscent of John CH 1 in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God the same was in the beginning with God and nothing was made without him and apart from him him nothing that was made was made mhm in other words Jesus was there at creation mhm and here he is saying that he is the source the origin he's he's essentially asserting all of his power right here in a vacular that lead deia is going to understand M he's saying that I am in charge I am the Lord I created everything I call the shots and there's a particular reason why he's choosing this title for himself because remember every single thing about these letters Andy yeah pertains to a specific theme and before I tell you what leody deia actually means in the Greek as we go through this letter I'm going to see if you might be able to figure out what the theme might be the title that Jesus chooses for himself in each of these letters usually is the first and biggest giveaway to what the theme of the letter is is so just think along those lines okay I'll think about that all right just as a side note one of the greatest lies that Satan has ever told Humanity that they have fallen for is evolution okay even though everything has a beginning somehow the evolutionists still promote some elaborate design that they don't understand but it must be true and it happened by accident and it's interesting that this title of Jesus characterizes our time right now the war on the creation the war on the very existence and authority of God the connection that the creation and the second coming of Jesus Christ have is that both involve God directly intervening in human history and Humanity does not like this so they have to remove him you've heard me say before that for someone to not follow Christ they have to choose to remove God from the equation and literally knock him off his throne in our hearts that's true you can choose to ultimately believe in the many different speculations of people even so-called Christians trying to explain how everything supposedly happened or you can believe in the revelation of the the one who actually did it and that's Jesus we get to verse 15 and we get into the report card I know your Deeds I saw what you did saw what you did that you are neither cold nor hot I wish that you were cold or hot now Andy yeah this is a verse that probably a lot of people know a lot of people have heard this because a lot of people are fascinated with this letter out outside of the context of basically studying The Book of Revelation as well but when but when you read and hear this verse M I know your Deeds that you are neither cold nor hot what do you think Jesus might be referring to just out of curiosity when he says cold or hot well I mean besides the fact that of where they live and that he's using this phrase so that they could relate to it because of where they live in the water supply sure he's drawing off that metaphor yeah um I don't know I think as a Christian if you're cold it could be that you're just either angry at God or you're not interested in God or you're off doing your own thing like you're kind of hitting rock bottom maybe mhm in your faith but you know at least when you hit rock bottom you can go up from there right sure no other way but up right yeah Y and then like if you're hot for Jesus and in your faith then you're excited to serve him and you're zealous and you're just kind of you know you and Jesus are in the pocket you're you're working together you're on fire you're on fire as we like to say sure right so I think that's what I would think yeah and all of that is beautiful and makes total and complete sense mhm but I think it's more than that right because it's a metaphor and remember where I said leoda was located right between the hot springs of heropolis and the cold Waters of colassi now did the cold Waters in colassi render the city ineffective or useless no is cold water useful yes for things like drinking of of by itself you know a freshing glass of cold water in our culture a nice cold glass of lemonade or iced tea or something right yeah and obviously the hot springs in hieropolis they were useful yeah is hot water useful yes for tea or yes Lord coffee uh even by itself hot water isn't the worst thing in the world or bathing or bathing so in other words it's my perspective that Jesus is literally talking about usefulness as a whole that you're not even useful as hot water and you're not even useful as cold water you are tepid are lukewarm G and what's interesting and I don't know if you know this Andy but if you drink lukewarm water like room temperature water at mass quantities it actually induces throwing up that doesn't surprise me well besides the fact that it tastes disgusting well if you ever have a can of pop or something and you let it sit out and then you go back to it and you pick it up and drink it and it's not even fizzy and it's not even cold and it's just lukewarm it's just gross yeah but at least it has flavor yeah well that's true but that's why it's interesting because here in the Greek he literally says I will vomit you out of my mouth he's he's saying to them that you are not useful in any way shape or form for the kingdom and it makes me sick to my stomach H it's harsh yeah but I believe that that hot and cold mhm I I think that I'm not saying another layer is the usefulness layer the usefulness layer because I think that there's kind of a duality of meaning here cuz I think that your understanding of it is correct because certainly you know I would imagine that the Lord would want them to either be on fire for him or wanting nothing to do with him at all but instead they're just kind of compromising they're just kind of flimflam again it reminds me of Craig Finley all fluff and no stuff right Flim Flam yeah gen xer that's more yeah might even be Boomer that's a good one though Flim Flam but regardless of what that meaning is okay he says I'll spit you out of my mouth I'll vomit you out of my mouth I'm you make me sick to my stomach verse 17 here's the reason why here's what their lukewarmness looks like because you say I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing you know what's interesting you know what this verse reminded me of it made me think of when you turn on the television and you see those preachers on TV you know those Prosperity people oh yeah the name it and claim it the blabbit and grabbits yes those people you know if you're not rich or you're sick or your kids have fallen away from the Lord then it's obvious that you don't have enough faith and you know what's interesting what they're actually biblical okay because here they are in chap 3:1 17 because you say I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing and yet you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked so here's another example a very Crystal Clear example a very harsh example of a church that got a report card that it wasn't expecting and he's telling them literally their true condition I would imagine if they were like super independent church and they're rich and they can take care of themselves and like their City was destroyed by an earthquake and then they were able to rebuild it by themselves because they had so much money and stuff they'd be patting themselves on the back of course thinking they're pretty awesome yeah that sense of Pride yeah yeah well here's what's Curious to me H their blindness and nakedness are not incurable right they're not stuck in this condition unless they choose to stay stuck H because in verse 18 Jesus proposes the remedies I advise you to buy for me gold refined by fire so that you may actually become rich now this is obviously remember signs and wonders right Jesus isn't literally a gold Peddler he's a prospector yeah he's a 49er yeah but interesting that he draws off of the metaphor of one of the things that leoda was known for which was their gold refining yes and then he says buy from me white garments that you may clothe yourself and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed as opposed to this black uh the wool garments Raven colored wool yeah that they are known for the bridegroom is offering his covering for his bride and then he says and I Salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see again what was the third thing that lead deia was known for their eye ointment their eye o yeah yeah isn't that crazy yeah that's cool he's literally talking to them on their terms he's literally giving them metaphors that they are going to understand mhm that's really cool this is the great physician offering his remedy which is the Holy Spirit to really open their eyes and the question is therefore why is Jesus being so harsh well verse 19 Those whom I love I reprove and discipline does Jesus love his church yes does Jesus reprove and discipline his church mhm it begs the question like the church in Le oysa do we experience the Lord's discipline all the time because maybe if we maybe if we don't oh we should be worried take heed yeah and do the second half of this verse therefore be zealous and repent it's pretty deep yeah that is their condition in verse 17 it's like they're saying we're all good we got this we're on our own we can take care of ourselves but doesn't that sound a lot like what we hear today yeah I mean contrast this church condition with that of Smyrna Smyrna thought they were dead and yet Jesus said they were very much alive this is kind of like the ultimate backhand from the Lord for being arrogant complacent and boastful about their own self-sufficiency right and this church is the worst off from all the rest I mean pergamum married the world thot Tyra tolerated Pagan practices Sardis was a dead Church who thought they were alive and they all had had a corporate call to repent but he is so disgusted with the condition of the church in lead DEA and their complete and utter uselessness that he's going to vomit them out of his mouth and just as a side note yeah this also reminds me of how very true it is that Christ is utterly offended by heretical views of him and when people alter exaggerate or delete the truth of his word what makes you say that because think about the condition of the church today and I'm going to get I'm going to dive into this deeper a little bit later but think about what's going on in church culture today this whole deconstruction movement where people are picking and choosing what they like about Jesus and what they don't like about Jesus and not worshiping corporately not fa Faithfully chasing after Jesus in other words saying I got this and they're changing the definition of who Christ is you know like I've heard so many people personally say to me well the Jesus that I worship I have heard that before thus and so yeah right right it's almost as if they're deconstructing and they're or they're looking for a church that they'll feel comfortable in it's almost like they're saying I know what Christ is done for me and I know what I'm I know that I'm supposed to follow him I even know what scripture says but I don't care I need to do things my way now have you figured out what the theme of this letter is yet I'll tell you one thing it's not

lukewarm what is being debated here in this letter look at the title that Jesus gives for himself and then and look at how they describe themselves in verse 17 Unfaithful that's a good guess H let's see I'll just tell you okay who's in charge that's the debate oh I see yes well I mean I did say they seem very independent but yes that is the theme through this letter that he sits on the throne that he is the amen that he is the faithful and true witness that he is the source and origin of all that has been created and in verse 17 they are deceived they cannot see their true condition they're like non-believers who Gather in churches that are not in a position to even assess their own spiritual condition CU they cannot know their reality huh what's interesting is that leoa literally means rule of the people oh rule of the people rule of the people or ruled by the people huh okay now you hear me say that glance back through the letter and it all ties together doesn't it yeah it does they honestly think that they don't need anything from Jesus and that is a very very scary place to be in it's interesting in verse 17 he says and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked they have no clue how bad off they actually are it's a trip and yet we see this in our culture today yeah it's interesting cuz if they don't know that they're wretched and miserable and bl they says blind mhm and naked yeah that ey Sal is really doing a great job ain't it exactly and naked me you know like cuz they have their own garments and things I mean it's just really wretched and poor they're gold refiners yes oh all of that stuff that's on the surface mhm all that stuff that's on the horizontal means nothing that's why he gives them the remedy of what they should be quote unquote buying and who should they be buying it from him from him because he's in charge so in verse 18 He says I'll speak to you on your terms he's strongly suggesting that they remember the riches that he has provided the Innocence that he has provided the righteousness that he has provided and allow the Holy Spirit to open their eyes so they can see their foolishness what's crazy is this is still Grace to these Hypocrites it is isn't it this is a church that really is not a church at all it's a building full of people who are sure of themselves and are promoting possibly a false Jesus because the true Jesus the faithful and true witness would not be okay with this kind of behavior and he's not because he's going to vomit them out of his mouth mhm so he tells them that he loves them and how does he love them by disciplining them and reproving them because he disciplines Those whom he loves and Those whom he loves he call calls his own he loves his church enough to discipline them well then we get into verse 20 and this is such a fabulous verse and also it's a terrifying verse yeah one of those verses I had to memorize in Sunday school which is interesting mhm and you've probably seen the artistic renderings of this verse as well yeah and it looks kind of beautiful it's that famous painting of of a of a door in front of a cute little house with a beautiful little flower garden and in many ways it's depicted as the blondhair blue-eyed Jesus standing out there with a smile on his face behold I stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into him and will dine with him and he with me now this verse as you were forced to memorize in Sunday school is a fabulous verse on its own this verse is probably one of the most powerful verses in the entire Bible in evangelism efforts true totally not unbiblical to use this verse as a frame of reference for preaching the gospel and speaking of the gentlemansharp is an invitation and he's knocking on the door of your hearts like all of that works mhm but in the context with this letter this is a very brutal allegation to the Church of lead DEA this is a call to every individual in lie of compromise and complacency do you realize what this verse is saying about the leodan church that he doesn't even he's not even on the inside of their Church he's on the outside yeah I was going to say where is Jesus in relation to the church yeah now in chapter 1 we read about the stars and the lampstand that the stars are the Angels and the lampstands are the churches and that Jesus is in the midst of the churches but specifically here with the church of lead DEA where is he on the outside he's outside knocking to get in this complacent self-sufficient church is failing in its mission to put Christ and the gospel on display and so it begs the question because remember he who has an ear let's look at ourselves has the church or the quote unquote Christians around us failed to show us that we are in fact a sinner have they failed to deal with us as lost individuals apart from God have they failed to offer salvation through the means of Grace and through faith in Jesus Christ Alone have they failed to proclaim the horrible consequences of sin the certainty of hell and the fact that Jesus Christ alone saves those are questions to consider right to ponder as we look at this letter and yet we all want to think we're in the Church of Philadelphia is there some lead DEA in our lives verse 21 to he who overcomes the message to the Overcomer 1 John 5 veres 4 and 5 I will grant him to sit down with me on my Throne as I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne now there's something really interesting here the reward of our faith alone in Jesus Christ Alone is to rule and reign with him now on the surface that is what Jesus is saying here because we do not overcome by keeping the law or doing good works or satisfying the culture or attracting all kinds of attention because that's what lead deia in all practicality as a city was known for remember they were militarily undefendable so they had to compromise with everybody they had to look good to everybody they had to be tolerant and accepting to everybody but we overcome only by trusting Jesus Christ and his completed work but what's interesting these Thrones this Throne situation going on here Jesus says I will grant him to sit down with me on my Throne let's talk some theology Andy okay is Jesus sitting on his throne right now oh [Laughter] gosh you're asking me this um I thought he was seated at the right hand of the father that is correct okay so the answer is yes no oh okay he is not sitting on his throne okay he is sitting on his father's Throne oh as I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne past tense so he is he is seated at the right hand of the father at the father's Throne got it this letter is the fourth of four letters that specifically deal or reference with the second coming of Jesus Christ oh why do I say that well first of all behold I stand at the door and knock well he's got to come to the door so he can knock on it but second of all this speaks of Jesus's throne and when the angel Gabriel spoke to Mary what was the promise that her offspring would sit on um was at the Throne of David yes David's Throne yeah has Jesus ever sat on David's Throne no so that has yet to happen right okay H that's why I say this references his second coming that's cool [Laughter] yeah and he says that I will grant the Overcomer the right to sit down with him on that Throne ooh which tells me that there if those here in the Church of lead deia whom the the lord loves and reproves and disciplines are zealous and repent and they open the door when Jesus is knocking he comes in and he dines with him literally Tabernacles with him in the Greek and they sit on his throne with him well that's a pretty awesome promise yeah it is so on the one hand while this is the most gruesome of the seven letters as far as Jesus's report card goes I also think that this is the most beautiful letter in the sense of what the Lord promises the Overcomer in this letter it's fascinating and it's powerful it is in my opinion mhm and then verse 22 he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches the spirit is talking if you have an earlobe listen to what this letter just said well to close out this letter I was reminded of this very famous inscription that's on a church in Lubec

Germany it says this thus speaketh Christ Our Lord to us you call me master and obey me not you call me light and see me not you call me the way and walk me not you call me life and choose me not you call me wise and follow me not you call me fair but love me not you call me Rich yet ask me not you call me eternal but seek me not you call me Noble but serve me not you call me gracious but trust me not you call me Mighty but honor me not you call me just yet you fear me not if I condemn you blame me not do you imagine walking into church every Sunday and seeing that inscription above the door it's a pretty long inscription it better be written pretty big it's like a plaque yeah but it speaks to this letter yeah it really does that's very humbling it's interesting because the heart condition of this church is one that says we got this we don't need any help and yet their outcome they can't blame anybody but themselves either mhm it's kind of scary no kidding so that's the letter to the Church of lead DEA wow is this the time when we go pour ourselves another cup of coffee if you need to because we're gonna get into that for the third level fourth level yeah yeah but it's not that long okay because I think that not only does church history as a whole quickly speed up and and cover this phase of church history but I think that the letter itself is pretty eye openening because if you're listening to our podcast right now there are many themes in this letter that resonate with all of us as to what is going on around us today yeah I think we all kind of know that we're in the Church of Leota that phase that phase yes so what do I mean by that well on our last episode we covered the Church of Philadelphia and in the prophetic on the prophetic level that fourth level that I believe these letters are written in that took us all the way up to the beginning of the 1900s with the Holiness movement after the Great Awakening that began in the early 1800s and for roughly a thousand years there was this explosion of missionary efforts in Europe and in Asia and it came to America and in the early 1900s the Holiness movement began mhm well none of this information that I'm about to give you is to point the finger at any one people group in the church I'm just merely highlighting just a handful of important events that happen in church history because they're kind of reminiscent of what happened to Paul on his missionary Journeys that he writes about in the letter to the Galatians which I reference quite often on our podcast mhm when Paul was going around planting his churches raising up a pastor and then moving on who were on Paul's coattails the judaizers the judaizers who were getting these people who had just become Believers to go back to this legalism this works oriented religion if you will uhhuh well much of the same type of thing happen happened coming out of the Great Awakening and Holiness movement era it started in Europe and eventually made it to America where there was this charismatic ISM thing that was going on and there was this overemphasis on the baptism of the Holy Spirit and receiving this thing called a second blessing and turning the church experience into just that an experience and it event made its way over to the United States of America and in 1904 in toeka Kansas there was this quote unquote Revival service where a woman came forward and was able to speak in an unknown language H and she claimed to have caught the Holy Spirit quote unquote and news of this took roughly 40 years to travel across the South all the way over to California and then in the 1960s you have the birth of what's known as the Pentecostal movement the isua Street Revival if you

will around the same time you had a rejected class of Americans known as quote unquote hippies that were becoming Christians and on the west coast they decided that they were going to start their own religious movement and we know it as the Jesus movement right right 60s and the' 70s mhm where the gospel was made into less about all that we have in Christ and more about us being able to accept what Christ has done for us in other words taking the lordship of being saved by Christ Alone by faith alone through grace alone and making it more about oh yeah I'll try Jesus okay and then there becomes in this this upheaval of non- denominational churches being birthed all over not just in America but also in Europe and in Asia and in other countries as well and it turns into this sort of watering down of the Gospel as a whole not everywhere but as a whole this whole idea that I somehow have something to do with my salvation became the prominent quote unquote Gospel of the day and time and consequently a greater emphasis was now placed on a dispensational form of theology which rewarded the believer for their efforts by not having to face some sort of persecution revolving around the Lord's return you mean like the tribulation the tribulation I see books like the late great planet Earth by how Lindsay in the 70s uh like in the 9s a woman rides the Beast by Dave Hunt there was a lot of conversation about singling out the church as this entity that had done well versus what Christ has done for his bride and now you fast forward to the turn of the millennium you get into the 2000s and what's interesting is that from around 2001 till about 2009 there was a small Remnant there's that word again there was a small Remnant in the church that didn't like that lukewarm gospel mhm and they began returning to liturgy there was an upheaval of Christians in America and in Europe that began to return there was this Mass Return To lurgical Worship denominational worship people wanted the meet and potatoes of Grace and Faith in Jesus Christ alone and the gospel I would argue they were zealous and repented that's good but then you get into the 201 now the 20s and you have this over overwhelming prosperous compromise and in the letter to lead DEA Jesus tells that church to repent and be committed and yet in the 21st century in 2024 there's this overwhelming sense of I am in charge of my religious Destiny now we call this the apostate church and that is the phase of church history that lead deia speaks too we call it in our vernacular the deconstructionism culture where people for whatever reason have had enough of the church have had enough of Christianity you see it all over the socials # exvangelical # exchristian #x churchgoer whatever it might be right yeah and Jesus as a whole has been completely kicked off the throne of their lives because just like lead DEA they are now in charge they don't need anybody else they got this mhm now is it is that a fair assessment Andy it seems like it yeah of this phase of church history that we're in yeah now that may sound a little far-fetched and it might sound ridiculous and it might sound like gloom and doom and yet it is biblical well there's also something else that I was thinking lately I've heard a lot of people talking Christian e but also mixing in some of like visualization and um calling it into existence kind of oh yeah like speaking things into existence to the Universe the power of positive thinking ex stuff like that yeah they're coming together I see a lot of Christianity and bringing that into existence manifesting manifesting things yes I hear it a lot and I think that that's going to that's kind of like the next phase of what we're going to be looking at I really I see it a lot and it feeds into you know verse 17 like basically you have need you feel like you have need of nothing mhm because you're able to visualize it and make it happen manifest it yeah that basically like you are God yeah because if you're the one that's quote unquote manifesting it who's in charge who's calling the shots you are and who's not well the Lord exactly yeah now you bring up a valid argument because to combat that a lot of people that you confront that ideology they'll even quote scripture well Jesus said you have not cuz you ask not mm I would argue that manifesting is not asking it's demanding from the universe and not from God mhm as I said this is very very biblical you can read about it in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 where Paul tells the Thessalonians that there will be a great falling away and then the end will come he's speaking of the apostasy in 2 Timothy 4: 3 and 4 it speaks of the falling away that in the last days men will not endure sound Doctrine that's true yeah yeah maybe if I Define apostasy a little bit it might open our eyes and ears a little bit more to the reality of what we're looking at here okay I have seven identifiers ironically the first one is a loss of appetite for God's

word the second one is neglecting the power of Prayer M yeah the third one is failure to assemble with the Saints okay the fourth one is non-involvement in a church or in the work of the church mhm the fifth one is to have a critical spirit about the church and everything that it does the sixth one is a denial of Truth ultimate right or wrong and the seventh one is a lack of spiritual concern for others now do those seven bullet points of apostasy sound characteristically familiar yeah I mean these are things we fight you know the spiritual battle if we're fighting that those are the things we're fighting against like every day right well I believe that this letter speaks to the phase of church history that we are living in what scares me both in a good way and in a bad way mostly in a good way okay what scares me is that just like the Apostle Paul says in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 that the great falling away will take place and then the end will happen the end will come yeah there's no eighth letter oh boy yeah now I'm not presuming to know things again it's conjecture and I cannot build Doctrine on it no but if I'm right and I think I am of course there's no eighth letter this we do know so does that mean that this seventh phase of church history is the final phase of church history and then the end will come that's up to the lord it's not up to us right but it's certainly something to chew on huh yeah and kind of light of fire under our butts to be zealous and repent yeah refiner fire there you go that'll preach now what so those are the seven letters oh seven letters to the seven churches we did it yes we Dido we're going to take it one step further okay you ready for this all right so I've told you that I believe that these letters are written on at least four levels the first one being the literal level that these are seven literal churches that John wrote to the other level being that it was admonitory to all seven churches they all got a copy of this letter the third level is that personal level to all of us he who has an ear so the the letters are written to all of us because as I've said time and time again there are elements of all seven of these churches in all of our churches and all of our lives and the fourth level being the prophetic level and I've done my best to to keep it short believe it or not and paint the picture of how the theme of each of these seven letters coincides with the theme of periods of time chronologically through all of church history mhm especially since if they were written in any other order it wouldn't work true or to any other churches correct well now we come to a fifth level that I believe these letters are written on okay I've mentioned that these churches fall into two groups remember group a and Group B group a and Group B the first the first three Ephesus Smyrna and pergamum they had the message to the Overcomer as a postcript to their letter M okay so the format was different format's different than the last four thyra Sardis Philadelphia and Lead DEA their promise to the Overcomer is in the body of the letter which means that it's specifically directed to the Overcomers in those churches and additionally unlike the first three letters the last four letters mention Jesus is coming

oh I find that curious yeah that is curious now while there is a message to the Overcomer in all seven of these letters which means that whatever condition our churches are in today whatever condition our Christian faith is in today if we overcome those promises are to you and me and to all believers of all of time however I believe that the characteristics of these last four churches the heart conditions of these last four churches the themes of the letters of these last four churches are what the church globally is going to look like when Christ returns literally returns wow okay primarily is the church guilty of pagan practices yeah is the church dead and a Christian by label only yeah some of them are is there a global missionary effort in the church to preach the gospel there is a little yeah is the church apostate oh yeah that's for sure there's a lot of that too now that doesn't negate that there are Christians in the world that are persecuted for their faith in fact in the 20th century alone more more Christians were murdered than in all of the previous centuries combined but as a whole does the persecuted Church take up one of the largest portions of the church condition as a whole I would say no has the church to one degree or another lost its first love sure but the ultimate expression of that would be the apostate Church which is what we see now so you get what I'm saying here I believe that when the Lord returns because he specifically speaks of his return in those last four letters in thyra he says if you don't repent I will come to you and cast you into tribulation in Sardis he says your that your end will come when I come in Philadelphia he says I will keep you I will come and I will keep you from the time of testing H and in lead DEA he comes and he knocks on the door right so it's my personal view again this is my view I'm not telling people what to believe here this is my take on this that that there's this fifth level at least that these letters are written on in that the four main heart conditions of the church that are going to be existing are these four when the Lord physically literally returns wow it's just my opinion it would seem that when we get into chapter 4 some interesting things are going to be taking place and I'm not going to rob anybody of the joy of our next episode but I will give you just a little taste of how much trouble I'm planning to get myself into I have a very unique view of the Book of Revelation and the reason why I believe it is unique is because one it's not popular and two you don't really hear anybody talk about or or teach through the Book of Revelation along the lines of how we are going to talk about the Book of Revelation most Scholars will say that from chapter 4:1 on the church is no longer present on the earth oh in other words and these are these are like you know really good well-learned Bible scholars they believe that this thing called The Rapture will have taken place and chapter 4:1 we're all in heaven watching the rest of the book go down I will tell you right here here and now that I do not agree with that I will also tell you right here and now that I am not a dispensational Christian and that will all make sense a lot more on our next episode because I'll explain that a little bit more okay but there are a lot of problems with believing or holding the view that when you get to chapter 4 the church is no longer on the earth and it'll make sense when we unpack it on the next episode wow I mentioned this at the beginning of this episode I practice the scholarly method of expositional consistency and it's important because what that means is especially when it comes to apocryphal literature because remember Revelation was rendered into signs signs and wonders essentially what we're talking about here is is what do we take as plain literal and what do we take as figurative literal and therein lies the controversy and the confusion around the Book of

Revelation the points that Jesus has made the titles that he's given of himself the definition of what this book is about all of these idioms and metaphors up to this point they've all been given to us and so with the practice of expositional consistency we are going to trudge forward in the Book of Revelation holding on to that consistency based on the signs and wonders that we most of the signs and wonders that we have dove into the Old Testament and some of the New Testament and deciphered on our own already we're going to do the same thing as we go and I think that all of us are going to be pleasantly surprised at how different The Book of Revelation reads when you not only read it as an Old Testament Saint like I've been telling everybody to do from the beginning when we take the Book of Revelation as signs and wonders and not literal interpretation of everything and when we remember the most important verse in the entire Book of Revelation which is verse one of chapter 1 this is the the Revelation the unveiling the apocalypses of Jesus Christ This Book of Revelation is about Jesus it is not about the church it is not about Israel it is not about the Earth dwellers it is about Jesus and how he reveals himself to all of human history and that'll start to make more sense in our next episode so Andy we made it we made it through the seven letters yay and it only took us what Nine episodes to get here it's all right so I hope that up to this point Andy you've enjoyed our study I have it was really good I hope that it's been fun I hope that all of our listeners have enjoyed it up to this point it's going to get even more ridiculously fun as we go we've just barely scratched the surface all we've really talked about are the things that probably pertain the most to you and I if you're a Christian because of these seven themes in these letters and the he who has a ear let him here but there's more exciting things to come for the people of God in the Book of Revelation and we're going to unpack that when we get there on our next episode that's all we have to say about that thank you for listening to the Churchosity podcast the post scripts on our next episode we are going to jump head first into Revelation 4 we're going to talk about creatures and Thrones and a whole bunch of crazy stuff but until next time this this is the Churchosity podcast Personnel saying

peace