Scripture reading this evening is taken from the book of the Revelation, the Revelation of Jesus Christ, chapter 3, Revelation chapter 3. The Lord Jesus here in these two chapters, Revelation 2 and 3, gives words of wisdom, instruction, guidance to seven churches, each in a different situation. Some are in a very positive situation, some are in a very negative, and most are somewhere in between the two, good points and bad points about them. So Revelation chapter 3. and to the angel of the church in Sardis write these things says he who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars I know your works that you have a name that you are alive that you are dead be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die for I have not found your works perfect before God remember therefore how you have received and heard hold fast and repent Therefore, if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, These things says he who is holy, he who is true, he who has the key of David, he who opens, and no one shuts and shuts, and no one opens. I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it. For you have a little strength, have kept my word, and have not denied my name. Indeed, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie. Indeed, I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you. Because you have kept my command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which will come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. Behold, I am coming quickly. Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven from my God. And I will write on him my new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, These things says the Amen, the faithful and the true witness, The beginning of the creation of God. I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. Because you say, I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing. and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich, and white garments that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed, and anoint your eyes with eyesalve, that you may see. As many as I love I rebuke and chasten, therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne. He who hasn't here, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. And may God bless the reading of His Holy Word. Now we have come to the last of these notes or letters that the Lord directs to his churches. We have seen each of these deals with an actual historical local church at that time towards the end of the first century. that each is different and in many ways the churches have taken upon themselves some of the characteristics of the society in which they exist. Now it's simply a matter of fact that different nations and different regions have their own temperaments, their own attitudes. And there are some aspects in terms of attitudes that get into the churches that come from the characteristics of the members that are good characteristics. We see this, for example, with Philadelphia, this, the love that they had and the perseverance. But also, bad things can get in and we see this with the last of these, Laodicea. Now Laodicea of course has become a byword due to its lukewarmness. To speak of someone as having a Laodicean attitude means that they are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot. But Laodicea, the city, was a major commercial centre. It was located at a strategic meeting place of several main trade routes. And as a result it had become incredibly wealthy. It was noted for its manufacture of black woolen cloth and also had a famous medical school. And all of these come into the things the Lord has to say about them. As with each of these, the Lord begins declaring who he is and those aspects of who he is that particularly relate to the church's situation. He begins by announcing himself as the Amen, the faithful and true witness. Now most of the self-descriptions of the Lord in these two chapters take us back to Revelation chapter 1 and there is some aspect of that here. Revelation chapter 1 verse 5 Jesus Christ the faithful witness the firstborn from the dead and the ruler over the kings of the earth and when he speaks himself as the Amen, Amen being a Hebrew word that's Affirmation, Amen, so let it be. That is, when the Lord speaks, his words are certain words. They are sure words. There is no if, but, or maybe in the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the faithful and true witness. And of course the word, the Greek word for witness is marturion. It's the word we get the English word martyr from. And the English word develops, of course, from the Greek in a Christian context, that of bearing witness even unto death. And the Lord Jesus, of course, bears witness to who he is in his crucifixion. Before Pontius Pilate he bore a good witness. He did not deny that he is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. he is utterly reliable and then we are told he is the beginning of the creation of God not of course in a sense as the Jehovah's Witnesses and other Aryans imagine they think that it means that he is the first created being rather he is the one through whom all things were made as John says in John chapter 1 in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God all things were made through him he goes on to say without him nothing was made that was made the apostle paul writing to the colossians and it does seem that there was quite a connection between the colossian church and the laodicean church He speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ, Colossians chapter 1 verse 15. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created that are in heaven, that are on earth, visible and invisible, by the thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through him and for him. So there is that relationship there that all things are created through Him. Now why is the relationship of the Lord Jesus Christ to the creation so important for church at Laodicea? Well it's that Laodicea is not what it ought to be. And yet they think they are the bee's knees, as it were. They think they had everything. You say, verse 17, I am rich, I've become wealthy, and I've need of nothing. That was their situation. They saw themselves as self-sufficient. And this too was an aspect of the culture of Laodicea, the city. There had not too long before been a massive earthquake that had devastated the city. And the locals have said, we don't need help from Rome, we've got plenty of money, we can rebuild our city ourselves, and they did. And this self-sufficient attitude had got into the church. Now it's one thing for a wealthy city to say to central government, we can look after this problem ourselves, but the church can never be self-sufficient. Because our sufficiency is in Christ. Greco-Roman culture made a great deal about being self-sufficient. There were philosophies, such as the Stoics, who said that the important thing for a man is for him to be self-sufficient. He doesn't need anything outside of himself, at least in his mental well-being. The Stoics, although they said the gods existed, they thought the gods were off doing whatever they wanted, and they weren't interested in the world, and that human beings were supposed to be self-sufficient. Well, I say human beings, they said men, and when I say men, I do mean Men. Because Greco-Roman culture could be pretty misogynistic at times. Women, of course, needed men. But men, and man should be, shouldn't need women or anybody else. That was the Stoic philosophy. And... Absolutely. Well, at least Elon Musk, but there we are. I joke about Elon, but actually I think he's a Stoic. I think Elon Musk has bought into something of the Stoic philosophy. And he's not the only one. There's quite a number of these online and very online influencers who are pushing Stoicism in the philosophical sense. But the Christian position, of course, is nobody is independent. Everybody is dependent on God. And that's the emphasis here. The Lord Jesus Christ is the beginning of the creation of God. Everything has its source through Him. And therefore if we're to find true meaning in life, we have to find it in Him. And so it is when the Lord Jesus declares, I know your works, It's notable he has nothing good to say about this church. I know your works that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. This again has some relationship to Laodicea's, in this case, infrastructure. Laodicea had one problem, which was their water supply. They did not have a reliable large-scale water supply in the city. They had to feed the water supply from quite some distance through an aqueduct. And part of the aqueduct was elevated. And this is quite a hot climate in Asia Minor. But the result was that water, when it got to the city, it was lukewarm. It had come out, in one state and it ended up somewhere in the middle and it wasn't very pleasant. Visitors to Laodicea complained about the water. They said, the water in this city is revolting. And the Lord Jesus is saying, you have become like the water supply in your city. You have become, as a church, revolting. Lukewarm, neither cold nor hot. The sense in which we might be surprised, because obviously cold and hot are opposites. We might say on the one hand, and which of these is meant positively and which negatively, we don't know. It doesn't really matter. But the point is that they're definite. Someone who is definitely opposed to the Gospel, we can do something with them, because they've got an opinion. Someone who is definitely for the gospel, they've got an opinion. Someone who's lukewarm, what can you actually do with a lukewarm person? Somebody who just, nothing interests them, nothing excites them. There's not actually a lot the church can do. If all the church members are like that, or if a significant number are like that, the church just doesn't do anything. And it's this, exactly, it stagnates, it becomes revolting. Because it's not doing anything. And they had this attitude that is completely wrong. I am rich. I have become wealthy and have need of nothing. Now this was one of the great problems the church, certainly many of the Protestant churches had at the beginning of the 20th century. They were wealthy. You look at some of the great non-conformist buildings of that period, the few that are still standing. And they are enormous, these non-conformist cathedrals, these buildings that look, that are palatial. You had huge numbers gathering to hear famous preachers. Now the truly great men of the 19th century had passed away, but they'd been replaced by men who, whatever they believed, they could still gather a crowd. And things looked wonderful. But if you looked under the hood, what were they preaching? And what was being preached very often was the gospel of man and him improved. Not Christ and him crucified. Because they forgot, you see, that reality that as Christians we are always needy. We are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. That's the human condition. And we need Christ to supply that need. We always come as needy people. We need the Holy Spirit's work. We need the Holy Spirit day by day. We find ourselves having to say with the hymn writer, I need thee every hour, most gracious Lord. And so Christ comes with his advice, his counsel. And his counsel is this. you have a need and it's met in me. Because that's where is the church's need met, it's met in Christ. The Christianity needs Christ, the church needs the Lord Jesus. And the church's decay is due to losing sight of that and thinking, we can do it on our own, we can do it with what we've got. We can never do it with what we've got, unless we're talking about Christ. But with all the resources the churches have, they're nothing without Christ. He is the ultimate resource, if you will. He is the one who gives every good thing. And so he tells them, he's told them that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked, you need everything. And first of all, you are poor. You are poor. Now he's not talking of course about physical things. Physically they were rich. And that was the danger for them because it meant they missed the spiritual need. They had plenty of the world's resources, but what the church needs most of all are the Spirit's resources. And so he says, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire that you may be rich. Well, how can you buy if you've got nothing? It's really very simple. It is that we buy from Christ without money, without needing to bring anything, nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. Isaiah chapter 55. Oh everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to me. Herein your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the sure mercies of David. Indeed I have given him as a witness to the people, a leader and commander for the people. And so it is the Lord Jesus great David's greatest son who is the great one who supplies our need. My God, the apostle says, shall supply our every need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. And I've noted many, although the hymn writer says out of his glorious riches in Jesus he giveth and giveth and giveth again, the hymn writer has got the Bible text wrong. Because the Bible doesn't say out of his riches, it says according to his riches. And there's a huge difference between the two. Anything that's given may be out of his riches, but according to his riches means that there is a rich giving. Giving in abundance. We may say of a wealthy man, if he gives anything, he's giving out of his riches. But if he comes and gives an enormous gift, what he's giving according to his riches and that's how Christ gives. White garments, and there's a contrast here with the black garments of Laodicea. White in the Bible is a picture of purity, of holiness. White garments were appropriate for festivals, for worship, that you may be clothed as opposed to being shamefully naked. And anoint your eyes with eye salve that you may see, because they didn't see their need. You say, I am rich, have become wealthy and have needed nothing, and do not know, you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. They needed to see their need. Because it's seeing our need that brings us to the Lord Jesus Christ. in prayer and so we come to verse 20 which has been often misunderstood and misused as an evangelistic text now there's a sense in which you can use it evangelistically but that's not how it's meant here because it's addressed to a church And is there not the most bizarre situation here? Here is the Church of Christ. And where's the Lord Jesus in this church? Is he in the midst of the church? No, he's not. Has he been pushed to the back of the church? No, he's not that either. He's outside the door knocking and saying, let me in. They've shut Jesus out of the church. And this again is a great danger when the church thinks we've got everything. That the focus shifts to something else. In the 18th century, in Germany, there were preachers who said, well, every one of the congregations are Christian. Well, they weren't necessarily. And therefore, what we need is we need practical sermons for the people. And so you'd get ministers who'd get up in the pulpit on Sunday, and they'd talk about the best methods of farming. How best to sow your grain. And that's what happens if you think, well, we've heard enough about the Gospel and Jesus, let's talk about something that's more relevant. In reality, of course, nothing is more relevant than the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Church needs to hear the Gospel again and again and again, because we keep forgetting it. Because we keep falling into the same trap that Laodicea did of thinking, well, we've got an age. we can do this and that and the other thing but Jesus says behold I stand at the door and knock and there's a patience here it's not that he is incapable of getting in but there is a patience here he's told the church that they are nauseating to him that they make him feel ill and yet he's standing at the door and knocking That's, I think, one of the reasons why the liberal churches and the influence of liberalism in the churches was allowed to exist rather than just being smitten out of existence suddenly. It's because the Lord is patient. He stands at the door and knocks. The Word of God is still there. And there are those within churches, even within churches that are on the verge of ceasing to be churches, There are those who the Lord still is calling. There are those who are believers, those who hear his knock. And if anyone, and you notice he doesn't say if the church, it's anyone, it's the church members individually now. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, who hears, where do we hear his voice? We hear his voice primarily in the Bible. And in the church, as long as the Bible is still read, as long as there's still the Word of God there, there are still people who will hear His voice. Individuals who hear His voice and open the door, let Him in for them. Let Him into the church a little bit, because they will then talk about him to others and I will come into him and dine with him and he with me. Because the Christian fellowship is first of all a fellowship with the Lord Jesus by the Holy Spirit. There is a mystical fellowship in prayer, in meditation upon the Bible, And he sustains us by his rich supplies of grace. This language, behold I stand at the door and knock, takes us back to the Song of Solomon, the Song of Songs, which is Solomon's. And that word that we find in the Song of Songs There we are. Song of Songs, chapter 5. Verse 2. I sleep but my heart is awake. It is the voice of my beloved he knocks, saying, Open for me, my sister, my dove, my love, my dove, my perfect one. For my head is covered with dew, my locks with the drops of the night. and her response is not simply to leap out of bed and do that, but she comes up with her excuses. I have taken off my robe. How can I put it on again? I have washed my feet. How can I defile them? My beloved put his hand by the latch of the door, and my heart yearned for him. I arose to open for my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh on the hands of the lock. I opened for my beloved, but my beloved had turned away and was gone. My heart leaped up when he spoke. I sought him and I could not find him. I called him, but he gave me no answer. The watchmen who went about the city found me. They struck me. They wounded me. The keepers of the walls took my veil away from me. I charge your Lord of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him I am lovesick. The Lord thus creates a yearning for him, a desire for that fellowship. And he speaks out this last word, to him who overcomes. The Christian is one who shares in the victory of Christ. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with me on my throne. As I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne. that the Christian is to be a sharer, in a sense, in the rule and reign of Christ. We are to, well the Apostle says, we are to judge angels. What does that mean? I don't think we can enter into the full as to what that means, but it certainly means some aspect of rule over the creation, sharing Christ's rule to him who overcomes, because there is that to be overcome. There is the world to be overcome and the world comes in various forms. That's one of the lessons we have from these notes of the seven churches. There are some churches where the world is persecuting. There are others like Laodicea where the world has insidiously wormed its way into the church and is sapping the strength of the church. taking the church, that the church isn't fighting the world, but has become comfortable with the world. But to him who overcomes. How do we overcome? Well this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. By faith in Christ we persevere. You will notice that's one of the aspects that he picks up with the previous church, Philadelphia, that they have persevered. And we too, we pray most of all for grace to persevere, to come to the end of the struggle, and to sit down, not in the sense of going to inactivity, because sitting down on the throne is going to a greater activity, if you will, the activity of the government of the universe in that sense, under him. And to you as an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Those whose ears have not been opened will not understand these things. And unfortunately, one of the problems that has arisen is people have found all kinds of subtle ways to mess with these words and have forgotten the fundamental point. That each of these churches is a church. And that all the trials and troubles that these churches have come to us and that just as those churches have those problems we can learn from them. We can learn most of all to look to Christ, to trust in him and we learn that if we do see problems and when we do find problems in ourselves We're not then to despair, but rather be zealous and repent. Turn back to him, for he is more willing to forgive than we are to ask for his forgiveness. He who is an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Amen.