Introduction: When your life is going just fine, do you long for
Jesus to return and take you to heaven? Or, do you find that you
only get the impulse for Jesus to come(soon)when something bad is
happening in your life? If you are young, maybe you have something
you want to accomplish before Jesus comes again. Is a little delay
just fine with you? Is your life fine without heaven? Are these
attitudes typical? Understandable? Dangerous? Let’s jump into our
study of the Bible and find out!
- The Problem of Laodicea
- Read Revelation 1:17-20. John, the writer of Revelation,
is told to record what he has seen. Who told John to
write? (The first verses of Revelation tell us that an
angel brought to John a revelation from Jesus. The verses
we just read make clear that Jesus (see especially v.18)
is the source of this revelation.) - What is John asked to write about? (What will take
place later to several churches.) - Read Revelation 3:14. Does this message have anything to
do with us? (These seven churches actually existed.
However, a generally accepted understanding of these
messages is that they also refer to time periods in the
history of the Christian church. That is why Revelation
1:19 refers to these messages dealing with “what will take
place later.” The message to Laodicea is a message to the
end-time church, a message to believers who live in the
last days before Jesus comes again.) - Read Revelation 3:15-16. What can “cold” and “hot” deeds
mean? Is this a reference to indoor versus outdoor work? - Why would you refer to “deeds” in terms of
temperature? (Actually, the text is not describing
the temperature of the deeds, it is describing the
temperature of the Christian.) - Except for drinking, what is so bad about “luke-warm?”
- Read Revelation 3:17. What does being “rich” have to do
with being “luke-warm?” (Before you read verse 17, it is
very difficult to understand what is being said in the
previous two verses. It seems that Jesus calls “hot”
Christians those who are on fire for God. The “cold”
Christians are those whose love for the gospel has gone
cold.) - Why is a Christian whose love has gone cold
preferable to one who is luke-warm? (This is where
verse 17 is so critical. The “luke-warm” Christian
does not need a thing. If you are cold, you know you
need something.) - If you feel your life is going well, and you are
not, as mentioned in the introduction,
particularly looking forward to the Second
Coming, are you luke-warm? - Don’t we spend most of our effort on “cold”
Christians or non-Christians? Why not spend our time
where the need is the greatest – on the luke-warm? - If you agree, “We need to spend more time with the luke-warm,” how would you know who was luke-warm?
- Is it a simple test: Ask if the person is looking
forward to the Second Coming of Jesus? - What do you think about Jesus, in verse 15, telling
us that He knows the temperature of our heart by our
“deeds?” - Are deeds the test of whether we are luke-warm?
If deeds are the “test” of your temperature, how
do you rate? - Our lesson (Sunday) quotes 7 SDA Bible
Commentary 761 as saying, about the Ladocean,
“it is almost impossible to convince him of his
great need and of how far he is from the goal of
perfection.” - Is perfection of deeds our goal?
- If our deeds are not perfect, do we flunk
the luke-warm test? - How can you reconcile the words of Jesus about
deeds with the idea of righteousness by faith? - How can you reconcile the “goal of perfection”
with righteousness by faith? - What about a more simple test of your temperature. If
you are “rich” then you are luke-warm! Would you
prefer that “test?” - Would that be a more accurate “test” than
examining your deeds? (Bill Gates may not want
the “rich test,” but the rest of us might.
However, the text is certainly not saying that
the size of your bank account is the problem.
(Indeed, if the text were about money, it seems
to condemn being poor.) The real problem is not
the degree of your wealth, but thinking you need
nothing when you need everything.) - I don’t want to keep asking the same question in a
different way, but consider the contrast between
verse 15 and verse 17. Jesus says (v.15) there is
something lacking in our deeds, but when He gets
around to describing it (v.17) it is that we are
“wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” How can
Jesus start out talking about deeds, and end up
talking about our state of being? (The Bible teaches
this concept in many ways: what we do reveals who we
are.) - The Cure to Laodicea
- Read Revelation 3:18. How can you buy gold, new clothes
and eye medication if you are poor? (This logical
impossibility shows that Jesus is talking about spiritual
matters and not financial matters.) - What do you think Jesus is asking us to do when He
says “Buy from Me gold refined in the fire?”(Remember
last week we discussed the meaning of 1 Peter 1:6-7?
We learned from that text that problems that we
suffer here give us a faith that is more valuable
than refined gold. When Jesus tells us to “buy gold”
from Him, I think He is asking us to depend upon Him
in times of difficulty.) - What do you think Jesus is asking us to do when He
says “Buy white clothes to wear?” (The parable of
Matthew 22 suggests that the garment that Jesus gives
us is the robe of His righteousness.) - What do you think Jesus is asking us to do when He
says “Buy salve to put on your eyes so you can see?”
(Compare Ephesians 1:18. Jesus is offering to help us
see our world in the proper light.) - Considering what we just discussed about gold,
clothes and eye medication, how would you go about
seeking “perfection?” (The way to “perfection” is not
by concentrating on our deeds. The way to perfection
is turning to Jesus. We do this by turning to Him
when we have trials, by turning to Him for our (robe)
of righteousness, by turning to Him to properly see
and understand the world.) - The Ease of Exiting Laodicea
- Read Revelation 3:19-20. One of the things I love about
the Internet is the ease of finding just about anything.
How difficult is it to find Jesus to acquire our gold, our
clothes and our eye medication? (He is a “door to door
salesman!” He comes to you and He even knocks on your
door. That is easier than the Internet.) - What do you think it means to “hear” the “voice” of
Jesus and “open” the “door?” (The key is the last
part of verse 19: “be earnest and repent.” To be
earnest means to pay attention to the Word of Jesus.
To repent means to make a decision to follow Jesus.
You pay attention to the call of Jesus, and you open
your heart to Him. Sometimes, verse 19 reminds us, it
takes rebuke and discipline to cause us to pay
attention to Jesus.) - What do you think it means to “eat” with Jesus?
(Friend, this is fellowship with the great God of
Heaven. What could be better?) - If I told you to pursue perfection, and then told you the
way to pursue it would be to open the door to your house
and let it in, would you think I was kidding? - Is that the message of these verses?
- Read Revelation 3:21. Friend, is this what you want? Jesus
comes to you and asks you to enter into fellowship with
Him now and forever. If you pay attention, and chose Him,
you will soon see that the world does not satisfy you. If
you are satisfied with your life here, you are in great
danger because you do not realize your need of that
relationship with Jesus. Open the door of your heart to
Him today. - Next week: Called to One Hope
