Letters to the Churches Part 6

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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March 29, 2022

Sunday school lesson working through the book of Revelation

Letters to the Churches Part 7

00:00: All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, Almighty and Everlasting God, we come before you in humble awe.
00:05: You are the one true God, and there is none other like you. Come, we pray, and bless our hearts and our minds as we study your word.
00:12: Send your Holy Spirit into our lives, so that we may grow in love and grace, and that we may go forth into all the world, proclaiming your gospel, so others may learn of your saving grace, through Jesus Christ our
00:22: Lord. Amen. Okay, now let me...
00:28: Those of you who had questions, this is the time that if you would like to ask them, you can post them online.
00:34: And those of you here, you can ask me in person. You don't have to put them online. Just want to make sure we got the procedure worked out.
00:44: If there is supposed to be sound, I'm not hearing it. Let's see here. I'm assuming you guys can hear me now.
00:52: It shows that you can. Okay, okay. Nor do I. Good sound now. Okay, no, all is well.
00:58: All right, good. We got that sorted out. All right, seeing no questions in the chat as it related to the sermon,
01:04: I will just assume that I confused everybody. And we'll continue with the confusion in the book of Revelation.
01:11: We're going to take a look now at the next letter. And in fact, we'll do a little bit of a backup, if you would.
01:20: We'll take a look at Revelation chapter 3, verse 1, and the letter that Christ had the apostle
01:27: John pen to the church in Sardis. And you're going to know with each of the churches that Christ is aware of their good works, aware of the things that they're doing, and also aware of the things that they are doing wrong.
01:41: And there's one church that will get nothing but commendation. No, there will be no words of rebuke or repentance from Christ.
01:47: And that's the church in Philadelphia, but not so with Sardis. So let's take a look at this text,
01:54: Revelation 3, 1. To the angel of the church in Sardis write the words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.
02:03: I'll emphasize this here. You'll note that the number for God is what? Seven. Keep that number in mind, because it's going to help us understand the concept of the number of the beast, which is six, six, six.
02:20: If God's number is seven, and there are three persons within the one true
02:26: God, the Holy Trinity, all right, then God's number is seven, seven, seven.
02:34: And it's a number of perfection. It's a number of completeness. And this is the number of God, the seven spirits, the seven stars, the seven lampstands, the seven, seven, seven.
02:43: You got all the seven. But with Satan and with man, we come up short.
02:50: We're six. So that helps us understand that. So here's what
02:56: Christ writes to the church at Sardis. And this is going to be a scathing rebuke.
03:02: I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
03:12: I want you to think about that for a second. We have a lively church band. We're one of those churches where we're alive.
03:24: We're not like those Lutheran churches that sing hymns and stuff that old people go to.
03:29: Only young people come to our church. We give them what they want. We give them a rock and roll, smoke and light show.
03:35: We're alive. Yeah. All right. So you'll note that this concept of churches having a reputation for being alive, it goes all the way back.
03:47: It goes all the way back to the first century and the earliest churches. So you have a reputation for being alive, but you're dead.
03:53: You're dead. And watch what's missing here. So wake up, strengthen what remains, and is about to die.
04:00: For I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember then what you received and you heard.
04:09: Keep it and repent. And see, there's where they went off the rails. What did you receive and hear?
04:17: The Word of God. So you'll note that even back in the book of Revelation, Christ is having to rebuke a church for abandoning what they considered to be dead worship and things that were keeping them from vitality, from vigor and revival.
04:35: And what did they do? They got rid of the Bible. They got rid of what was handed to them.
04:41: All right. So remember then what you received. Stop trying to improve on it.
04:47: And what you heard. Keep it. Keep it. Guard it. Yep.
04:53: Toreo. Guard it. What did you receive? You received the gospel. You received the Word of God.
04:59: You received the sacraments. Keep it. Guard it. And repent.
05:05: If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief and you will not know at what hour
05:10: I come against you. So you'll note here the lively church, the alive church, is dead.
05:19: Without the Word of God, it doesn't matter how lively your worship is, how surrendered your congregants are.
05:30: Are there even congregants? I mean, when you go to the big box, you're not a congregant. You're not actually a member. Attendees?
05:37: I don't know. Audience. Audience. There. That's the word. Yes. It doesn't matter how lively your audience is, how much they laugh at your jokes.
05:47: Which, by the way, we need to have a talk here with the folks at Kongsvinger. I've worked really hard on these jokes. And you do.
05:55: And I appreciate that, James. But if you saw the reaction to even just mentioning
06:02: Uncle Rico today in the sermon, there were laser beams that were pointed right here at my forehead.
06:07: Stick to the gospel. Yeah. Yeah.
06:17: If you haven't seen Napoleon Dynamite, it's time to ask your parents. I feel like I don't want to see it because it's a really weird title.
06:25: It is a very weird movie. The best way I could put it is that Napoleon Dynamite, the first time you watch it, you sit there and you go, what did
06:33: I just watch? And then to answer the question, you watch it again.
06:40: And it's the second time you sit there and go, man, that's really funny. But it is delivered so dry, so deadpan, so out of left field.
06:49: And there's such great memorable lines in there. I love it. Anyway. Sorry. I've got to stick to the gospel.
06:58: All right. So it doesn't matter how lively your audience is. It doesn't matter if you're able to preach on the latest hit movies.
07:05: That's a big deal anyway. The idea here is that remember what you received and you heard, and that would be the word of God, the gospel.
07:14: And you received the word of God and the sacraments. Keep it. Repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief.
07:20: You'll not know at what hour I come against you. Yet you still have a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments.
07:29: And they will walk with me in white for they are worthy. So you'll note that among the people in the lively church that abandoned the word of God, there were still some people who had not gone with the whole program.
07:43: And that's generally one of the cases we see today in these people, these churches that are tempted to go along the way of following the world and giving the world what they want.
07:52: So the one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments. And I will never blot out his name out of the book of life.
08:01: I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. And he who has an ear, let him hear what the
08:07: Spirit says to the churches. So this is a good, you'll note that each of these churches exist today, not by name, but by type.
08:20: And then we have the church of Philadelphia. Now this is the one church that doesn't get any correction.
08:26: And they, let's just say that Christ is fully aware of the difficulties that they have been facing and that they have gone through.
08:35: So to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, write, the words of the Holy One, the true
08:41: One, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one will open.
08:48: I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut.
08:55: Now if you're not sure what that's referring to, you can look at a similar concept in the book of Acts.
09:02: The idea this is an open door for the preaching of the gospel. And so this church is doing what
09:08: Christ has called it to do, to proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sins in Christ's name. They are preaching the word.
09:15: They are baptizing, making disciples. And so Christ has set before them an open door and no one is able to shut it, although there are people clearly, as this letter unfolds, who are trying to shut that open door, to squelch the gospel, to silence it.
09:32: And the people, the congregants of the church in Philadelphia are kind of on the brunt end of that.
09:38: So he goes on to say, so I know that you have but little power and yet you have kept my word and you have not denied my name.
09:50: So unlike the vibrant church that was actually dead, the lively church that was actually dead, the church of Philadelphia has kept.
09:58: They have guarded the words of Christ. And you'll note, same concept here. Sardis is abandoned.
10:03: They didn't keep what they received, whereas Philadelphia, they've kept Christ's words. They've not denied his name and they're keeping the faith.
10:12: And then he says this. These are words of comfort. Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say they are
10:18: Jews and are not, but they lie. Behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet and they will learn that I loved, that I have loved you.
10:28: Now, this is an interesting picture of judgment, if you would. But now we can kind of see why this church is getting this encouragement.
10:36: And over and again, this is the part where we've got to pay attention to the scriptures. Because like in last week's gospel text, where Jesus was challenged regarding the authority that he had to do the things that he was doing.
10:50: We noted that in the gospel of Matthew, the immediate context was very clear that what they were challenging was not merely that Jesus drove the money changers out of the temple, but that Jesus set up a healing revival, if you would, in the temple.
11:05: And the blind were being given their sight. The lame were being made to walk. And there were kids.
11:12: With each of the miracles that Jesus was performing, there were children in the crowd in the temple who witnessed these miracles, who were shouting out,
11:22: Hosanna to the son of David, in praise to Christ for the miracles that he was performing.
11:29: And the high priest and the religious leaders of the temple, they were indignant.
11:43: Just think about that, all right? These are people who are in charge of the house of God, the temple of God, which is the place of worship of the one true
11:54: God in the Old Testament. They're in charge, and there's the God they believe in performing miracles.
12:00: Christ is sent by the Father, and they're indignant, and they were upset by the wonderful things that Jesus has done.
12:08: Now, work that out then into church world. That still goes on today.
12:14: In our sermon today, in 2 Corinthians 11, we heard the Apostle Paul say that he was in danger from false brothers.
12:21: Well, that's a true danger that we all have. There are people who call themselves Christians who are vehemently opposed to the gospel.
12:31: They are radically opposed to the preaching of God's word, and overtly say that God's word is an impediment to church growth.
12:45: I want you to think about that. We need to get away from exegetical preaching, these people will argue, because unbelievers don't want to have to hear all that much
12:58: Bible. Oh, I see. Isn't the problem with unbelievers that they're dead in trespasses and sins?
13:06: Of course they don't want to hear much Bible. That's what sheep want to hear, not goats.
13:12: Goats don't want to be fed the Bible. They want cans, and garbage, and Twinkies.
13:18: I like Twinkies too, but that's a different story. Once again, but you got to get the point. We're talking about the junk food category.
13:24: So you'll note in this particular case, we have people who Christ is saying that they are of the synagogue of Satan.
13:31: They're not a synagogue of God. Christ, in his own words, these are red letters, is saying of these people that they are the synagogue of Satan.
13:39: They claim that they are Jews, and they're not, and they are liars. So you'll note this picture then of judgment, that on the day of judgment, and you can see this little minor theme kind of playing out in some of the
13:52: Psalms, also in the Old Testament. The idea of the wicked, those who persecuted and made the saints to suffer, that on the day of judgment, that they are going to be made to stand before you and say, you were right,
14:06: I was wrong. So in this particular case, here we have Christ saying, behold, I will make them come, and they will bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you.
14:18: So part of the picture of judgment, this is like a little bit of a glimpse of the day of judgment. There's a lot of order of business going on.
14:25: So as Christians then, we pray for our enemies.
14:30: This is most certainly true, and we leave room for the vengeance of God.
14:36: Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. This is clearly taught in the book of Romans. So we pray for our enemies.
14:42: How do we pray for our enemies? We pray for their repentance. We don't, I'll be blunt, I don't want a single one of the people who've made themselves my enemy to have to do this.
14:52: I don't want them to have to bow down before me and tell me that I was right and they were wrong.
14:58: What I would prefer for them is that they recognize their sin, and that they repent, and that they are forgiven.
15:11: That's my hope for them, because that's what I've received from Christ, and I don't deserve that.
15:18: I deserve something far different. And we also recognize that some persist in sin and unbelief.
15:26: Some persist in their hatred of the gospel and in their aggressive, aggressive campaigning to destroy
15:36: Christ and His church, and that happens from within the church as well. You'll remember that the
15:42: Apostle Paul, before he was the Apostle Paul, was Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee, and in the name of God, he was persecuting
15:48: Christians. And in the name of God, the one true God of Israel, he martyred.
15:54: He was responsible for the martyrdom of Stephen, the very first Christian martyr. But it turns out he was playing on the wrong team.
16:04: And so God had mercy on him and repented him. And had God not repented
16:10: Saul of Tarsus, then we would fully expect that Saul of Tarsus would be bowing down before the feet of Stephen on the
16:19: Day of Judgment and be forced by Christ to acknowledge that Christ loved Stephen, not
16:25: Saul. That's kind of the picture here. So you can see that what the Church of Philadelphia is going through is difficult, and there is justice in the
16:36: Day of Judgment, but also note that it's very clear, Christ has said, that the door
16:42: He has opened nobody can shut, even those of the synagogue of Satan. They're not capable of shutting it.
16:48: And then he continues, but because you've kept my word about patient endurance.
16:54: And here's this phrase again. This is a phrase that is a recurring concept in the book of Revelation.
17:01: Patient endurance. If we are called as Christians to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Christ, if we are called as Christians to, well, share in the sufferings of Christ, as Christ has said, because they hated me, they're going to hate you.
17:18: If they persecuted me, they're going to persecute you. Then the entire
17:23: Christian walk is one of patient endurance in the face of conflict, in the face of slander, in the face of persecution, in the face of suffering, in the face, you get the idea.
17:39: And don't worry if you're not experiencing that right now, give it five minutes, you will. That's how that works.
17:47: But because you've kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth.
17:55: I am coming soon. Hold fast to what you have. Now note here, they, unlike the church in Sardis, they haven't abandoned what they've been given.
18:06: So Christ says, hold fast to what you have. Hold fast to the word.
18:11: Hold fast to the sacraments. Hold fast to these things, so that no one may seize your crown.
18:17: The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my
18:26: God, and the name of the city of my God. The new Jerusalem which comes down from my
18:32: God out of heaven, and my own new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the
18:38: Spirit says to the churches. All right. Carlos and MJ, MJ writes, verse 9 reminds me of 1
18:45: Corinthians 6, 3. Verse 9, I will make them bow down before your feet.
18:51: Let's take a look at the text that MJ had said it reminds her of.
18:56: Hang on a second here. I'm going to duplicate that, and we want 1 Cor 6, verse 3.
19:04: Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more than matters pertaining to this life?
19:10: Yeah, that's another bit of the Day of Judgment. We're going to judge the angels and their work.
19:19: Okay. I feel a little out of my league on that right now. Maybe there'll be a nice policy or procedure to follow so that I don't mess that up when the time comes.
19:30: But yeah, I can see the connection. That's not a bad point. Okay. So now we come to one of the more famous churches regarding these letters.
19:43: And let me give you a little bit of the background of Laodicea. All right. So we know this from archaeology.
19:50: Laodicea in the ancient world was an extremely high and very wealthy resort town.
20:02: Okay. When I traveled to Germany last year, I went to one of my ancestral homes.
20:09: I have ancestors on my mother's side from Wiesbaden, Baden, Bath.
20:16: And then on the other side of Frankfurt, there's a very high -end ritzy health and fitness kind of town.
20:23: And its name is Bad Orb. Okay. And we read it as Americans. What's a bad orb, man?
20:30: You know, is that like a crystal ball? What is that? You know, no. Bad is, again,
20:35: Bath. So there's natural hot springs. So in Wiesbaden, there are natural hot springs. And people travel there.
20:41: It's a town specifically kind of sent, you know, in the ancient world or in the past history of Germany, kind of centered around those hot springs, which claim to have medicinal properties.
20:51: Same as with Bad Orb. So whenever you look at a map of Germany and you see the word Bad in the name, you got the idea.
20:58: So, and very often, there were particular favorite towns that had hot springs in the ancient world.
21:07: And in the Roman Empire, Laodicea was one of them. The best way I can put it is that this place is like the
21:14: Beverly Hills of the Roman Empire. It's, they drove, you know, their donkey carts were made by BMW.
21:26: I mean, it was, you know, that's what we're talking about here. You know, the ultimate donkey machine.
21:31: So you get the idea. I'm working on my jokes here. James, I appreciate the sympathy laughs.
21:37: Yeah. Thanks, Ashley. I'm gonna keep, I'll keep,
21:42: I keep plugging at it. This tough, tough group, tough group. But the other thing, aside from being very wealthy, because of their natural hot springs.
21:52: So remember, hot springs, this is a big deal there. All right. The other thing they had is that somebody had put together some type of medicine.
22:04: There was like a pharmaceutical company or ancient world's version of the pharmaceutical company. And they were known for, they had made an ointment that could help cure people of eye infections.
22:16: So you have to think back to the ancient world in this way. They didn't have the clean water standards that we have now.
22:23: And water is one of these things that could kill you. And so let's say you decided that you were going to bathe yourself in one of the local rivers.
22:33: And, you know, and that's the same place where they're dumping garbage and sewage and things like that. And, and so amoebas and bacteria get into your eye and you, you got a raging eye infection and there's no antibiotics yet.
22:49: Nobody's discovered penicillin. And so in the ancient world, the Laodiceans, they had a pharmaceutical company or the ancient world's version of a pharmaceutical company that had an eye ointment that helped cure eye infections.
23:04: So if, when you know the background story of what we're dealing with here. So the
23:09: Church of Laodicea, this would be the place where like Kim Kardashian goes to church. You know, this, that's what we're talking about here.
23:17: You know, if Paris Hilton were a believer, Paris Hilton would be there with her, with her posse. You get the idea.
23:23: That's, that's the type of church we're talking about here. So to the angel of the church in Laodicea write, the words of the amen, the faithful and the true witness begin the beginning of God's creation.
23:38: I know your works. You're neither hot nor cold. Now they're famous for their hot springs, but Jesus has said, you're neither hot nor cold.
23:48: Oh, would that you were either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold,
23:56: I will spit you out of my mouth. All right. Have you ever poured yourself a cup of coffee and forgotten about it?
24:05: Right. And then you discover it like 35 minutes later and you think, ah, this is be great. And then you take a sip of it.
24:11: It's like, you know, it just, it's not hot. It's not cold. It's just this weird temperature.
24:19: You know, you got to pop it into the microwave and get it hot again because that either that or put ice in it, you know, and ice coffee, good, hot coffee, good coffee.
24:29: That's been sitting out on a counter for 35, 40 minutes. Not so good. Okay. That lukewarm stuff is bad.
24:36: So what Christ is saying about the church of Laodicea, they're neither hot nor cold. They're lukewarm. They're like a, you know, an old cup of coffee.
24:43: And so he says, and then he says this to them. You say, I am rich. I have prospered.
24:51: I need nothing. Not really realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
25:03: Well, there we go. Okay. And you can just see people in Laodicea going, what do you mean
25:08: I'm blind and naked? We have our eye ointment that cures eye diseases. And I'm not naked.
25:14: I'm wearing Gucci togas, you know, but that's kind of the point. So everything about their wealth, their bling, their reputation, you know, this is again, the
25:27: Beverly Hills of the ancient world. So Christ says, I counsel you to buy from me gold that is refined by fire so that you may be rich.
25:37: Stop buying your gold at the local jewelry store. Buy it from me, he says. And it's refined by the fire so that you may be rich.
25:44: And buy from me white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen.
25:51: And salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. So you'll note everything that the
25:59: Laodiceans see and perceive and think is reality. Jesus says, that's all an illusion.
26:07: You're not rich. You're poor. You can't see. You're blind. And you know, stop buying your gold from the merchants in town because you need to buy gold from me.
26:21: That's the gold you should be purchasing, not the gold in the local jewelry store. And as for your clothing that you're so proud of, you're actually naked and you need to be clothed by me.
26:32: And he's talking about their sin. And so you'll note then that when it comes to churches, the biblical reality is the thing that is the real reality.
26:46: We do not judge a church based upon the world's standards, nor do we judge a church on outward appearances.
26:56: Churches are assessed by Christ based upon their spiritual reality. Are they faithful to the word?
27:03: Are they suffering? Or have they abandoned the word and taken what they've received and chucked it to the side in favor of being alive, which it doesn't make them alive, it makes them dead.
27:17: So the idea here is that we make evaluations on the health of a church based upon the criteria of scripture.
27:26: And the way Jesus sees, he sees things for the way they really are. And our sinful nature and our desires and our passions, when we put them in charge of the church, everything goes off the rails.
27:44: So if you remember one of the churches, they decided that they were going to be engaging in worship that included sexual immorality, brought into the church by a woman claiming to be a prophetess when she wasn't.
27:57: You see, the same stuff occurs this day. You know, I remember, you know, like it was yesterday, back, this is now 11, 12 years ago, when the
28:09: ELCA voted in convention to ordain impenitent homosexuals.
28:18: Embrace, the leadership of the ELCA embraced sexual immorality in the name of Jesus.
28:28: That's crazy. It's crazy. And scripture teaches us to see things the way
28:35: Christ sees them. Elizabeth Beasley says, lukewarm Christians have compromised and are indifferent.
28:43: They're pew warmers. Yeah. Well, actually, I would say many lukewarm
28:48: Christians, they don't even have pews anymore. They hate those things because they're too uncomfortable. Yeah, you need theater seating where you can put, you know, with a cup holder, so you can put your
28:58: Starbucks latte. Yeah. Don't you know that this is the season when you bring your pumpkin spice latte to church?
29:08: And I don't know, it's a tradition now.
29:14: You know, we got the space for theater seating. No, no.
29:30: Yeah. And here's the thing is, is that when churches decide that they're going to, you know, use the trappings of the world to attract people to church, okay?
29:41: Oftentimes the church is like the worst when it comes to mimicking the world, okay?
29:46: Rather than having a Starbucks in their foyer, they set up a coffee shop called
29:53: He Brews. I've seen that so many times.
29:59: It's not even funny. What? Stop looking at me like that.
30:06: You need to get out of the house. I'm not going to argue with that.
30:11: You may be true. My mental health may depend on it. But I'm telling you, churches do stuff like this, all right?
30:19: And there's nothing worse, and I mean this. There is nothing worse than watching a faithful congregation decide that they're going to put their hymnals away, and that they're going to put a praise band together in order to attract the young.
30:33: And the praise band is comprised of people who are octogenarians, and the youngest person is in their 60s.
30:41: Okay, that's called the Rolling Stones, okay?
30:48: And those guys, they live really hard and they look like it, but the thing is that when the church decides they're going to imitate the world in order to be relevant and cool, oh my goodness.
31:00: It's terrible, okay? I mean, based on how my body has gone to seed, the best
31:09: I could hope for, if I want to do a praise band, it was I would have to do a praise band that was a ZZ Top tribute band, okay?
31:19: Anyway, those in the know get it, okay? Yeah, well
31:25: I'm working on it. I can do that. I can do that, you know. Elizabeth, Laodicea equals justice of the people from Blue Letter Bible.
31:32: Well, that's the name. That's the concept of the name, but anyway. So let's continue on then.
31:38: So rather than being rich, they're poor. Rather than being clothed, they're naked. Rather than being able to see, they're blind. Rather than being hot, they're lukewarm.
31:47: So Christ admonishes them, you know, to come to Him. He'll give them white garments so that they can cover their nakedness and anoint their eyes so that they can see.
31:58: Those whom I love, I reprove and I discipline. Nobody wants to hear those words, but Jesus is true about that.
32:06: So be zealous and repent. And that's the other bit you're going to note then, that oftentimes in worldly churches, zealousness is considered to be a vice.
32:15: You know, you're so heavenly minded, you're no earthly good. You know, you're just a little too, you're too religious there.
32:22: You're reading your Bible just a little bit too much. I've heard from people whose pastors have told them they're taking the
32:31: Bible too seriously. That's crazy, all right. Now, here comes one of the most misused texts in all of scripture, all right.
32:41: So on my commute over to Emmanuel, all right, there's a there's a billboard.
32:48: And these billboards are like all over Minnesota. And you know, Don, I'm sure when you travel out for Gideons, you see things like this.
32:54: So there's a billboard, and there's there's Jesus. He's holding a lantern, and he's knocking on a door, okay.
33:02: And the billboard says, Behold, Christ stands at the door and knocks. If you open the door, he will come in.
33:09: Accept Jesus into your heart. And so this is the verse that gets used in this context.
33:14: But remember, this is written to a church. So now comes the most ironic picture of all.
33:21: This is not about Jesus standing at the door of your heart. That's not really the point here.
33:27: Jesus is standing at the door of the church of Laodicea, okay.
33:34: Could you imagine Jesus outside? We've locked the door, and we're not gonna let him in.
33:39: He's going, Hey, Kongsvinger? Hey, you gonna let me in or what? You know, no, no,
33:47: Jesus. We got more. We got important stuff to do here. You could stay out there in the parking lot. It's cold. Well, well, then go to Southern California, right?
33:58: It's on fire. Yeah, they're really hot there in Southern California. Oh, would that you were hot or cold.
34:05: Okay, new context there. See, now we're cooking. Okay, I feel much better.
34:12: Yeah. So the irony of Jesus outside of a church, that's the picture here.
34:20: Remember, scripture says, where two or more are gathered in my name, Christ is present among them. Well, here the church of Laodicea is gathering, and Jesus is on the outside, knocking.
34:30: Something's way off here. So I behold, I stand at the door, knock. If anyone hears my voice, opens the door,
34:36: I'll come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. So the one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne.
34:48: He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Do you have any idea where that verse began to be taken out of context?
34:57: Yes. It's in every evangelical plan of salvation that you've Yes, it comes from, its roots are in the
35:05: Phineite movement, Phine. And then with the campfire revivalists and the holiest, holy, the holy,
35:15: I said holiest movement. The holy, you get the idea, of the 19th century, you got the holiness movements.
35:29: And with that, you have this constant revivalism, and everything that gets geared towards making a decision.
35:36: So when you have these revivals, the guy comes up and he's working the anxious bench, using
35:41: Phine's things. And this was a standard thing that Phine put into play as part of the anxious bench.
35:47: And so you work them up into this absolute fear of the wrath of God by preaching the law.
35:54: And then he ends, somebody's playing on the piano, just as I am without a, that's always kind of a necessary thing, just as I am playing in the background.
36:03: And then the revivalist says, now I need everybody, I need everybody here to bow your head and close your eyes.
36:11: And let me tell you, it says in scripture, behold, Jesus stands at the door of your heart. And he's knocking right now.
36:17: And if you feel the Lord knocking on the door of your heart, I want you to raise your hand, raise your hand.
36:24: And I want you to repeat this prayer after me. This is all part of the revivalist techniques.
36:30: All right. So there's everybody with their heads down. And then the guy goes, I see that hand over there. I see that one.
36:35: You can put that one down. I saw it. I saw it. I don't know why. That's all part of the technique. Yeah.
36:45: So it's just, yeah. And so evangelicalism still has a lot of its theological history grounded in these
36:56: Methodist, holiness, Finite revival techniques.
37:02: And that's the idea. That's where it really comes from. So it's also a great painting that everybody.
37:09: Yes, I know that that particular painting of Jesus with the lantern knocking on the door is almost as famous as that other painting of Jesus, which
37:17: I call Jesus's graduation photo. It's over here.
37:23: I think we have Jesus's graduation photo, but yeah, but that painting is almost as famous as that one.
37:31: So, but you get the idea. So I, you know, now listen,
37:36: I'm a, I actually am a fan of good church art. I am not a fan of church art done poorly.
37:45: Okay. Just like I don't, anyway, you get the idea. That's one of my, one of my things. All right. So revelation chapter four,
37:52: I'm going to also talk about a verse that's misused here as well. All right.
37:58: So we've, we've all heard of the evangelical belief in what's called the rapture.
38:05: All right. Now, oddly enough, as Lutherans, we can say we absolutely believe in the rapture, but there's a big caveat and the big caveat is this.
38:15: The rapture is the, is when Christ returns. It's on the day that Jesus shows up and the, the church is taken up to, to meet
38:27: Christ in the air in the clouds. If that's what you're referring to, we say yes, but what the, what evangelicals are referring to when they oftentimes talk about the rapture.
38:40: And this is a, this is a belief that comes through the Darbyites and then, and they're embracing of the
38:47: Schofield study Bible. Are you guys familiar? Have you, have you ever owned a
38:52: Schofield? Okay. Yeah. I, I've not only owned a Schofield, I've owned, what was that one
38:58: I was given at the Nazarene church? Oh, that was a crazy one. So I've, I've got this,
39:06: I've got this King James copy of the Bible that was given to me as a membership gift when
39:12: I finished my membership classes at the Nazarene church. And, um, Dake's annotated,
39:18: Dake's annotated study Bible. This thing will give you nightmares. I'm not, I, I mean, it, you know,
39:24: I have pictures of dragons and they're big charts regarding how the end of the world's going to go out. They've got this kind of like figured out to the nanosecond in the seven years of the tribulation.
39:34: It's, it's nuts. Okay. Yes, yes.
39:40: So Dake's annotated study Bible. I, I, it's, it's in, it's in my, uh, it's in my closet on the left side.
39:48: I, I don't use it very often. I just pull that thing out and just take photos of it just to scare people on social media.
39:54: But you know, especially as we get close to Halloween. Anyway, yeah, we're learning more about Roseboro's messed up psychology at this point.
40:06: But, uh, but the belief that the evangelicals believe is the basic premise is that because so much of the book of Revelation deals with God's judgments on the earth, their belief is that God's judgments cannot be exacted on humanity unless the church is moved out of the way.
40:31: And oddly enough, they're not wrong in that regard. They're not wrong because the idea of God coming out fully swinging, if you would, in judgment with his children, his believers being caught in that, that's almost, you know, a good way to put it, that doesn't make sense for God to do it with his fatherly heart.
40:55: So what ends up happening here is that, um, they then take this concept, which is true, and then conclude that the rapture has to take place prior to the seven years.
41:13: What's God's number again? Seven. Okay, just work with me on this. So the seven years of tribulation.
41:20: So they take the numbers of the book of Revelation literally when they are figurative. And then they, and so their claim is, is that prior to the seven years of tribulation,
41:32: Christ invisibly returns, takes the church, and they disappear, and it becomes just a terrible movie to watch.
41:42: Okay, like have you ever seen like the left behind, oh my goodness, Kirk Cameron, and then the one, oh my goodness, they are just, and one of the things that strikes me is, is that the rapture is such a non -event.
41:55: Okay, somebody walks in and goes, why are their clothes on the ground? You know, right?
42:02: And, and so when I was a Nazarene and a Methodist, uh, so when
42:08: I was in junior high, this will tell you, I, I, there was a movie that they made us watch every year in Bible class called
42:16: Thief in the Night. Okay, and it was terrifying. Planes flying without pilots.
42:23: Yeah, planes without pilots and stuff like that. And, and, and, and there was always preaching along the lines of, um, you don't want to sin because you don't want to get left behind.
42:37: You know, the worst thing that could happen to you. And I, I've heard sermons that go along these lines, kind of this, this outline, you know, that, uh, that, uh, the
42:47: Lord does not want you to engage in drinking spirits, drinking alcohol.
42:52: And wouldn't it be just tragic if just moments before the rapture, you gave in and you had a whiskey.
43:02: And because of that, you were left behind. Oh yeah.
43:10: Okay. So the, so the idea then here, the rapture ends up becoming the gun that's held to your head regarding your obedience to Christ.
43:21: And so, you know, as a, as a, as a teenager and as a junior high kid,
43:27: I was terrified thinking, oh my goodness, what if I've upset Jesus and I've sinned in such a way that I'm going to get left behind.
43:36: And it creates real anxiety. And I hated that. I hated that movie, the song that went with it.
43:43: Um, life was filled with guns and wars and everyone got trampled on the floor. Wish we'd all been ready.
43:51: You know, yeah, yeah. Anyway, but, uh, so, but here's the issue. There is no text that teaches a pre -trib rapture.
44:04: It just doesn't exist. So now you got a problem.
44:11: Okay. The whole theme of the book of revelation is what patient endurance, right? So you ask people who believe in, in the rapture, where is the rapture found in scripture?
44:23: I am not joking here. I've had people take me to revelation chapter four, and here's the words come up here.
44:38: You guys don't look convinced. Okay. You would be shocked at the sheer number of people who believe in the rapture who will go to revelation four and look at the words, come up here and say, that's the, that's talking about the rapture.
44:55: It's not, it's not. So let's do a kind of a little bit of a mini study on this.
45:02: And one of the things I always like to point out to people is that you can synchronize the rapture and by a
45:11: Lutheran understanding of rapture, we're talking about the saints that are alive being caught up together with the, the, the, the dead.
45:22: They rise first and we're all caught up together. We meet Christ in the clouds, in the air. That's the idea.
45:28: And you can synchronize every one of these texts that talk about this using one very specific element and two, if you're, if you're really astute, but the thing that synchronizes it all are the trumpets and the shout of the
45:44: Archangel. Those are your kind of your two elements. You put those things together and you can see how that then works out.
45:51: So in Matthew 24, this will be one of the places that we'll take a look at.
46:02: Let's see here. All right.
46:18: So immediately after the tribulation of those days, and, and you have to look at that in its context and look at everything that precedes.
46:26: Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened. The moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from the heaven.
46:31: The powers of the heavens will be shaken. Now note here, when I was an evangelical, nobody taught me that prior to the rapture, and again,
46:41: I'm using the word kind of loosely here, that, that the sun would be darkened and the moon would not, no longer give its light.
46:47: Okay. In other words, if you can see the sun shining today, the rapture hasn't happened. Okay. If you could see the moon tonight and there's still stars up in the heavens, the rapture has not happened and you haven't been left behind.
47:02: All right. So, so the stars will fall from the heaven. The powers of the heavens will be shaken.
47:08: Then will appear in heaven, the sign of the son of man and all the tribes of the earth, they will mourn.
47:16: And I got to check my, my watcher because that thing is way, way off.
47:21: It says it's five o 'clock. I haven't been preaching that long. Okay.
47:27: Okay. Just keeping an eye out here. So then will appear in heaven, the sign of the son of man, all the tribes of the earth will mourn.
47:33: They will see the son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with the power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call.
47:41: So this is, so note that's, that's a major feature. That's a major feature of the return of Christ is the trumpet call.
47:50: And they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. So you get the idea here.
47:57: So you got the trumpet call and in other texts, it's the trumpet call and the cry of the archangel. All right.
48:03: So those are your two things. So Christ then kind of does a little bit of an aside. So from the fig tree, learn its lesson.
48:09: As soon as its branches become tender and put out its leaves, you know that summer is near. As soon as mosquitoes are dead, you know, that winter is about to hit here in, in Minnesota.
48:19: Anyway. So also when you see all these things, you know, that he is near he's at the very gate. So truly
48:24: I say to you, this generation generation that sees these things will not pass away until all these things take place.
48:30: Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away now concerning that day.
48:36: And our what's the context, the return of Christ that day, the day of Christ's return, the hour of his return.
48:45: No one knows, not even the angels of heaven or the son, only the father for as were the days of Noah.
48:51: So will be the coming of the son of man for as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving and marriage until the day when
49:00: Noah entered the ark. So you can see here that the flood itself of Noah is a type and shadow of the return of Jesus.
49:11: It's a picture of God's wrath. It's a picture of God's judgment on, on, of the earth.
49:17: All right. So no, the metaphor then gives way, this type of shadow gives way to the substance.
49:23: So the flood is the type and shadow. The substance is the return of Christ.
49:29: So just as they were marrying and giving a marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away.
49:38: So will be the coming of the son of man. This is talking about the return of Christ.
49:44: Then two will be in the field. One will be taken. One will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill.
49:51: One will be taken. One will be left. So when does that happen? Well, once the trumpet sounds after the stars have fallen, the moon is no longer giving its light.
50:01: The sun has been darkened here. You've got people still working and Christ returns.
50:07: One's taken. Another is left. The angels are sent out and they're gathering people up, right?
50:14: Therefore stay awake. You don't know on what day your Lord is coming. This is talking about the one event.
50:23: So the church, people are not snatched up by the angels prior to the day the trumpet blasts.
50:31: That's the point. You see it? So in other words, buckle up.
50:39: The church is going through the whole thing. Yeah.
50:45: Yeah. You mentioned the, but there's also the other side.
50:52: I think what really makes it so attractive today is that it's kind of the comfort theology. I'm going to miss the tribulation.
50:58: So I'm looking forward to that because I'm not going to have to go through that. I've heard that numerous times.
51:04: That is another aspect of it. So for me, it was the hammer. For others, it's, well, don't worry.
51:10: Things are going to get really crazy here on earth, but you're not going to go through it. Really?
51:17: Wait till you see the text that I have ahead. Okay. There are words from the book of Revelation that say that if you're going to die, you're going to die.
51:28: That's just the way it goes. But the thing is that we don't get to pull a parachute and bail out of this plane that's going down.
51:44: That's not how that works. Now, I did want to show you this because it is an interesting note.
51:51: In the Lutheran study Bible, give me a second while I open up my Logos software. Elizabeth Beasley notes,
51:58: Cameron doesn't believe pre -trib anymore. I know he's post -trib. He's not post -trib, he's post -millennial.
52:06: He believes things are getting better. So post -millennialism is that Beatles song,
52:14: I got to admit it's getting better, getting better all the time. Can't get no worse.
52:19: Anyway, that's post -millennialism. I can't do
52:27: Beatles impersonations either. You're basically telling me to stay in my lane, right?
52:34: Hang on a second while my Logos software is giving me the pinwheel of death. Can I hit skip?
52:44: Maybe I'll try that. Oh, I went to hit skip and it disappeared. Where'd it go?
52:52: Oh, got to love that. All right, hang on a second here.
52:58: It's going to wait for certain resources. Okay, so in the Lutheran study
53:03: Bible, I want to show you guys this. No, that's not it. Hang on a second,
53:08: I got to hunt this down. Lutheran study Bible, okay. In the
53:14: Lutheran study Bible, in the introduction to the book of Jeremiah, all right, and I want you to see this.
53:24: Hang on a second here. We want, no, book of the prophets, Jeremiah. Hang on a second, there we go.
53:31: The book of Jeremiah, in the intro to this, and I have to move this over here, there is a little bit of an interesting thing that Luther notes, and I think
53:43: Luther is right on this one. These are Luther's words.
53:49: We learn from the prophet Jeremiah, among others, that as usual, the nearer the punishment, the worse people become, and that the more one preaches to them, the more they despise his preaching.
54:06: Thus, we understand that when it is God's will to inflict punishment, he makes the people to become hardened so that they may be destroyed without any mercy and not appease
54:19: God's wrath with any repentance. So the men of Sodom, long ago, had to not only despise the righteous lot, but even to afflict him because he taught them even though their own affliction was at the door.
54:33: Likewise, Pharaoh, when about to be drowned in the Red Sea, had to oppress the children of Israel twice as much as before, and Jerusalem had to crucify
54:43: God's Son with its own final destruction when its own final destruction was on the way. So it goes everywhere, even now, that now that the end of the world is approaching, the people rage, and they rave most horribly against God.
54:59: They blaspheme, and they damn God's word, though they well know it is
55:05: God's word and it is the truth. Besides, so many fearful signs and wonders are appearing both in the heavens and among all creatures, which threaten them terribly.
55:16: It is indeed a wicked and miserable time, even worse than that of Jeremiah. But so it will be, and must be.
55:24: The people begin to feel secure and sing, peace, all is well. They simply persecute everything that accords with the will of God, and they disregard all the threatening signs until, as St.
55:37: Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5, 8, destruction suddenly surprises them and destroys them before they know it.
55:47: So you'll note then the idea here is that there is something to be said of a pattern in Scripture, and the pattern is along the lines of as God's judgment approaches, evil goes from bad to worse, to raging against God, and apostasy itself sets in within the church.
56:13: And what ends up happening as a result of this is you see a natural diminishing of the sheer number of Christians on the earth, or people who believe.
56:23: So what happens is that the church is dwindled down to a remnant, and that remnant then has got everybody moved out of the way, if you would, because all the saints are now with Christ, you have a few who are left on the earth, and now
56:43: God can start swinging, you know, full strength, pouring out his wrath.
56:50: That's the idea, that's the pattern. So let's take a look real quick, I wanted to see something in 1
56:56: Thessalonians 5. Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you.
57:08: You yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. And that's not talking about the rapture, that's talking about Christ's return.
57:17: While people are saying there is peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
57:28: But you're not in the darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. So you'll note, although it's a thief, it's not a thief to Christians.
57:36: That day we anticipate it, and because Christ has given us the signs to look for, it's not going to sneak up on us.
57:44: You know, when we see these things happening, we will go, all right, the end is very close.
57:50: For you are all children of light, children of the day, we are not of the night nor of the darkness, so then let us not sleep as others, but let us keep awake and be sober.
57:59: For those who sleep, sleep at night, those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.
58:10: For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we might live with him.
58:20: Therefore, encourage one another and build up one another, just as you are doing.
58:27: And then 2 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, here's what it says in chapter 2, now concerning the coming of our
58:37: Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him. We ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the
58:51: Lord has already come. There were a bunch of left behinders already back in the time of the
58:58: Apostle Paul, and they were troubling the church of Thessalonica, all right? Let no one deceive you in any way.
59:04: That day will not come unless the apostasy, the rebellion comes first, the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction who opposes and exalts himself against every so -called
59:15: God or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be
59:21: God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things and you know what's restraining him now, so that he may be revealed in his time.
59:29: For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way, and then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the
59:38: Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.
59:43: The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because my computer just went out.
01:00:00: Well, that's the end of the world. Apparently, it's the end of...
01:00:06: yeah, I think my computer's overheating. Okay, so a little bit of a note here.
01:00:13: Hang on, let me unmute myself. There we go. Quick note, that was not the rapture.
01:00:21: My computer is overheated. It's time for me to get a new laptop because this one can't handle the load that I'm putting on it.
01:00:28: But all of that being said, let me finish up our text here and then we will finish the study for today.
01:00:39: I'm going to hit share. So the coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power, false signs and wonders, with all wicked deception for those who are perishing.
01:00:50: Because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved, therefore God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
01:01:02: So you get the idea as it relates to the... and I want to look for one more text.
01:01:09: Archangel and... no, I'm not looking for a book.
01:01:14: I'm looking for... okay. All right, so 1
01:01:20: Thessalonians 4, 16. 1 Thessalonians 4. And this is how you can synchronize these things.
01:01:29: We do not want... so starting verse 13, 1 Thessalonians 4. We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
01:01:39: For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
01:01:47: So note this is again a reference to the return of Christ, the one return of Christ.
01:01:53: For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the
01:02:00: Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with the cry of command, with the voice of the archangel, with the sound of the trumpet of God.
01:02:11: So note you can synchronize 1 Thessalonians 4 with Matthew 24. And what are we talking about?
01:02:18: Not a secret rapture, we're talking about the day of Christ's return. And then the dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
01:02:33: Lord in the air. So we will always be with the Lord, therefore encourage one another with these words.
01:02:40: So you'll note a biblical understanding of Christ's return and us being snatched up together with everybody in the clouds to meet
01:02:47: Christ at his return, that's a comforting doctrine, right? That's a comforting thing.
01:02:54: And it's not a secret rapture, this is when Jesus shows up on the day of judgment, everybody knows, okay?
01:03:06: There's nothing secret about it. So we'll keep that in mind and the next week we'll take a actual closer look at Revelation chapter 4 and see how the words come up here are not any kind of a reference at all to the rapture of the church.
01:03:22: Instead our clear passages are Matthew 24 and 1 Thessalonians 4 here. Let me check questions real quick and then
01:03:28: I've got to be on my way. Okay, of course not, sun is still up. Okay, they were happy to hear that I didn't get raptured in the middle of it.
01:03:40: I mean, wouldn't that be awkward? There is no rapture, all of a sudden he disappears. Well, it would have been ironic if somebody just posted you've been left behind.
01:03:49: Yeah, okay. So Carlos and MJ, so there is no single individual antichrist sitting in the temple of God claiming to be
01:03:59: God. Is this speaking of prophets and teachers with false anointings? Carlos, let me save,
01:04:05: I'm going to come back to that. So I can't, in like 60 seconds,
01:04:10: I cannot give an adequate answer regarding the man of lawlessness and the antichrist. So I'm going to hold on to that.
01:04:16: In the corporate world, what do they say? We're going to put that in the parking lot? Yeah. So I'm putting that in the parking lot and we'll have that later as a takeaway.
01:04:26: Okay, good, I'm working on my corporate speech. All right, peace to you brothers and sisters, I've got to go.