FBC Morning Light – November 25, 2022

Well, a good Friday to you, and I hope you had a great Thanksgiving Day yesterday, and probably a day off today, hoping it'll be a refreshing day to you. I hope you're not getting caught up in the mad rush of the Black Friday emphasis, where it's all about going and buying and so on and so forth.

I hope you actually take advantage of the time that you have, that you don't have to go off to work, get some rest, get some refreshment, and use the time well. And certainly if there's some great sales and stuff you're planning to purchase for a Christmas gift to somebody, yeah, I get it, take advantage of it, but nevertheless, I hope you don't get into the frenzy that the world wants us to get into on Black Friday.

Well, anyway, today we're finishing up the last two letters to the seven churches in the book of Revelation, to the Church of Philadelphia and the Church of Laodicea. And I've been pointing out that in each of these letters, the Lord Jesus identifies Himself as the source or the author of the letter.

He identifies Himself in a different way to each of the churches. So to the Church of Philadelphia, He identifies Himself as the one who is holy, the one who is true, and then He says that He has the key of David, that would indicate His royal authority to the kingdom, as a descendant of David, the rightful heir to the throne, and He has the key of David, the key to the throne.

And He says, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens. And that's significant for this church at Philadelphia, because He then says, I know your works, I've set before you an open door, and no one can shut it.

Isn't that reassuring to know that the open doors that the Lord sets before us, they are open as long as He wants them open, and when He closes them, He will close them. But as long as He wants it open, nobody can close it.

It's sort of like the gates of hell cannot prevail against the kingdom of God, they can't do it. They will not prevail against His church. And likewise, when He opens a door, nobody can shut it, only He can.

And when He shuts a door, no one can force it open. That's how He describes Himself to the church at Philadelphia. Now the church at Laodicea, of course, is probably one of the most famous. Between Ephesus and Laodicea, the first and the last of these churches are probably the most commonly known.

But to the church at Laodicea, He describes Himself in this way. These things says, the Amen, you know what the word Amen means, it means, so let it be. The faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.

And then He goes on talking to the church. So here again, several ways that Jesus describes Himself to this particular church. He is the Amen, the Amen. His words are not only true and faithful, they are settled, they are established as the Amen.

Well, and of course, to the church at Laodicea, He levels a pretty severe criticism. He says, you know, I know your works, I know your works, and you're neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were hot or cold, but because you're neither hot nor cold, you are lukewarm.

Because you're lukewarm, I will vomit you out of my mouth. What's Jesus saying here? Well, hot water is good for something. This time of year, do you enjoy a nice hot cup of tea in the evening after your dinner?

You know, just warm you up a little bit, a good hot cup of coffee? Yeah, wonderful, isn't it? It's very useful, it's delightful. A good hot chocolate, a good hot cup of tea, a good hot coffee, a good cup of hot cider, you know, is hot.

And likewise, we appreciate a cold beverage, too, right? A cold drink on a hot day is very refreshing, we delight in it. But, you know, I've been hiking on hot days and have a water bottle and the water gets warmed up, it doesn't stay cold, it's warm water.

And, you know, I go to take a drink of it and I want to spit it out, but I'm too thirsty, I've got to have it, you know? It's not delightful at all, you endure it just because you need the hydration. And likewise, you know, I'm not much on my cup of coffee after it's gotten room temperature.

No thank you, no. No, what Jesus is communicating here is a common understanding of something that we would drink. If it's hot, it's useful. If it's cold, it's useful, it's delightful. But lukewarm, no, not so much.

And of course, I know Jesus is also communicating to the people at Laodicea in a way that they understand because of the aqueducts and all that kind of thing. But the point is, the bigger point is, the Lord wants His people to be useful and to be delightful to Him in their service for Him, and the people at Laodicea certainly weren't, because He goes on to say, you say, I am rich, I have become wealthy, I don't need anything, but they fail to see that in reality they're wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

The Lord closes this letter to the church at Laodicea and He says, look, I'm standing at the door and knocking. If you hear my voice and you open the door, I will come to you and dine with you and you with me.

So how does the Lord describe us? Hot or cold, or merely lukewarm? He's inviting us to fellowship with Him, to be useful to Him, to be delightful to Him, and to enjoy that fellowship together. He's knocking at the door.

I trust that we will open, He will come in, and we'll enjoy sweet fellowship with Him and He with us. Our Father and our God, we thank You for this challenge to us today. I pray that even as we examine our own heart and as Your Spirit does as well through Your Word, that You would find us to be usefully delightful to You, hot or cold, either one, but delightful.

And I pray, Father, that we would enjoy sweet fellowship with You as You, the Lord Jesus, there at the door knocking, ready to come in and ready to dine with us, to fellowship with us. May we be delighting in it.

And this we pray, in Jesus' name, Amen. All right, well I hope you have a wonderful weekend and again, I encourage you to come out to church on the Lord's Day, have that study in the book of Philippians in our adult Sunday school class, and we're still looking at the fruitful life in the morning service.

So I hope you can join us. Have a good day. May the Lord bless.