Revelation 3 — Damian Kyle

Good afternoon, let's stand together one more time and let's turn in our Bibles to Revelation chapter 3. We pick things up in verse 14. This is our Savior and he speaks and writes and declares to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans, right?

Jesus’ Letter to the Lukewarm Laodicean Church

These things says the amen. The faithful and true witness the beginning or the origin of the creation of God. I Know your works that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish that you were colder hot and 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 and 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 I said that you may see as many as I love.

I Rebuke and chasten and 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 has an ear to hear has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Father we ask that you'd meet with us through your Eternal and holy word this afternoon.

It means the world to us to hear your voice and help us to hear your voice and we ask it in Jesus name. Amen, please be seated one of the things that I do every so often with the church that I pastor as I run it through the grid of Jesus's seven letters to the seven churches and I just take all of the different areas of of the ministry and the staff and myself and all and and We just run it through what it is that he says in these seven churches.

And in order to assess how we're doing in his eyes because it's it's his estimation that really is the only estimation that matters now and Will matter of course for eternity and I look at the the fellowship.

I look at the church and I to see are we still operating in our first love and are we Still willing to die for Christ the way that we were when we first came to know the Lord. Do we have we become soft related to false doctrine and and the kind of teaching that's going on or Who we're giving authority to as leaders in the church.

Are we still under? The control of the Holy Spirit maintaining a dependence on the Holy Spirit and these kinds of things to just kind of do a check on on how it is that We're doing in in his eyes, and I'm really glad to be able to Have him by his Holy Spirit search my heart and and search our church once again with all the different speakers.

It'll be speaking from these seven churches and what is good for a pastor and what is good for church is also good for a movement and to just let the Lord take us through this grid and Expose and encourage and and all what it is that he wants to in our lives.

Jesus's letter to the church of the Laodiceans Contains one of the strongest and one of the most shocking statements found by Jesus in the entirety of The Bible where he declares in verse 16 so then Because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot.

I will vomit you out of my mouth. When I read the Gospels, I can hardly find Jesus saying Something that hard even to his enemies. Even to the religious leaders that opposed him even to Pilate on the day of his crucifixion.

Even to the Romans on the day of his crucifixion. But he says it to this church because for all of the faults and all of the problems with the religious leaders in Jesus's day and all of the faults and Problems that Pilate had and the Roman soldiers and the Roman government had the one thing they did not do is claim to represent Jesus and then fail to do it and this church stands up before the whole world and claims To represent Jesus and then fails miserably to do it before a world that is watching.

It is a very serious thing to claim to Represent the Lord and then to fail to do that and I don't know how seriously This is taken anymore. To rip to misrepresent a company that I work for will cost me my job.

To misrepresent the President of the United States can cost you your head. But but here to it and and all in there's such sobriety and all of these lesser Areas in life, but increasingly pastors seem very free to represent and misrepresent the Lord according to their whim and and how they please.

And in today's ministry environment, I think overall there is a frightening decline in the fear of the Lord. James wrote in James chapter 3 and he didn't put it in the Bible and God didn't put it in the Bible as Sermon fodder.

He means it. He said be not many masters. You will face the greater Judgment or condemnation because of the position that we take. Now what is vomit? It means what does it mean to vomit something out of my mouth?

Vomiting is the violent expulsion from a body of Something that is making that body sick something that is seriously threatening the health of a body and There's something about the church of Laodicea That not only makes Jesus sick But it is a danger to the health of the body of Christ as a whole and what nauseates Jesus.

He's very clear about it in Verses 15 and 16 and it is lukewarmness. The interesting thing to read this letter concerning the church at Laodicea is to When you read it, it's very very clear that they're not lukewarm about everything.

They are very very excited about riches about wealth about materialism about self ism. But what they lack a zeal for is God and for spiritual things. And the problem with the church at Laodicea is they're lukewarm about what they should be zealous about and they're zealous about What they should be lukewarm about.

Now in the world, does that happen? In a church. I'd like us to notice three things this afternoon that contributed to their Lukewarm conditions so that we can learn from their wrong choices and then avoid Becoming like them.

A Biblically Based Vision for the Local Church

First of all, this church teaches me the necessity of having biblically based vision for the local church. That the church and what we do is defined by the Bible and clearly this church at Laodicea Does not have a biblically based vision for the church in the 20 years that I have been a senior pastor I have never known a time when pastoring a church has become so Complicated apart from the Bible all of the definitions and all of the theories all of the ideas all of the Expectations.

I feel sorry for pastors today. I feel especially sorry for young pastors today and new pastors today entering in to the pastorate. It is a Babylon out there Babel of all of these Conflicting ideas and I'm very concerned that a significant block of people that are called by God are not going to survive the current definitions of What were a church is supposed to be?

Several years ago, I was at a pastor's conference and I Heard one of the greatest things I've ever heard spoken at that conference when? Don McClure declared that one of the most miserable places to be in all of life Is to be in the ministry looking for a vision and I that went that went off like a bomb inside of my head.

I said that is exactly right The most it is hard enough. I mean it can be miserable Enough to be in it and know what you're aiming at and all if you're in it. And you don't know what you're aiming at and you don't know how to get there.

It's impossible. You're just gonna crush people you're just gonna kill people you're gonna crush calling in people's lives and and Surely this just this one issue Alone causes many pastors to burn out there enough challenges when you know What what you're trying to do, but it's impossible if you don't know what you're aiming at and it of course, it's a very common Situation given the number of conferences that are offered every year to tell pastors How what the ministry is all about and to provide?

Vision for the ministry and a lack of of a biblically based vision for the ministry creates such a Desperation in people that they're willing to glom on to anything for for a time and then you know Follow after that any and every idea or theory that comes down.

The line now, I I know One particular church in terms of watching the history of it and it was very very sad to watch it was completely destroyed. Under the weight of this it became like whatever the senior pastor the last book the senior pastor had written or read and So six months the church is yanked in this direction and then he reads another book in the next six months.

It gets yanked in that direction. He reads another book. He yanks it in this direction for the next six months and it isn't long before the congregation is completely exhausted. But it never stops with exhaustion.

Because what happens is it begins to slowly dawn on them that he doesn't know what he's doing. Anymore than we know what we're doing here and they begin to drift out from from the church and and fortunately for us.

The vision for the local church is spelled out for us in the Bible. What is the purpose of the church. Don't shout out but just formulate if you were to take your leadership in your church. You say what is the purpose of the church?

I mean you might be surprised at how many answers we would get but formulated it in your mind. What in the world are we aiming at as as a local church? I think that you can't do any better Than to go to Matthew chapter 28 and to discover that the Bible teaches that we've been given a commission by Jesus a Commission that is so great.

It's it's now known as the Great Commission and he declared there go therefore and make disciples of all. The nation's baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all things that I've commanded you and law.

I'm with you always even to the end of the age. We are called to make Disciples that is mature followers of Jesus Christ maturity being defined Spiritually as it is physically and that is with the ability to reproduce myself Spiritually and that is the Commission that we've been given and it is a great Commission and the end product.

So to speak that ought to be coming out of the churches that we're pastoring are Solid mature Christians that can then disciple others to become solid mature Christians. That's what we're aiming at. Not to amuse them not to get them back and not to serve the greatest coffee in the city that you know.

You happen to live in so that's our Commission. But to know that that's the Commission. It just raises the next question in our mind and the next question that enters into our mind as pastors is how in the world?

Do we fulfill that? Commission there's the Commission that we have now how in the world do we do it? How does a person how do we make a disciple? I don't know of any other better place to turn in all of the Bible for for that understanding then Acts chapter 2 and specifically verse 42.

Where here you have the whole background of all of it you might turn to it and here's Peter. He preaches on the day of Pentecost 3 ,000 people are saved in that sermon. But now what do you do with him?

He's got a commission. He's got a great Commission. He's been commanded by Jesus to make disciples out of these folks, but how in the world do you do that? And that's precisely the problem that that early church faced immediately after that particular Sermon and you notice what they did.

Acts 2 42 tells us that they continued steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine. They placed a tremendous emphasis upon the teaching of the Word of God in that local church. You cannot make a disciple you cannot make a mature Christian apart from the teaching of the Word of God and why would he tell us that it's something that we need to Steadfastly do except that there would be tremendous Resistance to it in every part of human history to and pressure to move away From the teaching and emphasis of the Word of God in the churches that we pastor.

Fellowship, the Lord’s Supper, and Prayer in Discipleship

Second thing he speaks of his fellowship and it's koinonia. It's a the local body is a body and so here is a local church and and it isn't a purely academic center. It's a place where we're learning what the Bible says about our lives and we stumble we fall we have mountaintop experiences.

We have valley experiences and we walk with one another we encourage one another and we stay connected with one another while we walk together. From this place into maturity and then one day in into the glory of of heaven.

But that fellowship that it goes on and it's a part of making a strong Believer, so the local church is to is to be Have a it's to be a relational environment to grow together in. Then he speaks of the breaking of bread of the Lord's Supper and that's not merely going through the motions of of an ordinance to me this is God's way of Keeping the main thing the main thing and the main thing is Jesus of course do this in remembrance of me and It's God's way of knowing because he knows he's dealing with knuckleheads.

He knows that. And he knows how it would go off and all these tangents and all these things but to keep the most important themes of the Bible Always before the congregation and he knows he can do it through the Lord's Supper the theme of redemption God's love God's grace God's love for us.

Jesus has sacrificed there Upon the cross in the relationship not forgetting about him not forgetting about his return. That what he's done on the cross has overwhelmed my past it is overwhelmed my present is Overwhelmed my future and we can get so caught up in all of this professional literature.

That we forget what God never forgets and that is what the people that are in that church Want to hear about all the time and need to be reassured in all the time and it's these things. That God loves them he cares about them.

He sent his son to die on the cross for them that he's coming back again one day for us then he speaks of prayers and that's just the communication with God and Prayers and it is is an expression of my dependence upon upon God.

So that the the prayer and the making of of a disciple just that maintaining a conscious Dependence upon God in this church. We haven't figured anything out God we depend upon you for everything and every decision would you give us your direction and and your wisdom and that would include the prayer would include our the worship and and praise element of our Services and our times together now those four things are vital.

Conversion, Evangelism, and the Spirit’s Empowerment

But don't forget to notice Three other things in Acts chapter 2 that have already been spoken about before we get to chap chapter 4 verse 42. There needs to be number 5 Evangelism there needs to be conversion.

You can't have converts without having you can't make disciples without converts and you can't have converts without evangelism and and you notice there in verses 14 through 40 Peter got up and and he preached a Sermon there so the early church engaged the culture that they were in with the gospel and then you notice in verses 1 through 4 the disciples were baptized with the Holy Spirit.

The importance of the local fellowship making a disciple the emphasis upon the Baptism with the Holy Spirit the power to be a witness unto God in this in this world. And then you notice number 7 in verse 41.

They obeyed the Lord in Water baptism, they obeyed him in that and and always being reinforced in front of the congregation or to the congregation. All that this represents and what God has done Spiritually that this is a physical representation of and then you go into verses 44 through 46 and the Byproduct of all of that when we will make those things our emphasis then the byproduct of all of that is a love among the Saints it's interesting.

They do all of these things and then they don't put a program together. To get them one another to share with each other and I don't think that's to be under the control of man necessarily not supremely.

But when all these other things are right the Holy Spirit will be faithful to direct people with their resources on how to take care of one another in the body of Christ and then in verse 47 is. We've been so well taught through the years when the church becomes what God intends it to be.

Then he will add to that church daily such as should be saved. There are a lot of ministry models out there today, and it's always been like that and it will always be like that. But this is our ministry model and we can be confident that it will work because It is worked for God's people and been fruitful for God's people for 2 ,000 years.

So thankfully. Thankfully as we sit in this room, we say boy, what do we have to be thankful thankful? Thankfully we are not in the ministry. Looking for a vision as Calvary Chapel pastors. We have one and we have a biblical vision for what God wants us to do.

This is how we cooperate with the Holy Spirit and with what it is that he's doing. We are not to do with God's people. Whatever we please. That is defined for us by God himself. We're simply to obey the emphases that he has given to us and you look at how God has honored that in this Movement now in Acts chapter 2 that that whole section of the book of Acts.

It is a lifesaver for every pastor in every age. It has saved me over and over again. Especially in the early years of the pastorate. I because Biblically, I know what I'm aiming at and I know how to get there from the Bible.

And and people come all of the time with different ideas for the church. And why don't we do this and how about this and all of that and what we do is I run it through that grid in in those seven things there in Acts chapter 2 and.

Because what what are people doing? Sometimes they don't even know what they're doing to try to redefine the church. And so I just look at it and we run it through that grid of those seven things. Does it have anything to do with those seven things?

And if it doesn't then we look at it and say maybe that's not something we're supposed to be involved in as a local church number two, I think that this church speaks to us of the danger of nurture nurturing a self-focus in people rather than a God focus and I don't think you can read this letter without being struck with how self-consumed and.

The Danger of Self-Focus and Positive Confession

And how self-absorbed the people in this church are notice the first word that comes out of their mouth in verse 17 I I am rich have become wealthy and they have need of nothing. Here's a group of people who are so self-absorbed.

That Jesus is on the outside of the church knocking on the door trying to get in and they don't have the foggiest idea. There's something wrong with that picture. They don't get it. It's it's not a put in the Bible to paint a picture that you know, you laugh at.

They absolutely do not understand that there's something wrong. And they don't they don't have the slightest idea that they're missing anything and what it is that that they're doing. So it's unbelievable.

It can't happen. It does happen. It did happen the Church of Laodicea certainly verse 17 Speaks to the positive confession heresy that is prevalent all around the world now. That puts the focus upon self and it reduces God to a genie and that God is the means to my selfish self-determined and self-dominated ends.

God is is merely used to legitimize the worship of self. But but this whole idea That God is not supremely a lord to be worshiped and obeyed but rather the means to an end by which I can continue to worship myself and my ideas and my Will for my life and to and to find myself and to learn to love myself and to learn about my best self and call It Christianity that is pandemic in the world today.

And it's sobering. That on the one hand Jesus is threatening to vomit them out of his mouth. And on the other hand, they are absolutely thrilled with themselves. They think they are deeply spiritual people and that is a mind-boggling an astonishing level of Self-deception and they are in the middle of it now notice that they like church.

But it's got to be on their terms not on God's terms. They like the trappings of spirituality. They just don't want to be spiritual. They like church as long as they can use the title or the institution to legitimize their self-centered Materialistic life and what they want from a church is that it give the outward appearance of being about worshiping God.

But what it's all really about is the worship of of self. They like church they just don't want it to be too much about God or about God at all and The in the scary thing is they found themselves a pastor who deliver that to them.

The problem is is that to the degree that man is? Exalted in a church or in a church service is the degree to which God is not exalted and indeed Dishonored in that church and in that church Service and and to the degree that man is the center of attention in a church service is the degree to which God is not the center of Attention and he will not share his glory with anyone and he won't share his glory with idols.

Which are merely man-made ideas. He spoke through the Prophet Isaiah. I am the Lord that is by name and My glory I will not give to another nor my praise to graven images. Now somebody has completely Redefined church for these people and someone has completely redefined Spirituality for them and clearly the new definitions are not good and clearly Jesus is not pleased with them.

Loving God More Than Pleasing People

And there's a pastor. I need to be careful not to develop a self-focus in God's people but a God focus and it isn't a matter of Not saying listen, you need to love yourself. You need to get into yourself.

It's subtler than that. It's kind of like singing a worship song to God. That's all you're saying is I me and my and I and I feel and I want and I need and I and I. Did somebody wrote a song for me? I guess I don't know, you know.

And it just it what happens you're saying it just it's a little God light here. I'm having some trouble with it. It's a lot about me and I really don't come to church to really, you know. Get into me and it just doesn't sit right and the same thing can happen in our teaching in a church.

Well, you just get that uneasy feeling that we're no longer majoring in God, but in minoring in man. But we are minoring in God and we are majoring in man. I'm no expert on the current ministry models that are most popular but of the materials I've seen there's so much talk about growth and numbers and attendance and People and meeting people's needs but almost nothing about God.

What about his glory? What about who he is and and Exalting him obeying him and you sit and you go where in the world is God in all of this. It's I mean, it's eye candy. It's ear candy. It's fabulous.

I Can't find God to save my life in the middle of all of this. I think it's good to be reminded Of what the Bible has to say about selfism and selfishness. Remember when Jesus told Peter about How they're going to go to Jerusalem and he was going to suffer and he was going to die and all and Peter Took him aside and began to rebuke him and said far be it from you Lord.

This shall not happen to you. Jesus turned to him and it turned and said to Peter get me behind me Satan. You are an offense to me for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. He said if anyone desires to come after me Let him deny himself take up his cross and follow me for whoever desires to save his life We'll lose it and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it where my selfishness will take me in life and where Jesus wants to take me in life are two Entirely different places two entirely different places and to nurture and encourage Selfism and selfishness in God's people is to absolutely guarantee.

They will never discover God's will for their life and that is criminal for anyone to do to another person. It is doubly criminal for a pastor to do that to people. I think of the Apostle Paul when he Wrote to the Galatians and he said I've been crucified with Christ.

There's no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me the life that I now live. I in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And I think as pastors we need to be very very careful about the fear of man.

What they're going to think about us and will they stay or will they? Leave if I do this or I say this or I. And all of these kinds of things and so much of what's being modeled today. At least in the literature that I I read.

These are the questions that are being put at the forefront of pastors minds and it's not only unhealthy. It's unbiblical. It is unbiblical to be thinking in those terms. The Bible says that the fear of man is a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord He'll be safe and it's a trap the fear of man.

It's not that we don't love people. Because we do love people. It's not that we're not sensitive to people but we must not become more concerned about what they will think about us Than what God thinks about us.

Jesus said there are two great commandments, didn't he? He said the first and the greatest command is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart with all of your mind. With all of your soul and all of your strength.

He said the second one is like unto it. Love your neighbor as yourself and It's very very important that we don't get those two commandments reversed. Because it dishonors God. Yes, love people. Yes lay our lives down for the people but we must have a greater fear and awe and respect and Reverence and love for God than anybody else in all of the world.

Especially in our calling if we get that thing backwards so that you can say yeah, you know, it's right here. We're to love our neighbor as ourself and you see that thing you know becoming a mountain in the room and the love and all for God is like a Green Gumby over here on the side, you know and and yet biblically you can justify in some kind of a verse fight.

But there's a sense and everybody's heart something is completely out of order in in this place but the name layer to see it means the people rule or the rights of the people and the people ruled this church and Instead of God ruling this church.

One of the things that we can do, you know is Calvary Chapel pastors just dismiss that so well. If people don't rule in the church that I pastor, you know. We don't we don't have committees and we don't have congregational vote.

And so I'm in no danger of having the people rule here. What about my heart? When I turn to the next passage in the in in the book of the Bible that I'm teaching and I start to rework it to Soften it or to explain it away or to de-emphasize its clear meaning because I'm afraid of what people will think or what it'll do to the size of the church or the offering or my Popularity or will people leave and I need to protect them from the hardship of the demands of God's Word and in his commandments.

Then the people are ruling the church. But not from the vantage point of a committee or by annual business meetings. They are ruling the church from inside my heart. Because they're setting the tone and the agenda in my heart instead of God and that then influences everything about the church and.

Then one day you turn around and you look and the church is all about God and name only and in in about God you know in a Supremely in a very secondary way and you start to hear someone pounding on the door and it's Jesus trying to get back in and And have the church that that he established.

The Apostle Paul wrote and he said for now. For do I now persuade men or God or do I seek to please men for if I still pleased men? I would not be a servant of Christ. Remember in John chapter 6 when These thousands began to follow Jesus after his feeding of the 5 ,000.

What was he? He's just a meal ticket. He's just a meal ticket. He is a means to an end in the minds of the people and Jesus when they come around to him again, he begins to talk to them about eating his flesh and drinking his blood and Internalizing him in his life into their life and he begins to talk about the great demands the of being a Christian the hard things of being a Christian and and all and.

And as as he's speaking these things to them. The response is is that if the severity of what Jesus was calling them to they they they began to you know Melt away and Jesus responded and he said does this offend you?

He said it's the Spirit who gives life the flesh profits. Nothing and and that crowd was following him for all the wrong reasons selfish reasons and they began to melt away and as they departed. Watch Jesus in the departure.

He's not troubled. He's not troubled not troubled by the departure of the mixed multitude at all. And you know why because he told him the truth and then what did he do? He turns to the disciples as these thousands are just melting away and before their very eyes and he said do you want to go?

Away. Also, and in essence, he's communicating to them. This is the truth. We do not change the truth to keep a crowd around here. Are you in or are you out? And Peter spoke for all of them. He said where we're going to go.

You have the words of everlasting life and also we've come To believe and to know that you're the Christ the Son of living God and that is a commitment to God. That honors him and is also good for us.

When that whole thing was going on with those disciples watching that whole thing early on in Jesus's ministry I mean to me make no mistake about it. The twelve got the message loud and clear. What we are about here gentlemen is supremely about being faithful to the truth and not about numbers and.

Then today I watch increasingly where there is a great effort to attract mixed multitude into the church. Did you read what Moses went through? With a small group of mixed multitude. They like the spiritual environment.

They like the spiritual happening, but their heart and their mind is in Egypt. They caused them all kinds of problems and they were a tiny minority among a million people. What are you going to do when you get a whole church of that group?

It's going to blow up. It has to blow somewhere. It has to blow. And then finally I close with this Number three this church is woefully ignorant of the Bible you notice in verse 17. That the two phrases that Jesus says he says you say and then later in it He says it you say and then he says and you do not know and as you read the letter.

Teaching the Whole Counsel of God

What they don't know is what they would have easily known and if if they knew anything about the Bible at all. Now I'll go. I'll go from preaching to meddling at this point. I'm I'm very very troubled and grieved.

By anything that diminishes the place of the Bible in the minds of God's people and. Of course, and these are qualifying statements. I know your pastors so you will honor them of Course, it's lawful. To print the text that we're teaching from and the verses that we're using in our sermons on the screen in the sanctuary.

That's great. That's wonderful. I'm not putting it down. But if the motivation behind that kind of a decision is to make Things easier for people so they don't have to turn to their Bibles to follow you.

I think it's very dangerous. How did we learn the Bible? How did we learn the Bible and the books of the Bible and I'm still working on the Old Testament sometimes? As New-christians except that we turn to the pages and how did our Bible get underlined and how did it get?

Highlighted except that we turn to the verses and how did we become familiar with the Bible and the Bible become a familiar friend to us? Except that we turned to the passages and when we were witnessing to a friend.

We knew that it was in John's gospel one of those first early chapters up on the left-hand column and I marked it and I know it's right there and. And and all of those things happen as we were growing in in our knowledge of The word and we knew that because we'd turned to it and and we had marked it and I want to be careful not to rob the God's people of that experience if a pastor Flashes the verses up on the overhead with the intent.

That the people would ultimately not need to turn to their Bibles or or not bring their Bibles to church. Or to discourage them from bringing their Bibles to church so that seekers will not feel uncomfortable coming to that church because they see all of these Christians carrying their Bibles around and they don't have one if a pastor does that I don't want to say to you.