29. The Kingdom Parables – The Seventh – The Dragnet – Part 5 Of 6 Series

29. THE KINGDOM PARABLES – THE SEVENTH – THE DRAGNET – PART 5 OF 6

This message concludes looking at the letter to the church at Laodicea. The previous two messages focused on this letter to the church. I have spent more time on this letter than in any of the other churches in the Kingdom Parables because it is so important to our present age as we shall see coming in the next message as it relates to Church History.

The Dragnet is the parable of judgement as the world is brought together and separated into wicked and worthless. In the first two messages we looked at that. Now we are studying the church that matches the Dragnet which is Laodicea.

This time we are going to cover some very interesting verses for our instruction.

[[F]]. REPROOF – DISCIPLINE - REPENTANCE

{{Revelation 3:19 “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. Be zealous therefore and repent.”}}

Who loves getting into trouble? I don’t but maybe there are a few perverse people who do. Who loves punishment? I am sure nearly all of us don’t enjoy that. Who loves being reproved (“getting into trouble”, is what we say here)?

Why would the Lord punish us, and reprove us? We can argue that it is proper for the Lord to do that to the sinners “outside the church” but why should it happen to those who say they are Christians?

Consider this. You have a puppy that starts to get into some of the soft furnishings in your home and begins to tear and chew it up. What do you do? Allow it unchecked? Certainly not. You would discipline the dog, reprove it. Why would you do that? Well, apart from protecting your belongings, you love the dog and want it to do well.

God loves us and wants us to do well. That is why He reproves and disciplines. God’s love is about growth, safety, fellowship and protection. Often we need to be protected from ourselves for in the words of a hymn, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” –

O to grace how great a debtor

Daily I’m constrained to be!

Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,

Bind my wandering heart to Thee.

PRONE TO WANDER, LORD, I FEEL IT,

PRONE TO LEAVE THE GOD I LOVE;

Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,

Seal it for Thy courts above.

This church at Laodicea had gone off the rails, away from God, and heading for disaster. The Lord had a message for it, and that message was precise and encouraging. The explanation was given to the church about God loving them and then He told them to be zealous and repent.

The word for “reprove” is often translated as “rebuke”, and the word “zealous” according to Strong’s is “From zelos; to have warmth of feeling for or against.” These Laodiceans needed to have “a warm feeling” towards the Lord in order to repent.

The word for “discipline” is the Greek “pa?de?? (paideuo)” that has as its root the training up of a child; the educating of the child, into the correct way. Remember the illustration of the dog? It needs to be trained up correctly.

Did the Laodiceans repent? We do not know, but one thing I do know - People who are so complacent and think they have it all, and know it all, and think they are rich, but just lukewarm, will not listen to words of encouragement and reproof.

Here is a passage many are familiar with – {{Hebrews 12:5-8 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him, for THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, and He scourges every son whom He receives.” It is for discipline that you endure. GOD DEALS WITH YOU AS WITH SONS, for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.”}}

{{Hebrews 12:11 “ALL DISCIPLINE FOR THE MOMENT SEEMS NOT TO BE JOYFUL, BUT SORROWFUL, yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields THE PEACEFUL FRUIT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.”}}

Repentance requires humility, which is why I think the church at Laodicea did not repent. Do you remember this verse – {{Revelation 3:17 Because you say, ‘I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing,’ and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.”}}. They were rich and maybe these two verses applied to them as well – {{Matthew 19:23-24 Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, and again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”}}