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.”}}
They were so smug and conceited, and for people like that, repentance is a foreign word of no compliance. Wickedness shuns repentance.
The rebuke the Lord gave to Laodicea can very well be given today, even in greater measure. We will look more into that when we come to the Church History section in the next message and see where this church fits into the last 2 000 years.
[[G]]. JESUS IS ON THE OUTSIDE – AT THE DOOR – NOT ON THE INSIDE
{{Revelation 3:20 “Behold, I STAND AT THE DOOR AND KNOCK. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will DINE WITH HIM, AND HE WITH ME”}}.
This is one of the better known verses in the New Testament, though it is not always applied correctly. A very famous painting relating to this verse was done by Holman Hunt and I will paste this excerpt from the Internet:-
[[ The Light of the World (1851–1854) is an allegorical painting by the English Pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt (1827–1910) representing the figure of Jesus preparing to knock on an overgrown and long-unopened door. According to Hunt: "I painted the picture with what I thought, unworthy though I was, to be divine command, and not simply a good subject." The door in the painting has no handle, and can therefore be opened only from the inside, representing "the obstinately shut mind". The painting was considered by many to be the most important and culturally influential rendering of Christ of its time. ]]
The normal questions arise from this painting:
1. Why is Jesus on the outside of the door?
2. Why is He knocking?
3. Why is He holding a lantern that sheds light on Himself?
Let us answer those questions and in doing so we get a look at this church and (later on) our current generation.
QUESTION 1. Jesus stands at the door because He has been placed there. The people in that church put the Lord outside the door because they had no place for Him inside. It is not unlike His being outside the inn at His birth, because there was no place for him inside the inn. The Door is outside the door. John 10:7-9
It is likely that many in that church did not do that deliberately, but their lukewarmness and their affluent standing, not needing Christ, did that for them. They could function quite happily without Jesus Christ in the centre; not even in a back seat, but outside the door. Self-sufficiency was the order of the day and things could run quite nicely without too much “interference” from Jesus!
The complacent church ran without the Lord’s direction and input. They were self-made and loved it that way which also meant they let the Lord’s message about repenting go unheeded.
QUESTION 2. Why is Jesus knocking? It might be a really simplistic question but it has strong ramifications. Anyone who is outside a door and knocking wants either entry or contact with the people inside. The Lord wanted both. Holman Hunt painted the door without the outside handle, a very intuitive move, for Jesus was not going to break the door down.
The ones on the inside would have to invite Him in. But did they? No they did not. Not one sentence in Church historical writings mentions that church repenting.
In my long association with churches I would say that this Revelation verse has been applied mainly in gospel preaching. People are asked to open the door of their heart/life to ask Jesus in as Lord and Saviour of their lives to be saved. His voice is heard in the convicting power of the gospel message. Many people have been saved through this verse.
Although its one interpretation is not to gospel preaching, God has been pleased to use it that way also.
The interpretation is to Christians, and to those who have not been walking the straight path, fallen into sin, become complacent in their lives, have a weak testimony, have a need of repentance, have let the Lord down, and the side down.
These are the ones who need to respond and invite the Lord Jesus Christ into their individual lives – for the verse say “anyone” not ALL – so the Lord does not expect a mass turning from the sinful mob, but the individuals who are hearing His voice. These are the ones He is knocking for.
QUESTION 3. We come to why Jesus would be holding a lantern as The Light of the World. {{John 8:12 Again therefore Jesus spoke to them saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.”}}. People who have neglected the Lord and shut Him out are not walking in light; rather in darkness, even as a sinful Christian. A carnal Christian who has stumbled and is not repenting, will keep on stumbling because he does not have the Light of the World to guide him/her.
When we see light on a subject, then we understand that item or painting in its glory, otherwise it is shrouded in gloom. When we look upon the Light of the World and see his glory then it is great joy and the light enhances His beauty. It is a lovely concept Holman Hunt used.
The end of verse 20 is about dining – “dine with him, and he with Me”. Dining is fellowship and communion. That is exactly what the Lord desired with the Laodicean church but the Lord was rejected. To dine over a meal is to share thoughts and ideas and experiences, and to grow with another person. We can do that with the Lord and this is what it is all about.
[[H]]. BLESSINGS OF THE OVERCOMER
{{Revelation 3:21 “He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me ON MY THRONE, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father ON HIS THRONE.”}}
The verse begins with the CONDITION, and then follows the POSITION. The condition, the only one that is acceptable, is to be an overcomer. How can we be overcomers and what does it mean?
A good deal of the answer lies in the middle part of the verse where Jesus said, “as I also overcame,” so that is what we examine.
All through His ministry and life on this earth, Jesus had to overcome opposition and anger from the devil’s agents. His enemies were many but the Lord overcame, and we come back to this word “abide” again. Consider this verse – {{John 10:38 “but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I IN THE FATHER.”}}.
The Lord was reliant on the Father every second of the day and night even though He was God manifest in the flesh. It is not always an easy concept to explain but the underlying fact is that Jesus lived here on earth in the power of the Father and the Holy Spirit though He was God manifest in flesh.
We are in a very similar position. Christ is in us and we are in Christ, and the overcoming power of that is inherent, UNLESS we sidestep that and become self-sufficient and arrogant and greedy, and complacent, and lukewarm. Our walk must be based in continuing faith and reliance in the Father. I believe the secret of the overcomer is based in the Ephesian passage, and I am sure that applied to the Lord who overcame - Ephesians 6:13-18.
What does it mean to sit with Christ on His throne? The AV has “in My throne,” but the better translation is “on” as most versions use. I am placing a quotation from The Pulpit Commentary here as its aspect, and leaving it at that, because this is not a serious delving into this slightly problematic verse (This Commentary accepts the preposition “in” rather than “on”) -
[[ (1). The position promised to the conqueror, "in my throne;"
(2). The two thrones mentioned.
(1). Note the expression, "in my throne" (not ?p?, but ?? t? ?????), which occurs nowhere else. The mother of James and John had requested for them a place on the right hand and the left of our Lord - the highest dignity which she could conceive. The twelve apostles are promised to sit on twelve thrones, to judge the tribes of Israel. But Christ offers a yet higher honour, viz. to sit in his throne; placing us in the closest relationship with himself, and exalting us to his own glory.
(2). The throne promised is not that which Christ now occupies with his Father, but his own. Christ is now sitting on his Father's throne, mediating for his Church on earth, and waiting till his enemies be made his footstool (Psalm 110:1). To that throne there is no admission for humanity, though Christ shares it in virtue of his Godhead. But when his enemies have been made his footstool, and death, the last enemy, is destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:26), and the necessity for his mediation exists no longer, since the Church militant will have become the Church triumphant, rhea [I think this might be “then”] will be erected Christ's own throne, which glorified man may share in common with him who was man, and who has so exalted humanity as to render such a condition and such a position possible. Revelation 3:21 ]]
[[I]]. LISTEN TO WHAT THE HOLY SPIRIT IS TELLING YOU
{{Revelation 3:22 “He who has an ear, LET HIM HEAR what the Spirit says to the churches.”}}
This verse is such an important one that it is repeated at the end of every letter to the seven churches. It is the Lord’s appeal to those in the churches to take note of what is being said. Also it is a confirmation that the bible is written through the Holy Spirit’s inspiration. John wrote, but he was just the agent. It was the Spirit of God who really wrote.
Those who think they can pick and choose sections from the bible as do those churches which claim the bible contains the word of God, those liberals, are blaspheming the Holy Spirit by dismissing what He wrote as irrelevant.
The verse begins with “He who has an ear,” and that is another way of saying “everyone” for the message is to everyone in the churches. You may have an ear, but it can be deaf. You may have an ear but it is shut off. An ear that hears but refuses, is absent from God. An ear that hears and obeys is attentive to God in obedience.
I have mentioned Jeremiah already but there are two verses there that strongly apply to the Laodicean church. They apply in fact to everyone but as we are looking at Laodicea, this is most applicable to them:-
{{Jeremiah 6:10 “To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? BEHOLD, THEIR EARS ARE CLOSED, and they cannot listen. Behold, THE WORD OF THE LORD HAS BECOME A REPROACH TO THEM. THEY HAVE NO DELIGHT IN IT.”}}. Laodicea shut its ears because those in that church were too content with their carnality and complacency. They were rich and needed nothing – not even God.
{{Jeremiah 17:23 “Yet THEY DID NOT LISTEN OR INCLINE THEIR EARS, but stiffened their necks in order not to listen or take CORRECTION.”}}. Jeremiah is speaking about profaning the Sabbath and ignoring God’s warnings. However the message is likewise fitting for this carnal church for they were profaning the Name of the Lord. They would not listen, nor did they want to be corrected or reproved or rebuked. Their necks were stiff like they were wearing neck braces. They had ears but did not want to hear.
Jesus, more than once, made a similar statement to the Revelation verse such as this one – {{Matthew 11:15 “He who has ears to hear, let him hear,”}} and this one – {{Matthew 13:43 “Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”}}
Ears and hearing feature considerably in the Old Testament and the New. The Lord knew this would be a problem because of the stubbornness of the human heart that refuses to listen. So too, the modern church.
That is the end of the message to Laodicea with all the problems they had. With all these churches, the messages matched the historical periods, and Laodicea matches the last period of the church age. That is what we will look at next.
======================================================
