His Perfect Love

Guest (Male): Coming up today on His Perfect Love.

Matt VanderVen: Please understand, this isn't my heart to browbeat anybody, but we need to talk about these things and we need to be very honest with each other. One foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom is not a design by Jesus Christ. It means neutrality. It speaks to being undecided. And you know what else it speaks to being? Uncommitted. There's no halfway or middle ground in our commitment and decision for Jesus Christ. He is not in the time share business, right? Right? He He wants all of our hearts and we want all of his.

That makes sense?

Guest (Male): One foot in the world and one in the kingdom of God. That would describe the church of Laodicea. And very sadly, many churches today. They were neutral, undecided, and uncommitted. And the Lord has something to share with them that we do well to pay heed to. Today on His Perfect Love, we continue our study in Revelation. And this week, the focus is on the church of Laodicea in chapter three. Now, Jesus makes it very clear their lukewarmness was a real problem that needed to be addressed. Here is Pastor Matt VanderVen.

Matt VanderVen: Well, I'd like to begin again in verse 14. I know we covered this. I promised not to spend an hour on this verse again here this morning, but maybe just a moment to remind ourselves in context, Jesus is not just writing to any church. He's specifically writing to the Laodicean church, okay? And he knows everything about these men and women that are in this church of Laodicea. He says into the angel to the church of the Laodiceans. So, that's anglos, the angel that's what that word means in the Greek. It's the messenger. Again, it could be used for John the Baptist, which it was, or it can also be used for any pastor that way.

It certainly can be used for an angel in heaven, but we believe he's speaking to the pastor of that church. And he says these things says the amen. The faithful and true witness. Notice that with me. The definite article, the amen. The faithful and true witness. Notice that it's this faithful and true witness that uses a kai, which is a conjunction. There's a Granville Sharp rule in the Greek which says that when you tie two different objects like that together. So, when I say faithful and true witness, they become one and they're inseparable. You can't separate them out or separate them from each other within the Greek.

So, he's not the faithful. And oh, by the way, you know, a true witness. No, he's faithful and the true witness and you cannot separate either one of those attributes out from Jesus. He goes on to say the beginning of the creation of God. Now, some have tried to read this and say, oh, you see Jesus is a created being and it's led to cult-like beliefs, the Mormons and others that have said, oh, he's the brother of Lucifer, this, that, and the other. We've talked about that. That is not what this is saying. What this is saying is that Jesus is the author of all creation, right?

He's the beginning of all creation. Everything began through Jesus Christ. It's very simple. He meant what he said and he said what he meant. And then in verse 15, he goes on to say, I know your works. Again, as he had in other churches, he's spoken to them very intimate God, very aware of every hair on our head, that you are neither cold nor hot. And again, that strange language. We don't necessarily talk like that anymore. Well, you're kind of cold today unless somebody's being heartless maybe or you're kind of hot, man. You're on fire, but we don't really say you're you're neither cold nor hot.

I I could wish you were cold or hot. So then because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. This is very very strong language what he's saying here this morning. We have to remember something physiologically, right? Vomiting. I I know we don't like to talk about that, especially cuz we're probably an hour and a half to whatever to lunch here. So, we're kind of close, but I I think we need to talk about this physiologically for a minute. There's nothing natural about throwing up or vomiting, okay?

It's really a last course of the body. It's kind of like a reverse engine. You know, everything needs to reverse direction. It's going to come out in an area and way it's never meant to, but the body does that when there's an extreme cause. If there's something that you take and eat that's maybe not healthy or good or maybe something's wrong with it. It's tainted or become toxic to your system. Your body has a natural inclination is the way God has designed it to get rid of that toxin out of your body so that it doesn't continue to go into your bloodstream and cause sepsis, right?

Make you seriously very ill. And it's amazing how the body desires to do that to bring those things up that that do not belong, okay? So, clearly here he's telling us and he begins with I know your works. So, something with the works is drawn Jesus to this point of where he's coming out and he's saying something so strong that he says, look, you're neither hot nor cold. Quite frankly, you're making me sick to my stomach and I want to vomit you out. I mean, we don't hear Jesus speak that way often. It's a very strong statement.

In the Greek, this word work again is Aragon. You can see it on the screen there. It's G20 41. It's It literally The etymology of this work is akin to deed and act. He said and used this word in other churches. Um, it's used in the sense that the idea of a Christian working emphasizing opposed to I guess that's what what would be less than work that way. Jesus in context is committing that he sees all of the works and all of the deeds of the Laodiceans. He's not ignorant that they have or have not been about their father's business, our father's business, his father's business.

And Jesus frequently equates the deeds of a person with their true spiritual state. After all, he told us in Matthew chapter 7 verses 16 through 17, by their fruit you will recognize them. And every good tree bears fruit. Now, I want to stand here this morning and I want to be careful because I don't want us walking out of here going, oh man, I'm not saved. Have you ever gone to an orchard? Sure, many of you have. You've seen an apple tree, a pear tree, or some other kind of tree that way. And it's very common to see a very beautiful tree with a lot of fruit on it and it looks very healthy, but every once in a while and you 'll see a tree that has maybe one bad apple or something that is just really not healthy with it.

Maybe a worm's got into it or it's begun to break down or something. We don't turn around and look at that whole tree and go, well, that's a rotten tree. Do we? No, we say oh, well, that's a rotten what? Piece of fruit. And Jesus will often use that conviction in our lives that we could be producing we're fruit trees. We're producing fruit. We're born again, but maybe there's just something in our lives that 's not lining up with the scriptures that Jesus wants to bring to our attention to say repentance through conviction. Repentance is needed here.

So, before we turn around and go, oh man, I 'm not born again. I'm not saved. What's What's put on the brakes. Let's be biblical about this in the spiritual state of what he's saying in Matthew 7, much as like what he spoke to all of Israel. He basically went up to them and he said from the outward, you look like you're all fruit, but when I get up close enough, you're all leaves and no fruit. Is that not the very words he actually said? You are leaves and no fruit. The idea of you at this season, this should time should be a harvest, something that you could come and take from.

Do you remember the tree where there was no fruit and he cursed it and it withered? Because Israel was supposed to be his chosen people. They are. And as his chosen people, they are to be representative to the nations around them. They're They're the salt and light. We're the body of Christ. Matthew 28, we are his ambassadors. We are to go therefore. And so, what he is telling the Laodiceans here in context is he says I'm looking at everything. And boy, you you're really good at speaking Christian ease. You're fluent in Christian ease. You can speak all the right things, say all the right things.

Your church attendance, boy, it's extraordinary. It's wonderful. The problem is is I get up close to you and I examine the fruit and only certainly Jesus can do that. He's the only one that can judge the heart. He begins to look at them and say, no, you're neither hot nor cold. You're lukewarm. I want you to understand just how improbable and how difficult that actually is. What he's saying is it's like one person saying I have one foot foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom of God and I 'm straddling that. That's really really difficult to do because they're in such opposites or inverse relationships of themselves in according to the word of God.

Clearly the lukewarm deeds here as we're reading the the Laodiceans were not in keeping with true salvation. And that's what he's trying to point out to us and to them. The deeds of the true believer will be hot or cold. That is they will benefit the world in some way and reflect the spiritual passion of a transformed life or a life transformed. Lukewarm deeds, however, if we're being specific, if I could define some of that for you as we'd find it in scripture, are those that maybe are done without joy, going through and experiencing trials without joy, without love.

After all, he's told us to have love in all things. Without the fire of the spirit to do harm to the watching world, to acknowledge that the world is watching us. Just yesterday, I was running and someone turned as uh I was on the path and I was running in the morning and someone said Matt and I I didn't recognize I'm turning, I'm running. I look back and somebody says, you don't know me. And I was just recounted going, wow, you know, I don't think we realize as human beings how many people are really watching us at any one time.

And that we are a witness to a lost and dying world of Jesus Christ, a true ambassador. It doesn't matter where you go or what you're doing, the grocery store, different places. People can walk hi, you know, Susie, Billy, Jimmy, you know, and I'm running and my head's down. I'm not even I don't even To be transparent, it might have been one of you and I apologize if it was and I didn't recognize you. In that moment, I am trying to breathe, right? Just running. But the reality is is other people are what always watching.

And that's what he also wanted the Laodiceans to realize. This is very important because this church is to be a beacon of light, okay? The lukewarm are those who claim to know God but live as though he didn't exist. They may go to church and practice a form of religion, but their interstate is one of self-righteousness and complacency that never ends well for anyone. They claim to be Christians, but their hearts are unchanged and their hypocrisy or that word hypocrite in the Greek, it means one to play the actor. It It's not the way we would use it today.

I mean, I guess some might say, okay, that's playing the actor, but the true sense of it would be when you went to a theater and you would put up one face and you would take it off when somebody was performing. And that was the idea of what the hypocrisy of the Laodiceans did. What did it make Jesus? It sickened him to the point of vomiting. Now, that makes sense when you think about it because their eastern neighbor, right? We talked about this in our introduction last week, Colossae. About 9 to 10 miles away. It had this beautiful spring, refreshing uh power of cold water that, you know, was piped beneath the scorching sun through an aqueduct several miles away, right?

Beautiful beautiful. But this 9 or 10 miles that this would travel through the heat of the sun and everything else would begin to heat that water and that would spoil over a long uh journey like that. And then what happens is it would have to drop some almost 300 ft from where it originally started cuz as again gravity fed, right? They didn't have pumps and things like that like we would today. So, almost all of it was gravity fed at that time. So, 300 ft going down. So, yes, it's getting deeper, but it was so warm by the time it had gotten that far down that it was hot.

And by the time it finished going cuz it did cool a little bit, guess what it would be? Luke. Warm, tepid. Have you ever heard somebody say, boy, I could just really use a refreshing glass of lukewarm water? I don't know. Maybe that's you. Maybe you've said that. Most people do not say that. They either want something warm or cold, right? No. No. Jesus was very clearly calling them out for this. So, by the time it reached Laodicea, it was neither hot nor cold. Can you imagine this letter being read openly like we are here this morning to the Laodicean church?

And they're sitting there and they're hearing this. They know Jesus knows them intimately because he's revealing things that only would have been matter of fact to them. He's speaking right to their heart. The other aspect of it, why would people go to Laodicea to even get that kind of water and why would it be known for some of the springs? Cuz it was very mineral rich. Remember some of the pictures I showed you last week with the minerals and the salts and Well, it was so mineral rich. Well, if you take too much mineral and you put it in the water, just like, you know, sometimes I think we always think in America more is always better, right?

Right? Wrong. Right? You may enjoy uh a nice piece of food, whatever that might be, but you continue to be gluttonous and eat more and more of that. Eventually, your stomach will bring you to the point of where you will want to vomit, right? So, the idea here is the minerals were so strong and so rich in this area that when it mixed with that tempered water, it actually became used for medicinal purposes that when they wanted someone to throw up because maybe they had something they had ingested something that was not good, they would actually give someone Laodicean water.

They actually would bottle it. They would give it to Laodicean water and they would give that to somebody in a clinic and they would drink it. Well, we use this charcoal today in the hospitals. They would drink that and it would induce this vomiting. So, can you imagine as he's talking about this, that's what they're known for. I mean, their medical community is well respected around the whole world. They have this Laodicean water. This is what it does. And he says, yeah, you're neither hot nor cold. You're right. You're lukewarm. Oh yeah, you've made the map.

You're on the map, absolutely. But you're spiritually bankrupt. You You're literally to the point where you're sick. You've become like that water. It's not refreshing. It's not cold nor hot. It's for nothing. You've become sickening. It was widely known that that city's lukewarm mineral laden water was suitable only as a means to induce vomiting. Now, in a very clear way that even in the other six letters we read, Jesus is so just strong. I mean, yes, he uses some metaphorical language, but mostly it's direct into the point. And I'm thankful that Jesus does this. I don't know about you.

Some of you may uh not appreciate this. As a New Yorker, right? Someone that was from New York originally, I always enjoyed the fact that I could walk into a meeting. You know, I had the privilege to travel many of the states around the United States. Been several business meetings in different uh hosted a different client sites, different places like that. And one of the things that was always interesting is as I was go further down south. I don't know if any of you have experienced this and this isn't an aqua people down south, just my experience, that as I was going down south and I'd be in a board meeting or or just a business meeting.

Forgive me. Let me just say it that way. If I'm in a business meeting and I am talking about something and I I want to know if you understand what am I Do you know what I mean? And what will you all do to relay that back? What would you do? I see some of you doing it already. You nod your head. You're saying yes, I'm following you. And then if I get to the point where I 'm kind of saying and this is what I believe we agree on and and and normally you would say, yeah, I agree with you or no, I don't agree with you, right?

It's pretty much general expression, right? New Yorkers were kind of direct about that. It You usually don't walk out of one of those uh uh meetings going, you know, did I get that right or did I get it wrong? You kind of know where you stand and it's a it's sort of a refreshing thing actually cuz you don't have to worry about what a New Yorker thinks of you. Uh you don't have to know where you stand. You pretty much know and it's a pretty clear thing and I 'm super grateful that Jesus is just like that.

Now, down south a lot of times I would go in those meetings and I would come out and I would I I was on a technical team. I would turn around and hand some of those things off technically and uh I would think we're good, right? And you know, everybody understood, but what they were really telling me was that they were listening, but they didn't necessarily agree. Well, that was really confusing because I think we're at one part of the negotiation or deal and they're in a totally different part of the You could see where you'd walk out of there going, that's a head scratching moment.

Maybe even some confusion. Never with Jesus. Jesus is never the author of confusion. That's one of the ways we know him in his spirit. There is no confusion. God doesn't work in confusion. So, he uses very clear strong language to the Laodiceans. He's saying that, look, this worthless water supplied. He describes it as useless. And the fact is it makes him sick. Anybody here confused about that this morning? No? Are you with me? Yeah? Okay, good. We can Okay, good. The main issue Jesus had against this church was what? Was it their doctrine as we read in the other churches?

Was it necessarily their behavior? No. Was their lukewarmness? Jesus's language indicates that being lukewarm is worse than being totally cold. Now, on the surface, this might seem a contrast. This contrast might seem strange to you and I, right? Certainly being lukewarm in relationship to Jesus is worse than being totally hot, but wouldn't a mixture of at least some hot or cold be better than being totally cold, right? I don't know how many of you are familiar with what a mixing valve is. You know, we use them in sinks. Every time you go to a restaurant or a public restroom, by code, they're required to put mixing valves either on a central hot water heater or on each fixture.

Why? So that you don't as a customer of that establishment walk up, turn the hot water on or have your young child do that and put your hand under the water and get what? Scalded. So, they set a mixing valve that's typically at 110 to 120° no hotter than that, right? Unless it's in the back kitchen that's used for sanitation. There's reasons these things are put in place, right? To protect and to help and to serve. It's the same with our spiritual walk with Christ, right? Examination of what Christ means by hot and cold and lukewarm indicates that it is not the case here.

Like they're lukewarm. There's no question that Jesus is going well. I'm sort of confused or they should be sort of confused. There There is no confusion on this. Nobody's confused. They knew where they stood. Jesus knew where they stood and Jesus is calling them out on it and he doesn't work again in generalities. He's a very specific God. He knows every hair on our head. It appears Christ used the term hot to refer to what? As we're going to continue to read, he's using the term to refer to true believers. Those who have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit and therefore possess a genuine spiritual life that gives them a zeal, a passion for Jesus Christ.

One foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom. To straddle those lines means to be neutral. We don't want to think of it that way. I know there's some here this morning and and and please understand this isn't my heart to browbeat anybody, but we need to talk about these things and we need to be very honest with each other. One foot in the one one foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom is not a design by Jesus Christ. It means neutrality. It speaks to being undecided. And you know what else it speaks to being?

Uncommitted. There's no halfway or middle ground in our commitment and decision for Jesus Christ. He is not in the time share business, right? Right? He He wants all of our hearts and we want all of his. That makes sense? The Laodicean Christians were complacent and indifferent to their relationship with Jesus and Jesus alone. And as a result, they left the ineffective um that left them ineffective, excuse me, to reach the lost. After all, what is the church supposed to be again? What are you Christians supposed to be? A beacon of light. And so, what did Jesus say about salt?

Do you remember he says when salt has lost its seasoning, it's not really good for anything but to be what? Trampled under the foot of men. So, it's to be cast out and walked upon. It It serves no other purpose cuz you can't reseason salt. Did you ever take some salt at the table and go, boy, I understand there's different kinds of salt. Please, I know somebody's going to go but wait a minute, pastor. You know, if I use mineral salt just compared to using Himalayan salt, I understand. Forgive me. I'm using the best analogy I can here.

If I just take salt alone and I put it on the table and it's table salt and you put a little bit of that in your food, okay? And uh you might look at it and you're like, well, no, I don't really taste the salt. There's not a lot of salt. This food wasn't really seasoned. You have to turn around and add more salt. You don't come to the original salt and go, I need to season this salt to make it saltier, do you? Every one of us understands that. We all know that we have to add more salt.

We can't reseason the existing salt we have. So, what he's communicating to us here is the same thing, that either we are in the kingdom of God, we are committed to Jesus and that is just absolutely all about our lives and we are effective to reach the lost because when we are not committed with one foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom, there are so many things that our time, our attention and begin to pull us in different directions. Sometimes in the world, sometimes in the kingdom. And what that eventually does, have you ever had somebody play tug of war with you?

Who loses? Do either side or does the person that's ripped into? You can't have a duality, right? You can't have a duality that way. It's very important what he's saying there. They became ineffective to reach the lost. The whole point of what the church was supposed to be. The whole point of what a Christian If you're alive and you're here this morning, the only reason you're still alive and I'm not trying to oversimplify this, please hear me, is because God is not done with you yet and he has a plan for your life and it all revolves around him, reaching others with the gospel, being discipled and reproducing.

Your whole existence revolves around one of those three or four things. That's really why you're here. Otherwise, he would have brought you home already. Your work would be done. But you're here because he enjoys utilizing his vessels.

Guest (Male): Pastor Matt VanderVen on His Perfect Love. Thanks for taking part in today's study of Revelation, a book that comes with a blessing attached to those that read and study it. If you were blessed and encouraged by the Lord, we'd like to know. Email us while it's fresh on your mind. They're at our website, his perfect love dot org. Be sure to include your prayer requests. Also at our website, you'll find an archive of these studies in Revelation, making it easy to replay a message you enjoy or catch what you miss on the radio. Again, we're at his perfect love dot org and now at one place dot com as well.

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Calvary Chapel Christian Academy is a non-denominational Christian school that serves students from kindergarten to 12th grade. The Academy's mission is to provide a Christ-centered education that equips students to love God, love others, and serve the world. The Academy offers a rigorous academic curriculum, a variety of extracurricular activities, and a caring and supportive staff. The Academy is located at 28 North Locust Point Road in Mechanicsburg, PA. For more information, please visit our website at cc harrisburg dot org slash Academy. That's cc harrisburg dot org slash Academy. There is much more to come in Revelation. Don't miss a moment of the journey here on His Perfect Love with Pastor Matt.

Guest (Male): His Perfect Love is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore.