So Where Does That Leave Us?
Last time we took a look back at the letters to the churches at Ephesus and Smyrna. This time we’ll reflect back on Jesus’ messages to the next five; Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.
Let’s begin with a very appropriate and timely message for America.
To Pergamos – The Worldly Church
During the Roman period the church at Pergamos (which means marriage) was guilty of following the “doctrine of Balaam.” A doctrine of corruption found in the church marrying the world, with the result of godly things being used for the advantage of the world as instituted by Constantine. It ultimately resulted in a pagan version of Christianity, which became the official religion of Rome. Pagan temples became churches and pagan priests became clergy.
What was happening in Pergamos was the church trying to be all things to all people, and as such they were tolerating those who held those worldly views, allowing them to infiltrate the church and bring corruption into the body of Christ. Mixing the things of the world with the church was compromising the message and ministry of the church. Jesus condemned those that followed that doctrine and He also charged the church with tolerating them in its midst; compromising their purpose.
Jesus made it clear in this letter that His bride must say no to those who would become part of her that are not committed to Him. The bride must remain separate from the materialistic philosophy of the world, for if she marries the world she can’t keep the integrity of her faith.
What is the doctrine of Balaam? It’s joining with the world and adopting its ways. It’s seeking political change when the world seems upside down rather than first and foremost standing for the one and only One who can truly change it. It’s desiring to become a part of the world to make our voice heard. We have been called to a higher purpose and our strength is not of this world. We don’t have the same values and when we compromise ours we’re entering into a marriage with the world when we are betrothed to the King of Kings.
If we’re going to make a difference in the world around us we first have to determine to be different. We can’t allow circumstances or situations force us to compromise. Paul told us not to form binding relationships with unbelievers and that goes for the world in general (2Cor 6:14). We need to be active witnesses for Jesus to the non-believing world around us but that won’t happen if we compromise our faith for the sake of comfort; avoiding confrontation and persecution. If we do, it’s the first step in allowing the world to enter into the church, and like the church at Pergamos we will be more influenced by the world than we are likely to influence it.
To Thyatira – The Unrepentant Church
The church at Thyatira was associated with “that woman Jezebel.” Her pagan practices were the precursor of the Dark Ages; the idolatry, graven images and adoration of saints and exaltation of Mary found in the Roman church. Its sole purpose was to combine the church with the world to gain power.
Sadly we see this happening in churches in America today. There is something mysterious and beguiling in riches and power that makes people do things that are totally inconsistent with the Christian life. We only need to consider the issues of materialism, fornication, divorce, abortion and homosexuality; it all goes downhill from there. Unfortunately, in today’s world many a worldly Christian has been allowed into leadership, bringing with them a false and evil doctrine as the direct result of money and/or charisma. There were those in Thyatira that were enchanted by Jezebel’s “deep” understanding and were led astray. More than once throughout history the church and the world have been awed by someone’s mysterious teachings.
This is a challenge the bride of Christ faces in America today. The spirit of Jezebel hasn’t gone away and it has only become more powerful down through the ages. Jezebel has always been about, and will always be about, compromising our Christianity for the riches, comfort, pleasures and “you fill in the blank.”
Jezebel speaks of those who talk more about commercial success than they do about the claims of Christ. The Christians at Thyatira faced temptations that were tied to their skills; how they supported their families. They were up against false teachings and social pressure from their workplace; participate or suffer the loss of work. We can take a lesson here and be reminded that the strongest challenge to the church does not occur in the public places; rather it’s where we earn our money in order to survive. Under those circumstances then it’s fair to ask the question—how are we to survive?
We need to see our daily lives in the bigger perspective and keep our integrity and faith intact. If we worship our job—putting it in front of our Christianity—then we are asking too much from it and not enough from God. He has to be— must be—the first and only source in our life. The moment we put our hope, trust, confidence and faith in man or the world we are certain to fail. All these things that take our minds and hearts off of Jesus are the idols of Jezebel.
The error of Thyatira is possible today. We can also have idols. We can look to a person or a church program and put our hope and trust in that person or that structure. How many times have we seen a leader arise with some “special revelation from God,” some “deeper understanding” that the church doesn’t know or comprehend? How many times have we seen His bride become “beguiled “and follow after them, sacrificing their relationship—their marriage— with Jesus; leaning on their own understanding and not Him?
Every day as His bride we are either getting better or getting worse; there are only two alternatives sitting before us. We will either choose to become more like our bridegroom or we won’t. There isn’t an option to “stand still;” stand pat where we are. Either we listen to the call of Jezebel and compromise or we listen to the words of Jesus and hold fast to what we have until He comes!
To Sardis – The Dying Church
To the church at Sardis Jesus proclaimed, “You have a name but are dead.” This is the period of the protestant reformation when the church at Rome had become intolerable. Much of the pagan ritual was done away with but the church never recovered its sound doctrine, its foundation; the second coming of Christ.
The question is how did such a vital, spirit-filled church die? The citizens of Sardis were living off past fame and so was the church. Their loyalty and service to Christ was in the past; spiritually they had died. The church didn’t die from persecution for a church can’t be killed from the outside, it only happens from within. The greater the church is persecuted the stronger it becomes and the larger it grows. Sardis did have some who were alive but they were surrounded by those who were dead; who had become nothing better than hypocrites.
A church dies when its individual members die and when it relies on its past reputation; complacency and overconfidence. It dies when sin is allowed to abound. Many go around wearing soiled garments and beneath their outward reputation is secret, unconfessed sin, which ultimately leads to relaxed moral standards in the church. But most importantly a church dies when there is a lack of spiritual sensitivity; when the bride fails to sense her own spiritual condition.
Nowhere is there a better example of the melancholy contrast between past splendor and present decay than the church at Sardis. This letter is a searching message to the churches and Christians today that are full of activity and housed in beautiful buildings but are so often lacking in any real evidence of the life of Christ; the Holy Spirit is ignored and even locked out. Christ’s Word today is just as pertinent as it was to the church in Sardis. When we take a position that is counter to the Word of God and choose to go our own way in opposition to it and continue down that road and fail to repent day after day, month after month and year after year there will be a price to pay.
Now let’s consider what Jesus had to say to the churches at Philadelphia and Laodicea; the two end-time churches.
To Philadelphia – The Serving Church
The church at Philadelphia represented the “open door.” This was the age of missionary revival; the time of Finney, Whitefield, Spurgeon and Moody. The bride returned to her true mission of loving and serving God and its fellow man.
We need to remember that there is a missionary door for every believer that Jesus will open, and we don’t have to go to Africa to find it. That door is at home or in the office; anywhere within the circle in which we move every day. They are doors that no man can shut, no matter how hard they may try. If the Lord opens it, it stays open until He decides to close it. To the Philadelphians this meant those who called themselves Jews (Jesus said they were not) that were trying to shut the door on Christianity. He is saying to the church today that no one can shut the door He has opened, especially those who say they are Christians and are not.
Jesus commended Philadelphia because in their “little strength” they rested solely in His power and kept His Word, unlike the church at Sardis. He doesn’t ask us or expect us to open heavy doors. All He wants is for us to just walk through those He opens; a task that isn’t hard in His power. God isn’t looking for or calling for super Christians, just the garden variety who are experiencing His love in their own lives and are willing to share it. When the world sees this type of love (agape) in the true church (the bride) the doors will swing wide open; the world is starved for this kind of love
We would do well to consider this church as it represents one of the two end time churches. Philadelphia is the church of the rapture. They were a missionary church that understood the power of the gospel and the admonition to spread it among those living in an unbelieving world. They understood that their task was simply to share the gospel and trust in God to provide the convicted heart and the power to restore. It’s our weakness and His faithfulness that provides the platform for the power of the Spirit of God to touch the hearts of others. This is the church—the bride—He is coming back for.
To Laodicea – The Apostate Church
The church at Laodicea represents the other church of the last days’ the “lukewarm” church. This is the church that precedes the rapture of the bride of Christ. This is the church that is poor, wretched and blind; filled with cults and strange theology. It is the church that tries to be both “in” the world and “of” the world. It is neither hot enough to use nor cold enough to heat up—neither pagans nor Christians; neither good nor evil; neither led by false doctrine nor addicted to the true Word of God.
The real problem was not simply their indifference but their ignorance of their real condition. The spirit in the world had crept into the church and paralyzed them, causing them to totally misread their true condition. This is the mistake so often made by those who have an abundance of the world’s goods. When they make a profession of religion they assume that they are well off in everything and are complacent and happy. The problem is that having a great deal of wealth by an individual or a church is more likely to produce the same lukewarmness that existed in Laodicea; the very state of affairs that Jesus said was disgusting and abhorrent.
In all respects their material needs were satisfied. They felt they had enough of everything, which resulted in contentment, complacency and indifference toward their spiritual needs. As it was then it still is today, those who are rich in this world’s goods often feel that they don’t need anything. It’s an illusion among people here in America that if one can just attain wealth he will have everything. They believe there isn’t any need that can’t be met with wealth; they can just sit down in pleasure and rest. Hence we have a pull from the world that encourages putting wealth ahead of everything else; the search for personal peace and comfort.
The Laodiceans had become lukewarm because they were blinded by their own self-confidence; self-confidence that had turned them into spiritually empty vessels. They had overestimated their own wealth far too long and the only thing that was going to change that perception was the hard shock of reality; a shock that Jesus gave them. They needed to be told the difference between the state they were in and the state they should be in because they were incapable of seeing it.
Here we have the bride who slumbers in her chamber and when her lover knocks she is slow to rise from her comfort. By the time she opens the door he is gone and she cries out for him but can’t find him. With Jesus on the outside there can be no fellowship or as He showed to the Laodiceans, no true wealth. He is knocking on the door to His brides’ heart—not the door to some stranger who doesn’t know Him.
Jesus desires to be admitted to our friendship but He recognizes our free will and will not force admission into our heart. If we open the door He comes in and dwells with us but if we don’t answer He turns quietly away; maybe to return and maybe not. Like the bride in Solomon’s song, perhaps when we get around to rising out of our comfort (our slumber) and open the door He may be gone. The spiritual state of the bride between waking and sleeping, being slow to open the door to her divine lover, speaks to the lukewarm church and the lukewarm believer.
Tragically there are people who go to church all their lives but never hear the message. They never deal with the issues of sin and repentance—to them there is a heaven to gain but no hell to shun. The only cure for a lukewarm Christian—a lukewarm bride—is readmitting the one they have excluded; the Holy Spirit.
Some Closing Thoughts
Let not the bride in America become today’s Laodicean church, the end time apostate church; the church that forsakes Jesus. Let her rather be the True church at Philadelphia, the overcoming and victorious church He is coming to take away. Let that also be the goal of each of us who claim to be the bride of Christ. If we will, the “very best” is just around the corner… irrespective of what man, the government or the world says to the contrary.
We are betrothed to the Creator and King of the universe. In His eyes we are altogether beautiful, pure, chaste and perfect. We need to begin seeing ourselves through His eyes and become all that He created us to be. Those lost in the world need us and Jesus needs us to be ready, willing and able to take His gospel to them through His opened doors. But we need to remember that just as He will not force His way into our “bed chamber” He will not force us to walk through the doors He opens. And therein lays one of the perils facing the bride of Christ in America today.
If she fails in her duty to rise up and follow Jesus through the open doors she will not only miss out on the blessing of sharing the gospel now, she will miss out on the rewards He has waiting for her in eternity. Let’s all commit ourselves to spending our days and nights at the feet of our bridegroom and learn all we can about Him and prepare for His soon return while there is still time.
The bride in her betrothal period constantly sews on her bridal gown so that it is without spot, wrinkle or blemish. She has His promise that He will return and now it’s her duty to make herself ready. We have Jesus promise to return for us in our salvation (our inward righteousness in Him), and now in our betrothal (our sanctification) we are to be working on our bridal gown (our outward righteousness). That simply means becoming all He created us to be, which we can only accomplish by spending time with Him, getting to know Him, trusting Him and learning all about Him.
We have a choice to make—Laodicea of Philadelphia. The road to Philadelphia is where we’ll find Jesus and find out who we really are. Let’s don’t waste a minute on the wrong road. If we do it’s at our own peril.