Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah and welcome back to the thirteenth part of our study on the Book of Revelation and to the seventh and final congregation in the series of seven, to the city of Laodicea-ad-Lycum, to give it its full name. Of all the seven, this is probably the best known and the passage about it the most often quoted one as a warning about cold-hearted Christianity.

Last sabbath we looked at the penultimate city, Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, named after the brother of the founding king. It was known colloquially aa the 'Little Athens' owning to its numerous pagan temples and civic buildings laid out on either side of beautiful marbled streets. Like other cities of the region, it was vulnerable to earthquakes. The letter from Yah'shua (Jesus) underlines His supreme authority as represented by the all-powerful governmental Key of David. There is trouble from the local synagogue again which has left the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) weakened from persecution, yet they remain faithful. Yah'shua (Jesus) offers them a door into His presence, reversal of status from marginalisation to vindication, and defence in the coming trial or tribulation which at the time is likely confined to the Roman world but with a hint of global tribulation in the far future. The overcomers or conquerors will become 'pillars' or key figures and leaders in the messianic society of the New Jerusalem which we are told, whether literally or metaphorically, will descend from Heaven to earth from Yahweh. Without specifying the forehead or right hand this time, the promise is made that the faithful qodeshim (saints) will receive a New Name to reflect their glorified status in the Kingdom that is to come in its fullness in the future.

So let's get back on the road as we move on to our next destination - our final one in this case. So we arrive at Laodicea from Philadelphia by continuing to travel in a south-easterly direction. The coastal cities of Ephesus and Miletus, lie to the west on the coast about two-thirds of the distance from Sardis as-the-crow-flies which lies at the very geographical centre of the cities, and this completes what we have come to call 'John's Circuit'. Together, if you trace out the road connections between them, they form, more-or-less, the shape of a pair of lips slanted slightly to the right. I am sure people have searched for geometric patterns in the layout of these places on the map though I cannot see any that would have any prophetic significance. Some wishing to emphasise the authority of the Eastern Orthodox Church have even tried to link the island of Patmos as the first in the chain, where John was exiled and where he wrote the Book of Revelation, to form a crude upward-shaped chevron or arrow-head shape pointing in the general direction of the future Constantinople but I think this is just the activity of over-fertile imagination.

In reality, they're probably just two coastal cities (Ephesus and Smyrna), one almost-coastal city (Pergamum) and four inland cities (Thyatira, Sardis, Phladelphia and Laodicea) that just happen to be where they are. Whether each of these would later become bishoprics around which would cluster smaller house groups or larger congregations of believers in the outlying villages and towns is unknown but as we have already seen, even in the cities, these weren't, even by the late 90's, very large congregations, perhaps no more than two or three dozen souls that were constantly being whittled down in numbers owing to persecution (and sometimes martyrdom, like that of Antipas) to be re-enlarged by more converts from evangelism.

It's admittedly tempting to see a pattern of 3+4 cities, 7 being the number of the Melchizedek Priesthood (the fullness) and, and 4 the the number of the Aaronic or Levitical Priesthood (the preparatory or imperfect and covenant). The first four festivals or moedim (appointments) of Messianic Israel, represented by a square (the 4 points of the compass) were fulfilled by Messiah while Messiah was on earth and the last three represented by a triangle (the symbol of heavenly completeness) await His return.

Individually we may therefore be completely saved through emunah (faith) in Messiah and live in that savedness all our lives through daily repentance provided we don't turn away and fall away (the first three spring moedim) (Passover, Unleavened Bread and Firstfruits) and covenant to be Torah-obedient and receive the gift, fire, and baptism of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) in the summer feast (Weeks/Ekatost/'Pentecost'). That is what we have been operating in now for the past 2,000 years as we collectivelty enter the Melchizedek Priesthood, which together with the fulfilled Aaronic/Levitical elements contains the three unfulfilled autumn (fall) festivals and it's final Sukkot or Tabernacles, will bring the Shavu'ot (Weeks/Ekatost/'Pentecost') anointing to completion. The spiritual state of the Laodiciean fellowship indicates how far away the Body of Messiah was (and still is) away from that anointing even through we believe that that anointing will very, very soon come to the commandment-keeping, Messiah-trusting people that the Book of Revelation thrice (three times) points to (Rev.12:17; 14:12; 22:14).

Let us now turn our attention to the history of the city for a few minutes. Laodicea was founded in about 250 BC by the Syrian king Antiochus II who named it after his wife Laodice. It stood on an elevated plane in the Lycus River valley and was located about 6 miles (10 km) south of Hierapolis, itself about 11 miles (18 km) of Colossae (made famous by Paul's letter to that city), and 100 miles (161 km) east of Ephesus, another important witnessing centre (also made famous by Paul's letter there). Major roads converged on Laodicea making it an important thoroughfare or commercial hub.

I suppose you could could compare Laodicea with the modern City of London or New York as it was a banking and financial centre for the whole region as well as having an important textiles industry. It was also, unfortunately, famous for its gladatorial games, one of the savage Roman pasttimes. In AD 60, shortly after Paul's ministry to the region, the city was devastated by an earthquake, but unlike Philadelphia, Laodicea's wealthy inhabitants refused imperial financial assistance for its rebuilding [1]. The city has been extensively excavated and archaeologists have found a stadium, gymnasium, two theatres (one of them is shown in the leading picture above), several churches, and - importantly - a water system which we'll talk more about in a moment. The place is completely ruined and uninhabited, being destroyed in AD 61 and was never rebuilt, though there is a much later Turkish settlement nearby called Denizli.

Like all the Christian/Messianic communities in this region, Laodicea was raised from scratch by the apostle Paul's missionary team, probably during his his lengthy Ephesian ministry (Ac.19:10). The credit for first evangelising the city goes to Paul's colleague Epaphras (Col.4:13). In his letter to Colossae, Laodicea's neighbour to the south-east, Paul encourages both congregations and invites them to exchange the letters he had written to each (Col.4:16). This means that somewhere, assuming it has even survived, there is an 'Epistle of Paul to the Laodicians'. Indeed there must be many more of his epistles which have, alas, not survived unless they are buried in the Vatican Library vaults somewhere or in some other collection. And as much as one might like to speculate about why, if it has survived, it isn't public, wild guessing is the best we can do. Likely it just never survived, along with lots of Paul's other letters. But imagine the treasure we would now have if they had survived. What might they contain that anyone would wish to suppress them? Some pet denominational doctrine overturned in a single Pauline flourish? There, you see how easy it is to invent a conspiracy theory! It is my hope that one day we will find more apostolic writings that will help flesh out early Gospel history even more fully. Better still, in the resurrection we'll be able to sit and listen to the apostle Paul himself recall his life in detail.

By way of one example of a controversy generated by Laodicea, one much discussed verse in Paul's letter to the Colossians has led feministic liberals to speculate that the Laodicean assembly (church) was led by a woman. I think it would be useful to pause for a few minutes to consider what the controversy is here as it's a good illustration of how to, and how not to, intepret Scripture. The New King James Version (NKJV) reads:

"Greet the brethren who are in Laodicea, and Nymphas and the assembly (congregation, church) that is in his house" (Col.4:15, NKJV).

"Give my geertings to the brothers [and sisters] [2] in Laodicea, and to Nypmha and the assembly (church) in her house" (NRSV).

Other modern versions, like the New English Bible (NEB) (one of the earliest, 1961, to do this) follow this trend and the New Living Translation (NLT, 1996), the NEB is at least careful enough to point out that "some witnesses read 'Nymphas and the congregation at his house'", Nymphas being the male form of the female Nympha. You see, there is a manuscript transmission problem because ghe manuscripts that have survived record both versions, including the autoú (his), autés (her) and autón (their) as in 'his/her/their house' versions. In the days before meeting halls, chapels or churches were constructed, the Messianic Community (Church) met almost entirely in people's homes, as with Priscilla and Aquila (Ac.16:15,40; cp.Rom.16:5), in what we would now call 'house churches'.

The Latin-speaking peoples evidently thought this person was a woman, calling her Nympha, and many deduce that she was either a widow or a single woman who made her home available to the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones). Given the wealth of Laodicea this could be quite possible. So the weight of the evidence does seem to me to lean in favour of this being a woman, most likely a rich widow, who generously opened up her house for meetings. It is, however, a huge leap of faith that flies in the face of what we know, to then dogmatically conclude, as one liberal Bible Dictionary does, that "the church at Laodicea [was] led by a woman named Nympha" [3] as though she held a pastoral office of some sort, and without so much as even hinting that alternative explanations might be possible or even more likely.

Most modern conservative translations like the English Standard Version (ESV) concede that Nympha was a woman though earlier conservative versions like the New American Standard Bible (NASB) equivocate and try to find a middle ground, speaking of "their house" (NASB) as opposed to either 'his' or 'her' house. Do you see the problem with translations and why I urge everyone to take the time to dig deeply? Actually, I don't think the NASB is being dishonest in using "their house" for the pure and simple reason that new congregations anciently, as today, often centred around one particular family who made their home available to other worshippers. It's the way we have mostly done it in NCAY in the last 20 years and also the way I believe the underground Messianic Community (Church) will function as it did in those earliest days of persecution. Many contemporary totalitarian societies like China and Russia forbid home assemblies in our own day and in the days of the former Soviet Union believers would meet in cellars, forests and caves.

Personally I believe that the host was a woman called Nympha who volunteered her house of which she was its head in the absence of her husband but it's a huge leap to then claim, as those with a liberal social agenda often to, that Nympha was the local pastor or priestly head at Laodicea which flies in the face of Yahweh's clear instructions elsewhere in Scripture about those eligible for that office. Paul tells Timothy that an Overseer (Pastor or Bishop), like the Deacon, must be married but specifically "the husband of a wife" (1 Tim.3:2; cp. 3:8-13), not 'the wife of a husband', or one or the other. In other words, congregational heads are to be married men, the spiritual fathers of their people. Which is not to say there cannot be spiritual mothers of congregations too, as we teach, though always alongside the fathers as their helpers offering, amongst other things, particular ministry to women.

And whilst I can also see - and whilst we in this ministry accept - that a newly forming fellowship might be unofficially led by a woman in whose house converts were meeting, this would only have been a temporary measure until a trained brother with the pastoral calling was found. Thus would proper tavnith (pattern) have been maintained and the Torah (Law, Instruction) or Yahweh's mitzvot (commandments) not overturned. Our only goal must be truth and faithfulness to the mitzvot (commandments) by which we establish that our love for Messiah is genuine and not merely pretended: "If you love Me," He said, "keep My mitzvot (commandments)" (John 14:15, NKJV), as He kept His Father Yahweh's. So if anyone out there belongs to a church or assembly in which they are officially led by a woman pastor, that assembly is out of order and out of the divine will. Again, that is not to say that a woman isn't capable of standing in the breach when necessary (like Deborah) - the issue isn't about worth or ability, but about divinely assigned gender-rôles. In our fragmented society fathers have to stand in for mothers, and mothers for fathers, as is necessarily, but this can only be a temporary expediency to meet an urgent need. It isn't the natural order. Families should be led by fathers, the way the Creator ordained. Modern social trends may say otherwise but we're not answerable to the cult of contemporary culture today anymore than the ancients were in theirs. The issue here is obedience versus disobedience. Whatever issues the early Laodiceans had - and they had many - gender rôles and questions as to who might or might not lead - wasn't one of them

The wording of Paul's letter makes it clear there were other 'brethren' but does not indicate who was in charge. Certainly, though, the widow Nympha was in charge of her own household, suggesting further that either she had no sons or that her firstborn son, who would have been the de facto head of the family following his father's death, did not live there. She may even have been a successful business woman as Lydia was, the "dealer in purple cloth" who came from another of our seven congregations, Thyatira (Ac.16:14). This is also the Greek world, you will remember, though 40+ years on since Paul arrived and would by now have been more Torah-compliant even though in later years Torah-disobedience would creep in once again. The first leader of the Laodicean assembly was almost certainly its founder, and that is likely to have been Epaphras because of this congregation's close association with ., including Eusebius

With all this information in mind, let's go straight to this afternoon's text:

14 "And to the malak (messenger, 'angel') of the assembly (congregation, church) of the Laodiceans write, 'These things says the Amen (Amein), the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of Elohim (God): 15 I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit ('spew' - RSV, AmpV; 'spit' - NEB, NLT) you out of My mouth. 17 Because you say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy ('and I have grown rich' - HRV) (cp.Rev.2:9), and have need of nothing' -- and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked -- 18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments (cp. Rev.3:5), that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness ('nudity' - AmpV) may not be revealed (cp. Rev.16:5); and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten (Heb.12:7). Therefore be zealous (Gal.4:18; Tit.2:14) and repent. 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 dine with him, and he with Me. 21 To him who overcomes [4] I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Ruach (Spirit) says to the assemblies (congregations, churches)'" (Rev.3:14-22, NKJV).

To understand the sad state of Laodicea and why it so strongly resembles the wealthy West of the second half of the 20th century and on into our own 21st, we need to understand Laodicea's pre-eminence in Phrygia economically. It lay at the centre of both north-to-south and east-to-west trade routes and profited from the regular traffic going through it. Laodicea boasted a fine medical school to which people would come from far off places to train as doctors, specialising in ophthalmology, the healing of the eyes. This was a renowned place for getting hold of a particularly popular eye powder. That is why Yah'shua (Jesus) admonishes the Laodicean believers to "anoint your eyes with salve, that you may see" (v.18) because they had become spiritually blinded by their sense of self-sufficiency, convinced their exceeding great wealth made them 'special', a cut above the others, an attitude not wholly absent from the wealthy businessmen of the West who not infrequently haughtily look down at the poverty of those from the Second and Third worlds in the same way their own super rich look down on their poor. Rich oligarchs everywhere - not just the collapsing West - fall into this Laodicean category.

Indeed they were so wealthy that when Laodicea and several other cities in the Lycus valley were devastated by an earthquake in AD 61, as we saw Philadelphia had been in AD 17 in our previous study, instead of accepting the generous grant from Rome to rebuild, Laodicea refused imperial help. They were determined to rebuild their city themselves. Now admittedly this wasn't just because they felt bad about using Rome's funds when they didn't need to, as any decent, honourable person would, which was likely more incidental than deliberate, but a question of pride. The attitude was, 'we don't need your help, we're stinking rich unlike you other unsuccessful cities, and we don't need anyone's help. We can manage on our own, thank-you-very-much.'

In other words, there was a huge dollup of the 'pride of life' involved here (1 Jn.2:16, NKJV), what the New International Version well translated as "the boasting of what he has and does" (NIV). And this particular malady has badly infected the West today. It's called snobbery and a sense of superiority, a sin which disguises itself in all sorts of ways, as in even your refusing someone's help when the person giving help might be a blessing to themselves and not just to you. We need to be able to give. We can be 'rich' in all sorts of ways, and not just monetarily. And even the physically poor can be 'rich' or 'proud' in any number of different ways. Such pride renders one spiritually blind.

It seems Yahweh addressed this sin directly during the reign of Emperor Domitian (81-96 AD), the first to declare himself a 'god' while still alive, when believers who refused to worship Caesar were denied the right to buy or sell, thus hitting their pride where it hurt the most...in their pockets. They could not trade without receiving the 'mark', a certificate that they had offered incense and proclaimed Caesar as Lord. Many Laodicean Christians/Messianics conmpromised in such a way that the writer of the Book of Revelation must have literally spat them out of His mouth, or worse (Rev.3:16).

Laodicea was famous for something else other than its curative eye-powder. The local farmers had developped a particular breed of black sheep whose wool was of especially fine quality...which would have made it in much demand, expensive and...fashionable, much to the satisfaction of the breeders, of course, who were thereby able to make a decent amount of money. The ladies among you who like to knit probably know a lot more about this than I do (I know one of you likes Lamb's wool a lot) but one kind of wool I remember as a boy was Mohair which a girlfriend of mine (who became my first wife) once knitted into a scarf for me and which I think I might still have somewhere. It is very expensive and warm but, oh, it was so unbearably prickly that I could never wear it against my skin! She was from a wealthy family and so, naturally, was accustomed to using one of the most expensive wools there was around. But it was her first tangible sign of affection to me so for many years it was very special because of that. Shetland was a much sought-after kind of wool when I lived in the United Kingdom and I believe Apaca wool is also much sought after by connoiseurs of that sort of thing.

One fruit of the deadly sin of pride is the love of fashion and showing off ones possessions is a product of wealth. The poor don't usually have that luxury though I do remember when I was young in the Far East seeing some poor people wearing a degutted Parker pen around their necks as a status symbol. Those were the long gone days of the fountain pen. Actually I still use a fountain pen from time to time as they write far more elegantly than the modern biro (ball-point pen) or felt-tip. So unfortunately even the poor can be seduced by the pride of status.

For all its obvious assets, though - lots of money from ready trade, a successful Empire-wide eye-salve product and expensive fashionable wool - Laodicea did lack one important thing which must have been a source of embarrassment to it, and that was it didn't have an adequate supply of water. And maybe you, like me, have been to places where the water tastes awful and you have resorted to buying it in a plastic bottle instead, assuming even that is available. When I was in the Ukraine in the early 1990's there was no bottled water and the tap water was dangerous to drink. I know, I drank it, and got very ill, and had to preach sitting down for several days. After that I used a straw filter on missions. Where Laodicea was located, the river Lycus did not have a strong current, and sometimes it dried up altogether in the summer. But there were two other sources of water, one in the north and one to the south-east. To the north, atop a dramatic high cliff, was the city of Hierapolis which even to this day boasts a set of hot springs to which charged water comes bubbling out of the ground. Today in modern Turkey it's channelled into various bathing pools for tourists in hôtels. It spills over the cliffs cliffs too, today as then, leaving a spectacular white mineral deposit visible from miles around.

In the first century the good people of Hierapolis built viaducts to bring this water across to Laodicea in the centre of the valley, four or five miles away. You can still see them today with their insides covered in a thick, hardened mineral deposit. But by the time piping hot mineral water reached Laodicea, after a 4 to 5 mile journey, it was obviously no longer hot. It was merely lukewarm. And what was worse, the concentrated chemicals made it unfit to drink, unless for alleged medicinal reasons you wanted to make yourself physically sick. So that was one source of water to this wealthy, prideful city.

To the south-east of Laodicea was a town I'm sure you know of by name, at least, and that was Colossae, to whom Paul wrote a pastoral epistle (Colossians). Oh, and incidentally, it too had suffered badly in the earthquake of of AD 61, just a few years before the apostle Paul was martyred at Rome in either 64 or 65 AD. However, Colossae had a very good supply of cold water flowing down from the high, snow-capped Mount Cadmus - it was fast-flowing and chilly, reminiscent of our European Alpine streams, and of comparible quality. But by the time the water reached Laodicea on its long 11 miles journey, on yet another aqueduct (the Romans built thousands of these across the empire, even in far away Britain), the roasting Anatolian heat meant that it, too, became lukewarm.

So now you know why Yah'shua (Jesus) used the famous and best known illustration of the seven congregations to depict the Laodicean's spiritual state. Whether it's hot water that's cooled down or cold water that's warmed up, here you have a picture of what a 'Laodicean' believer looked like, spoiled by wealth, self-suffient and haughty. In a word, they were apathetic, neither on fire for Yah'shua (Jesus) (no zeal) nor hostile to Him. And Yah'shua (Jesus) writes to this congregation with a mixture of sorrow and anger:

"You are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, I am going to vomit you out of My mouth" (vv.15-16, KNT).

A couple of versions use 'spit' but most use either 'vomit' or 'spew' which better convery the original sense. So vomit is not too strong a word. Yah'shua (Jesus) is disgusted at the taste of Laodicean Christianity. It makes Him want to retch. It makes Him sick. Why? Because the smug, well-off attitude of the city as a whole has rubbed off on the Christian/Messianic community there. They think they're 'rich' - special, important - and that they've 'done well' but Yah'shua (Jesus) leaves them in no doubt - they are miserable and pitiful even if they didn't feel like that. Indeed, He says, they are 'poor, blind and naked' and they need the sort of 'gold' that only Yah'shua (Jesus) can give through the kind of harsh refinement represented by the white-hot smelting ovens of Thyatira. They need the kind of clothes - white ones rather than the black ones which were so popular locally - that only He can provide. And remember, white robes were known to have been worn by the newly baptised signalling their commitment to a qadosh, holy, set-apart, commandment-keeping life! They needed a new kind of eye ointment because the Phyrigian speciality for which Laodicea was famous won't heal their spiritual blindness! Not only is this a devastating message but it is a dire warning NOT to imitate the surrounding pagan or secular culture because that culture will spiritually slaughter you.

Look around at American, European and Australasian 'Christianity' today. Look at it! And look what they have exported to Africa and Asia in the form of the wicked 'Prosperity Gospel' which teaches the diametric opposite to what Yah'shua (Jesus) is here saying to the money-obsessed Laodiceans and elsewhere in Scripture. And He isn't just pointing at charismatic Prosperity teachers and their followers, mind you. You don't have to be charismatic to be afflicted by this particular sin. (Indeed, have you noticed that there isn't a trace of the Corinthian charismatic aberration in any of these seven congregations?) You can be a cessationist or of any other doctrianl persuasion for that matter to fall under this particular condemnation. The issue is the idolatry of wealth and, even if you are physically poor, the lust or eager, greedy desiring after wealth, whether you presently don't have it, or do and just want more.

And it doesn't even have to be about money. Indeed, the main issue here isn't money but apathy which excessive wealth, or the ceasless quest for it even if you're physically poor, brings. It's what all kinds of idolatry do to vibrant faith. And again, let me emphasise, there's nothing wrong in generating wealth provided, as the saying goes, you don't let it 'stick to your fingers'. By all means generate surplas wealth with which to bless others. If Yahweh gives you abundance, in whatever it may be, it isn't so you can hoarde it away for yourself but so you can share it and so be blessed in the giving. For as Yah'shua (Jesus) Himself said:

"It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:3, NIV).

If you have knowledge, share it. If you have love in your heart, share it. If you have talent, share it. If you have money, share it with those who genuinely need it. And do all this to the glory of Elohim (God) as good stewards of the resources He has given us. Why are we given anything by Yahweh? And how do we lose our way when we do receive? The apostle James knew the answer:

"Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts" (James 4:3, KJV)

or as the New International Version puts it so well:

"When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures" (James 4:2-3, NIV).

It is a curse to ask for something and receive it if you are going to keep it to yourself. Be grateful, if you haven't received because you have had a wrong heart. Yah'shua (Jesus) is not a dispensing machine, a store or a supermarket giving you limitless credit. This is one of the big lies believed by millions of carnal Evangelical Christians. When Yah'shua (Jesus) 'paid it all', as that marvellous hymn by Elvina M.Hall puts it, it wasn't for your personal pleasures that He did but for your sins.

Yahweh has planted in my own heart a thirst for the truth and for knowledge. I am passionate about it. But equally, if I don't write it down or make a video that can be read or watched, I feel as though I am pursuing these things for myself only and 'consuming it upon my lusts' - 'spending it on my own pleasure.' I am compelled to share it so that others may be blessed. Anything else would be a waste of my time, I believe. All of this is my legacy for, I hope, thousands of people now and in the future. Yahweh told me to put all this up on the Internet even before I knew what the Internet was. Most of you know the story - He showed me a vision while I was commuting to work on a train in Norway. Years later He showed me another vision of an orchard - what I had myself planted - and then apples not only falling off the trees to the ground but out of the sky in their millions until the ground was a whole sea of red and green fruit.

So long as you share, then, and only then will Yahweh multiply your gift and you will be fruitful unto simchah - joy. Whatever your gift is, MULTIPLY AND SHARE IT. And you know, many different kinds of gift are listed in Scripture:

"There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Ruach (Spirit). There are different kinds of service, but the same Master (Lord). There are different kinds of working, but the same Elohim (God [the Father]) works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the Ruach (Spirit) is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Ruach (Spirit)t the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Ruach (Spirit), to another emunah (faith) by the same Ruach (Spirit), to another gifts of healing by that one Ruach (Spirit), to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing (discerning) between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of languages (tongues), and to still another the interpretation (translation) of languages (tongues). All these are the work of one and the same Ruach (Spirit), and He gives them to each one, just as He determines. The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptised by one Ruach (Spirit) into one body - whether Yehudim (Judahites, Jews) or Greeks (Gentiles. nopn-Israelites), slave or free - and we were all given the one Ruach (Spirit) to drink" (1 Cor.12:4-13, NIV).

Some people are called to make money to help the poor qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) and evangelism...not to finance greedy, carnal, devilish evangelists to enable them to buy jet planes, swimming pools and luxurious multi-million dollar mansions. Some are called into politics to effect change, but no one is called to make money beyond his immediate needs and such things as prepping for hard times. If you want money from Elohim (God) to get wealthy and buy fancy houses or cars, this was the sin of the Laodiceans. It will cripple your spirituality and it won't take much to render you useless and good for nothing in the Kingdom of our Elohim (God). Such Yahweh dopesn't merely spit out but vomits, spews and pukes out with extreme, violent disgust. That is what He thinks of prosperity teachers and their greedy, self-centered followers hoping for a piece of the action. And we all know most of them never do but remain poor while they 'seed' more and more money (in the hope of elusive blessings) to their ministers who get richer and richer. It's absolutely disgusting, obscene, antichrist. Repent! and get out of such a wicked spiritual environment immediately if you're in one. You're in Christianity/Messianism for all the wrong reasons. You're out to get rather than give, the opposite of what a true, regenereted Christian/Messianic does and is.

Let me share nearly 40 years of ministerial experience with you. Every time I am ill and sit down to write, speak or otherwise share the Good News of Christ, even if I am really very sick or unwell, Yahweh infuses me with an anointing of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) and gives me strength and power to carry out my assigned task as a minister with very few exceptions. Just before my heart operation, when it was hard to exert any kind of effort easily, I wrote an entire book on Calvinism because I was infused with a sense of urgency to get it done for those I knew needed it in case I did not survive the surgery (there was more than a 10 per cent chance I wouldn't). I have been down with Covid-19 these last few weeks and have felt death's icy hands around me more than once, but every time I have sat down to write or preach, He fills me and strengthens me, and I am blessed. That's how Heaven works. So find out what your gift is and exercise it for the blessing of others and the Kingdom, whatever the gift may be, even if it is just to smile at people and make them feel good. The King is always well-pleased with what you dedicate to Him and enact, and not merely speak words. The confession you make is your opening the diary of your life as you're about to tell your deed-packed story.

Rich, Western Christians and Messianics are afflicted by more than one spiritual malady. Even the 'poor' in the West mostly live like lords compared to the countless millions in the Third Word (I'm not speaking of disposessed, homeless street people here). And the Western believers require radical surgery, a reason we are entering into a time of austerity, hardship and suffering even as I speak. Saint Teresa of Avila once complained to the Master about what she was suffering. "This," Yah'shua (Jesus) is said to have replied to her, "is how I treat My friends". Teresa replied in the good old direct, biblical style, like guileless Nathanael of old (Jn.1:45-47), "Then You shouldn't be surprised that You have so few of them!" That always makes me chuckle.

This kind of wry humour is not insolent, by the way, because verse 19 in Revelation 3 is just the same. After the withering denounciations of verses 15-18, Yah'shua (Jesus) now says, in effect, "Now you know how I treat My friends!" It is because the Laodicean believers are still, despite everything, on Yah'shua's (Jesus') list of friends - and Yah'shua (Jesus), need I remind you, is a faithful friend, even if we are not - that He will tell them sharply and truly when they are in the wrong. Because He is not only their friend but also their Master, He will also punish them, not to devastate them but to bring them to their senses. "Stir up your spirits and repent!" And to many parts of the Messianic Community (Church) one might justifiably say: if the cap fits, wear it. Own up to your false prophecies, your useless babblings, your lawlessness, your blasphemy and your idolatry! Own up, genuinely repent, make restitution where needed, turn around and start anew.

The Book of Revelation carries some of the most striking descriptions of the Saviour to be found anywhere in the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament), a reason I am enjoying it so much now. And it also carries some of the most striking promises too. So it might seem strange to some, perhaps, that the one assembly (congregation, church) that was in real trouble drew from Yah'shua (Jesus) the most intimate and loving promise. And indeed I think there's an important lesson here too, which is why I am lingering a while over this text. What was that promise? Yah'shua (Jesus) describes Himself as "the Amen (Amein)", the one who stays true to His Davar (Word) and therefore to covenant love, "the faithful and true witness" (Rev.1:5; 3:14), and, more remarkably, "the beginning of Elohim's (God's) creation" (Rev.3:14, KNT) which He echoes through the apostle Paul to the Colossians which was designed to be forwarded to Laodicea (Col.4:16):

"He is the image of the invisible Elohim (God), the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the messianic community (church); He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy (pre-eminence). For Elohim (God) was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross" (Col.1:15-20, NIV).

Yah'shua (Jesus) is the One through whom Yahweh's world came into being, and also the One in whose resurrection the new creation has been launched, regenerated believers being the first of His 're-creatings'. That Cosmic Plan puts Laodicean lukewarmness into even more embarrassing perspective. Here is Yah'shua (Jesus), Master and Sovereign of the Cosmos, and here are you, smug and self-satisfied but in fact poor, naked and blind!

And finally, there come the two closing promises. If verse 15 about being neither hot nor cold is well-known in this letter, then verse 20 is even more famous: "Look! I am standing here, knocking at the door!" (Rev.3:20, KNT). How many talks and sermons have you heard centered around that passage, in which, typically, believers and unbelievers are invited to open up their hearts and lives up to Yah'shua (Jesus) and let Him in? And that is an absolutely right and wonderful thing to do. But this isn't what this particular passage is all about. You see, the stories told by Yah'shua (Jesus) in the Gospels all suggest that the one knocking on the door is the Master of the House, returning at an unexpected hour (and in the case of Sardis, as a warning - 3:3), while the one who should open the door is the servant who has stayed awake.

So the house is Yah'shua's (Jesus') House - our job is simply to welcome Him home. Yes, there is a related image but it's nonetheless a different one, and I am speaking now of the Bridegroom knocking on the door of the house where His beloved lies asleep:

"I sleep, but my heart is awake;
It is the voice of my beloved!
He knocks, saying,
'Open for me, my sister, my love,
My dove, my perfect one...'" (Song 5:2, NKJV).

A glance at Revelation 21:2 suggests this may have been in mind too:

"Then I, John, saw the qadoesh (holy, set-apart) city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from Elohim (God), prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" (Rev.21:1-2, NKJV).

But there's more. Have you ever noticed that those people who give sermons and talks around "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears and listens and heeds My voice and opens the door" (Rev.3:20a, AmpV) typically detatch this part from the second part which adds, "...I will come to him and will eat with him, and he [will eat] with Me" (v.20b, AmpV)? Why do you think that phrase has been included by the Saviour? No first century believer could have heard those words without thinking of the Master's or Lord's Supper at which Yah'shua (Jesus) would come powerfully and personally and give Himself to His people. Such meals anticipate the final messianic banquet, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Rev.19:9). These Eucharists, Communions or whatever you want to call them, are advance 'comings' of the One who will one day come fully and forever.

All of this is bringing us to a climax of the final scene of this first Act of the Book of Revelation before we go into Act 2 in Chapter 4. Those who share this meal, and who are thereby strengthened to 'overcome' or 'conquer' in the same way that Yah'shua (Jesus) Himself overcame and conquered through His death, will have the most extraordinary privilege. For most Yehudim (Judahites, 'Jews') of that time it was already mind-boggling enough that Yahweh would share His throne with Yah'shua (Jesus), and still is today, though the early Christians/Messianics saw this as a fulfilment of Psalm 110 and Daniel 7. But now, we are told, in this most extraordinary of books - the Book of Revelation - that those who overcome (conquer) are going to share Yah'shua's (Jesus's) throne as well! They will become elohim (with a small 'e') or rulers too. They will share His strange, sovereign rule over the world, the rule to which He came not by force-of-arms but by the power of suffering, sacrificial love (ahavah/chesed). That is what is meant to be a "Royal Priesthood" (1 Pet.2:9).

And on this note, chapters 2 and 3 to the seven congregations of Asia Minor end...or do they? In fact, what follows - Act 2 - takes us, as it were, to the 'next level'. So to summarise: the letter to the Laodiceans is probably the most famous of all the seven. Laodicea was a prosperous congregation, yet riches had corrupted the believers. Whereas the nearby cities of Hierapolis and Colossae were known for hot springs and cold fresh water, respectively, the Laodicean water, half way between, was known for its unpleasant tepid temperature. The Laodiceans are like that themselves: spiritually lukewarm and Yah'shua (Jesus) is nauseated by them. He is knocking on their door, offering them close mealtime fellowship if they will repent. If they accept the offer and overcome, they will share His throne, in the same way that Yah'shua (Jesus) shares the Father's throne. Indeed, the reference to thrones points ahead to the dramatic throne visions which are about to follow.

And with that we'll end today. So until next week, may Yahweh bless you as you ponder on these things. And may I especially invite you to do some prayerful meditation on the Master's (Lord's) Supper. Pesach (Passover) and the new cycle of annual moedim soon to begin which I know Yahweh wants to be spiritually reviving in our hearts in a new way. So I'd like to ask you to give plenty of spiritual preparation to the Passover Meal this year because we're about to begin anew. And with Covid restrictions down for now, people will once again be visiting us here after effectively two years of lockdown. Until then, may the grace and peace of our Master Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) be upon you all. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] Tacitus, Ann.14:27
[2] The words "and sisters" does not appear in either the Aramaic or Greek texts, and whilst a case may legitimately be made for a gender-inclusive rendering of this passage, it's important that the literal source text is rendered first.
[3] Eerdmans, ed. David Noel Freedman, Dictionary of the Bible (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan: 2000), p.790
[4] John 16:33; Romans 12:21; 1 John 2:13-14; 4:4; 5:4-5; Revelation 2:7,11,17; 2:26; 3:5,12,21; 11:7; 13:7; 17:14; 21:7

Acknowledgements

[1] N.T.Wright & Michael F.Bird, The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christians (Zondervan Academic, Grand Rapids, Michigan: 2019)
[2] Eerdmans, ed. David Noel Freedman, Dictionary of the Bible (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan: 2000)
[3] Tom Wright, Revelation for Everyone, Book of Revelation (SPCK, London: 2011)