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Truth in Palmyra

By Wally Fry

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Daily Devotion-July 17, 2015-Thyratira-A Commendation

Revelation 2:19

I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.

Read all of Revelation Chapter 2

When we began looking at the seven churches of Asia, we were just going to look at the ones specifically told to repent;however, we are going to keep going. Today we will begin a look at the church at Thyratira, which was also a struggling church. Then we will take a final quick look at the two churches Jesus seemed the most pleased with.

Even though this church had its issues, which we will discuss later; they were also doing some things well. In addition, they seemed to be improving and growing in their work for the Lord. So, what was going well in this church?

This church had love(charity). This seems the opposite of the previously mentioned church at Ephesus, where they had lost their first love. The first commendation for love in these letters was given to this church. What we see her is a love for God and for one another. That’s a great place to start, since Jesus did tell us that love is the greatest commandment.

This church was faithful in it’s service and patience. Because of their love, they were likely intent on service and meeting the needs of others. Furthermore, this patience had produced a church that persevered in its service and works.

The final part of the commendation to this church is interesting. Many of the churches seemed to be slipping backwards, or in the wrong direction. Note this: and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.  This church was certainly not backsliding; they were growing stronger in fact. Their love was probably going stronger, along with their faithful, persistent service. In other words, this church was growing more mature in its Christian walk, and was increasing its efforts to spread and foster the Kingdom of God.

They were not without blame, however, as we will see in tomorrow’s devotional. Like most churches, even good ones, Thyratira had its issues.

Are we in a church where overall things are going well, but yet there are pockets of issues which are ignored or overlooked? We might need revival.

The Church That Tolerated Sin 

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Daily Devotion-July 16, 2015-The Invitation

Revelation 3:20

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

Read all of Revelation Chapter 3 here

This particular Scripture verse is often used in the context of an invitation. Preachers often use it as an example of Jesus’ invitation to the lost sinner to come to salvation. I don’t rule out that it has that application, but the reach of it is likely far broader than that.

This will be an extremely un dogmatic devotion. In fact, I may ask more questions than I answer during the course of it, and I hope readers will chime in with their thoughts. As always, be nice. We can disagree and go round and round about the meaning here, and nobody becomes a heretic, okay? Thanks!

So, some things do seem evident. This is a church with serious problems, as Jesus’ critique of them has been quite harsh. It has been the worst of any of the seven churches thus far. Jesus’ own words seem to indicate He is outside this church in some fashion. Why? Who exactly is Jesus talking to?

Is this a church of saved believers who have simply backslid to the point where one would never know? Maybe. Jesus did say As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. In other places in Scripture we see Jesus chastening believers as his children. In fact, references are made that a lack of chastisement means we are not children of His. On the other hand, some commenters make a case that the terminology in our passage, rebuke(reprove in some translation), is a reference to the Holy Spirit’s conviction of lost sinners. Honestly, I am okay either way, to tell the truth.

One writer thinks the use of the phrase any man indicates that this is a church full of lost people under the delusion that they are saved. Could any man be the idea that Jesus only needs one saved person in that church in order to start a work?

Regardless of how we look at the soul situation of the people in this church, Jesus’ promises to them are ironclad and available if they simply repent and either come to Him, or repent and return to Him. See the last part of our verse: I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.  That speaks of the joy and fellowship that any individual, and any church can experience with God, if they only allow Him in.

To sum up, it matters greatly that Jesus implies he is at the door of this church knocking to get in. If Jesus is not in our church, but is outside seeking entrance, then we might need a revival.

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Daily Devotion-July 15, 2015-More On Temperatures

Revelation 3:17

Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

Read all of Revelation Chapter 3 here

In the previous devotion we talked briefly about what the Bible says about hot, cold and lukewarm Christians. Today, we are going to cover it just a bit more, then we will move on.

Being lukewarm is the issue here. This church was not hot, nor was it cold; It was lukewarm. Because of this, The Lord was going to basically vomit this church from His mouth. Churches may make our Lord feel many things. Some may make him angry, some happy, some sad, some disappointed, and so forth. This church at Laodicea made Him sick!

What then, is the difference between hot, cold and lukewarm in terms of the hearts of people? Hot is easy. Hot believers are those who are on fire for the things of Faith. Those who desire to worship, study, witness to the lost, and whatever they may be called to do. These would be the people who show the excitement in their actions of a transformed life

Cold people, on the other hand, are the complete opposite. These are those who simply reject The Lord. The offer of salvation holds no interest for them; God holds no interest for them. They may even be overtly hostile to the idea of God.

Lukewarm people are those professing belief, but are in fact hypocrites. LIke the Pharisees, lukewarm Christians have only an empty faith, devoid of anything other than the trappings of faith. Perhaps a nice building, a nice sound system, lots of people attending church, or any of a myriad of other things.

So, what is the danger of being lukewarm? Hot believers don’t need to be reached, as they are quite obviously part of the family. Cold people can be reached, as it is at least remotely possible to show them their need for God. The problem with lukewarm people is: They think they are ok! The hardest person to reach in the world is the lost person sitting beside you in Church.

So, that is the basic problem with this church. They thought their “stuff” made them a church pleasing to God.

If we think our “stuff”, our programs, our numbers, or any outward signs of Christian success is what makes us pleasing to God, we might need revival.

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Daily Devotion-July 12, 2015-Heart Temperatures

Revelation 3:16

So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

Read all of Revelation Chapter 3 here

In yesterday’s devotion we discussed how the lukewarm state of the church at Laodicea was displeasing to Jesus, so much so that the distaste was such as to cause him to literally spew, or vomit them out of His mouth. That is kind of like a soda or coffee, which should be ice cold or piping hot respectively. Either of those drinks in a lukewarm state would be met with distaste, so much so that we might be inclined to spit them out of our mouths.

The Bible does describe to us that our hearts can be in somewhat the same conditions as a cup of liquid we might drink. As Jesus walked with the two disciples on the road to Emmaeus and He revealed himself to them for who he really was, they said the following

Luke 24:32 And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?

These two immediately went to find the other disciples and share the exciting news about what had happened to them. Their hearts at that point were on fire!

Our hearts can also be cold to the things of God. As false teachers arrive, we see this clearly in the following passage:

Matthew 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

These are hearts which have become cold

And of course, we see the lukewarm hearts of the believers in the Laodicean church.

Why had they become lukewarm? Here is a passage which details why this church had likely become lukewarm:

Revalation 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing;………..

There it is. This church had it all, and they, in their minds, had need of nothing. A lukewarm Christian is complacent, comfortable, and simply does not realize his or her need. This church was tepid and stale, just like a barely warm cup of coffee that has been sitting on a counter all day.

What does a tepid cup of coffee need? it needs refreshing; it need an infusion of fresh, hot coffee to bring it back to life and acceptability. When a church has become comfortable, complacent, and blind to their own needs, they might be in need of revival.

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Daily Devotion-July 13, 2015-A Lukewarm Church

Revelation 3:14-20

And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

Read all of Revelation Chapter 3 here

Again, we see very serious concerns here on the part of Jesus toward this church, In fact, He had no commendation for this church, but launched directly into corrective measures. He uses an analogy to express this which the readers would have gotten immediately, as he did with each of the letters to the churches. Apparently the Laodicean water supply traveled through an underground aqueduct to bring water from Colosse. It started there as clear cold water, and would arrive in Laodicea tepid and lukewarm. Also considered was water from the hot springs in Hieropolis, which was so hot it steamed, but if brought to Laodicea again would be tepid and lukewarm. For those readers who are either soda or coffee drinkers, how do you prefer those drinks? Most of us like our sodas ice cold, and our coffee piping hot. For either to be lukewarm would, literally make us want to spew them out or our mouths over the distaste they would produce.

When Jesus said to this church, I know thy works, He was not in this case referring to good works, but evil works. Another important thing to note is that Laodicea was a wealthy city, being a center of banking and finance in Asia. This church was likely far from a poor church. In fact, Jesus alludes to that, saying, Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing;. But yet, Jesus clearly felt differently, as he pointed out many failings in this church.

In our country, and in our time, it almost seems that the church at Laodicea represents many of the things which are not right with our churches today. Are we basically fat and happy, thinking that we have reached the pinnacle of “churchianity?” Are we satisfied with where we are and what we are doing? Do we think we have attained Christian “success” to the point where we think we have accomplished something? Have we done these things while excluding Jesus Himself from our churches?

Our travels through the seven letters to the churches of Asia have been very cursory, and just an overview. Over the course of the next few days, we are going to really explore and analyze some of the issues facing this church, and see how they are applicable to many of our churches today.

Read this section, and if you have any thoughts, let’s hear them as we take a more detailed look at this lukewarm church.

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Daily Devotion-July 10,2015-A Dead Church

Revelation 3:1-3

And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.

Read all of Revelation Chapter 3 here

Wow. Jesus starts off with some fairly harsh words here. I remember once seeing a church that was names Sardis. It wasn’t really until after I was saved and began studying the Bible that I came to realize that one could pick a better name for a church than Sardis.

This church was not without works, as Jesus said I know thy works. Obviously, there was something going on here. Maybe they had a big, new building; maybe they had a brand new Family Life Center where all the kids gather periodically; maybe they had the newest high tech sound and audio system; or, maybe they had the biggest crowds in town every Sunday.

Notice there are no words to Sardis concerning their doctrines or practices. Notice there are no words regarding them standing firm in The Faith or of opposition or persecution. It appears this church is just….there. Here we have a church with a fine name, perhaps even well know and even respected in the community, but they are dead.

Not only that, but it seems what does remain is on the edge of dying out, that are ready to die, Jesus said to them. This is a dire warning, perhaps the direst of all the churches Jesus wrote letters to.

Do we rely on our traditions and good name as a sign that we are doing God’s work? Are we resting in those things while around us we are actually decreasing and dying? Are we so confident our good name and what we are doing that we no longer reach out to the community around us? Have we stopped growing spiritually in the Word of God because we think “we have this?”

If we are any of these things, we might need revival.

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Daily Devotion-July 9, 2015-Be Careful Who Comes In the Door!

Revelation 2:12-16

And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges; I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth. But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

Read all of Revelation Chapter 2 here

This church existed in difficult circumstances. They were referred to as living in Satan’s seat and where Satan dwelleth. The particulars of this don’t really matter, as just the very definite idea that paganism and heathenism were very much alive and well in Pergamos. Jesus commended them for standing fast in the face of seemingly substantial adversity, even to the point that apparently one among them had been killed for the Faith. Again, however, we have a problem.

Things had slipped in which concerned Jesus vastly. There were those teaching The Doctrine of Balaam. If we read the story of Balaam, we can see this likely involved sin and sexual immorality, as this is how ultimately Balaam caused the Israelites to stumble in the eyes of God.

Next we see that the church at Pergamos was tolerating those who taught the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. What exactly this was is up to some debate and discussion, but one thing is clear about it; this was some form of false teaching in this church, and some in the church were tolerating it.

So, what could be going on here? The list is potentially long. It is likely that there was some substantial “secret” sin among particular members of the church at Pergamos. It is never really said how common or pervasive it was, but the implication seems to be that it was at minimum, tolerated.

Second, we can clearly see the inroads of some form of false teaching taking root in this church, and the issue seems to be that the members holding steadfast to the faith were also allowing this to exist without a word being said in opposition. It seems they were quite firm when standing against threats from the outside, but not so much when the danger was from the inside.

Do we know of and tolerate rampant and notorious sin on our ranks? Do we never take clearly defined Biblical steps to restore such a person to correctness and fellowship? Are we so fixated on the threats from the outside that we allow false teaching to invade us from the inside?

If so, we might need revival.

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Daily Devotion-July 8, 2015-Losing Our First Love

Revelation 2:4,5

Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

Read all of Revelation 2 here

As I said earlier, we are going to take just a quick look at four of the churches Jesus spoke to in the book of Revelation. These won’t be detailed studies of these churches, but just overviews of the basic issue facing them.  We are going to look very quickly at Ephesus, Pergamos, Sardis, and Laodecia, as these are the four churches Jesus told specifically to repent.

Jesus had some substantial words of commendation for this church at Ephesus. We won’t be picking the commendations apart here, but we can sum up the good things going on at Ephesus quickly. The  have labored hard and patiently, possibly under resistance and even persecution. The word patience we see used in verse 3 of the text would indicate something akin to “endurance under fire.” In other words, this church did not give up when the going got tough.

We see that they seemed to be a very doctrinally true church. They have carefully examined those who would come to teach them and rejected them and their teachings if found to be false. I fact, we see in this section that the church at Ephesus rejected various forms of false teachings. Many good things seemed to be happening here. What, then, was the problem?

They had lost their first love. It is not crystal clear exactly what it was that they had lost in the church at Ephesus; there are varied opinions and many of them are good. Perhaps their love for God was growing lukewarm, or their love for each other. Perhaps their love for the study of and growth in Scripture had grown stale. I personally thing the admonition later in the passage to do the first works may give us a hint. Has any reader seen a new Christian who us just on fire for God? This is the new believer who can’t wait to tell people about Jesus, can’t wait to read and study his or her Bible, and simply can’t wait to be in God’s house anytime the doors were open. We may have been that person. The real question is: do we stay that person? Had Ephesus stayed that church?

Are we possessed of the zeal and excitement we had when we first came to know Jesus Christ? Do we still love Jesus as we did then? Do we love His Word? Do we love the lost souls enough to reach out to them like we wanted to at first? Or, are we happy where we are. We know the right stuff and challenge the wrong stuff, so we are all good, thank you very much.

If we have lost our first love, we might need revival.

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Daily Devotion-July 7, 2015-Jesus Calls His Churches To Repentance

Revelation 2:29

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Read the full letters to the seven churches of Asia here

As we move onward through our study on repentance and revival in believers and the New Testament church, we are going to take a little swing through the Book of Revelation and Jesus’ letters to the seven churches of Asia. I think this is important, as the church belongs to Jesus Christ; He is the head of it. As the head, Jesus is also the only one qualified to assess the performance of any church and correct it.

This time we spend in Revelation is not going to be a discussion of prophecy, end times, or anything like that. We are going to take His letters to the churches pretty much at face value, as instructions to individuals and churches concerning their activities and behavior.

There are many ways the seven churches of Asia have been treated by commentators, and this won’t be any real look at those ways. During our next few days, we will simply treat them as letters to churches which exist today, as many of the lessons we see are applicable to individuals and churches today.

In His letters to the churches, Jesus corrects all but two of them in some way, and specifically told four or them to repent, or turn away, from the direction they were going. Le’ts look briefly at those words and later we will discuss each individually.

To the church at Ephesus Revelation 2:5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

To the church at Pergamos Revelation 2:16 Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

To the church at Sardis  Revelation 3:3 Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

To the church at Laodicea  Revelation 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

One final note before moving along. Jesus also told the church at Laodicea the following:

Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

Many teach that as an invitation to salvation; I disagree. Jesus is speaking here to churches and the simple fact is that Jesus is not always welcome in our churches. Is He locked out of your church?

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