AS 7 IGREJAS DO APOCALIPSE | Igreja de Laodiceia | Estudo Bíblico | Lamartine Posella

Hello, my dear people. How are you? Today I'm finishing the study on the seven churches in Revelation.

Those seven churches, as I have been saying, they were seven local churches in Asia Minor, present-day Turkey, but they also represent a prophetic word to the church of Christ from all times. Therefore the church in Laodicea, without a doubt, talks about the church from our days, about the church that will see the rapture and many will stay. By the way, I believe that both the church in Philadelphia and the church in Laodicea represent the church from our time because I believe that the true church and the false church that continues, they live together while Jesus has not returned.

Let's read in Revelation chapter 3 verses 14 to 22, “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!

So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold— I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing. ’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.

I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. ” I would like to start by correcting something that I said.

I said that the church in Laodicea is the false church. No, it's not the false church. It's the lukewarm church, but it's truthful and the Lord has many people in it, but it represents that church that is living together with apostasy and many are walking towards apostasy, but still, it's a true church because Jesus addresses himself to it as His church.

Well, I would like to begin by talking about the city of Laodicea. The seven churches are inside of an arc, if you check a map it looks like an arc, beginning with Ephesus and the city of Laodicea, which is the last of the seven churches, and completes the arc. It was founded by Antiochus II who gave the name to pay tribute to his wife Laodicea.

So actually the city was founded by Antiochus II and he gave the name to honor his wife and the church, therefore, has the same name, the church in Laodicea. It was a very wealthy city because it was a bank center so they had prosperity, a lot of money stored, the had temples, beautiful theatres. The city was also known for having a very advanced medical school for its time.

The school was very famous and they produced one of the best eye drops in Antiquity, called collyrium. It also had fabric factories, especially of a black wool, very dark, very expensive at the time and was manufactured there. Besides that many minerals were found in that region.

So it was a very wealthy city, and it was a city that felt very powerful, that lacked nothing, because it had a lot of money, and the influx of people and so on. Jesus once again presents himself as a counselor, that will give advice to the church, and in verse 14 He says, “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:" The angel obviously is the spiritual leader, the pastor of that church, because the word angelō means messenger. "These are the words of the Amen" The word Amēn in greek, means truth, when Jesus says "verily, verily I say unto you", he says, "Amēn amēn legō", I say unto you.

Amen means truthfully, the one who is the truth, "the faithful and true witness", once again we see whats is the by-product of the truth, its faithfulness, and true life. The true life is a life that's expressed by the truth. So Jesus is actually saying, I am the truth, the 'so be it', the one who's faithful, because He walks in faithfulness, in truth, whose life is marked by truthful acts, words, behavior.

He also presents Himself as the ruler of God’s creation. Many people interpret this as Him being the first creature. No, it's the opposite.

He is the origin, Jesus is the origin, the cause for all of God's creation, so Jesus is the one who initiated everything, the Bible says that without Him nothing was made that has been made. Therefore he is the beginning of all things, the origin of all things. Jesus is not God's creature, He is not the first creation, no!

Jesus is the creator. That word has been wrongfully interpreted by many of the heresies that we have in the Christian world, but He is the beginning of everything that there is today, meaning that all creation came from Jesus. So He is the faithful and true witness, this talks about Jesus' character, He is the beginning of God's creation, so everything began in Him.

By the way, He is Alpha and Omega, beginning and end. Right? Everything started in Him and everything goes back to Him.

Isn't this wonderful? Everything will converge to Jesus. He is the one who created the stars, who made the seas, who raised up the mountains, who created the entire universe.

Jesus in those letters, He always makes a compliment, He sees what those churches have of good, and them he reprimands them in what is bad so they can change, but the church of Philadelphia for example, that only received compliments and no criticism, it is absolutely contrasting with the church in Laodicea, that receives no compliments, but receives many reprimands. Because of that, I truly believe with all my heart that both Philadelphia and Laodicea are two churches that represent the church of Christ close to the end of the times. Those who live in deceit, in lies, in lukewarmness, in the liturgy, in religiosity, and who have no real, deep, sincere relationship with the Lord, those of the church in Laodicea have no compliment and have much criticism from the Lord Here we see the condemnation in verses 15 and 16 of Revelation 3, Jesus says, "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot.

I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. " wow Jesus begins by saying, I know your deeds, that you are neither hot nor cold Jesus uses this image because, obviously, if you have ever drunk lukewarm water you know it's horrible.

Very hot water is nice, but try to drink warm water. It's horrible. It makes you feel sick.

Jesus uses that image for a simple reason. Close to the city of Laodicea, present-day Turkey, there's a place called Pamukkale. When I visited Turkey I took the people who came with me on that trip, to the seven churches and we went to Pamukkale.

There are hot springs, really hot water, by the way, it's an incredible place. You can look it up online. It's such a beatiful place.

Those hot springs come out of the ground in a white place, due to the limestone, completely white and the water is at 176°F, almost boiling. What happens is that in Antiquity plumbing was built, of that water from Pamukkale to Laodicea, which is approximately 14km from there. Until today you can see on the ground the canal connecting Pamukkale to Laodicea.

The canal caused the water that started at 176°F to arrive at 104°F, and therefore when it reached 104°F it couldn't be immediately drunk because people would feel sick. So Jesus says that because you are neither hot nor cold. I wish you were hot or cold, but since you are neither hot nor cold, you are lukewarm, I'm about to spit you out of my mouth.

Jesus is comparing the behavior of a church which is not from the world completely, but it's also not from God completely. It's always mixing both behaviors, both dreams, both projects. A mindset that is mixed, that relativises the word of God and says "well, I can do this, I can't do that, a church that chooses the biblical verses that they will take as true, other verses that are harder, more clear and objective against sin, "oh no, I can't accept that this is religiosity".

It's the other way around. Jesus says that this is a religious church. It's neither hot nor cold.

So the Lord is saying, I prefer the wicked, who doesn't know God, to a believer who knows God but lives a luckwarm life, and Jesus clearly says that He is about to spit them out of His mouth. This could be a reference to those believers, who are believers, who are saved, but who might go through the great tribulation because of a lukewarm behavior, of lack of passion, lack of love, lack of purpose, lack of consecration of their lives to God. But what is the reason for the church of Laodicea to feel so confident, so careless about seeking God, in living a life of fear of God?

First, Jesus talks about what they thought about themselves, and He makes a very strong criticism, "You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing. ’" it's in verse 17 and it's really common, right? How many people do you know who because they have money, they take careless lives?

They only think about God in the hard moments, when there's an illness, then they will seek God, but once things go back to normal they go back to leaving life apart from consecration, from a purpose with God, from living to God's glory, and how they thought. They were Christians but lived that life, I'm rich, I have everything, I need nothing. I don't even need God actually.

And it says more about that. Jesus criticized what they thought about themselves, by the way, Jesus says, you think you need nothing, but I'll tell you what I think about you, I think you're lukewarm, you are neither hot nor cold. I would rather for you to be cold, or hot, but you're neither, you're lukewarm.

So this lukewarmness, which is a frequent characteristic of Christians today, it's something that irritates God, abhors God, makes Him feel sick. They are believers who only seek God when things go wrong. When business is not well, when professional life is going bankrupt, when a family issue comes up, then they will seek God, but when thing are good again, they stop seeking God and go back to living a life where God is put to the side.

What is Jesus' advice for the church in Laodicea? Jesus says that they should buy from God, obtain something from God. Actually, three different things that have to do with the reality of that city, of what they manufactured, and Jesus uses that image to talk about spiritual realities that they should be seeking in God and the first thing that Jesus says is, "buy from me gold refined in the fire so you can become rich", here He is talking about faith.

Do you remember that in the beginning, I told that the city was a bank center? There was a lot of gold in that city. Gold, silver, so they had so much of those things, and God said, instead of you being so worried about vile metal, with gold and richness that you have, you should buy from me the true richness, which is faith, because without faith it's impossible to please God, and with faith, we can have anything that we need from the spiritual world, so the real coin that God is saying they should have and store is faith in their hearts.

The second thing the Lord says they should buy are white linen clothes to cover their nakedness. This talks about what? It talks about a decent life, a life blessed by God, so they wouldn't continue in the shame of their nakedness.

Remember - going back to the past - Adam and Eve were naked in paradise, and they never noticed it, they never felt embarrassed by their nakedness. Why? Because they were covered by God's glory, by God's Shekinah.

When they sinned and God's glory left their lives, theu noticed their nakedness, sin and shame. When Jesus says they should buy clothes made of with linen, once again He refers to the fact that at that place there were fabric factories, including linen, wool, etc. White linen in the scriptures talks about purity, and how can we have our nakedness, the nakedness of our sins, of our shame covered?

Truth is that we are still sinners, we sin with our actions, thoughts, many times we have sinful thoughts, lustful, sins of envy, anger, sins that do not please God, that are the works of the flesh, so no one can come to the presence of God and be justified by their works, because as the word says, our works are like filthy rags. That image of a filthy rag talked about pieces of fabric that women on their periods used. There were no tampons so they used pieces of cloth, and it was considered impure before God.

God is saying, your works are like filthy rags, so no one can come before God and be justified. How can we be justified by God? What does it mean to buy white linen clothes to cover our nakedness?

It talks about the justification we have in Christ Jesus. Romans 5 verse 1 says, "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," It is complete awareness that if we don't depend on Him through faith, we will never be justified, but when you believe that Jesus is your savior, that He died in your place, His justice comes to us and it's like He's dressing our nakedness. Do you remember that when Adam made clothes from fig leaves it wasn't enough to cover his nakedness.

He ran away and hid from God because of the awareness of this nakedness. God Himself killed an animal or two animals, and with the skin of those animals, he dressed Adam and Eve, and they were no longer naked because they were covered with the skin of an innocent animal that was killed so their nakedness would be covered. It talks about Jesus and throughout the Old Testament, all animal sacrifices pointed to Jesus.

So my loved ones, what does it mean to buy from God? It means to accept through faith that Jesus died in our place and live under that justification and justice. It means to live a life seeking holiness, but knowing that as hard as we try, it won't be through our justice and our own holiness that we'll be cleaned, dressed in white clothes before God, but it will be by what Jesus did.

Faith in Him and accepting His sacrifice in my life is what guarantees that one day when the trumpet sounds, I will be in the presence of my Lord and savior. That's what the Lord is saying to you, what He is saying to me. Let's live our lives aware that all the honor and the glory is for Him.

There's no reason for us to boast when we do something right, because if we put on a scale our rights and wrongs we have way more mistakes, but because of what Jesus did, what will weight on the scale are the acts of justice of our Lord. Amen? It doesn't mean we shouldn't seek a life of holiness.

Yes, we must seek a life of holiness. Apostle Paul himself in chapter 6, after he develops the theology of justification, he says, so it means that I can freely sin so the grace of God will be superabundant in my life? No way!

because those who live sining are slaves to sin. In Romans chapter 7 he talks about the war between flesh and spirit. Paul says, I see a struggle in my flesh, between flesh and spirit because the good that I want to do a can't do, but the evil that I don't want, this I do.

Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! That's why in chapter 8 he begins to say again, Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus So, my dear people, the real church must understand that the glory is for the savior, that if there's no condemnation upon my life, it's not because of what I have.

I desperately need Jesus. I need faith to believe in it, to believe in miracles, in the truths in scripture. I need justification.

I need His justice upon me so that I will be able to live a life for His honor, for His glory. Amen, my dear ones? Hallellujah!

What a beautiful thing! The third thing that the Lord tells the church in Laodicea is that they should buy salve for their eyes so they could see. That salve was made from an oil base, especially olive oil.

An extremely pure olive oil. That region of Turkey is very rich in olive trees, nowadays they manufacture wonderful olive oil - since Jesus' time - so this talks about the anointing of the Holy Spirit that opens our eyes so we can see who we truly are. Because what the Holy Spirit does in our lives, brothers, first He convinces us of sin, righteousness, and judgment.

It's the Holy Spirit who shows us who we truly are because there are people who can't see it. Some people think, I don't kill, I don't steal, I'm not harming anyone, so I don't need God. No, we are desperately in need of God.

We're sinners and even to see that reality we need the Holy Spirit of God. So the Lord is saying, buy from me. Truly convert.

Convert so the Holy Spirit will enter in your lives and reveal the need that you have of God, of Jesus, of the Holy Spirit. So we can recognize our sins, but also recognize the grace, mercy, power and the gift of God who gives us the power to win over sins. Amen?

And the challenge Jesus gives to that church is, I rebuke and discipline those whom I love. Here it's clear that this church is a true church. Is the Lord's church, but it's leaving apart from Him.

It's that person who confessed Jesus, but who lives a life apart from Him, and He says, "be earnest and repent. ". The word zēleue in Greek is the same word for jealousy.

Do you know when you feel jealous of the person you love? Because you love them so much and you have that feeling. The word zealous from a negative point of view is the word for envy.

So here we're talking about a strong feeling and I believe that repentance is not just about tears, but repentance must provoke sadness in our heart so we leave sin, so we won't want to remain in sin, so that we hate to remain in sin, so that we desire to get rid of sin and the lord is saying, be earnest and repent, change your mind, change your heart. Start to look at God as the most important person in your life. Start to look at the scriptures as the truth, so that they will compel you to change your life, to try and fight, and ask for help from the Holy Spirit, so that you leave sin.

Amen? When you act like that the Holy Spirit is pleased, He will help you, give you victory. If you fall He will raise you up.

My dear ones, the worst thing that can happen. . the spirit of apostasy begins to cauterize your mind.

When the person deliberately sins and suddenly can't feel anymore any guilt. The person starts to think that the sin is natural and that it will lead you to a life without any problems until the end. Here Jesus is saying, be earnest, truly repent, change your heart, seek me.

What a beautiful thing. First, it's faith because without faith you can't even see the spiritual world, but later you clearly notice that when you put on the white clothes, you buy white clothes, it's talking about justification, about positioning yourself in holiness and it takes you to live in holiness, let's put it that way, which is the justification. The salve to the eyes is the presence of the Holy Spirit revealing more and more the truth about the world, about ourselves, and about God, and that creates repentance, creates real brokenheartedness, and Jesus ends by saying, "Here I am!

I stand at the door and knock" This is a clear reference to the rapture. It's a clear reference to the Holy Spirit touching, to Jesus touching your heart to enter your life and transform your life, but also a reference to the door, the same door that is seen by John in chapter 4, right after to this word. That open door in Heaven.

That is the door that Jesus talks about saying, "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in" It talks about your life. "and eat with that person, and they with me.

" This part, I will eat with that person and they with me is a reference to the great banquet at the Lamb's wedding. These people will be special guests of Jesus. You invite Jesus to come into your life and He will invite you to the great banquet for the Lamb's wedding.

Amen? And then He says, "To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. " Here He is clearly talking about the raptured church that will seat with Jesus in many thrones of authority during the millennium.

It references the fact that during the millennium Jesus will rule the world and no one who entered the millennium as a sinner, after converting during the great tribulation, but converted to Jesus, will enter the millennium. They will not be on the throne, in leadership positions because they will still be sinners, and during the millennium all of the authority positions will be occupied by the believers. The ones who truly opened the door to Jesus and He entered their hearts.

So, my dear, I would like to finish by saying that this church, began in the twentieth century, in 1900 AD and I believe that it's the church that will go until the rapture. My word to you my dear is, love Jesus. There are so many people in this world searching for things to fill their void, their purpose.

People who live to have money, as Jesus said, you say I'm rich, I'm wealthy, I lack nothing. Those are miserable people because Jesus tells them, you think you're rich and wealthy, but you don't know that you are poor, miserable, blind and naked. Poor, miserable, blind, and naked.

People who think they have everything and don't need God, don't need to live for God. They're actually miserable. Why?

Because when this life ends they won't be together with Christ in eternal life. So I end this message by telling you, that is the church in which we live. We must ask God for mercy.

We must open our hearts and believe in the sacrifice of Christ so that He will dress us in white clothes. We need the Holy Spirit to anoint our eyes so that we see the world, ourselves, and the spiritual reality. We need to be brokenhearted, repented, with an earnest heart to fight, to live for the glory of God, and even if we never reach perfection on this Earth, as Apostle Paul said, "I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.

But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. " Do you know what is this heavenward calling? It's the calling to be with the Lord, to live for His glory, to live with Him.

That is the desire of my heart. I say this everyday, Lord I haven't reached it yet, I'm far from reaching, but I'm forgetting what is behind, and I'm straining toward what is ahead, to the prize, to the rapture day, to the trumpet sound. Lord do not leave me here without hearing that trumpet sound.

I really want to be there because I know that everything God has given me, which is so much, I feel so privileged, and I want to tell you, do not envy people who have many things. May the Lord be your award. May He, the Lord, be your greatest treasure because your heart is where your treasure is.

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. " God wants so much to give us beautiful things, but He wants the most precious thing in our life to be Him. May He be our treasure and award.

May the Lord bless your life. May you live for Him, here on Earth for His glory, so that His light will shine through you, and so that you'll be prepared for the trumpet sound because it will sound, and when it does, all of us who live for that will be raptured. If we have died already we will be raptured first, if we haven't died, if we're alive when it happens, then we will hear the trumpet sound and we will live for the honor and glory of the Lord.

Amen? May the Lord bless you. May the Lord prosper your life, but above all things may you be free from the spirit of apostasy and from the spirit of deceit.

May the salve from the Holy Spirit upon your eyes open your understanding, and may you live for His honor and glory. Amen? I love you all so much.

If you haven't subscribed to my channel, do it, click on the bell to receive notifications, and once again I ask, share this message because it is extremely important. Amen? God bless you, my dear people.

In the name of Jesus, amen.