Attempting to Demystify Revelation: Week 2

Good morning, Church of the Crossing. My name is Chin and I live

up the road of I sixty nine in a little burg called Anderson, Indiana.

And for some of you who are familiar with the history of this particular

congregation, and maybe some of my own history, for I've met many of

you before. Anderson is the seat of what's called the Church of God,

and this congregation is one of over two thousand congregations of the Church of God

in the United States and Canada. And my wife and I moved from Seattle

some years ago to Anderson to become the pastor of a local church there,

and then I was asked to step up into what's called the position of General

Director at Church of God Ministries, which is the office of that General Assembly.

And so I can speak with some credibility when I say to you to

day on, behalf of your over two thousand brothers and sisters in congregations.

Well, it's quarter million in those two thousand congregations in the United States and

in four times as many more in ninety other countries, working simultaneously into twenty

three time zones. For Jesus, I bring you greetings and also bring you

thanks for this particular community of faith at the Church of the Crossing for your

years of faithful biblically grounded and Jesus honoring witness no small thing, and whatever

brought you here today, perhaps you are seeking God for yourself in a personal

circumstance. Maybe you're here because it's your custom or your history or your legacy,

or maybe you're here today because your mother made you come, or maybe

you gain just out of curiosity, whatever brought you here. No, you

need to know that in this room, in this place, in this community

of faith, there is influence and there is life found not just here,

but far beyond what you can ask or imagine, because around the world people

know about this congregation and look to it for its own integrity. Thank you

for being that people. As I said, my wife and I moved from

Seattle some years ago to San Flindiada. It seemed like quite a foreign mission

tour at the time because it was very different then, and well everything is

different now. But I just want you to know that since we moved to

Anderson, so much of Seattle has come right into your own neighborhood. At

Keystover the Crossing. I mean, there's a north from store. That's a

Seattle deal. There's a Sea Scandy store I grew up with that. There's

a Starbucks Welcome Home. There's a Costco down at Castleton. I feel like,

if you could just get Mount Rainier here, I would absolutely never have

to think about Seattle again. I won't try and boria with stories of Seattle

just to say I feel at home here, but not just because of the

stores across the highway, but because of the spirit that is in this place.

And I'm so honored and privileged to be invited to speak into the new

series of teaching that began last week here at Church of the Crossing, Demystifying

Revelation, one of the most mysterious and talked about books of all time.

Certainly for the last twenty centuries, people have wrestled from every end of the

theological spectrum and experience about the meaning of what is so often described mysteriously is

Revelation. The book Revelation is mysterious in a way. It is a revealing

book, and how you understand it and how you interpret it can have profound

impacts on your own personal journey and the journey of those around you. In

fact, it's the only book of all sixty six in the Holy writ from

Genesis to Revelation that ends with a promise that if you read and study this,

you will be blessed. I've been invited to speak about the truth revealed

in the Book of Revelation in the first section chapters one, two, and

three, but today particularly chapters two and three, and as we dive in,

I just again want to thank you for coming and for the church's staff

for inviting me. But as we look at the Book of Revelation, you

need to know in chapters two and three it's a series of messages to seven

churches and seven cities. And as a kind of moniker, think of it

this way. Every church has a story, every church has a context,

a challenge, and a promise. And the apostle John the only one of

the original twelve that died by natural costs, as far as we can tell,

in his advanced old age, likely in his nineties, he was exiled

in persecution for his faith in Jesus to an island off what we would now

call modern day Turkey called Patmos. And while he was there, he writes

in the opening chapter of the Book of Revelation, his journey that while he

was in prayer on the Lord's Day, that's the first day of the week,

the day why we're gathered here. Now it's the resurrection day of Jesus.

On the Lord's Day, I had a vision. He fell into a

kind of a supernatural, mysterious trance, and he used these words, I

saw heaven opened. And when he saw heaven opened, he saw the Jesus

that he had followed in the flesh, that Jesus who had held his hand,

with whom he had sat to dine, That Jesus who had heard the

sound of his material voice, That Jesus who saw him eye to eye,

that Jesus who he watched and learned from for those spectacular three years of his

journey that set the course of the whole rest of his life. He saw

that, saying Jesus, but in a way more glorious, because Jesus,

the son of man that John worked with, walked with first, was flesh

and blood in the same way as he. But now Jesus in the resurrected

body, still recognizable, still in the same form. And yet now the

Lord of lords and King of kings, this majestic God, the very creator

of the universe in human form that Jesus appears to him when he sees have

it opened. And in that he says to John, I want you to

write these things down. I've got a word for you. I have some

revelation to give you for my people. And I believe, as so many

others have, that it was not just for that contemporary in his group,

that original audience of the first century, but it was for all people who

are seeking truth and seeking God. It's a revelation for all the centuries until

the Lord himself returns. And in that he said, I want you to

right to seven churches. These seven all have a story, and there's specific

messages in these chapter two and three. They're specifically written into the context the

challenge and the promise of each unique community of faith, all unique but united

and in common pursuit of Jesus. So as we look at the next line,

you'll see a map. This is modern day Turkey. These churches were

all in what was in the roman Age the first century of the Christian era

called Asia Minor. If you lived in Rome and you were looking across a

map and you look to the east, well that was Asia past Greece.

Well, that's what we would call Turkey. We would consider Asian to be

farther east from Rome or farther west from where we are. But this was

Asia minor. It was Asia. The churches of Asia, seven Churches of

Asia. And you see those red squares, those mark the seven cities cities.

They were churches named for their city. There was the church at t

Sardes, there was the church at Ephicus, and so on. I just

want to pause here and get you an important point that when you're studying the

Scripture, when you're looking at the plan of God writ large over time and

generations, never forget that cities are the key recipients of the revelation of God.

It's not to say you can't go to a mountaintop or to a rural

town, but cities play an important, outsized role in the revelation of God.

In fact, these ancient cities are mostly talked about today. They're known

today, they're identified today why because they had a church in them. They

were identified by the history of their church over twenty one centuries. The fact

that the word of God was revealed to them like it was revealed to er

of the Chaldis, and to Sodom and Gomorah, and to Nineveh, and

to Jerusalem over which Jesus is said to have wept over the city. In

the same way, we need to remember that as we passed from this world

to the next, as history marches on, how will this city be remembered?

When people say Ephesus today, they're not thinking about Diana, who was

once its goddess, its patron goddess. They think about the revelation of God

to Ephesus. What would be said about Indianapolis one hundred years from now,

five hundred years from now, a millennium from now, What will be said

twenty one centuries from now if the Lord Terry's about this city? Will it

be because the witness and the revelation of God to the people of God who

lived in the place was so profound that it's unforgettable and overwhelms all other of

its historic legacy. How we praise so well these seven cities were addressed by

Jesus through John for a message each of them. Now why these seven there

were many other cities. Well, these were hubs. These were hubs of

the gospel. To help you understand that in a contemporary term. Look at

the next side. Now, this is a side of Delta Airlines hub cities

in the United States. My first job out of grad school. I came

out of the law school at the University of Washington and Seattle, which was

my hometown, and my first job was with Northwest Airlines, which is now

Delta. I'm a fan, I'm a Phila Delta guy, and I flew

to Minneapolis, which was then the headquarters, and I spent months there in

an apartment they set up for me so I could learn about the airline above.

It's culture, it's ethos, it's way of doing business. And then

they sent me back to Seattle, where I work, and what I learned

was the airline and the sachos Delta. Every major airline has a city has

a map of hubs like this. Those hubs for Delta are the seed and

the culture, the ethos, the values of the airline which flies to hundreds

of cities. In fact, you could get on a Delta Airline flight our

one that is code shared with this airline partners of the Sky Team, and

go to almost five hundred cities. But the culture is emanating from the hubs.

It's so important the values, the way we do things, the way

which we react, the way in which we are proactive, the way we

dream and imagine, manage. All of it is calculated in the hubs and

spread from the hubs to the rest of the whole airline map. It's the

same thing with all kinds of knowledge and culture. And in the New test

these cities, these seven cities of Asia, were they the hubs the Gospel

had been planted there. They were influential crossroads. What was preaching Ephesus would

be known throughout the whole of the area in a world before planes, trains

or automobiles. And so Jesus said to John, I want you to write

to these seven hubs, these seven cities. I'm reading between the lines here

that I believe it's the design of God, because those were strategic trumpet there

were strategic microphones. They were strategic locations where the truth could be proclaimed and

multiplied and magnified. Next up in this picture you'll see those same cities,

and those seven were each identified specifically seven cities and seven churches. They're summarized

in the message that Jesus had John write down. In the next I do

see how that unpacks perhaps in the next one there we are yet Ephesus.

What Jesus said to John is you need to write to Ephesus, and he

introduces himself, Jess. This introduces himself to each city in the letter that

John writes by that kind of transcribed, and then he says, here's your

challenge, here's your context, here's your problem. You in Ephesus, you

have lost your first love. You have been a people that were so head

o her heels for me, but now you're that your love is waxing cold.

This is a big challenge for you in your context, in the shadow

of pagan and secular civilization, which is becoming increasingly hostile. You have lost

your first love and it's not going to bring you to life. In the

second letter to the next city, at Smyrna, you are suffering and impoverished.

Jesus sees he knows what the scenario is, and he knows that the

church and in Smyrna is its suffering. There was a huge persecution at the

time in that particular city, and it was impoverished. It was materially poor,

and it was also spiritually on the weak side. Next up in Pergamum,

it was deceived and sexually compromised. Oh, this is so important to

remember. He was Jesus is speaking himself. He said, you know,

the city, the city and the church are being deceived, and in your

deception, you were sexually compromised. In the next city, which is Thyothyra,

it's also charged by Jesus with being permissive and sexually compromised. The reason

I'm pausing here and saying so important is that in the first century of the

Christian era, historians have sometimes observed that the single greatest distinguishing mark of the

followers of Jesus was how did people know that they were Christians on the street.

They didn't drive cars with fish bumper stickers, they weren't wearing crosses,

which was not then yet identified as an emblem of the gospel. How were

people identified? What was it about them? And many scholars study it into

the context of the times say it was their radical, counter cultural sexual ethic

that was so different from the world around them that distinguished them from the rest.

They became recognized as a separate people, what we might describe as a

holy people because of their sexual ethics. Sometimes we want to push that to

the side, or we don't feel comfortable talking about it, about our own

personal journey of this magnificent gift of God and our human sexuality, and how

it needs to be polished and made holy, but how it also is a

marker of our following of Jesus. Jesus calls it out here in these cities,

these are my people. These are letters to the churches witnessing to a

city. And you cannot lead someone into a holy sexual ethic if you do

not your self experience at first, and it's fundamental to their witness Jesus says.

Next up in the fifth city, Sadus. It thinks it's alive,

but it's actually dead. This is a church that imagined itself. It's alive,

but it's actually dead. People drive by it, they see the side,

they hear the music. People come inside and they sing their songs.

People dress up and they go out to look after. They might even go

to Keystone to the CROSSI to the Nortum Cafe, which I highly recommend.

But the church is dead. I'm not suggesting this one is. I'm just

say, Insardus, that can be the evidence or the surface appearance of life.

But just because there's a crowd just because the lives are all doesn't mean

it's actually alive. You could be dead, and Jesus warned the church's artist.

Next up in Philadelphia, of all the seven churches, it gets the

best review of Jesus, Jesus says to the church in Philadelphia, it says,

you have been faithful, You are faithful, and because you are faithful,

you will be protected. That doesn't mean to say you'll escape all agony

or difficulty or trouble. It doesn't say that life is just going to be

easy, or you're going to just now follow Jesus and fall into your cruise

room at the buffet on your way to heaven. It is to say that

because of your faithfulness, though the devil will have you, you'll be protected.

Though there would be consequences for other you will be saved from them because

of your faithfulness. Which brings us at last to Church number seven. Aduseia

is lukewarm, and perhaps for all of the seven messages to the seven churches,

this is the one that is stuck in the minds of people over the

centuries. Jesus says, you know you're neither hot nor cold. Your lukewarm,

and because you're lukewarm. I'm spitting you out of my mouth. Ooh

ouch. And you also are deceived. In your lukewarm state, You're not

able to actually see the way things really are. You can't even see yourself

in the mirror of your soul, of your mind and your conduct, your

thoughts, your your belief system. You'll be deceived. It is this Church

of ladusea from which I want to pack more, unpack more deeply. But

as we do that, know this. Every one of these churches had a

promise. They all all the messages ended in the next side with the savers.

This is verse to allowd to see you. But throughout the second and

third chapter's revelation, Jesus says the same thing, almost forbade On. Anyone

with ears to hear must listen to the spirit and understand what He's saying to

the churches. This is a promise. How is that a promise? It

sounds like a command. Well, it's both. But the fundamental underlying precept

here is Jesus is saying to the churches, no matter of what state they

are, even sartists who imagine itself a lot. Instead, I'm still talking

to you. I'm supernaturally through the Holy Spirit, still speaking to you.

I still understand you. I have a plan for you, I have a

destiny for you, I have life for you. But you're going to have

to make a choice. This is the promise. You could choose to hear

the spirit, to listen carefully, and then choose to understand the Spirit's voice,

and it will be a pathway to life and peace, satisfaction and fulfillment.

Next up, this is a photograph of today's loud to see you.

These seven cities are mostly now just desserted ruins, although some have new modern

name are built on the ruins of the old Ladyssa stands by itself. It's

not inhabited. It sits at the convergence of two famous rivers, Thelycus and

the Meander. Have you ever heard the English word mandering? Someone meanders,

you're thinking, just like you're preaching right now, maandering all over the place.

It comes from this river which just does that same through this valley,

and then it merges up with the Lycus, another major river. And this

city was built on a hillside above those rivers. And this picture I chose

in part. I was just there last year because of the mountains. You

see the snow on the mountains because in a very dry and arid climate,

those rivers and that melting snow create a source of water, which is life.

Leadysia was constructed at the crossroads of transportation and culture. It became fabulously

wealthy. It was so wealthy that it had a reputation across the Empire.

And the year sixty a d, which was before the Book of Revelation was

likely written, there was such a devastating earthquake that the whole city was practically

reduced to rubble, and the Roman Empire, the imperial government and Robe offered

to send a fortune to help build Laodicea in the same way that our central

governments would do today. And the city of Leaduicea made a reputation for itself

throughout the whole Empire by saying, no, we don't need your money.

We don't need it. We got plenty of money in the bank. Our

banks are sell full. I don't know where the gold coins are under those

collapsed columns. We'll find them. I mean, I'm reading between them,

that's my parlance. But the idea was they refused outside help because they were

so self assured of their own capacity and their own wealth. It was famous

for being rich. And when you have money, you also have culture.

This was the place where they built the opera houses and the performance venues,

where the arts of literature flourished. This is a place of economic transaction.

This is a place of multiculturalism. This is a place that was famed throughout

the empire, like some other great Roman cities, has been wealthy, radite,

upscale. Altogether, I want to go there. That's important because when

you hear the message of Jesus to the church, he's speaking into their context.

Oh there's one other reason. Leodissia was very famous because in the banks

of the mineral springs that are above the rivers in the hillside upon which the

city's built were minerals in the water, and they were thought to have healing

properties, and especially if you took some mud from the water, the mineral

water and put it on your eyes. In a world that had no ophthalmology,

in a world where sight was so primary still it is today, but

imagining the ancient world, if you had no capacity to have lenses made for

you, or contact lenses, or surgery or even diagnosis, you just know

that you're losing the light because you cannot see. In a world like that,

anyone that could offer the hope of restoring your eyesight, even if it

be quack medicine, would be a thing. And Leodisia was the place in

the whole of the Roman Empire were people who could not see dreamed of going

or at least getting some of that healing ointment for their eyes. So it

was famous for its wealth, its culture, its self sufficiency, and it

was a place where people came to see. And that explains how Jesus speaks

to them. But before we do that, look at this. See this

if you will. These are two portraits. You may have seen them before

in print. The one on the left is a famous picture called Head of

Christ. The one on the right is called Christ Knocking at Heart's door.

First, the Head of Christ. The portrait artist here is a man named

Warner Salmon. He passed away in nineteen sixty eight. He lived to Chicago.

He was born to two Nordic immigrants, his mother from Sweden his father

from Finland. They had this child, Warner Salmon, in Chicago. He

went to the Art Institute of Chicago. He was a deep believer. He

was in what was then called the Evangelical Covenant Church, and in nineteen twenty

four he drew a charcoal sketch of the head of Christ, and then in

nineteen forty he converted that charcoal sketch into that oil painting. That oil painting

on the left is considered to be by most observers the most recognized image of

Jesus in the whole world. Now we have no photographs of Jesus, we

don't actually know what he looked like. But around the world, wherever you

see that picture, people believe that's what Jesus looked like. It's had the

most influence of any image of Jesus carved in stone, painted on canvas,

or stretched with pastels. It is a phenomenon thought to have been reproduced almost

one billion times. Time magazine in the year two thousand said that Warner Salmon,

though his name was not well known, was probably the most influential artist

of the twentieth century because of that painting. But what other people don't know

is where is that painting? Where can I go to actually see the original?

It's always in print somewhere. I've been in seventy three countries of this

world, in places where they've never seen a guy like me with blue eyes

before, and walked into someone's small little house sometimes with thatched roof if it

had a roof, and seen that on the wall. Well, actually it's

owned by the Church of God, with which this church is apart. It's

actually resident on the campus of Anderson University. Most people in the world don't

know it's there. It's become controversial in recent years because it's a Nordic Jesus.

It's a white man's Jesus. And Warner Salmon was of Scandinavian descent and

he painted a Jesus that reflected his own community's image. But that's common all

around the world. You can have images of Jesus in many different ethnic is

He's and so on, and all legit because nobody has a picture of him

actually. But I'm just saying that famous painting, which is inestimable, it

is worth it is like the Mona Lisa. How do you ensure something that

has no peer. It's in Anderson and the air and if you want to

go see it you can. It's in a beautiful gallery on the Fine Arts

Center on the campus of AU but Warner Salmon in nineteen forty painted that one,

and then on the right he painted this one called Christ at Heart Store

Knock in a Heart Store. You're thinking this is the meandering part. No,

this is exactly to the text, because that painting is inspired by the

message of Jesus to Las Leodyssia. Because famously, in Revelation chapter three,

verse twenty, Jesus is quota saying, behold, I stand at the door

a knock. If any man open the door, I will come in to

him, and I'm with him, and sup with him, and he with

me. It's a very evocative and vivid invitation of Jesus to welcome him into

your life. And that has spread across the centuries and art. Solomon pain

to that painting based on that verse, and it also has taken off around

the world and is so so familiar. But it's power and it has legitimate

power just as a standalone that versed us. To see it in its context

of the original message to the church at Ladicea will give it more depth.

Oh where can you see that painting? You can see that at Anderson Also,

why because Anderson University has all of the paintings of Warner Solomon, almost

all of them, there's one out. It's all there. And that painting

of Christ a heart store there it is. That's life size when you see

it on the walls, the size of an ordinary person. And notice how

he imagined it. Do you see the light around the door. See Jesus

knocking on a door, and the light is in the form of a heart.

This is Solomon in nineteen forty two, trying to capture He's standing and

knocking at Heart's door. And notice the door. The door has no handle

on it on the face of it. It can only be opened from the

inside. Oh, this is the stuff of genius and inspiration. Jesus can't

get into your heart until you open the door. Powerful concept there. But

now to the text. These are the words of scripture in the New Living

Translation. Jesus tells to John write this letter to the angel. Angel.

Here, angel actually means means messenger. So we often think of angels in

a supernatural phenomenon, you know, all dazzling and vice and so on,

and that's a very valid but angel also can refer to a messenger, and

this is often thought to be write this to the pastor the messenger, the

shepherd of the Church Atlantis Alaodicea, and write this letter and to Laodicea.

And this is the message from the one who is the Amen. So Jesus

is self describing himself. I am the Amen. I want you to know

who hear this letter. That is not from the pen of John, the

apostle in flesh and blood. It is from the pen of the Amen,

the supernatural manifestation of God in the person of Christ, our Lord. Now,

Amen is an odd word for us to think of when we think about

a name for Jesus. We're accustomed to Jesus be the Son of Man and

the Son of God, the Savior of the world, the Light of the

world, the Lamb of God. We understand Jesus has the water of life

and the bread of life. We see him as the Lord of Lord,

the King of Kings. But has never really occurred to me to call him

the Amen. Why does it appear Jesus is self selecting his own name.

My grandmother, who was born in eighteen ninety and at the age of nineteen

came to a very powerful intersection with Jesus, and she passed away at the

age of ninety nine. In the year nineteen eighty nine, A very important

figure in my life. I still have a memory of her. Whenever I

think of the name of God, she would always raise her hand. She'd

say, I serve the Great I Am, I Am as the name of

God disclosed at the burning bush to Moses. When Moses is commanded by God

to go down into Egypt and to stare down the Pharaoh. Moses says,

well, who am I? Who shall I tell him has sent me in?

And God, speaking through the burning bush that would not be consumed,

says, you tell him the Im sent you. The Im is present,

tense, has no past, has no future, is present because God exists

outside of time. And my grandmother will just I serve the Great I Am.

That was her nomenclature. That was her quote. It's from the scripture,

and fair here though I've never seen him, and say, I serve

the Great Amen. And yet this is the name Jesus gave to himself in

this text. Why because Amen is an ancient Semitic word in Hebrew also in

Aramaic, the language of Jesus, and what it literally means is truth.

When we say Amen at the end of a prayer, what we're acknowledging is

we believe it's true. For Thine is the Power and the Kingdom and the

glory forever. Amen. We're saying, yeah, that's true. When someone

is in a preaching house and somebody says Amen, it means I agree with

that. If you've heard the old literature of an amen corner in our own

American culture, sometimes people would sit in a corner and over there there's be

the Amen people. They shout out together, Amen corner. It's the people

who say that's truth. Whenever you say Amen, you're saying I believe that

because it's true. Jesus said I am the Truth. The Saint John who

quoted in his own Gospel Jesus saying I am the Way, the Truth,

and the Life. Here quotes Jesus saying in Revelation, I am the Amen,

the Truth, and then underscores it. He stretches it out. Jesus

is talking the faithful and true witness the beginning of God's new creation. This

is important because we must understand if you want to have the power of Heaven

in your life, you must be a leads to the truth. It's not

an elective truth, and it's not just I'm only true about this and not

true about that. It's not that I follow someone who's not famous for telling

the truth and tells lies. The devil is the father of lies. And

you cannot experience the power of Heaven's presence, it's destiny, it's influence.

You can't be the salt of life and Jesus while dancing with the devil who

is the father of lies. And people in our world stage, people in

our churches, who chase after people on the public stage who are not known

for telling the truth, are divorcing themselves from the very truth itself. I

know people who have had their whole lives unraveled because they felt alleged to a

truth that wasn't true, and other parts of their life began to crumble too.

Jesus is say to the church that they have to see I am the

truth. You measure what you hear, you measure what you say, you

measure what you do by me. I am the truth agenda that you would

like to see happen. It can never happen if you are divorced from the

truth. I'm the faithful and true witness. I am the beginning that word

beginning in the original Greek is to be the source, the catalyst. I'm

the beginning of the new creation. The truth is the birthing mechanism of the

new day. Your life can't be changed. You can't be born again.

You cannot have new hope for tomorrow. You can't move past what you have

done wrong. You can't move past from a culture that's run among You can't

bring life to your community. You can't actually change the course of events in

our country. You can't do anything in your church and your life. You

have no sustainable, laughing impact. Up our from Christ, and he is

the single source and catalyst. You have to clothe yourself and his truth.

Breathe his truth like oxygen, make of the plumbline of your experience. If

you want to see a new creation. He who said behold, I Make

all things new, quoted already in the service today. That one is not

the guardian of the status quo. He's not looking backward, He's looking forward.

Here's the source of all that's fresh and new, hope and life eternal.

Next up, introducing himself, he says to the Church of Ebusa,

I know all the things you do that you are neither hot nor cold,

I wish that you were the one or the other. But since you are

like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of

my mouth. Wooh, I don't want Jesus to spit at all. That's

not that Jesus. I'm working up and I don't want to be in his

spit ejected from his body. In the Book of Jdah, the only character

the Hole of the scripture to whom Jesus completely compared directly compared to himself,

because he often talked about David or Abraham, r Moses and legend so on.

But but he compared himself to Jonah, another prophet from Galilee. And

in Jonah chapter two, it says that the great fish vomited Jonah out.

He vomited him out of his disobedience, having swallowed him at sea. Evokes

from me the same imagery Jesus spitting. He's expunging you out of my mouth.

I don't want to be there, but that's what happens when you are

deceived, when you are the goarm. Notice that he said I know all

that you do. So let's also just underscore that Jesus as he's talking to

us to the Church of Abyssea, to the Church of the Crossing, to

Jim Lyon, and to you, to Jane Roberts. Whoever we are,

he sees everything that we do. There's nothing that is hidden from his eyes.

Sometimes that makes me feel very uncomfortable. Not because I'm doing something bad.

I'm just not used to being stared at then. But I'm saying Jesus

is completely completely informed by who we are and where we are. You say,

I am rich, I have everything I want. I don't need a

thing, and you don't realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and

blind and naked. You are so deceived. You think this about yourself.

You think you've got this out, you think you've got it together, and

you're completely deceived. You think you're rich, but you're actually poor. You

think you're finely clothed, but you're actually naked. You think you conceive,

but you're blind. You're poor, you're naked, and you're blind. It's

not a handsome combination. Next up, I want to advise you, Jesus

says, to buy gold from me. Gold always in scripture, that thing

that has been refined by the fire, that can be pure. I want

you to find purity from me, gold that has been purified by fire.

Then you will be rich. You will be rich when you are pure,

when you're holy. Also by white garbents from me, so that you will

not be ashamed of your nakedness. An ointment for your eyes so that you

will be able to see. You know, I told you I came from

Seattle, and I was so excited when you got a Northum store. My

mother was a Nordstrum junkie in Seattle. I mean I grew up in a

Northrum store. And by that, I mean she My mother went to Northum

just to hear them play the piano. All the stores used to have pianos,

and she sho'd buy anything. She just walk through and get a coffee

and listen to play the piano. When I was eighteen years old, my

mother arranged me to have a personal shopper at Nordstrum's what That's what I said,

too, And she said, I've arranged for you. This woman's name

was Donna. She ultimately retired and I got a younger guy, which they

were both good, but I was more comfortable with Paul, the second guy.

Anyway, Downtown Seattle, Fourth and Pine. It's the flagship merchant store.

And every year my birthday, which is in August, which is the

Northum Anniversary Sale. They only have a couple sales a year, and the

anniversary sale always holds my birthday. My mother would call up my personal shopper

and say, I'm writing a check I'm putting in the bank at Nordstrums,

and you're gonna see my son and I want you to keep him dressed right.

And I went down there and met Paul Murphy was my hat for years

as my personal shopper, and they had private dressing rooms and i'd have an

appointment, I'd go down there, and he kept track of everything I purchased

every year, or my mother's dye. My dad was in it too,

but he wasn't quite so passionate about it. And oh, I see about

some gray slacks and a blue navy blazer and a red striped eye. You

know you need a blue shirt this year. And maybe you need some brown

loafers, or maybe you need some chinos, or maybe you need these jeans

or whatever it was. He had a complete inventory over the years of everything

I had in my closet, and then he'd match up, and then in

that room, he'd bring him out and lay him out, and I'd try

him on, and then I would make my choices. Do you know that

that started when I was eighteen years old. I'm seventy two, and my

mother lived to be ninety seven. She passed away in twenty nineteen. And

when she was ninety five, I said, Mom, enough already, because

she was buying me to Seattle to the Personal Shopper every August. I want

the trip, but I don't need the shopper. You're an old lady,

you're a widow. It's enough. What I'm saying is the reason that it

was important to her, and what I learned to appreciate about it was when

the Personal Shopper would choose the clothes, he would also see that they fit

perfectly. In a way that I might not always be conscious, he made

sure that they fit perfectly. I'm telling you the story not meandering, because

Jesus said, I want you to buy from me white linens, because you

are naked. You need clothes that fits you. And in Revelation nineteen eight,

the same imagery is reintroduced by Jesus, where we are told that the

white linens of Jesus will clothe us perfectly and bear witness to our good deeds.

It's the clothing. The white linen represents the good deeds that cover our

failing nakedness because of our faith in Christ. Ephesians two ten. You are

God's master piece, created new in Christ Jesus. You have been created new

in Christ Jesus for the purpose of what I say, so I could learn

new songs, so I can go to a discipleship class, so that I

can be faithful, so that I can go to a conference, so that

I could just be a esteemed in my community. I mean, there's whole

kinds of reasons that people think they have been made new in Christ. But

here's what the Bible says. This is what God says. You have been

made new in Christ Jesus, his masterpiece for the purpose of good works,

good deeds. What whens are those the ones that were planned for you long

ago beforehand. God, before you were even formed, imagine you and gave

you a destiny to do certain good works. He knows what needs to happen.

He knows you need to do them. You were created for those purposes.

Put on the white linen, discover the call of God and do something

good to change the course of history, your own, those you love,

your community, the city. It's not small talk, it's big ambition,

and it brings life. Buy from me the white linen that has been designed

and custom tailor fit for you. You don't need a personal shopper. You

have Jesus Christ, the Lord. And then I want to help you see

because when you see yourself destined for those good deeds, when you see yourself,

no matter how many pieces of china you've broken against the floor in the

reck of your life, no matter how many mistakes you've made, things you

don't want to remember, no matter what, when you put on those white

clothes, then you can see in the mirror who you are in a way

that the appointment you're buying from this world will never disclose to you. Next

step, I correct and discipline everyone. I love to be diligent to turn

from your indifference. So be be diligent. Don't take this lightly. Don't

just think well, this is just talk, this is just a few minutes

to fill the Sunday morning. This is Jesus speaking to all of us and

to you, and if you ignore it, he will discipline you, not

because he's punishing you, because he loves you. Next, look, I

stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the

door, I will come in and we will share a meal together as friends.

The beautiful portrait of Jesus he painted himself that mere human hands can't fully

capture, even though they be worn as sumons of Jesus. First for your

company, intimacy with you, to hang out with you, to talk with

you in a world that's turned upside down, in a world that we cannot

predict, in a world where all the surveys say people are uncertain about the

future, that we're somehow on the wrong track, in a world of volcanic

eruptions and tornadoes and earthquakes, in a world of economic distress and political tomfooury

and lies on the stage procast it as truth. Not to worry. Jesus

wants to spend time with you so that you can sort it all out and

have hope. John Mark Comer, famous pastor from Portland, Oregon, now

left his local church there to write books. But a very really brilliant guy

with who we become acquainted in the Church of God at his church in Portland

called Bridgetown. But his model of ministry discipleship is captured in three phrases that

once I heard them, I cannot escape. Here's how you follow Jesus.

You be with Jesus. You spend time with Jesus. You are intentional about

sitting down at the table with Jesus. How do you do that? You

pray, you read the scripture, You just tune out everything else. You

just turn it off for a moment. You've got to focus be with Jesus.

But if you be with Jesus, you will become like Jesus because you

will reflect the company you keep. And if that company is on phone,

you'll reflect that. If that company is in your heart with Jesus, you'll

reflect that. Be with Jesus, become out Jesus. And what happens when

you become out Jesus? You do what Jesus did? Of course, what

do I supposed to do? What did Jesus do? How do I know

what he did? Once he called me to do all the time spending time

with him. If I'm becoming like him, if I'm praying daily and this

is in my perjournal every day, now Lord, transform my mind, renew

it to make like the mind of Christ, so that I can do.

But Jesus dead, there's the key of life. Those who are victorious will

sit with me. Those who do this will sit with me and spend time

with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my

father on his throne. Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit

and understand what he is saying to the churches. My wife said to me

just as last week on evening when we were retiring for bed, and she

was talking on about our grandson, Simon O'Connor Lyon, who turned three this

week, and I was on my phone laying on my bed reading the news.

She was talking for quite some time, and she said, Jim,

are you listening. Sweet of her to say so so behind this she always

does okay most of the time. And I was conscious, I can hear

the sound of her voice. I know that there is sound all around me.

I know that she loves me. I know that she has things to

share with me. I know all of that. But I was not making

a choice to listen. This is the same with the Holy Spirit. He's

in this house right now. He is speaking to you he's whispering. I

want to dine with you, I want to enjoy your company. I want

to give you some new clothes. I want to hand you some gold that

you can take as a treasure to this world and the world beyond. I

want you to see the truth so you can be free, because the truth

will set you free. But I'm whispering to you because you're listening to all

the kinds of voices, you're you're listening to all the kinds of sourcing.

You're preoccupied with other things. That me who made you, imagined you and

made good works for you, being your company, which brings us back to

Jesus at heart store. There is at the heart. Some would say it's

kind of dated imagery, but it still resonates. It's still clear. You

can't look at it without understanding what that's the truth of the text. And

remember, only you can open your heart store. You're the only one now.

This image of salmon from nineteen forty two actually was based on the custom.

In the nineteenth century, an English art was named William Holman Hunt who

painted a picture of Jesus knocking on a door inspired by the same verse.

But it was kind of dark and Solomon wanted to bring it into the light,

and that has inspired now in many genres, in many faith traditions,

the same imagery. This is an Orthodox icon reproduced after Solomon's painting in an

Orthodox artistic style of the same message. It doesn't matter what you're back from,

the truth is still the same. Next up, this is a more

contemporary image where the same idea of a heart at the door has been captured,

almost as if in a greeting card. But however you see it,

however you interpret it, or however you expose yourself to it, the message

is the same. Jesus is knocking on the door right now, and not

just your door. He's not going to the door of Innnapolis. How about

anyone in the Circle city hear the knock if we ourselves have not opened the

door. Before you return to your home today, do not forget the word

of Jesus to the church and Iomsea, and know it's a word for us

too. And while he may challenge you and tell you something about yourself that

is not pleasing to hear, remember the truth always heals. It's hard to

bear, and it's never delivered by Jesus without the redemptive promise of I want

to make it right for you. Pray with me. Our Father was so

thankful today for the voice of Jesus echoing across time and in the present moment.

For the faithful witness of John, who was dazzled that Lord's day so

long ago at Patmos, and who was obedient to take the words and put

them on the paper, For your Holy Spirit that still is striving within us,

and made all of us Lord, all of us because we were here

today on this Lord's Day. May we move closer to your will and way

for having been here now with you in Jesus name, Amen,