Laodicea is the perfect picture of a church that is just going through the religious motions and deceiving themselves as to the reality of the new birth in Jesus.
Jesus is:
The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God.
The interesting thing here is that Jesus refers to Himself as "the Beginning of the creation of God". Notice that Beginning is capitalized, so it is a title. We know that Jesus is the, the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. In Revelation Chapter 21, verse 6, when it refers to Jesus as the beginning and the end, beginning is not capitalized. So here Jesus is revealing something different about Himself, that is revealing what His issue is with the church in Laodicea.
Warning:
Jesus knows their deeds, that they are neither cold nor hot; and He would rather that they were cold or hot. So because they are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, Jesus is going to spit the out of His mouth.
Why is lukewam bad, and either hot or cold still alright. Jesus has a problem with the lukewarm, because they are pretending to have something that they don't possess. The hot do possess it. The cold don't, but they are not pretending to possess it. So if the truth is introduced to cold, they will hear it and still have the opportunity, until the day they die, to either receive it or refuse it. The problem is, the lukewarm think they pocess it, but they don't. They are a dead church devoid of the Spirit of God in their own lives. They have not been born of above, which is the requirement Jesus set forth to be able to enter the Kingdom of God. In the gospel of John, Chapter 3, verses 3,5,6 and 7, Jesus says,
" Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God..........Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel when I say to you, 'You must be born again'."
Note that in these verses that Jesus says Truly, Truly, twice. When Jesus does this, He is emphesising the importants of what He is about to say.
The whole purpose for Jesus coming to earth, was to create a New Creation, that has been born again by the Holy Spirit of God. To enter the kingdom of God, you first have to be born on this earth. This is what is meant by born of water and flesh. Then we were all created to be born again, after that, by the Spirit of God. This is where each of us are personally accountable to choose for ourselves, whether or not we want to allow Jesus to do that in us , by receiving Him our not. Just joining a religion does not do it.
Now, what Jesus is saying, when He refers to Himself as, "the Beginning of the creation of God", is that He Himself is the first one who has been born of this new Creation. In Jesus case, He has now allowed the invisible Creator to now be made visible, having a new eternal body, that has been glorified through the resurrection. All New Creations come into existence through the death and resurrection or Jesus. In Paul's letter to Romans, in the 6th Chapter, verse 4, Paul wrote,
" Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life."
Paul wrote in his letter to the Colossians in the 1st Chapter, verses 12 - 20,
" giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. For He delivered us from the domain of darkness and tranferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. And He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first born of the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness of deity to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross..."
Jesus goes on to tell Laodicea:
"So because you say,"I am rich and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing," and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked."
Jesus advise to them:
" I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich, and white garments, that you may clothe yourselves, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed: and eyes salve to annoint you eyes that you may see."
All of what Jesus had just advised them, is all that occurs to a person when they actually ask Jesus into their hearts and allows Him to create in them a New Creation. They then become an eternal being who grows by being refined through trials and tribulations, having value like gold, because this determines what they will be forever. All believers receive white garments in heaven when they die and wait for their glorified body at the resurrection. For all believers, we were blinded in untruths and when we come to the Truth and the Light, we can now see.
This is why Jesus goes on to tell them:
"Behold, I stand at the door(to your heart) and knock; and if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into Him, and will dine with him, and he with Me".
Overcomers reward;
Jesus will grant you to sit with Him on His throne, as He also overcame and sat down with His Father on His throne.
Jesus ended all of these letters with this:
"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches".
This is a statement for everyone who reads and hears these letters, that it important to have an ear that hears, not just listens.
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