Do you remember a time when you did not drink ice tea? Do you remember when McDonald’s did not serve ice tea? Do you remember when you drank your first coffee? When did you drink your first latte? Where did people get lattes before Starbucks?
I can not remember ever, not drinking coffee? I drank coffee as long as I can remember. We used to drink coffee out of a saucer. Coffee used to be hotter before automatic coffee makers. On the farm we would pour our coffee into a saucer to cool it off. My dad used to make a cup of coffee with milk in it before he went to bed at night, set it on the kitchen counter and drink it cold sometime in the middle of the night. In fact, the night he died, there was still a cup of cold coffee sitting on the kitchen counter in the morning.
Just some of the strange things I have been thinking about after my last blog when I mentioned the verse in Revelations about God spitting out the lukewarm church because they were neither hot or cold. Why would God rather have a cold church than a lukewarm church? A lukewarm Christian seems to be better than a cold one. Were the people in the lukewarm Laodicean church Christians? I think so. Why because Jesus refers to them as the church. The church is made up of believers. If Jesus was vomiting them out, was he taking away their salvation? I don’t think so.
Why did Jesus use the word “spue” or “vomit”, depending on the version you read? The words are used very sparingly in the Bible. There are only two occasions where we read the word “spit”. One is in a positive context and one negative. Jesus used spit and mud to anoint the eyes of the blind man when He restored the man’s sight. The people and soldiers “spit” on Jesus when they mocked and beat Him.
When we think of something coming out of God’s mouth, we usually think of His Word:
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God”
His Word is life, health, spirit, truth. Now in the last book of the Bible, Jesus that he is going to spit out the Laodiceans. That’s pretty harsh especially considering the fact that most of us would give ourselves an average grade if we were to grade ourselves on a scale of 1 to 10. Does that mean that we will be spit out?
I have no recall of ever hearing any sermon on these verses; however I have read commentaries on the book of Revelations. Some say that these are real, actual churches, others think that they represent the church over time with the Laodicean church being the apostate church of the last days.
Last night our pastor taught from Romans 11 about how the Jewish people were given “the spirit of slumber” and were the branch that was “broken off” from the tree, as God’s chosen people; in order that we, the Gentiles being branches of “a wild olive tree” might be grafted into the tree. The Jewish people were broken off, “because of their unbelief”. The writer then warns us, the Gentiles, “If God spared not the natural branches (Jewish people), take heed lest he also spare not thee”.
It was perfect timing how God used last night's message to help make clear Revelation 3:15. In the last days, the church will become arrogant saying,
“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”.
They will no longer be the mouthpiece that God will use. He will spit them out.
Are we there yet?
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