Revelation 3 - Christ's Aggressive Church
- Chad Werkhoven
- Oct 19, 2022
- 2 min read
Don't just sit there! Jesus calls you to be an aggressive, competitive member of His Church.
Read / Listen to the chapter:
Read the chapter in an outlined format
Previous DIG DEEPER posts on Revelation
Revelation 3 Summary
The book of Revelation tells the same story of Christ's triumph from seven different perspectives. This first perspective seems relatively dull; there are no fire breathing dragons or fantastic battles or anything else of the sort.
In this opening perspective, we see Jesus addressing and equipping His church with both affirmation and discipline in the form of letters that he sent to seven churches. Seven is a very important and recurring number in this book, and here it helps us understand that Jesus' words here are not just for these particular congregations in far away places from long ago, but rather He's addressing the catholic church - the church universal.
All of Jesus' admonitions are relevant of course, but the two we read of in today's chapter hit particularly close for us today.
The church in Sardis had a reputation of being vibrant. They looked really good from the outside, but it's all a fake veneer. They're not doing what a church should be doing, and are therefore dead.
Perhaps Jesus' harshest words were for the final church He addressed: the Laodiceans. They were just going through the motions as a church - Jesus describes them as being neither cold nor hot. If they were hot, they would exhibit the fruit of the Spirit. If they were cold, at least they might see their need for the gospel and repent. But since they were nice and comfortable right in the middle (a spot many of us find ourselves in often!), Jesus warns he'll spit them out.
Dig Deeper
Each of these letters Jesus dictated for the church ends with the same phrase:
The one who conquers will...
Notice the competitive, aggressive language Jesus calls out to you with as a member of His Church!
This is a familiar attitude for many of us: to excel and conquer athletically and professionally. Heed Christ's call to take that same attitude into church!
AAA Prayer :
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Triune God: the holy and true one (v7)
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Ask that God will give you the strength to be the conqueror that He's called you to be!
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
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