Introduction: Laodicea is the worst of the 7 churches. Unlike the church in Sardis who was dead but still had a small group who had kept their garments white, Laodicea was a church that had gone altogether bad. There are no commendations for the church in Laodicea. The Laodicean church it seems had taken on the characteristics of the town it was in. Laodicea was the most important of the 3 towns in the Lycan valley. The others were Colosse and Heirapolis. Laodicea was a wealthy town, when they were hit by an earthquake they turned down any government help and rebuilt themselves. Rich citizens rebuilt many of the main features. Trading, transportation, banking and commerce were thriving in Laodicea. They were self-sufficient and well off. The church in Laodicea seems to have been infected by this attitude. They were self-assured and did not see their spiritual condition or need. As a church they were in real danger of Christ rejecting them but they could not see their precarious position. It appears that they have 3 main problems. The first problem is one that we in the West face, affluenza! We are sick from the excess offerings of our consumer society, we are addicts running around chasing our next fix in a self-absorbed fog. One person defines it as, ‘an array of psychological maladies such as isolation, boredom, passivity and lack of motivation engendered in adults, teenagers and children by possession of their great wealth;’ ‘an unhappy condition of overload, debt, anxiety, and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more.’1 The Laodiceans were rich in worldly things but poor in spiritual things, in this way they are the opposite of those in Smyrna, ‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich). The second problem is one...

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Introduction: Worship is one of the controversies that rocks and has the rocked the church in the last generation. Being a Reformed church we have a very deliberate view on worship. We feel that many in the worship wars have missed the central things and got caught up in the peripheral aspects of the discussion. The modern day churches failure in the area of worship is due to a failure to understand the full implications of the Gospel. A Gospel driven worship and a Gospel shaped worship has been replaced with a variety of secondary issues taking the primary place in worship. Ironically the Reformed tradition is seen to be the weakest church in the area of worship, that its tradition has been surpassed and improved on by successive generations. I want to give an apologetic for the Reformed approach to worship as the most biblical and gospel oriented approach to worship. So I have cast down the gauntlet and many modern day Christians would no doubt be mystified by my statement. So let’s begin our look at the area of worship with an overview of wrong and right paradigms to worship. The worship wars have been fought on various fronts. The battle lines have been drawn on the issues of Contemporary VS Traditional; Instruments VS Acappella; Clergy VS Laity involvement, etc. I want to argue that as important as many of these issues are they are not the central issue. Once you have established the central issue many of these other issues are put into perspective. Although most people see Reformed worship as ascribing to a traditional style this was not the original motivation in Reformed worship. When the Reformation broke out, it is true that the Reformers were criticising the RCC for innovation. This however does not mean...

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Introduction: If I were to say to you that you are a citizen of God’s kingdom, He has set before you an open door that no one can close, unbelievers will bow down before you, you will be kept from the hour of trial and you will receive a crown, a new name and a place in God’s temple and city. How do these statements translate into what our experience of life would look like? Would you based on these words interpret Christ’s meaning to be that you would live a successful life, a blessed life, a life free from suffering, that God would smooth the way for you? My guess is that we in the 21st century and the church at Philadelphia would be hearing these words with very different ears. We would think in terms of our 21st century consumerism and first world comforts, but Philadelphia would hear things differently. The Philadelphians would have realised that the way to the kingdom is not apart from pain but through pain. This was the message that Paul preached to young converts and freshly planted churches in Acts 14:22, ‘strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.’ Today we are looking at the letter to the church in Philadelphia, Philadelphia like Sardis had been badly affected by an earthquake. Tiberius helped the town and they made a monument to him and called themselves Neocaesarea (New Caesar’s City). Like Pergamum they are not rebuked for any sins but only commended, and like Pergamum they have endured persecution. The words that Christ speaks are words of comfort and encouragement. He does not promise to remove all their pain but points them to certain promises, realities...

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Introduction: The Roman Catholic Church says, ‘No Pope, no Church!’ The Anglican Church says, ‘No Bishop, no Church!’ The Presbyterian says, ‘No Elder, no Church!’ The Baptist says, ‘No congregation, no Church!’ These simplistic statements identify where authority is to be found in the local Church. As Reformed Baptists we are somewhere in between the Presbyterians and regular Baptists. We see Christ as the Head of His church, but because He has given each of His people the Spirit, enabling them to all be priests, the whole local church with the added gift of eldership is sufficient to exercise authority and fulfil the responsibilities of the local church. Someone has said that the church is first of all a monarchy with King Jesus as its head; it is secondly a democracy with the congregation having significant authority and responsibility, and thirdly it is an oligarchy/aristocracy because of the office of elder in the church. We agree with these three statements in this particular order, we are in between pure democracy and eldership rule. We distinguish between elder ruled, where almost all decisions are taken by the elders and elder led where the elders have a leadership role but in order to help the congregation make the most biblically informed decisions where the Bible says they ought. Today we have had the privilege of inducting Rene into the eldership. This is a solemn occasion and has been done publicly with the exchanging of promises for that very reason. It has been done with the laying on of hands as the bible commands as a symbolic act conferring the authority of office, and we trust is also a means of grace where God will supply Rene with the grace needed for his task. Given the fact that many churches are embarrassed about...

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No manuscript is available for this sermon.

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Introduction: Today we are having a baptismal service where some of the candidates were once baptised as infants and have since come to recognise that their parents cannot obey the call to repent and be baptised on their behalf, and so are being baptised today as their own act of obedience to Christ’s command. Today then I would like us to think carefully about the differences between infant baptism and believer’s baptism. We will not be able to look at every verse relevant to this discussion so we will look at one of the more important ones, Acts 2:38-39. Many paedobaptists take this verse to be a clear indication that infants were to be included in the visible covenant community of the church just as the children of Israelites were included in the Abrahamic covenant in the OT, as well as proving that circumcision has been replaced by baptism. I am preaching this message with two goals in mind. I am wanting to clearly preach on the meaning of baptism and the gospel it visibly portrays, and I believe that in order to do that I have to show how infant baptism muddies the picture of the gospel being portrayed and how believer’s baptism most clearly and accurately sets it forth. Our text is a well known one, the Spirit has been sent upon the Church on the Day of Pentecost, Peter has just preached his sermon, the crowd cut to the heart by the Spirit have asked what they should do. Peter tells this group of Jewish hearers who have rejected their Messiah and have not received the promised Spirit what they must do in order to be the benefactors of the promised Spirit. Acts 2:38-39 are his response, ‘And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptised every...

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Introduction: Sardis as a church was very similar to Sardis as a town, apathetic, not vigilant and comfortable. The town of Sardis was built on a nearly inaccessible town. It held a very strong military position. Sardis had a history of wealth, King Creosus who was very rich reigned from Sardis. Sardis was attacked by Cyrus, but it was proverbially difficult to capture. It had steep sheer cliffs on three sides. But 14 days into the siege a small group of Persian troops climbed the cliff at a place where no guard was stationed, for they felt secure no one would come from there, and the city fell. It suffered this sort of defeat twice in its history. Sardis is a town like San-Francisco or Christchurch it experienced a large earthquake in 17 A.D. and was exempt from taxes in order to rebuild. The town also had a very large Jewish population with a synagogue the size of a football field. Sardis and Laodicea are the two churches that experience the strongest rebukes, and neither of them has mentioned an experience of persecution. The two churches that were most hard pressed, Smyrna and Philadelphia, receive no rebuke at all. Given the large Jewish population there would have been a large Jewish influence, perhaps the Roman persecution of the Christians was less emphasized due to the Jewish protection. Or perhaps the church in Sardis was not making any waves either with Rome or the Jews. Beale suggests that Sardis was failing in their witness and therefore they were not suffering. This seems to be confirmed by the fact that in the promises of Christ to those who overcome He promises to confess the name of the overcomer before His Father in heaven 3:5. This promise is linked to the words of...

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Introduction: One of the big questions that divide people on their view of the church is this one: is the church an organisation or an organism? Those who answer organisation point to its defined leadership structure, its rules for worship and discipline and it doctrinal statements. Those who answer organism point to the church as a network of relationships and a community, a family driven by love not law. Spontaneity versus programs and relationships versus rules, these divisions spring from this dichotomy. The trouble is that this is a false dichotomy, the church is both organisation and organism. Today we are facing many casualties of this false dichotomy those who want to opt out of dead organisations for a live organism, this is part of what is driving the Emergent Church movement that stresses community at the expense of church. We are not to choose one side or the other, so that old people go for organisation and young people go for organism. No they are both commanded in Scripture. God has given the gifts of elders and deacons to properly order the life of the church, as well as our responsibilities to love one another. God is both the God of love and law and defines our existence by both. Rob Bell, a well-known Emergent Church leader has recently opted out of church for a ‘quasi-intentional spiritual community.’ He is just another casualty of this false dichotomy. We are presently looking into the responsibilities of church members, and in doing so we are looking to maintain the health of the life of the church as an organism. I hope that as we have a healthy organisation and organism there will not be those who feel that we have chosen one view over the other and feel the need to...

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Introduction: Sexual sin is one of the most devastating sins for collateral damage. I was once in a church where the pastor committed adultery. One year later there was a guest speaker who addressed the issue of holiness and gave opportunity for those in sin to be prayed for, 95% of the church were involved in some sort of sexual sin. Sexual tolerance is the sin that Thyatira are rebuked for. Thyatira was an unimportant town and its main reason for existence was economic with a large amount of industry represented by the many trade guilds in the town. It had once been a military outpost but found its reason for existence in commerce. Lydia, the seller of purple cloth was from Thyatira, dyes along with metalwork, fabric, bakers, cobblers, tanners, potters were some of the main industries. Despite this being the most unimportant town they receive the longest of the seven letters and the matter of tolerating false teaching that revolves around sex and idolatry is at the heart of it. The letter opens with a description of Christ as judge to intervene in this situation, ‘”And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.’ The description of Christ in this verse reminds us of Psalm 2. There we see the King of Israel as God’s son, and he will judge the nations and rule them with a rod of iron. He has eyes like a flame of fire to see all sin and from whose eyes nothing are hidden, and who has feet like burnished bronze for treading the wicked underfoot.

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Introduction: Picture with me Jesus last evening with His disciples before His arrest: If you could have tasted the air there would have been a strong variety of flavours in the upper room. Different emotions written on the faces of the various disciples. Some would have been slightly euphoric still high from the shouting of the crowds, heralding Christ as He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. Judas would have been under the cloud of his guilt and shame, anxious for what he was about to do. Others like Peter, who would have been a type of self-appointed body guard, would be very conscious of the danger that Jesus was in because of the various confrontations with the leaders with their loaded questions, you can just imagine him fingering his sword. The disciples would have looked across the table at each other, and when James and John were caught sight of, the Sons of Thunder, there would be a remembrance of their mother asking that they be seated at Jesus right and left hand, and a previous argument about who was the greatest. And then there is Christ, this is His last night before He dies that He gets to spend with His disciples. Full of emotion, probably not understood by those there, during the evening meal—the Lord’s Supper, He gets up; adorns Himself as a slave and out of love proceeds to wash His disciple’s feet (John 13:1). His emotions reach a peak, and He speaks out about the one who will betray Him, “After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” (John 13:21) And after Judas had left Jesus gives them just one commandment to follow, what would you have expected to...

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