Jonathan Zirkle

Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Behold, I Stand At the Door and Knock

Dear Lord, I ask that you'd send your Holy Spirit to be here with us.

Lord, I pray a special blessing upon my lips.

I'd like to invite you to open your Bibles to Revelation chapter 3.

This morning we're gonna talk about the message to the Laodiceans.

Revelation chapter 3 starting with verse 14.

And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, these things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.

This piece here of the statement to the church is very very important because in it Christ identifies who he is and he identifies it in in ways that are particularly meaningful for the time that we live today.

He says that he's the faithful and true witness.

We live in a day where the Bible is subject to higher criticism and not thought of as faithful and true.

But here he specifically says no, he is the faithful and true witness.

And then he says the beginning of the creation of God.

Do we not live in a time when people question the creation and they say that we've been here millions and billions of years, but that's not true.

And I like this, I kind of skipped over the first thing he said, these things sayeth the Amen.

This is the message to the church in the end.

I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot.

So then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.

Because thou sayest 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?

I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see.

Laying to see has got a real problem, But as bad as it is, there's hope.

You know, talks about spewing out of the mouth.

What happens to things that are spewed out of the mouth?

We don't want to be that way in Christ's mouth.

This idea of being rich and increased with goods in need of nothing, John has an allusion here to Hosea.

If you go to Hosea chapter 12, I'll point it out to you.

It's an interesting, interesting allusion.

Here Hosea is delivering a message against Ephraim.

And I'm not going to read the whole thing, it takes a long time, you've got to kind of pick it apart.

But let's look at just a couple verses here together.

Ephraim, this is verse 1, Ephraim feedeth on wind and followeth after the east wind.

He daily and he daily increaseth lies and desolations and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians and oil is carried into Egypt.

You see Ephraim is sinning and it's leaving God.

But look at what Ephraim says about himself in verse 8.

And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance, and all my labors they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin.

Does this not sound like the church of Laodicea?

I'm rich, increased in goods and in need of nothing.

Look what happens to Ephraim in verse 14.

Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly, therefore shall he leave his blood upon him and his reproach shall his Lord return unto him.

So Ephraim with this attitude has no salvation.

Laodicea, the time that we live in, it's the time of the end.

And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man.

They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.

Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot, they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded.

But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.

Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.

In that day he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in his house, let him not come down to take it away.

And he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back.

Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.

This is what the Church of Laodicea is challenged with.

Sometimes when we think of Sodom, we think about what the sin is there.

This is a prophecy actually against Israel, but talking about Sodom in verse 49.

Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom.

Pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters.

Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

And they were haughty and committed abomination before me.

Therefore I took them away as I saw good.

Pride, fullness of bread, abundance of idleness, is this not the day that we're living in?

These are perilous times and this is the source of our pride.

Spirit of Prophecy tells us this about pride and self-sufficiency.

The sin that is most nearly hopeless and incurable is pride of opinion, self-conceit.

What is the wretchedness and the nakedness of Laodicea?

At our core we have pride, envy, passion, evil thoughts, bitterness, some of us formalism.

The Great Controversy and Personal Salvation

Dear Lord, I ask that you would send your Holy Spirit to be with us.

Lord, especially be with me, anoint my lips.

Lord, we know out of weakness can come strength.

I pray that you would strengthen me and help me to preach the word that you would have me preach.

Lord, help us to learn more of you and your love.

The world we live in is full of deception, And we're all subject to deceptions based upon our own worldview.

And when we see people out there in the world, they're subject to their own little set of deceptions.

Many of the deceptions are based upon atheism.

And 1 of the deceptions that goes with atheism is that there is no sin.

But you know, the Bible tells us in Romans 1, 18-22, and if you want to turn there because I find this remarkable, The Bible tells us that everybody knows.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness." So the wrath of God's revealed from heaven against all ungodliness.

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God hath showed it unto them.

So God's shown himself to the unrighteous for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.

So the invisible things are there in the creation.

And so these unrighteous people can see it in the creation.

Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.

He doesn't believe that God exists, he doesn't know, but it's not because he can't see, because he can, but his eyes have been darkened.

So 1 of the big misconceptions that comes with being an atheist is the concept of if there's no God, then there's no such thing as sin.

If no sin, then there's no such thing as morality.

And when the atheist has truly tried to crush that out of his spirit, it's turned into a terrible thing.

And if you're interested in this sort of thing, just check out Nietzsche.

Opposite of the atheist is the monotheist.

The monotheist believes that God is the creator and the lawgiver.

Now, if he's the creator and the lawgiver, he must be the lawgiver of both the physical laws, because he created the earth, so he's got to create gravity, light, physics, and all the other laws that go with that, he's also got to be the creator of a moral law or else we're no better off than the atheist, right?

And you know the Bible, the Bible supports this, that this moral law exists and and because of this we know what sin is.

1st John 3, 4 says, whosoever committed sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law.

So morality exists because God created it, and sin is the transgression of the law.

Now, put your thinking cap on, and this may be, I've told this to some people that I think are pretty smart, and I'm apologizing that I'm having to go fast and you might want to look and see what I've written more about it, even that's a little fast.

But basically it's this, morality's only basis and the only reason why we can actually have a moral law is because there's such a thing called love.

Without love, when you broke the law, you go, so what?

But if you have love, you have empathy and all these other things that go with it.

It's like a mother who's punishing her child.

There's a reason why and she says, I love you.

Now if you've got love, there's 1 other thing that goes with it.

And bear with me, I'm going to go through a lot of details, but hopefully we'll see it all tied together.

And if any of you have been in a relationship where there's love but no truth, you quickly realize that that is Hell.

Now when you stop to think about this and how this plays out and thinking about this, you know, we see Hollywood movies that deal with the idea of what happens when there's no love.

And you'll see this like in a serial killer.

He isn't loved, so he goes out and he commits the serial crime.

Maybe that's the way the universe is, but I kind of question that.

Without love, I believe that the end result is no motivation.

But if you've got love, someone's going to push the button, pull the lever, make the machine go and it's going to produce something that human beings want.

The true lack of love, when you see that in human beings, is really seen in the suicide.

So, in summary, if you're a monotheist, you have morality that's based on love and truth.

Now, Many of us here are not monotheists.

And a dualistic theist has 2 different concepts of the world in their mind at the same time.

They've got theism, monotheism over here, let's say, and they've got materialism, which is really just another way of saying atheism, over here, and they're holding them in their minds at the same time.

Materialism says that everything's just natural cause and effect, everything's just a machine, you're a machine, I'm a machine, We're all machines.

But since they're dualists, they also believe in a creator.

We see this on a university campus all the time.

Praise God for science and modern medicine, all this other kind of stuff, but this is a lot about what's going on when you study microbiology or something along those lines.

But we know that it doesn't make any sense.

1 guy kind of took the other guy's girl, right?

And the guy who's going to die says, hey, you can't blame me.

We actually have free choice and we're not just machines.

The Book of Acts

Kameron DeVasher

Muskegon SDA Church

The Second Jerusalem Council

We are currently studying in the book of Acts and today we come to the message entitled the Second Jerusalem Council which only follows logically from last Sabbath message of the First Jerusalem Council.

Today we're going to literally pick up right where we left off.

In Acts chapter 15, as you call, briefly reviewing, they had the first Jerusalem council, which dealt with the issue, the concern that, The question was, should Gentile converts be required to be circumcised and go through all the ceremonial purifications and ceremonial rituals of the Jewish tradition in order to become Christians, or could they go directly through Christ without becoming Jewish culturally first?

That was the issue, And we know how that resolved.

If we go to Acts chapter 15, again tying us, bringing us right back up to where we were last Sabbath to give us our starting point for today's message.

Acts chapter 15, and we'll read down in verse 28, the letter that the council sent out to the Gentiles that they asked Paul specifically to go and be a messenger of this good news, and the good news was in Acts 15, verse 28, For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things That you abstain from the things offered to idols from blood from things strangled and from sexual immorality If you keep yourself from these you will do well Farewell, No mention of circumcision.

Basically the announcement was there was no necessity for circumcision.

The Gentile believer go directly into Christianity without having to become culturally or ceremonially Jewish first.

And Paul was sent out to be the messenger of that good news.

And that's where we're going to pick up our message today as we move forward to the second Jerusalem Council.

But before we do that, let's begin with a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for so many things, for creating us at all and certainly for sending your Son Jesus to save us.

And Lord, you've asked us to be your messengers and to work together in unity to do it.

Lord teach us these lessons from your word today and help the application to be brought home to our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

Again we go to there at the end of Acts chapter 15, Verse 30 tells us, So when they were sent off, they came to Antioch, and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the letter.

When they had read it, they rejoiced over its encouragement.

So it ends with good news, a resolution was made, it was pleasing to the Holy Spirit, it brought the church into unity, the former prejudices of the Jewish converts were melted away, and the Holy Spirit prevailed, and Paul was sent off on his mission.

Now, let's be clear that we understand what the decision of the council was and what it wasn't.

First of all, must someone now, a Gentile convert, be circumcised?

So it wasn't required that they had to, but they could if they wanted to.

So the real question is not whether they had to or not.

And the answer to that is, well, it depends on the situation.

Going into the first Jerusalem council, the apostle Paul had been working among the Gentiles as the Lord had specifically called him to do, and great harvests were being seen, a great work was being done, but the Judaizers came up and said, no, no, no, you must be circumcised first.

There was a great contention, and they sent it back to Jerusalem, to the apostles and the elders and the leaders of the church there in Jerusalem.

And only through that council did they come around to the conclusion, I believe led by the Holy Spirit, that's what scripture says, that the Gentile converts did not need to be circumcised.

And Paul, basically Paul's side won, if you want to use those terminologies of winners and losers, but the position that Paul advocated was the 1 that took the day.

So he leaves with the good news, literally a letter in hand, to go preach this good news, that the Gentiles don't need to be circumcised.

And for the moment, let's examine just a couple of extra texts outside of the book of Acts that help us understand Paul's attitude towards ministry, his philosophy for winning souls, if you will.

Just over to the right a few pages, 1 Corinthians chapter 9, and I want you to take note of a couple things here.

This time the issue is not circumcision that he's dealing with in 1 Corinthians 9, but it's the question of whether Paul and the other apostles should be paid for their ministry.

If they're doing spiritual ministry, should they receive physical aid?

Should they have payment for what they do?

In Paul's position, he bases it solely on Scripture.

He does a whole exposition of this issue.

Basically, he says, yes, we should get paid for the work that we do.

If we have sown spiritual things for you, Is it a great thing if we reap your material things?

If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more?

And if you had took the time and read 1 Corinthians 9, which I would encourage you to do, you can see his whole mindset is Like this is rooted in the Old Testament.

For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all that I might, what's that word?

Now he's not talking about winning arguments, he's talking about winning what?

He says, though I have every right to demand payment, I'm gonna surrender my rights for the sake of the gospel.

And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win the Jews.

To those who are under the law as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law.

To those who are without law as without law.

And he has to clarify, not being without law towards God, of course, I'm not living a lawless life against God, but I'm talking about that ceremonial law, right?

To those non-believers yet, the Gentile world, not being without law toward God, but under law towards Christ, that I might win those who are without law.

To the weak I became as weak that I might win the weak.

I have become all things to all men that I might by all means save some.

Notice that Paul's philosophy of doing ministry is very practical.

As far as he can stay faithful to God and yet work with people, he's going to go as far as he can in order to save some.

If he has to approach in a very Jewish manner, he'll do it.

If he has to reason with the Athenians, for instance, you know what, with their philosophy, he'll go there.

He'll go whatever methodology will get the message across as long as it's faithful to God's word.

He articulates the same philosophy when dealing with food offered to idols.

Now Paul argued very clearly that meat offered to idols, food offered to idols, is still just food.

The idol is nothing, so there's no way to contaminate it.

However, he understands that there are those who would see it as an abomination.

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are what?

All things are lawful for me, but not all things edify.

He said, I'm free to eat anything that I want as long as, you know, within the bounds of scripture.

However, I know that there are some issues, some obstacles that some people have, and I refuse to use my liberty if it's going to harm the presentation of the gospel.

Okay, this is his thinking and he continues to explain.

He says this, give no offense either to the Jews or to the Gentiles or to the Church of God, just as I also please all men and all things." Now you think of a people pleaser, that doesn't sound good, right?

The First Jerusalem Council

If you recall our previous 2 messages, 1 was devoted to the Apostle Peter, the other was devoted to the Apostle Paul, the 2 main characters, if you will.

Of course, there was a load of supporting cast in the Book of Acts, but the 2 main most prominent individuals in the Book of Acts are the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter.

And as you recall, we don't have to review all of that, but they had very different ways of coming to the ministry.

But now they were united for the cause and God was doing great things in the church.

But what we find now is we turn our attention to the first Jerusalem council, which by the way, if you have a first Jerusalem council, that kind of assumes there's going to be a second Jerusalem council, which we will come back to next Sabbath.

But at this first Jerusalem council, there was an issue that arose within God's people.

And I say God's people in a very, very, very delicately here, because at this time in the church's history, the Jewish nation was fully convinced, as God had said, that they were His peculiar treasure, His special people, distinct from all others.

And of course we understand that their job was to be distinct, to represent a distinct and unique God to the rest of the world.

They were to be ambassadors for him to a fallen world.

But over the course of their history, they began to see distinction and differentness just for the sake of being different.

They just wanted to be special and peculiar in a standoffish, isolationist kind of way instead of a light to others, right?

And of course, the history of Judaism is basically the development of that idea.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

Behold, I Stand At the Door and Knock

53m

The Great Controversy and Personal Salvation

58m

The Second Jerusalem Council

58m

The First Jerusalem Council

47m

The Apostle Paul

51m

The Apostle Peter

58m

The Other Side of Pentecost

54m

The Not-So-New Testament

45m

Patience: Before Men and Angels

35m

The Answer Was Created 9

39m

The Answer Was Created 8

33m

The Answer Was Created 7

35m

Sound Doctrine