Outside Looking In: Jesus’ Message for the Last Days Church

By Roger Bennett

Jesus’ letter to the church in Laodicea in Revelation 3:14–22, the last of his letters to the seven churches in the Roman province of Asia (present-day Turkey), is far more than a two-thousand-year-old message to the members of the early church. It is a plea from the living Christ to the churches of today to take a hard look at ourselves and discover our true condition. It is a call to repent and to open our doors to intimate fellowship with Christ, who has been left standing outside churches that bear his name.

In Outside Looking In: Jesus’ Message for the Last Days Church, Pastor Roger Bennett calls churches to examine their practices to discover their relevancy for those who are seeking a true experience with Christ. Having well-choreographed worship services with professional musicians and polished preaching isn’t what Christ values most. He desires more than a superficial relationship. Bennett writes, “Christ wants us, the last days church, to share in his holiness. We cannot be lukewarm! We cannot risk making him sick by our deeds. He loves his church, and at his coming he longs to see her as a bride adorned for her wedding. May the church do all that is within her to be ready when the shout rings out, ‘Behold, the Bridegroom comes!’”

If you long to go deeper in your relationship with Christ and lead others to him, Outside Looking In will inspire you and fill you with a divine urgency to truly know the heart of Christ and to do his work his way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Release date: Feb 4, 2020
• ISBN: 9781400329915

Roger Bennett

Redeemed from the outlaw biker world, Roger Bennett has been transformed by Christ into a dynamic preacher and teacher of God’s Word. He is the author of What the Church Should Know: Lessons from an Outlaw Biker, The Altar, and The Road to Spiritual Growth. Pastor Bennett and his wife, Donna, reside in central Michigan where they minister at the Chippewa Lake Community Church. Pastor Bennett can be contacted at [e-mail].

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Introduction

Over the past few years, a noticeable difference has taken place in the church. Time after time, people have said there is something wrong with the church. One need only do an internet search of this very statement to find that there is no lack of information on this subject. People can find fault with anything, and they can find a reason to complain about everything. But I am not talking about what people think or feel; I am talking about what people who need Christ in their lives are experiencing. They go to church to get information and get emotional, but one thing they may not get is God’s hand on their lives. So they leave with no hope or real help for their situations to change. They may feel better for a short time, but that feeling does not last because they haven’t had real life-changing experiences.

The times we live in are difficult, and people are struggling in many ways. Now more than ever the church needs to be there for people. That is, we need to be relevant for our time. The word relevant has prompted me to search Scripture for answers to the problem. If you are in a church, you may disagree with what I am about to say, but please be patient, remembering that James tells us to let patience finish its work (James 1:4).

You have likely heard the saying Sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees. At times when we are in the midst of a situation, we may find it hard to be objective. Instead of looking with our feelings or our natural eyes, we need to look through the eyes of the Spirit of God. If we go by our feelings, we can easily be deceived. Recall the account in Genesis 27 when Jacob came to Isaac to get the blessing meant for Esau, and his mother covered his hands and neck with goatskins to deceive Jacob. When Isaac touched Jacob to see if he was Esau and felt the hair on his arms, his feelings deceived him into thinking Jacob was Esau. Likewise, our feelings about church can deceive us. When we look at things through our natural eyes, we judge by what we see. This can be a source of deception. You may be asking yourself how we can know if there is something wrong in the church. Some people may know something is wrong but don’t know what. Others may know what is wrong. Still others may not believe there is a problem at all. What do we do?

Remember, the church is the bride of Christ! If anyone knows her state of being, Jesus, the Bridegroom, does. So we have to see what he says about the church and go from there. We know Jesus would never lie! After all, the important thing is not what we want from the church but what he wants from the church, and not how we see the situation but how he sees it.

As Christians, we believe we are living in the last days. We know the second coming of the Lord is very near, and we expect it to happen anytime. As one man said, he watches the evening news and cross-references current events to the book of Revelation. This last book of the Bible gives us the greatest insight into Jesus’ second coming. Many people think Revelation is too difficult to understand and too scary to think about. John the revelator’s vast use of symbolism notwithstanding, the book can be understood. John saw many things that would take place in the future and tried to describe the things he saw by comparing them to things he knew in his day. Furthermore, the book of Revelation is not scary; it is a book that describes the victory of Christ and his followers. I have read the end of the book, and we win!

Many scholars agree that the letters to the churches in Revelation 2–3 refer to church dispensations, or different times of the church’s existence, and their spiritual condition at the time. If this is true, then we must believe the last church Jesus writes to, the church of Laodicea, is the last days church, which I believe would be us. With this thought in mind, I would like you to go with me to Revelation 3 and the last days church in Laodicea and see what Jesus is saying about the church.

Please stay with me if you have a love for the church and a love for Christ. If, like me, you have a burning desire to find out the truth about what Christ is seeing in the church and what he wants to see happening in his church today, read on. Remember, it is never what we want but what Christ wants that matters!

CHAPTER ONE

Who Is Knocking?

To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation.

—Revelation 3:14

God’s angel, or messenger, is sent to the church in Laodicea with a specific purpose: to give them a written message from Christ himself. This church has a specific problem unlike those of the other churches to whom Christ has written. So Christ wants them to understand just who is making the observation of the problem and by what authority he is making it. Since the Laodicean church is the body of believers in these last days, it is important for us to know by what authority we are being judged. Jesus, at the very onset of his letter to the church in Laodicea, defines who he is, using four distinct words or phrases to describe his authority, his character, and his position.

First, he says he is the Amen. At first glance this does not seem to be very exciting or powerful. After all, we Christians say amen all the time, and even non-Christians use this word. Usually we say it when we are in agreement with something being said. The pastor preaches a good sermon and we say amen. Someone makes a statement we agree with and we say amen. It doesn’t seem like much of a big deal on the surface, but maybe we do not fully understand the meaning of the word.

God is the master of words! His words created everything in the beginning, including light, the sun, moon, and stars, and the plants and animals of the earth. He not only created everything but sustains everything by the power of his word. His word holds the oceans at bay and keeps the universe in order. So when he uses a word, he doesn’t just throw it out there haphazardly. The words of God carry weight. Hebrews 4:12 says that the Word of God is living and active, sharper than a double-edged sword, and it penetrates even to dividing the soul and spirit and judging the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Christ, unlike you or me, would never use words without thought of the consequences or the power in those words. As Christians created in God’s image, we need to be careful of what we say and how we say it. We should always recognize that words can hurt and destroy. James 3:6 says the tongue can corrupt the whole person and set the course of that person’s life on fire. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison (v. 8). James also says we praise God and curse people with the same tongue (v. 9).

So when Christ says he is the Amen, he is using a word infused with power. He is saying that he is trustworthy! He wants the church to know that first and foremost he can be trusted. That is a vital truth for us as Christians. We can trust God for our salvation, for forgiveness of our sins, and for his sustaining power in our lives. In him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). When we fail to trust God, we get ourselves into trouble. That is exactly what the Laodicean, or last days, church has done. We will see how in a later chapter.

If the One watching the church could not be trusted, then what he had to say could not be trusted either. This is where we see the meaning of amen as so be it or it is as you say come into play. Christ wanted the church to know they were who he said they were. He could be trusted, and what he was about to say was truth. Sometimes we find being honest with ourselves or hearing what someone else has to say about us difficult. Our nature is to dig in and defend our behavior no matter what criticism we face. We like ourselves just the way we are and don’t like to be confronted with the truth. As Christians, who do we want to please? You’re right if you said our heavenly Father. His opinion of us is the opinion that matters. He sent his Son to show us by example how we are to live. We should constantly, with God’s help, be changing into the image of his Son.

The next word that Christ uses to identify who is observing the church is "the faithful . . . witness" (emphasis added). Faithful is another word that has little meaning to many today. People find it difficult to be faithful to their spouses, to their jobs, to their commitments, and yes, to their God. When we find it hard to be faithful, we imagine that God has the same problem. But Jesus wants the church to know that he is faithful no matter what anyone else has or has not done. He never changes! Scripture says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). In other words, what he has been in the past, he will be today; and what he is today, he will be tomorrow; and what he will be tomorrow, he will be forever. He will never ever change who he is or how he will act. The meaning of the word faithful in this passage is to be trustworthy and believable.

The opposite of faithful is unfaithful, and we all have had experiences with unfaithful people in our lives. When people are unfaithful to us, we get hurt, and when we get hurt, we find trusting difficult. So Jesus describes himself as faithful to emphasize his trustworthiness. We see him building on who he is so that the church will grasp that his observations of them can be trusted and they can believe what he is about to say concerning them. He has not given up or turned his back on them even though they may have some problems. The love Christ has for his church is unfailing; his desire is to see us as a bride without spot or wrinkle adorned for a wedding (Ephesians 5:25–27). No scene is more beautiful than a bride on her wedding day coming down the aisle to meet her husband and his eyes lighting up as he sees her for the first time adorned in her wedding gown. That is the moment Christ is longing for!

Moses, when he was preparing Joshua to take his place to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land, encouraged him with words about God’s faithfulness: Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you (Deuteronomy 31:6). That’s powerful! The writer of Hebrews