Week 7, Spring 2008, Children's teaching Material
April 20th 2008
Revelation 3: 14-22 – 100% to please Christ
This week we will be looking at the letter that Christ told John told to write to the church in Laodicea.
Suggested activity: Revisit the maps, and identify where Laodicea (modern day Pamukkale) is located.
Look for Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis and Philadelphia.
Ask if anybody has ever visited any of these places on holiday (Ephesus and Pamukkale are both popular tourist resorts).
Suggested game: Draw a map of the area covering the seven churches of Revelation.
Either mark seven dots for the seven cities and see who can correctly identify the most churches, or ask the children to locate the churches independently – see who gets nearest each church.
Read Revelation 3 14-22
If you can remember the other six letters you may notice the structure of this letter is different. In each of the others Christ points out something he is pleased with before he warns them of bad behaviour:
Ephesus: hard work & perseverance, non tolerance of wicked men, endured hardships.
Smyrna: despite afflictions and poverty they were ‘rich’.
Pergamum: remain true to Christ’s name despite living where ‘Satan has his throne’.
Thyatira: their love, faith, service & perseverance.
Sardis: a few people who have not soiled their clothes.
Philadelphia: kept Christ’s word and not denied His name, despite ‘little strength’.
Yet the church in Laodicea is not so fortunate!
There is nothing Christ can see that is worthy of praise!!
Imagine being a church like that!
In V.15, Christ says He knows their ‘deeds’. Note He doesn’t say He’s pleased with their deeds (work), just that He knows about them!
From this we can assume the people of the church in Laodicea were working – probably quite hard (they were not lazy).
They may have been busy, but whatever they were doing was not pleasing to Christ! So what was the point?
Ephesians 5:10 tells us to ‘find out what is pleasing to the Lord’.
We are called to please the Lord in all we do – otherwise we are busy fools!
Just like the Laodicean's.
Suggested activity: If the children have brought their God journals, get them to write down the things that they regularly do. (If not, write on paper that can be stuck into the journals).
Try to be honest – write even the things we are not proud about.
Now rate out of 10 how much they think these things please God.
Pick one of the lowest rated things, and commit to change our behaviour so it’s more pleasing to God.
Write a prayer to God to ask for help with changing this thing.
Pray for each other – ‘bear each other’s burdens’.
The ‘deeds’ that the people in the church in Laodicea were not fruitless though.
Despite them not being pleasing to God, these deeds made the people rich.
V.17 shows us that the Laodicean’s thought themselves to be rich, to have acquired wealth – to the point where they did not ‘need a thing’!!!
Or that’s what they thought!
It’s important to note that Christ does not say the Laodicean’s were rich, but repeats their own words about themselves ‘You say…’
They were far from rich in Christ’s eyes (the only eyes that matter).
No, Christ says ‘you do not realise that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.’
That’s what He thought.
The Laodicean’s were so caught up with their own self-importance, that they did not realise how unpleasing they were to God.
They had left God out of their lives, and thought they were doing just fine without him.
All their trust was in their wealth, their possessions, their status, themselves.
The church of Laodicea stands as a warning to us about this behaviour.
Today it is just a pile of ruined buildings.
Broken stones.
Back in V.15, Christ says He knows that the church in Laodicea was neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm.
This may seem a strange thing to say!
Suggested Activity: Have four drinks ready: Cold orange squash
Warm orange squash.
Hot chocolate.
Almost cold ‘hot’ chocolate.
Ask the children to taste each drink.
Which do they prefer? How do they like their squash/chocolate?
Squash is best on a really hot day, served ice cold, with ice cubes.
Hot chocolate is best piping hot on a winter’s night, in front of a warm fire.
The drinks are best either 100% hot or 100% cold.
Neither drink is best 50% hot, 50% cold (i.e. lukewarm).
What Christ is getting at by saying this is it is best to be 100% true.
To be 50% true (perhaps in what you say you do), but 50% false (perhaps in what you actually do) is called hypocrisy.
Hypocrisy = beliefs minus actions.
James 2:26 says ‘faith without deeds is dead’.
A hypocrite is somebody who criticises something he also does himself.
Are there things that you do, that you tell others not to do?
Swearing? Picking your nose? Bullying? Cheating? Lying?
Do you sometimes find yourself living a lie, playing a part?
Why?
To impress others?
To fit in?
To cover up something you feel is different about yourself?
To avoid being picked on?
This is peer pressure – which church struggled with this??
These are common dangers for us all.
We need to think ‘what will please God’ when we decide how to behave.
Better to be 100% hot or cold (which one doesn’t matter) – 100% true.
The key is 100%, not a 75/25 split, not 60/40 split, not 50/50 split, not even 95/5 split. These are lukewarm. These are hypocrisy.
Christ will spit lukewarm out!!! (v.16).
How do we respond to this?
A good thing to do is to examine our own lives, and ask (honestly – 100% true) where am I less than 100% true in how I live?
Where in my life am I out of step with God?
Where do my actions and behaviour displease God?
A good time to do this is at the end of each day.
Before bed, replay the day in our mind – like a comic book story of the day – and see where we went wrong.
Suggested activity: Ask the children to pick a recent day – one they remember well.
Ask them to draw a comic book storyboard of the day. (Maybe in their God journal).
Break the day into segments – before breakfast; morning; lunch; afternoon; tea time; before bed; bed time.
Draw a simple picture of each part of the day.
Now look at the storyboard how you think God saw the day – as if God is reading your comic!
Where is he pleased?
Where is he displeased?
Write down what went wrong. Why were you less than 100% hot or cold? What were you feeling?
Now write a prayer asking for God’s forgiveness and for his help in similar circumstances in the future.
Maybe you don’t think you displeased God at all in the comic you’ve drawn – thank God in prayer for this, and for many repeat days – rejoice with God!!
` Share some prayer time over this – pray for each other.
Remember, this is a good thing to do EVERY day!
Maybe not drawing a comic strip every day, but doing the review of the day, and praying over the mistakes.
In V.19, Christ tells the Laodicean’s to ‘be earnest and repent’.
That’s what we are to do too.
Earnestly ask God for forgiveness for the times we displease Him, and turn away (repent) from the wrong things we did.
God will forgive those who truly repent – and we are free to be in relationship with him again.
In V. 21 we see again, as in the other letters, that there is a reward for those who ‘overcome’.
For those who overcome the hypocrisy in their lives – daily - the reward is awesome!!!
Not only do we get to be with Christ in heaven – that alone is fantastic – we will get to sit on His throne!
That’s like, not just going to a concert by Take That or Girls Aloud, but singing on stage with them!!!!
It’s like playing in a Man Utd or Arsenal match, rather than watching it live in a hospitality box.
That’s the message to all the churches in Revelation – if we stick with Christ, follow His ways, Love only Him, then we will overcome.
Those who overcome get to spend eternity in the best place, with the best people.
WOW!
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