The Love that Restores Our Zeal [Family Worship lesson in Revelation 3:14–22]

How harmful is spiritual pride? Revelation 3:14–22 looks forward to the hearing of God’s Word, publicly read, in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these nine verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that spiritual pride keeps one from fellowship with the glorious Savior.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2025.01.30 Hopewell @Home ▫ Revelation 3:14–22

Read Revelation 3:14–22

Questions from the Scripture text: To the messenger/preacher (NKJ ‘angel’) of which church is this letter addressed (Revelation 3:14)? In what three ways does Jesus describe Himself? What does He know (Revelation 3:15, cf. Revelation 2:2, Revelation 2:9, Revelation 2:13, Revelation 2:19, Revelation 3:1, Revelation 3:8)? What does He know that they are not? What could He wish? But what are they (Revelation 3:16)? And what will He do to them? What do they say (Revelation 3:17)? But what don’t they know? What does He counsel them to buy (Revelation 3:18)? From Whom? So that they may be what? And what else? So that they may be what? And what else? To do what? Why is He rebuking and chastening them (Revelation 3:19)? What should they do in response to this love? What does He command at the beginning of Revelation 3:20? Whom are they to behold? Where is He standing? How does He describe this repenting? What might one hear? What might one do? What will Jesus do? What does Revelation 3:21 now call this repenting and opening? What will Jesus grant to the one who does this? Who has previously done this? Whom does Revelation 3:22 address? What is such a person to do with this letter? Who is speaking this letter? To whom?

How harmful is spiritual pride? Revelation 3:14–22 looks forward to the hearing of God’s Word, publicly read, in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these nine verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that spiritual pride keeps one from fellowship with the glorious Savior.

Who Jesus reminds us that He is. He is the Amen (Revelation 3:14), the One Who Himself is as He ought to be, and in Whom all God’s promises are true (cf. 2 Corinthians 1:20). And He is the Faithful and True Witness. He tells the truth about Himself, first of all, as well as about us. Finally, He is the beginning of the creation of God. The language does not imply that He is a creature, but that He indeed is the One Who is the first cause of God’s creation—i.e., that He is God, the Creator. 

What Jesus knows them to be. Sadly, Jesus knows that they neither boil with zeal for Him, nor are they cold and refreshing to Him—i.e., those who are glad to serve and please Him (Revelation 3:15). How did they get to be like this? They are satisfied with themselves (Revelation 3:17). They think that in themselves they are wealthy and need nothing, but the Faithful and True Witness says that they are “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.” Laodicea was renowned in the earth for wealth, a medical school that specialized in the eye, and luxurious textiles for clothing. But the church there was now infamous with Christ for being exactly the opposite, spiritually.

What they need Jesus to be. They are on the verge of being rejected by Christ (Revelation 3:16). The language of being vomited is one of judicial wrath and covenantal judgment (cf. Leviticus 18:28). But it is this very same Christ Who is their only hope. His is the counsel by which they may remedy the situation (Revelation 3:18). And it is from Him that they may purchase true gold (refined in fire), white garments (Laodicea’s most famous cloth was black), and anointing salve. Jesus is all our riches, all our covering, and all our health and ability. He is the Beginning of the creation of God. In Him is all that we need.

What Jesus already is unto them. He loves them (Revelation 3:19). He is rebuking and chastening them in that love. This is the only letter of the seven that has no word of praise. But yet He loves them, and the letter is coming in that love. They may have grown cold to Him, but He has not grown cold to them. Dear believer, if you have grown cold to Jesus, know that His love to you urges love back to Him: “zealous” here is a word that means to boil unto Him (cf. being “fervent in spirit” in Romans 12:11). We do not stir up love to Him in order to get things from Him. We get the love itself from Him in the first place! 

What thy must do unto Him. All that is required is to welcome Him. Though it can only be done by His own grace, which comes by the very Word that He now sends them, it is no great feat. There are two steps in Revelation 3:20: hear, and open. But it first takes humility. It would have been shocking to them to hear that Jesus was outside. For a backslider to have restored fellowship with Christ, he must admit that he has lost it. 

What He does with them. Jesus promises to restore fellowship. In His earthly ministry, He was notorious for eating and drinking with repentant sinners. And for two thousand years, He has welcomed His saints to the Lord’s Supper for the communion of His body and communion of His blood. And here He promises to come in to where the believer is and restore fellowship. But He also promises something much greater: to welcome the believer to where He is—even on His throne, which is His Father’s throne (Revelation 3:21)! If He had not said it in holy Scripture, it would sound like a blasphemy, but the Lord marries the church to Himself, and she reigns with Him forever. Her members, He makes to be “kings and priests to our God” (cf. Revelation 5:10). What a reversal from “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked”! How could we ever be contented with what we are in ourselves, when this is what He offers to us in Himself?!

When was the last time you felt your neediness of Jesus? In what ways are you boiling toward Him with zeal? In what ways are you cool and refreshing to Him? How can you come to be like this? Who is urging you to do so?

Sample prayer:  Lord, forgive us for considering ourselves wealthy and needing nothing. We confess that, in ourselves, we are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. So have pity upon us, and make us wealthy, clothed, and whole, in Yourself. In love, You have rebuked and chastened us. In love, come and have fellowship with us, and bring us safely, at last, to live and reign with You forever, we ask in Your Name, Lord Jesus, AMEN!

 Suggested songs: ARP73C “Yet Constantly, I Am with You” or TPH508 “Jesus, Priceless Treasure”

2025.01.29 Midweek Meeting Livestream (live at 6:30p)

Click below for the:

January 29 Prayer Meeting Folder

Proverbs 10:6–21 sermon outline

We urge you to assemble physically, if possible, with a true congregation of Christ's church. For those of our own congregation who may be providentially hindered, we are grateful to be able to provide this service.

IF you are unable to get the stream to work, or simply wish to save on data, you can listen in simply by calling 712.432.3410 and entering 70150 at the prompt.

Each week we livestream the Lord's Day (Sabbath School, Morning Public Worship, and p.m. Singing and Sermon) and Midweek Meeting (sermon and prayer). For notifications when Hopewell is streaming live, install the CHURCHONE APP on your [Apple], [Android], or [Kindle] device, and enter hopewellarp for your broadcaster.

Resurrected unto Prayer and Praise [Family Worship lesson in Jonah 1:17–2:10]

What does God’s mercy do for sinners that He is redeeming? Jonah 1:17–2:10 looks forward to the hearing of God’s Word, publicly read, in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these eleven verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that God brings those sinners whom He is redeeming to an end of themselves, so that they cry to Him and receive resurrection from death.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2025.01.29 Hopewell @Home ▫ Jonah 1:17–2:10

Read Jonah 1:17–2:10

Questions from the Scripture text: Who had prepared what (Jonah 1:17)?To do what to whom? Where was Jonah for how long? What remarkable thing happens after these three days and three nights (Jonah 2:1)? To Whom does he pray? What else is He called? From where does Jonah pray? What had he done to Whom (Jonah 2:2a)? Why? What did YHWH do (Jonah 2:2b)? From which belly had Jonah first prayed (Jonah 2:2c)? And what had God done (Jonah 2:2d)? Who had cast Jonah where (Jonah 2:3a–b)? With what effect (Jonah 2:3c–d)? What primary difficulty did Jonah have (Jonah 2:4a)? And what does he yet hope to do (Jonah 2:4b)? How had this judgment been expressed (Jonah 2:5)? What burial had Jonah received (Jonah 2:6a–b)? Yet, what (Jonah 2:6c) had Who (Jonah 2:6d) done? What two things does Jonah call Him? What had his soul done (Jonah 2:7a)? What did he remember (Jonah 2:7b)? With what action (Jonah 2:7c)? To where did his prayer go (Jonah 2:7c–d)? What people (Jonah 2:8a) do what to themselves (Jonah 2:8b)? So what will Jonah do (Jonah 2:9a)? In what manner (Jonah 2:9b)? To fulfill what (Jonah 2:9c)? Declaring what (Jonah 2:9d)? How does YHWH respond to this prayer (Jonah 2:10)? And what does the fish do to Jonah?  

What does God’s mercy do for sinners that He is redeeming? Jonah 1:17–2:10 looks forward to the hearing of God’s Word, publicly read, in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these eleven verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that God brings those sinners whom He is redeeming to an end of themselves, so that they cry to Him and receive resurrection from death.

One of the reasons that this is a very important chapter is because Jesus’s repeated statement that “no sign will be given except the sign of the prophet Jonah; for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (cf. Mt 12:39–40, Mt 16:4). Jonah himself became a sign to the men of Nineveh (cf. Mt 12:41). 

There are actually two prayers here. The one that is introduced in Jonah 2:1, when Jonah is revived within the fish, is the prayer of thanksgiving and praise that has its climax in Jonah 2:9. This prayer is in response to God’s answer to the first prayer: the cries of Jonah’s heart (and mouth) as he was dying in the sea (Jonah 2:2). 

The judgment of death. Jonah had rightly understood that the sea was more to him than just water; it was the judgment of God. Before he ever entered the belly of the fish, he was in the belly of Sheol—a flood-judgment (Jonah 2:3) that was something of a personal version of the worldwide judgment of Gen 6–8 (cf. also Ps 42:7). 

It may have been sailors’ hands, but it was the Lord Who had cast Jonah into the deep (Jonah 2:3a), because the Lord was casting him out of the favor of His sight (Jonah 2:4a). Jonah had attempted to flee from the presence of YHWH (cf. Jonah 1:3), and now he was being cast from presence of YHWH’s favor. Be careful what you wish for. 

Even if Sheol and the pit here are not literal, and Jonah was merely near death, the feeling of resurrection is genuine (cf. Heb 11:19). This is a “resurrection” that every believer knows. Hasn’t this been your own experience, dear reader? Were you not under the death-judgment of God, Who heard your cry anyway, and raised you from the dead in Christ? If not, then it may be that you are still under death and need to cry out to Him like Jonah!

The prayer for salvation answered. Brought to an end of himself, Jonah turns his heart and mind (eyes) to YHWH’s temple (Jonah 2:4b), and the Lord hears him from there (Jonah 2:7). It is from Sheol (Jonah 2:2), from the pit (Jonah 2:6), that YHWH has heard him and saved him. Though you be ever so low, you are never out of hearing distance of the infinitely exalted God! Idols are truly worthless (Jonah 2:8a). They are not at all exalted, but there is no level of nearness that can give them ears to hear you. They have no power. They can have no steadfast love (cf. Jonah 2:8b). How futile that dead men call upon dead gods! Jonah was not party to the worship service for YHWH that followed his plunge into death (cf. Jonah 1:16). He may not even know that the sea has been stilled (cf. Jonah 1:15). Their cries to their idols yet ring in his ears, perhaps even convicting him for not having evangelized those poor idolaters. 

Salvation’s praise offered. This brings us full circle back to the prayer that began in Jonah 2:1, the one after Jonah finds himself, no longer dying in the belly of the sea, but resuscitated in the belly of the fish. This is a prayer of thanksgiving and praise. We offer thanksgiving to Him as a spiritual (and vocal!) sacrifice (Jonah 2:9a–b). And we proclaim His praise to others as we declare, “salvation is of YHWH!” The Lord responds to this praise by telling the fish to vomit Jonah onto the land.

When have you felt yourself under a sentence of death from God? When have you cried to Him and found life from Him? With what thanksgiving to Him have you responded? With what proclamation of His praise to others have you responded?

Sample prayer:  Lord, out of the belly of Sheol we cried to You, and You heard our voice. You were right and just to put us under a sentence of death, nd to bury us under the flood of Your wrath. And You have been powerful and merciful to raise us from death and to save us. We have cried to You in the past, and You have heard us from Your holy temple. We cry to You now, confident that You will hear us again. Salvation is of You, O YHWH, so be glorified in saving us we ask, through Christ, AMEN!

 Suggested Songs: ARP32AB “What Blessedness” or TPH98A “O Sing a New Song to the Lord”

Humble Souls Nourished by Hope [Family Worship lesson in Psalm 131]

How does true humility happen? Psalm 131 looks forward to the opening portion of morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these three verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that humility comes by hope. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2025.01.28 Hopewell @Home ▫ Psalm 131

Read Psalm 131

Questions from the Scripture text: What sort of song is this (superscript)? Whose Psalm is it? Whom does it address (Psalm 131:1a)? What does the psalmist say about his heart (verse 1b)? What does he say about his eyes? With what two things does he not concern himself (verse 1c–d)? What has he definitively done (Psalm 131:2a)? Like whom (verse 2b–c)? Whom does the psalmist address in Psalm 131:3? What does he tell them to do? In Whom? Starting when? Until when?

How does true humility happen? Psalm 131 looks forward to the opening portion of morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these three verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that humility comes by hope.   

When chased by Saul, or berated by Shimei, or several other incidents, Scripture recounts the gracious fruit of humility in David. This makes him a well-selected instrument for bringing us this Psalm.

Before Whom, and unto Whom, to address ourselves. Our flesh is virulently proud and ambitious. What can be done about this? Ultimately, obviously, only the Lord Himself can do anything about this. And, even as He works in us, our relating to Him is one of the primary things that He uses to deal with pride and ambition. When the mind is conscientiously set upon Him, the gracious heart must be humbled. So that is where the psalmist begins: “YHWH.” He addresses the one, true living God, his Creator and Redeemer.

From the heart to the eyes. How are proud, arrogant looks to be avoided? To do so genuinely, more is needed than merely restraining facial and ocular muscles. For the eyes to be brought low appropriately, it must begin with the heart. Again, addressing the Lord Himself is the key here: not only because of His greatness, but also because it is He alone Who can see our hearts. People have a tendency of trying to convince others of what their hearts are like. But there will be no persuading God. Indeed, the believer desires to know from God what is the condition of his own heart (cf. Psalm 139:24; 1 John 3:20). 

Pride and ambition. Believers desire to present to God that which He loves. And God hates pride and ambition. Even men find pride immediately distasteful; how much more it must offend the infinitely exalted God. So, the psalmist vigorously disavows both before Him. He refuses to think highly of himself (his heart is not haughty) or to present himself as exalted (his eyes are not lofty). Even when our hearts are not well-conditioned in humility, let us do our best to discipline our manners.

Next to pride is ambition. Injecting ourselves into situations and issues that the Lord has not assigned to us (“great matters”), or that the Lord has not equipped us to be able to do (“too marvelous for me”). The vocabulary of Psalm 131:1d hints at a particular ambition. That which is translated “profound,” is actually a word for “wonderful works.” It is especially the domain of God Himself. Not only does fleshly man constantly pry into the “secret things that belong to YHWH” (cf. Deuteronomy 29:29), but he has a tendency even to give his own assessment of what God has sovereignly decreed (as many a conversation about “election” or “predestination” demonstrates). How wicked, indeed, our flesh must be, that it would presume even to criticize the living God!

Weaning the soul. Psalm 131:2 is more than just a poetic description of the calmed soul. It is an expert prescription for calming the soul. His soul within him (verse 2c) is as a weaned child with his mother (verse 2b), and it is he himself who has done this (verse 2a). How is a child weaned? By slowly, regularly introducing solid food. The same must be done with our soul. Rather than nursing it whenever it cries to have its pride and ambition satisfied, our soul must be regularly fed upon the glory and wisdom and goodness of God. When nourished upon hoping in Him, our soul will not be distressed at every “hunger” pang, but have the confidence to weather the ups and downs of life with steadiness and sweetness. 

Corporate, eternal application of personal spiritual experience. Here is another place that the greatness of God overwhelms our personal smallness: when we realize Who He is, and what He is like, our own hoping in Him is not enough for us. We desire for Him to be hoped in by all of His Israel (Psalm 131:3a). And not just now, but forever and ever (verse 3b). Believers ought not be satisfied with private, personal faith. Every enjoyment of God should produce in us a desire that He be glorified by His corporate people for unending ages.

How are you fighting against pride in your heart? How are you fighting against acting proud toward others? What place has the Lord given you in your home? In the church? In the community/nation? How are you devoting your focus to fulfilling that place as well as grace will sustain you to do? What is your habit for feeding your soul upon a steady diet of the character, word, and work of the Lord? How is your desire for God’s corporate praise expressed in your heart? How is it borne out in your priorities and choices?

Sample prayer:  Lord, how wondrously exalted You are! You created all things, and You uphold all things by the Word of Your power. The great matters belong to You. And Yours are the wonderful works that You have decreed, and that You now carry out. We thank You for Your worship, in which You set Yourself before us, that our souls may be nourished by a regular diet of hoping in You. Come, and meet us in that worship, and stir up our hope in You that we may rest upon You now and forever, we ask through Christ, AMEN!

Suggested Songs: ARP131 “My Heart Is Not Exalted, LORD” or TPH131B “Not Haughty Is My Heart” 

Refusing to Kill Unless Required [Westminster Shorter Catechism 69 — Theology Simply Explained]

Pastor walks his children through Westminster Shorter Catechism question 69—especially explaining how the sixth commandment forbids any killing not required by God, together with being careful not to do anything harmful to man.

Q69. What is forbidden in the sixth commandment? The sixth commandment forbiddeth the taking away of our own life, or the life of our neighbor unjustly, or whatsoever tendeth thereunto.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

Why Infants Need to Be Baptized [Children's Catechism 130—Theology Simply Explained]

Pastor walks his children through Children's Catechism question 130—especially explaining how infants need baptism, because they need Christ Himself.

Q130. Why do infants need to be baptized? Because they have a sinful nature and need a Savior.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

The Blessedness of a Wise Mouth [Family Worship lesson in Proverbs 10:6–21]

What use is wisdom? Proverbs 10:6–21 looks forward to the sermon in this week’s midweek meeting. In these sixteen verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that wisdom produces either life-giving or life-destroying words. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)