Nov 29, 2020
Revelation 3:14-22


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Outline:


Before we dive into the final letter Jesus address to the church of Laodicea, I want to take a quick second and recap where we are regarding the movements within Church History.




Though the first three have largely come and gone (Ephesus represented the Post-Apostolic Church, Smyrna the Persecuted Church, and Pergamos the Byzantine Church) the final four movements are still very active today. Thyatira represented Roman Catholicism, the church in Sardis epitomized the Protestant Reformation, Philadelphia embodies the faithful Missional Church of the 19th and 20th centuries, and lastly, Laodicea typifies a more recent phenomena — the Seeker-Friendly Church model.




Historically, we know the city of Laodicea was located 40 miles south of Philadelphia and some 100 miles east of Ephesus. The city itself was well known throughout the world for two important exports: black wool for clothing and a powder used to treat eye infections. 




Because Laodicea was located on an important trade route that minimized overhead, her residents had grown incredibly rich. One example of her wealth occurred in 60AD when Laodicea was destroyed by a massive earthquake. In response, Nero offered assistance but the residence declined choosing instead to rebuild the city using their own resources.




Aside from this, Laodicea was part of a tri-city water arrangement with Colossi (11 miles west) and Hierapolis (6 miles to the south). Because Laodicea had no natural aquifer, she was completely dependent on these two separate aqueducts to bring water from each city.




As far as the formation of this church in Laodicea, it would appear she was likely founded by the Apostle Paul and, according to Colossians 4:15, originally met in the home of “Nymphas.” Four times in his letter to the Colossians Paul will mention the brethren in Laodicea as well as Hierapolis. According to Colossians 4:16, Paul had even written an Epistle to the Laodiceans he intended to have circulated throughout these three cities. 




While it appears this Laodicean church began strong, by the end of the first century, it’s clear she had fallen far from her origins. In fact, in Jesus’ letter to this church recorded here in Revelation 3, He’ll find nothing at all commendable to say of her. In many ways, Jesus’ extensive criticisms would tag Laodicean as being an Anti-Philadelphia. This body of believers conversely presented the characteristics of an unfaithful church.




Before we get to the text, I want to take a few minutes and establish the historical context for the development of this church in our day. As the Missional Church of the 18th and 19th centuries, represented by the Church of Philadelphia, continued to preach the Word of God and send missionaries equipped with the Gospel across the globe, the 20th century not only changed the world but challenged the church in three dramatic ways.




For starters, the human horrors and atrocities witnessed during two World Wars that yielded approximately 100 million casualties, coupled with the brutal and seemingly pointless conflicts in Vietnam and Korea, produced several generations of Western men completely disillusioned when it came to matters of God, spirituality, and the church. 




Secondly, in an attempt to deal with the fall-out of this rapidly changing, Post-Christian culture, the church ended up convoluting her purpose by becoming politically and socially active. Sadly, over the last 100-plus-years, the Evangelical Church in the West has become known more for what she’s against than what she’s actually for! 




One such example of this is Prohibition… When men came home from WW1 they found a church more interested in telling them what they could or could not drink than seeking to help them deal with their emotional wounds and genuine, spiritual needs. Well-meaning evangelists like Billy Sunday railed against the abuses of alcohol without ever speaking to the deeper spiritual wounds driving so many men to a destructive lifestyle. The strategy was sincere but ended up turning off even more people (mainly men) to Christianity.




Aside from these two developments, the other challenge would arise as secular progressives eventually began to use science to attack the reliability of the Bible. In 1925, a court case heard in the little town of Dayton, Tennessee would be thrust into the national spotlight. The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes (commonly referred to as the Scopes Monkey Trial) would pit the Bible and science against one another. 




Because the arguments presented by the state’s prosecutor and the terrible witnesses they called upon to mount a defense of a literal understanding of the Bible ended up being so poorly constructed, not only would the Theory of Evolution gain scientific credibility, but the reliability of Scripture would take a massive hit in public opinion. 




In the end, this and other similar developments would create the framework by which the philosophy known as relativism would go mainstream in American society and academia. With no Moral, Truth Giver mankind was left trying to ascertain if anything was really true.




The challenge facing the church in the 20th century was simple… How do you reach a culture of people disillusioned with God because of the horrors of warfare… alienated from the church on account of her social activism… and were no longer confident in a fundamentalist view of the Bible as having any God-given authority? 




Two approaches emerged: First, the Church of Philadelphia remained faithful to her mission of preaching God’s Word and reaching the lost world through missions and evangelism. In turn, you have movements like Calvary Chapel pop up in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s intentionally reject church traditionalism by modernizing their style to reach the changing culture around them. For years, the mission statement of my Dad’s church in Stone Mountain was “bringing the changeless Gospel to a changing world.”




Men like Pastor Chuck Smith dropped the pretentiousness of denominationalism by encouraging drugged-out hippies to simply come to church as they were. Modern music entered our worship. These leaders emphasized God’s grace, a dependency on the Holy Spirit, and the expositional teaching of the Bible. Pastor Chuck’s motto was “simply teach God’s Word simply” and this approach resonated with a culture deeply longing for the Truth.




Sadly, another approach would eventually gain steam in the latter part of the 20th century. If the Protestant Reformations problem was “theology over reaching people,” and the Missional Churches success was the balance of “theology and reaching people,” this final Laodicean Church tragically emphasized “reaching people over theology.” In its historical context, it’s very easy to see how this would happen all things considered.




Whether you call the approach the Seeker-Friendly Movement or the Attractional Church Model, leaders of this particular strategy sought to intentionally create a church culture designed to be inviting, accepting, entertaining, and appealing to the unbeliever. As mega-church pastor, Andy Stanley boasts the goal was to be “church for the unchurched.”




While these ministry models with their high-tech and slick marketing have been wildly successful at attracting crowds, in order to create this non-threatening environment, these churches have largely abandoned Bible-teaching and minimized doctrinal absolutes. In fact, the difficult topics of sin, hell, or eternal judgment are largely avoided — on purpose.




Though I don’t want to be audacious enough to say Jesus’ letter to the Church of Laodicea is solely pertinent to only the Seeker-Friendly Movement, there is no question the criticism we find in His letter is profoundly applicable. Our purpose this morning is not to call out any specific church but to remind ourselves of the type of church we need to be by examining what characteristics of a church Jesus determines to be detestable. 




Revelation 3:14-22, “And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. 




Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’— and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked — I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. 




As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”




The first thing we notice about this Church in Laodicea was that while active she lacked distinction. Notice Jesus begins, in verse 15, “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot… You are lukewarm!” In this initial criticism, Jesus uses an illustration the citizens of Laodicea would have clearly understood. 




As I mentioned, the city of Laodicea was dependent on two separate aqueducts to pipe in water from Colossi and Hierapolis. Interestingly enough, by the time the cold water that originated in the higher elevations of Colossi and the hot water that began in the hot springs of Hierapolis reached Laodicea the water was characteristically “lukewarm!”




Because of the distance the water had to travel to get to the city from each of these locals, what had initially started as either piping hot or freezing cold had leveled off to the temperature of its surroundings. In a sense, the water had become room temperature. The water was neither hot nor was it any longer cold. The water was simply lukewarm.




Tragically, this church was going through the motions. Spiritually, while Jesus doesn’t accuse them of any type of rampant immorality, the truth is they possessed no zeal for the things of God, no heart for righteous living, and no passion to truly follow Jesus and be His witnesses in the world in a way that mattered. While the Laodiceans weren’t full-blown heathens (“cold”), they also weren’t fully committed to Jesus (“hot”).




You might say this church modeled what many of us refer to as Cultural Christianity — when a person claims to be a Christian simply because they go to church on Sunday. For these people, Christianity was a one-day activity and not a weekly lifestyle. Spiritual life (worship, Bible study) was compartmentalized only to a Sunday morning church experience. 




Needless to say, these Laodiceans were fence-sitters. Though they had enough “church” to feel morally superior and good about themselves, they had too much of the “world” to really reap the benefits of a genuine relationship with Jesus. Their spiritual lives were tepid. Their spiritual indifference had spawned spiritual compromise.




The brutal reality is there was nothing about this church that differentiated her from the world. In their honest attempt to be relevant to the world, they had sacrificed the very things that made them distinct and special. They lost their flavor and uniqueness! Before I continue… Does your life look any different than your unbelieving friends?




Here’s why the Seeker-Friendly methodology is so dangerous… While the ministry model intends to create an environment designed to reach the lost, which is in-and-of-itself noble, the tactic employed also fosters the perfect conditions whereby a spiritually compromised believer can satisfy the need to feel spiritual without ever being challenged to be spiritual. As Jesus says spiritual lukewarmness thrives in such a circumstance!




It is incredible to consider that Jesus would even go so far as to prefer this church be “cold” than to remain in this “lukewarm” condition… He says, “I could wish you were cold or hot.” And why was this the case? Unlike those who are hostile to the things of God, spiritual indifference has the tendency to lull someone into a false sense of their own spiritual security. This person goes along not realizing they’re slowly dying!




The second thing we should note about this Laodicean church was that she was characterized by a serious Self-Deception. Jesus continues, in verse 17, “You say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’ — and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked!” The alarming thing about this community of Christians was the real disconnect that existed between what they believed God thought of them and the reality of what God actually thought about them!




In a sense they were delusional. Because they were falsely equating material prosperity as being the evidence of spiritual blessing, this church had reached the false conclusion God was pleased with them when in actuality He was deeply sickened! 




While the Laodiceans believed they were spiritual and effective because they were “rich (abounding in resources), wealthy (richly supplied), and in need of nothing (literally no one), Jesus is clear they were actually “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked!” 




Sadly, I believe many churches today are equally self-deceived. While they point to large attendance numbers and vast financial resources as the evidence of a successful ministry, they fail to recognize neither are the metrics Jesus uses in His evaluation of a church. 




To this point, it’s amazing to think, as we’ve already seen demonstrated in these letters, the fact Jesus found the Church of Smyrna (a church that was extremely poor) and the Church of Philadelphia (a church with a little strength) much more commendable than He did the Church of Laodicea (a church that was actually rich and without any need).




Thirdly, the Church of Laodicea was Biblically Ignorant. Please notice one of the core components of Jesus’ criticism — which explains why they were so self-deceived and off in their self-assessment — He says, “You say… and do not know!” While it’s true this church was delusional as to the true nature of their spiritual condition (they were bankrupt), we must consider what had fostered such a false perception of themselves? 




I hope you know when it comes to your faith, Christian beliefs, your spiritual condition, how you live a life of Godliness, how the church should function, and the way in which believers are to reach the lost… What “you say” about these things matters not! When it’s all said and done, what matters more than anything else, is what “He says” about such things!




This is why it’s so vitally important a church teaches the Bible — for when she doesn’t the people become susceptible to self-deception. The Laodiceans believed their physical riches were to be seen as evidence of spiritual favor when that position had no Scriptural bearing. They “did not know” as a direct result of a lack of Biblical knowledge and understanding.




Here’s a key truth you’d be wise to never forget… Because the Bible is totally honest about your spiritual condition, it is the only place you can get a proper assessment of yourself. In James 1:21-25, we are exhorted, “Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the word, this one will be blessed in what he does.”




So what does the Bible say about you? It’s clear that apart from Jesus, His work on the cross, and His amazing grace you are “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.” This fact is one of the main reasons the Bible isn’t taught in many Seeker-Friendly churches. 




For the unbeliever, the Bible has some really hard and difficult things to say. It’s not friendly to the godless. You see, contrary to what the world has to say about such things, God does not accept you the way that you are! Your status-quo is not ok with Him! In fact, God deliberately sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross in order to transform you into someone completely different. God’s plan for your life is to change you into someone else!




Aside from the fact attending a church that teaches the Word not only protects you from self-deception, but it’s God’s Word that actively protects you against this tendency for spiritual indifference. As King David penned, in Psalm 1:1-3, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.”




I have found it is virtually impossible to attend a church where you’re taught God’s Word and still live a life of indifference and compromise. You see the Word of God either drives a man in sin to repentance or it drives that man away from the church! Still yet another reason the Bible isn’t taught in many Seeker-Friendly churches.




Finally, we see from the text that Laodicea was a church so self-centered they were no longer Christ-focused. Notice, in verse 17, where the Laodicean’s self-evaluation and pride were rooted. They boasted,I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing.” And yet, in verse 20, Jesus said to them, I stand at the door and knock!”




This church was so self-consumed with what they had they were completely oblivious to the reality Jesus was on the outside wanting in! You see this church was focused more on what they had (ministry resources) than whose presence they were in — Jesus! In the end, this church was more about reaching “them” than it was about seeking “Him.”




The word “Laodiceans” is interesting because it’s a compound word meaning the rights of the people. In this church, the people ruled and Jesus and His Word took a backseat. It’s a truth that the degree to which a church is “man-centered” is the degree to which that church is no longer “Christ-centered.” I should also add the degree to which you are “me-centered” has a direct correlation to the amount you’re dependent upon Jesus. 




Tragically, instead of asking Jesus what He wanted His church to be, how He wanted His church to reach the lost, and what He found pleasing, these Laodiceans devised their own model of church with the intention of reaching men by pleasing man.




Jesus’ warning to this church is severe… In verse 16, Jesus says, “I will vomit you out of My mouth!” The idea of “vomit” is the violent expulsion from the body of that which makes the body sick. This type of ministry approach and the type of spiritual result found in this Laodicean church and that of the Seeker-Friendly model makes Jesus ill!




Let me explain why… Contrary to popular opinion nowhere in the Bible is the church called to be a “hospital for the sick.” Instead, the church is called to be a prepping center whereby believers are equipped to go into the world to care for the sick.




It was the Old Covenant model whereby the world came and were brought to a Temple to encounter God. And yet, in the New Covenant design, Jesus established His Temple in the hearts of men and women whom He then sent into the world to encounter the lost!




What makes the Seeker-Friendly model so disgusting to Jesus is that (while it might yield high conversation rates) it’s making the church sick! Because the church is being derelict to fulfill her God-given duties of teaching the Bible to equip saints, she in turn creates a scenario where believers no longer need to do theirs — taking the Gospel into a lost world. 




You see this church is not only failing to equip believers but in doing their job for them she’s fostering a lukewarm culture. The simple reality is when a church focuses on reaching the lost instead of equipping saints to reach the lost the body becomes ill!




For a church to be healthy the emphasis of the church service should be on equipping believers for their ministry by teaching God’s Word, with the role of the saints to then go out into their world desiring to reach the lost with the Gospel! You see the Great Commission was given by Jesus to individual believers — not the institutional church!




It should be noted that following so many difficult criticisms Jesus begins His closing with this line in verse 19, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.” After all of this Jesus wants them to know it was His love for them that motivated Him to speak the truth!




You can hear His passion when He says, in verse 20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me!” While these Laodiceans had been doing church without Him, this could be easily remedied. All they had to do was “open the door” and let Him back in!




In the original language, this word “knock” is in the active tense. What this means is that Jesus is “at the door” gently and continually knocking. But also notice how He knocks… Jesus says, “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice…” Friend, there is no question it is Jesus’ Word — His voice — that does the knocking!




Why was Jesus knocking? He says, “I will come in to him and dine with him.” This phrase “dine with him” spoke of a very intimate, relational exchange. You see eating in Eastern cultures was an act of genuine commonality and oneness — it was personal. Please understand Jesus doesn’t want anything from you. All He wants is a relationship with you! 




In closing, please don’t forget Who was doing the knocking… Jesus opens this letter writing, “These things says… The Amen!” The word “Amen” literally means so be it or that’s true. This church needed to get back to treating Jesus’ Word as the truth.




He also calls Himself, “The Faithful and True Witness!” This church needed to remember the only way to reach the lost was not through creative marketing, relevant presentations, or a diluted form of Christianity… The remedy was Jesus! They needed to be Christ-centric!




Finally, Jesus refers to Himself as “the Beginning of the creation of God!” This word “the Beginning” doesn’t mean Jesus was the first but rather He existed before “the creation of God.” The word can be translated as origin. This church needed to keep the main thing the main thing. Pleasing Jesus was infinitely more important than pleasing men!




You can’t help but notice — in spite of the strong words — there was still potential for this church to be used in mighty ways! In addition to responding to His voice and opening the door, all they had to do was “be zealous (burn with zeal) and repent (change their mind)!” 




While Jesus gave this church the strongest of all criticisms, He also gave her the most glorious promises! In verses 18 and 21, Jesus provided a list of things that would come with their relationship with Him if they responded to His invitation and repented… 




“I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich (the pursuit of heavenly treasure in place of temporal riches)… white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed (everlasting righteousness instead of the black garments of self-confidence and foolish pride)… And anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see (Jesus promises to give them spiritual sight in place of blindness).” 




He also promises, “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” What a radical promise! And yet, how did Jesus overcome? Through His obedience to the Word of His Father!




In a famous sermon titled, “An Earnest Warning Against Lukewarmness” Charles Spurgeon described the lukewarm church the following way. “They have prayer-meetings, but there are few present, for they like quiet evenings home. When more attend the meetings they are still very dull, for they do their praying very deliberately and are afraid of being too excited. 




They are content to have all things done decently and in order, but vigor and zeal are considered to be vulgar. They may have schools, Bible-classes, preaching rooms, and all sorts of agencies; but they might as well be without them, for no energy is displayed and no good comes of them. They have deacons and elders who are excellent pillars of the church, if the chief quality of pillars be to stand still, and exhibit no motion or emotion. 




The pastor does not fly very far in preaching the everlasting Gospel, and he certainly has no flame of fire in his preaching. The pastor may be a shining light of eloquence, but he certainly is not a burning light of grace, setting men’s hearts on fire. Everything is done in a half-hearted, listless, dead way, as if it did not matter much whether it was done or not. 




Things are respectably done, the rich families are not offended, the skeptical party is appeased, and the good people are not quite alienated: things are made pleasant all around. The right things are done, but as to doing them with all your might, and soul, and strength, a Laodicean church has no notion of what that means. 




They are not so cold as to abandon their work, or to give up their meetings for prayer, or to reject the gospel. They are neither hot for the truth, nor hot for conversions, nor hot for holiness, they are not fiery enough to burn the stubble of sin, nor zealous enough to make Satan angry, nor fervent enough to make a living sacrifice of themselves upon the altar of their God. They are ‘neither cold nor hot.’”




Friend, if we want to be a church that Jesus delights in and isn’t made ill by, we must embrace our distinctiveness within this world and not be lured into a false sense of success. Our Pastor Jesus is more concerned with the process than He the results. This church that saw themselves as being “rich, wealthy, and in need of nothing” Jesus determined to be “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked,” and, in the end, spiritually “lukewarm!”




Beyond this passage being a healthy reminder as to what kind of church we want to be, the practical application for each of us is real. A lukewarm church only exists when the people who make up that church are themselves lukewarm Christians! If you feel the subtle chill of spiritual apathy creeping into your heart, pray for a fresh fire to set you ablaze!




As we wrap up our time in these seven letters, how important it is that we, like Ephesus, abide in His grace alone and not allow our works to cause us to “leave our first love.” May we, like Pergamos, never fall into the trap of allowing the Gospel to be twisted into the justification of sin and immoral behaviors. May we, like Thyatira, actively reject any unholy union that might steal from Jesus the affection He’s due as our only Groom! 




Like Sardis, may we avoid a dead orthodoxy that places theology over people. And like Laodicea may we reject the misgiving that reaching people is more important than teaching the Bible. In the end, while we may be poor and weak in the eyes of this world, may Jesus declare Calvary316 to be rich and faithful like the churches located in both Smyrna and Philadelphia. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

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