Jesus' letter to the church in Laodicea, Revelation 3:14-22
Immanuel Sermon Audio
Seven - Laodicea
There's an outline in your bulletin this morning and if you have your Bible, take your Bible out and find the book of Revelation chapter 3. Next week I will be in Kenya and Cory is going to preach for us. In the week after that we're going to begin a new series working our way through the gospel of Luke. This morning we're going to finish up our series seven and this is the seventh week that we've been in this series. We've been looking at the letters that Jesus sent to the seven churches of Asia Minor. We've been asking ourselves the very simple question, not what do we want from our church but what does Jesus want from His church. So we've worked our way through the first six letters and we'll just review those quickly before we jump in this morning. We started with Jesus' letter to the church in Ephesus where He warned the church in Ephesus about the danger of a diminishing love and the idea there was that He wants a church that loves people. That was week one. Week two we looked at Jesus' letter to the church in Smyrna. Jesus warned them of the danger of fearing persecution, not the danger of persecution but the danger of fearing persecution. What Jesus wants from His church is boldness and faithfulness even to the point of death. Week three, Jesus' letter to the church in Pergamum. He warned about the danger of theological compromise. What Jesus wants is a church that will fight for and defend the faith once for all delivered to the saints. So that was the letter to the church in Pergamum. The week after that was Jesus' letter to the church in Thyatira. He warned them about the danger of moral compromise. What Jesus wants is a church that's holy and completely obedient to Him. After Thyatira was Sardis, Jesus warned them about the danger of spiritual deadness. He does not want a church that just goes through the motions of church activity and busyness. He wants a church that is passionate for Him and alive spiritually. After Sardis, it was the letter to the church in Philadelphia. That was last week. Jesus warned them about the danger of giving up. They weren't being persecuted. They weren't about to suffer. Nothing bad was about to happen to them. Jesus just wrote to this church and basically said, "Keep doing exactly what you're doing. Don't give up. Don't lose heart. Just keep doing exactly what it is that you're doing," and He was pleased with that church. Last week, the letter to the church in Philadelphia is the only letter, one of only two letters, I should say, where Jesus does not rebuke or call the church to repentance. This morning, we're going to look at Jesus' letter to the church in Laodicea. It's the only letter where Jesus doesn't have anything positive to say about the church. When you're preaching a series, you'd kind of like this one not to be the ending. You'd kind of like to end on a positive note, end on something positive, but this is the order Jesus put them in. Jesus warns the church in Laodicea about the danger of lukewarmness. We're going to talk this morning about what that means and what that does not mean. If you think about it, and you put this letter in the context of all of the other letters, this is really the culmination. And, really, if you take care of what Jesus had to say in letter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, this one will take care of itself. And when you look at Laodicea, it's not really just one problem that you can pinpoint. It's everything that was going on in the life of the church as a whole. And you could really apply all of the letters we've already looked at to Laodicea. Jesus has nothing positive to say, no pat on the back, no that a boy, just simply a wake-up call to this church that was struggling with this issue of lukewarmness. This letter that we're about to read is another way of saying, "Jesus expects 100 percent." We've talked about that in several of these letters where Jesus will say, "You're doing good here, here, here, but there's a problem here. You need to repent." Jesus isn't satisfied with 70s, 80s, 90s, he wants 100 percent. And that's what he's saying to Laodicea. He's saying, "I want all that you are. I want all that you have. I'm not satisfied with you being lukewarm. I want and I demand 100 percent." And as you see in this letter, when Jesus doesn't get that, things are not okay in churches. Things were not okay in Laodicea. And today, when a church refuses to give Jesus 100 percent, when a church is spiritually lukewarm and we're going to talk about what that means, things are not okay. So if you have your Bible, look at Revelation chapter 3, beginning in verse 14, and we're going to read what Jesus has to say to the church in Laodicea, the last letter of 7. Verse 14, Revelation 3, "And to the angel of the church in Laodicea," right. The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation. I know your works. You're neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot? So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, "I'm rich, I prospered, I need nothing." Now realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich, in white garments so that you may clothe yourself in the shame of your neckiness may not be seen, and save to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove in discipline. So bezealous and repent, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Let's pray. Father, as we have sung together, we believe that it is only through the blood of Jesus that we can come into your presence. Father, we believe the Bible when it says that Jesus shed his blood to ransom and to purchase the church. Father, that includes us at a manual. Father, we want to be the kind of church that Jesus would have us to be. We've looked and we have listened to seven or to six of these letters and as we look at the seventh this morning, our prayer is simply that you would give us ears to hear what your Spirit is saying to us today. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. We're going to break this passage down and we're going to talk about Laodicea and the issues there. But first, I need to tell you just a little bit about the city of Laodicea itself. This is the map I've shown you almost every week and Greece is there on the left. Go back one map there. You see Greece on the left and the island of Crete down at the bottom and you see Asia Minor over here on the right and you see John, the Apostle was on Patmos and you can see the circuit that a messenger would have taken these letters. Right-end order, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pragama, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and lastly Laodicea. We'll zoom in on Laodicea and you can see Laodicea here on the bottom left, Colossae and Hieropolis. These three cities were sister cities. They were very close together and they had very close relations. To understand the things that Jesus is saying to the church in Laodicea, let me tell you a few things about the city of Laodicea. As I tell you some of these things, as I thought about it this week, there's a lot of similarities to our city, to Odessa and a sister city close by and some of the things that maybe we struggle with and so Laodicea in the ancient world was famous for four things. Four things that Laodicea was famous for. Number one was water, number two was money, number three was clothing, and number four was medicine. Water, money, clothes, medicine, and I'll explain those. First of all, water, you can see Hieropolis was about five, seven miles north of Laodicea and Hieropolis had a water source. They had naturally hot springs in Hieropolis. You can remember that because H hot, Hieropolis had the hot water and people would travel from all around the ancient world and they would come to these hot springs and it was sort of like old school hot tubs. They would get in there and it was sort of a healing thing or a therapeutic thing, but they had water and it was useful for medicinal purposes in Hieropolis. Then there was Colossae over to the east and they had water, Colossae starts with sea and so they had cold water, had cold mountain springs and it just came out of the ground and it was icy cold and it was refreshing and it was fantastic if you've ever been to the mountains and drinking out of a river or a spring or a brook you know how cold that water is and they had that in Colossae and then there's Laodicea, no water, no rivers, no springs, no ponds, no nothing but there was a lot of people there and so they needed water and so they would build aqueducts and they had aqueducts going from both of these cities coming down from the north from Hieropolis, coming over from the east from Colossae. The problem with the aqueducts is that while they got the water to Laodicea, the hot water from Hieropolis by the time it got there was not so hot anymore, it cooled down along the way and the cold water from Colossae by the time it got there warmed up and it wasn't all that cold anymore and so in Laodicea literally they were known for not having natural water piping it in and by the time the water got to Laodicea wherever it came from it was lukewarm okay so they're known for their water or maybe you could say their water problems. Secondly they're known for money you may be thinking why would you build a city in the ancient world where there was no water and the answer is money. There were two trade routes then intersected in Laodicea and these are some of the ruins the city may not look that impressive today but at one point in time it was impressive it was a magnificent city and business was booming in Laodicea two trade routes that crossed right here and all of the business that went along with that and money was really really flowing in Laodicea here's how rich they were. In the year 60 AD there was an earthquake and several cities in this region were absolutely devastated just flattened to the ground one of them was Laodicea okay so this is 68 AD about 30 years after Jesus was on the earth died on the cross went back to heaven about 30 years before Jesus wrote this letter sort of right in the middle there 60 AD earthquake flattens the city. The good news for Laodicea is that they were part of the Roman Empire at the time and so the emperor sent word and he said look you're part of the empire there's benefits that go along with that we will send you aid to rebuild your city this is like the ancient version of FEMA right we're here to help and Laodicea said thanks but no thanks we don't want it we don't need it you keep your money and we'll rebuild our city all on our own they were the only city in the region that turned down the federal aid if you can imagine what this was like imagine Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans in the FEMA trailers show up somewhat late but they show up and everybody says that's okay we don't need your help turn around and go back or maybe you can imagine more Oklahoma where the tornado hit not too long ago and just devastated parts of more and you can imagine the the aid that came pouring in and imagine those folks saying no no no no no no we don't need your help we have enough money to rebuild it on our own that's what they didn't lay out of see it and you can imagine when a community did that they took a lot of pride in the fact that we pulled ourselves up by our own bootstraps we took care of ourselves we're independent we don't need a handout from anybody we have enough so they're known for the water they're known for their money and as strange as it sounds to modern ears they were known for clothing and this just sounds bizarre to even say but Laodicea was a regional fashion hub and here's what happened you see these black sheep this is a picture of black sheep in Laodicea today so this is the real deal the shepherds in the businessmen in Laodicea put their heads together and they bred some kind of sheep that made some kind of magical black wool and way off in the far district of Rome people said that is the greatest wool ever I have got to get my hands on one of those black wool tunics it's all the rage it's the style it's the designer brand whatever you want to call it people had to have them and Laodicea was the place that made them from the ground up they had the sheep that grew the wool they had the factories that made the tunics and they exported these things all over the world and they were known for these fashionable high end popular black wool tunics so here's the picture we're building this picture Laodicea they have water problems they're known for their lukewarm water they're extraordinarily wealthy they think they don't need help from anybody regardless of the disaster they're known for their fashionable clothing and lastly number four they're known for medicine there was in Laodicea a medical hospital you could go to university in Laodicea and be trained on the latest and greatest techniques of being a physician in the ancient world this is Demosthenes he's their most famous graduate and he was an eye doctor he literally wrote the textbook in the ancient world on eye care and this was sort of the specialty of Laodicea you could go to be a doctor but if you wanted to be an eye doctor this is especially the place you went Demosthenes was there he had written the book you could study with him and some of his students who sat under his feet and learned from his teaching some of his students put their head together and they made this eyesab that people would put on their eyes and that would heal eye problems and ensue the eye pain and they exported this eyesab all over the Mediterranean world so that's Laodicea you got to understand something about this city if you want to understand what Jesus is saying to them they are known for their money they're known for their water problems they're known for their fancy clothing and they're known for their eye doctors and Jesus writes to them and he says some things that are downright shocking he says some things that you don't expect to come out of the mouth of Jesus of Nazareth so we're going to look at this passage this morning and talk about what Jesus has to say to this church question number one why do churches struggle in their devotion to Christ answer number one they forget the truth about Jesus Laodicea had an issue of devotion you could say they had a lack of devotion and according to Jesus the first part of that problem is that they had forgotten the truth about him verse 14 Jesus introduces himself like this I am the amen capital A that's another way of saying I am the truth capital T not just I am true but I am the truth I am the faithful in the true witness everything that comes out of my mouth is true why because I am truth the amen the faithful and true witness the beginning of God's creation meaning I'm your creator not meaning God made me first and then he made you meaning I'm the beginning it all began with me I am truth and I made you and he's saying to this church you have forgotten the truth about me listen to me good theologians make good Christians and bad theologians make bad Christians and everyone in this room is a theologian you all have beliefs about God every last one of you you have an understanding of who you think Jesus is and you sort of have a set of ideas that come into your mind and your heart in your heart when you hear the name Jesus you are a theologian you have beliefs about God the issue is and the question is are they biblical or are they not biblical and Jesus is saying to lay out a see listen you could probably pass the test in Sunday school and you could probably give the right answer but you have forgotten who I am when you go to church on Sunday morning you remember all that and then the rest of your life you go about business as if I'm just a nobody and he says to the church here's who I am here's who you're dealing with I am truth period I define truth and everything that I say to you is true and I made you I'm your creator and I'm your maker and your sustainer I'm the beginning of all creation and lay out a see here's that and we hear that and we step back and you say well if that's who Jesus is why wouldn't we be devoted to him if that's him why wouldn't we be sold out to him and the answer is simple we forget that you know it and you sing about it in church and you can answer the questions in Sunday school but you're just like me we all have this tendency to go through our daily lives and to stop putting Jesus in the place where he belongs in our lives and to allow him just to become an idea just to become like us to become small in our eyes and Jesus is saying you have forgotten the truth about me why did churches struggle in their devotion to Christ number two they're self-sufficient churches are self-sufficient therefore we do not depend on Jesus we do not rely on Jesus we do not look to Jesus like we ought to and maybe we ought to say in that statement they are self-sufficient they think they're self-sufficient they imagine that they're self-sufficient they're delusional in believing that they're self-sufficient but it affects our devotion to Christ look at verse 17 Jesus says to the church you say I'm rich and I have prospered and I need nothing you realize where that idea is coming from we're rich we prospered we don't need Caesar to rebuild our city we'll rebuild it ourselves we don't need what do we need and Jesus says you think that that's what you are or who you are you don't realize that you are wretched and pitiable wretched and pitiable Jesus says you don't realize that you're poor you think you've got a lot of money I'm telling you you're poor Jesus says you don't realize that you're blind you think you've got world-class eye doctors I'm telling you you can't see a thing Jesus says you don't realize that you're naked you think you're you're fancy with these black tunics that everyone is so crazy about I'm telling you you're walking around in your birthday suit you are poor you are blind you are naked verse 18 Jesus says what you need to do is buy from me gold refined by fire stop worrying about treasures on earth and store up treasures in heaven Jesus says what you need to do verse 18 is you need white garments from me and we've seen that phrase white garments before he's not saying I don't like black tunics and you ought to wear white instead what he's saying is you need my righteousness to be wrapped around your sinful body you need to be clothed in my perfect spotless righteousness he says you need salve to anoint your eyes yours is no good you can put Demosthenes salve on your eyes all day long what you need is eyes to see the truth and only I can give them to you you need money in heaven you need to be clothed with my righteousness and you need your eyes opened to see the truth Jesus is saying to this church you are overly impressed with yourself you think way too highly of who you are and as a result you think way too lowly of who I am and there's a great imbalance here that needs to be reversed you think you're up here and I'm telling you you're down here and you have put me down here and I'm telling you that I belong up here this is backwards you are not impressing Jesus with your self-sufficiency can I tell you how many well-intentioned people I talked to and they speak to me as a pastor and they feel some sort of compulsion or just natural inclination to tell me how good they are well I've tried to do I've tried to be a good dad all my life well I've tried to be a good employee and and I've always I've always come to church and I've never missed a tie check whatever it is I talk to people and they just sometimes have this impulsion to just convince me of how good they are listen Jesus knows you you can fool me but you're not going to fool him he knows that you're blind wretched pitiable naked and you need money from him he knows that really you're coming with empty hands and so you can try to fool yourself you can try to fool your pastor but Jesus is saying look just a reality check for Laodicea and for anybody who thinks that they are self-sufficient before me you're not and it doesn't impress me and what I want you to do is repent of it I want you to admit that you need me to clothe you and I want you to admit that you need treasure for me and I want you to admit that you need me to open your eyes I want you to admit that you need me because the reality is that you do and you're deluding your delusional you're fooling yourself if you rely on your own spiritual self-sufficiency how does Jesus feel about an under-voted church the news gets worse Jesus feels nauseous nauseous verse 15 to 16 I know your works you're neither cold nor hot wood that you were either cold or hot because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold I will spit you out of my mouth what Jesus is saying is really pretty funny if you have a category for Jesus having a sense of humor what he's saying is you're just like your lousy water that's the worst part about your city lukewarm water and that's exactly how you are please understand Jesus is not saying here I would rather you be my enemy than on fire apostle missionary for Jesus he's not saying I would rather you be ice cold towards me in a devil worshipper than I would rather you be a lover of mine what he's saying is I want you to be useful I want you to be valuable for something in my kingdom you're not you're like your water it's good for nothing there's no medicinal value to it it's not hot there's no refreshment value to it because it's not cold it's just sort of blah you're like the cup of coffee that's been sitting out on the counter for six hours it was hot now nobody wants it you're like a glass of of ice tea that at one point was cold and there was water dripping down the sides and the waitress did it right she filled the whole glass up with ice and it was just it was wonderful but then you just let it sit out for a couple hours and now it's just warm tea nobody wants it Jesus saying look I don't want this I don't want cooled off coffee I don't want warmed up tea I want you to be valuable I want you to be useful for my kingdom as it is you're good for nothing and then Jesus takes it even a step further and what he literally says is you make me want to vomit now my translation says I'm about to spit some of your translations say I'm about to spew there's two translations I found the new King James and the Holman Christian standard actually say vomit listen the word is vomit Jesus is saying are you ready for this you make me want to throw up you're disgusting time out do you have a category in your brain for a Jesus who will say something like that because I'm afraid a lot of people in this part of the country have a notion of Jesus and their Jesus would never say something so mean Jesus says you make me want to throw up you make me want to vomit is they're much worse than throwing up throwing up is your body doing the exact opposite of what God made your body to do it is one of the most miserable experiences that a human can can have on this earth some of you right now are thinking quit talking about it just drop it we get the idea that's the point Jesus says you make me sick this idea that you're going to come to church you're going to sing the songs you're going to go to the Bible study classes and then the rest of the week you're going to live as if I don't exist is if I'm not the amen is if I'm not the faithful and true witnesses if I'm not your creator this whole idea that you are self-sufficient spiritually to stand before me makes me want to puke and I'm about to vomit you out of my mouth Jesus says what does he want from an undivoted church very very simple what he wanted from all of these churches who had issues Jesus wants he demands repentance he demands repentance we're going to look at verse 19 and 20 Jesus says this those whom I love I reprove and I discipline so be zealous in repent that's a command not an option or a suggestion a command be zealous in repent verse 20 goes with verse 19 behold I stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into him and eat with him and he with me I can only think of one maybe two verses in the Bible that is misquoted and misapplied more than Revelation chapter 3 verse 20 the problem is we like the idea of what we think Revelation 320 is saying and we just hatch it off Revelation 3 19 3 19 comes right before 320 for a reason and so what does Jesus say in 3 19 he says those I love I reprove and I discipline so repent does he say in verse 19 I'm going to wait for your permission to discipline you does he say in verse 19 I'm waiting for an invitation before I reprove you he says look if you're one of mine and I need to I will discipline you and I will reprove you so you need to repent and then he says this in verse 20 I am standing at the door and knocking if you will hear my voice and open the door I will come in and eat with him and he with me problem is we hatch it off verse 19 and we have this idea of Jesus coming to our house coming to our heart and it's just sort of this wimpy frustrated passive guy just waiting for us to make the first move does that sound like the Jesus you ever read about in the Gospels ever listen Revelation 320 is not a verse about salvation is not Revelation 320 is a warning in a wake up call for people who refuse to repent in Jesus is saying to this church at Laodicea and to this church at Immanuel listen if you are not going to be devoted to me I'm going to come and I'm going to knock for a while and there's going to be an opportunity for you to repent but if you don't do that what does he say in verse 19 before verse 20 those whom I love I discipline and I reprove so repent we take it as sort of this beautiful promise that if you just open your heart to Jesus he's going to come into your life and save you I don't think that's the point of Revelation 320 I think the point of Revelation 320 is to say listen if you hear Jesus knocking the clock is ticking because if you don't open the door he's going to bust it down if you don't invite him in to have fellowship with you and you don't repent of this sin in your life he's going to come barging in sooner or later and he will discipline and reprove his people you say is that a warning is that a threat is that a promise yes all of it Jesus demands repentance what does he promise what does he offer a devoted church this is an amazing promise at the end of the letter Jesus promises a devoted church that we will rule with him and we've talked about this in a previous letter the idea that we will rule with Jesus it's just stunning how he describes it in verse 21 he says the one who conquers the one who overcomes this person I will grant to sit with me on my throne as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne and the image here is very very simple when you put it in the context of the book of Revelation and the New Testament and the Bible as a whole the idea is this there is a day coming where there will be a judgment and you will stand before Jesus and you'll give an account of your life and the Bible says that as every person who has ever lived stands before Jesus the king that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord all to the glory of God the Father that will happen and what Jesus is saying is this if the last day is the first day that you bow there's going to be a problem because you will bow and then you'll be sent away and then he looks to his people and he says if the last day is not the first day that you have bowed before me and acknowledged me as king and given me all that you are and all that you have if the last day is not the first day then after you bow are you ready for this and I'm on my throne you're going to crawl up here with me and we're going to rule together we're going to rule the new heavens and the new earth and I'm going to be the king and you're going to be princesses and princes under my rule and I'll give you authority and I'll give you responsibility and it's going to be amazing you will rule with me if you have bowed if you do what I'm calling you to do if you are completely committed and devoted to me this is what Jesus is calling from Laodicea is what he's calling from us how do we do it how do we avoid the danger of lukewarmness how do we pursue this idea of being totally committed to Jesus five ideas and we'll mention them quickly number one refused to idolize comfort that might have been the biggest problem in Laodicea is that things were so great it was a great place to live people had money people had jobs everybody was comfortable life was just nice and they began to think that because they were doing so well prospering so much that they just didn't need much from Jesus it's not that they hated Jesus it's just that they just didn't need that much from him they fell into the trap of idolizing comfort you understand that in this country that's a great great danger in this part of the world that's a great danger that you begin to just be comfortable and you begin to think well life looks pretty good to me I don't know that I need a whole lot from Jesus do not idolize comfort number two remember that you have not arrived you don't know enough about the Bible yet you're not committed enough to Jesus yet you haven't been to enough Bible studies yet I'm not saying you put all these things on your list as if you're trying to work your way into heaven I'm just saying don't forget that you have not arrived spiritually because you haven't and neither have I number three make repentance a lifestyle when Jesus calls these churches to repent he's not looking for a one-time decision a one-time prayer a one-time action he's looking for a lifetime of repentance so make repentance a lifestyle number four read the Bible read the Bible read the Bible read the Bible if you want to avoid spiritual lukewarmness you have got to have a steady diet of God's word and your Sunday school teacher can't do it for you and your pastor cannot do it for you 30 minutes in here is not enough tack on another 30 in Sunday school not even close you have got to have a steady diet of God's word and number five live in community by community I don't mean the neighborhood you live in I mean this church family live in community God intended his people to live in relationship with each other God talks in the New Testament Jesus talks in the New Testament about how we are interdependent on one another we need each other we're to encourage each other we're to rebuke each other we're to worship together we're to pray together we're to do all of these things together it's not something that you can do on your own so lastly the idea of living in community I want you to bow and I want to pray for you as we wrap up this letter and as we wrap up this series it's a serious letter and there's not a lot of good news in it there's hope in it but there's also just a a very clear picture of complacency and apathy and uselessness in the kingdom Father this morning we come to you grateful that you have spoken to us in your word Father we pray for ears to hear the truth we pray for eyes to see the truth Father we want to be the kind of church that you would have us to be and as we've looked at all of these letters and we've seen all of these churches all different all unique but Father all a lot like us and that they're just made up of real people with real struggles with real sins but who are presented with a very real savior Father we want to walk away from these letters not with a long list of things to do for Jesus but with gratitude and gratefulness in our hearts for what Jesus has done for us that the Son of God the Amen the faithful and true witness is calling us into a relationship with him and Father we pray this morning that you would make Jesus look beautiful to us as individuals and as families and as a church that we would not be enamored with the comforts and the luxuries and the pleasures of this world but that we would be completely consumed with Jesus that we would give him all that we are and all that we have that we would make him the great treasure the pearl of great price in our lives Father that we would give up anything and everything to chase after Jesus we want to sing to you and we want to worship and we want to lift our voices with the angels in heaven who are singing your praises and we want to take a moment to give you the glory and the worship and the honor that you deserve so Father as we sing we sing for you and we sing to you and we do it in Jesus' name amen.