Jesus' Offer: To Eat With You, From Inside Of You (Revelation 3:14-22) Series

Today, we wrap up the part of Revelation, where Jesus has John writing to the angels to the churches. Jesus has clear expectations, and high expectations, for his churches. Every church has its own spirit-- its own angel-- who is responsible for that church. And some angels, and some churches, are more faithful, and have better works, than others. The angels are held responsible, and so are the churches. This last church today, in Laodicea, is not doing well.

Let's start by reading verse 14-15.

(14) and to the angel-- to the one in Laodicea of the church-- write:

"These things, says The Amen (Isaiah 65:16), The Faithful and True Witness, The Ruler of God's creation--

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Isaiah 65:16:

(16) Whoever blesses himself/considers himself fortunate in the land, shall bless himself/consider himself fortunate by the God of Amen.

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(15) I know your works,

that neither cold, you are, nor hot. ["cold" and "hot" are both focused, in both lines]

Would that cold, you were, or hot!

Jesus opens by describing himself as The Amen. This is a Hebrew word, and the meaning revolves around the idea of something being true, and reliable. And when we look back at the verse, and how Jesus goes on to describe himself, he keeps talking along these lines. Jesus is faithful, and reliable, and trustworthy. What he says is accurate. His words have weight.

Jesus then goes on, in verse 15, to describe the church. And what does Jesus look at? Their works. In every church, the thing Jesus looks at is their works. That's the basis for his evaluation. It's through your works, that Jesus tells how you're doing.

And we see that Jesus isn't happy about their works. Normally, Jesus likes to talk about the good things he sees and hears in his churches, but with this church, he has nothing good to say, at all. He can't praise them for anything.

In describing this church, Jesus uses a metaphor about hot, and hold, and lukewarm, and puking. People debate what exactly Jesus means with this metaphor. Some people think that Jesus is deliberately using exaggerated language here (hyperbole), which isn't to be pressed literally (Roloff, William Barclay, etc.). They think it's good to be hot, and it's bad to be cold. And they think Jesus is saying, basically, that he'd prefer the church to be filled with terrible sinners, doing terrible things, than with this mediocre, lukewarm Christians. I had a friend in Bible college once, who was quite the character actually. He told me that he hardly ever sinned, but when he sinned, he sinned big. That's basically what some people think Jesus is saying. My friend took a bit of pride in hardly sinning, but sinning big.

But I think (with Craig Koester, who was again super helpful here) that the idea is more like this: cold things, and hot things, are both useful, and desirable. In ancient Rome, they didn't have fridges or freezers or electricity, so I always read this verse with some confusion. But apparently, it was a thing to chill beverages, even in ancient Rome. You could store wine at the base of a well, to cool it. Or you could buy snow from people who must've stored it in caves, and use that snow to chill wine, in particular. Chilled beverages were highly desired in ancient Rome. So we all know that on a hot day, there's nothing better than iced tea. On a cold tea, there's nothing better than hot tea. Cold things are useful, and desirable. And so are hot things.

And if we stop to think about, why is that the case? The thing that makes cold things desirable, and hot things desirable, is that their temperature differs from the outside environment. They're not like everything around them. So the idea behind this metaphorical language then, probably, is that Christians are supposed to be different from their environment. Jesus expects us be distinctive, and that distinctiveness makes us useful, and desirable (*Craig Koester). When Jesus drinks us, we are supposed to be a beverage that goes down smooth and easy, in a pleasing way.

This church is not like that.

With this, we come to verses 16-17. English Bibles probably separate these two verses out, but it's important we read them together (verse 17 begins with "because" not "for"):

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And actually, when translators try to make these two verses smooth, they make it impossible to hear what Jesus says. It's really important that there's an "and" before "nothing," and an "and" between what they say, and what Jesus knows. It's the little words like this that are usually the most valuable part of learning Greek, simply because English translations hide connections.

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(16) So then, because lukewarm, you are, and neither hot nor cold, I am about to vomit you from my mouth