Lesson's From Laodicea Series

Lessons from Laodicea

The Seven Churches of Revelation

CCCAG 8-20-23

-Scripture- Revelation 3:14-22

Introduction-

Today we are tackling the last church in our Seven Churches of Revelation series.

When I was praying about doing this series, todays church is the one I didn’t want to have to talk about.

The reason is that it is the only church in which Jesus does not have any complements. It’s all bad.

I try to be very conscious of how many “hard” lessons or sermons I bring to you. A pastor should balance the hard with the encouraging.

However, there are several lessons that we can learn from them.

True wisdom is seeing the mistakes of others and then not repeating them, and that is what we are going to be doing today.

Because Even though they were an absolute mess and disgrace to the church,

Jesus STILL showed up and loved them enough to tell them the hard, cold truth.

His heart was always to bring them back out of the pit they had fallen and back to a life-giving relationship with HIM.

So, just like having to take medicine that tastes horrible but in the end will cure you, we have to take the hard parts of the scripture the same attitude.

So I would ask you today- listen with an open mind, an open heart, and a spirit that wants to hear what the HOLY SPIRIT would say to both us as a church family, and to you as an individual.

Scripture-

Rev 3:14-22 “Write to the angel of the church in Laodicea: Thus says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the originator of God’s creation:

(15) I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot.

(16) So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth.

(17) For you say, ‘I’m rich; I have become wealthy and need nothing,’ and you don’t realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.

(18) I advise you to buy from ME gold refined in the fire so that you may be rich, white clothes so that you may be dressed and your shameful nakedness not be exposed, and ointment to spread on your eyes so that you may see.

(19) As many as I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be zealous and repent.

(20) See! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. (21) “To the one who conquers I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. (22) “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Prayer

Background

I’ve listened to a lot of well meaning sermons on this church, and until I started to study to bring this to you this morning, I didn’t realize all of the depth that we see in here to correctly see the why behind the words that Jesus uses to rebuke this church.

I’m going to provide a bit of background this morning as you can’t really understand why Jesus said what He said without knowing a few facts about Laodicea.

Laodicea was founded by Antiochus (Ant’ tie A Cus) Epiphanes II and named after his wife, who in an example of historical irony, poisoned him to death soon after.

You may have heard the name Antiochus before. During the 400 years between Malachi and Matthew, a descendant of this man, Antiochus IV committed what the bible calls the abomination that caused desolation when he defiled the Hebrew temple in Jerusalem by walking into the Holy of Holys and sacrificing a pig on the altar of God, and throwing that pig's blood all over the scrolls- in other words, their bible.

This is a foreshadowing of what the AntiChrist will do at the midpoint of the great tribulation.

Three things to know about Laodicea

The first thing this city was known for was its opulence and wealth.

Laodicea was built at the crossroads of the two of the busiest trading routes in that area of the world.

The people who lived there were among the wealthiest among the 7 cities we have studied over the last several weeks.

The citizens of Laodicea were so rich when an earthquake leveled their city in 17 AD, they refused any help from Rome and just rebuilt Laodicea themselves.

It was like the Beverly Hills of the ancient world- you’d have Elon Musk as your neighbor, and Jeff Bezos the next block over.

Keep that in mind- extraordinary wealth in every citizen.