No Pain, No Gain - The Story Of The Laodicean Church

John the Baptist came to that generation and spoke challenging words. Matthew 3:10. That was not the message they expected. They were looking for "peace, safety and to conquer the Romans."

According to the Scriptures the irony is that the church that is so confident in God’s unconditional loving acceptance is the church that is about to be spewed out of His mouth. That’s why He has to tell them it’s a message from the faithful and true Witness. We are so sure of our salvation we’ve become comfortable and blasé, which is what leads us to the real problem of Laodicea. Lukewarmness is only the symptom of the problem. Revelation 3:15-17. Ellen White recognised this as an issue when she said that there are "...not one in twenty...who knows experimental religion." - 1 T504.002.

The problem with Laodicea is not the "wretched, pitiful poor, blind, naked and lukewarm. The problem is they don’t know their condition. To put it another way, they don’t see what God sees and therefore they don’t understand their true condition. They think everything is wonderful. They’re basking in God’s blessing. "We have baptisms. Tithe is up. We have new ministries. God is blessing us. What do you mean, ’Something is wrong?’"

God comes with a shocking message that while they think they’re covered by Christ’s righteousness, they’re actually naked. While they think their spiritual vision is expanding and excellent, they’re blind. While they think they are basking in the blessings of God, they’re poor. The irony is that this church, who is so sure of their standing with God, is about to be vomited out because God is nauseated by those who think they see when they’re blind.

Jesus said to the Pharisees, "If you admitted that you were blind, I can handle that, but because you say you see, your sin remains." So, what’s this deal about the lukewarmness? Laodicea was the richest city of the region, a major economic power. But they had one fatal flaw: Water supply. They had found no permanent water supply within the walls of Laodicea. All of their water had to come from outside the city. Which means, without the Pax Romana they were vulnerable. If their water supply was cut off, they were finished. Their money would not help them. They were near a river, but thirty odd metres above it came Applisus’s hot springs, by the time it got to them it was lukewarm and they would pump some of that water up to a little water tower which gravity fed downhill into the city. But the main water supply... well they were suspicious of whatever might be dumped in the river, so, they went ten kilometres away to some hot springs and they built a shallowly buried clay pipe aqueduct and piped that spring water into the city underground. And again, after flowing ten kilometres, through a clay pipe, it was not hot anymore, it was lukewarm. So, all of their water sources were lukewarm.

Coming out of the hot spring, there was so much calcium carbonate in that water you could just about walk on it. It was hard water. If you have ever lived in an area with hard water, when you wash your white clothes, they come out looking like a pale grey. They don’t look white. Why do you think black clothes were so fashionable in Laodicea? You couldn’t get white laundry out of that water. It changed the whole fashion industry. Black was in. It didn’t show that dingy grey.