READING SOMEONE ELSE’S MAIL
Laodicea—The Church that Made God Sick
Revelation 3:14-22
http://gbcdecatur.org/sermons/Laodicea.html
Have you ever been so disgusted with someone’s attitude that you said, You make me sick! You meant, I don’t feel good about you, I don’t like to be around you, you disgust me, you turn my stomach.
It’s one thing when a person feels that way about you, it’s a completely different thing when God says He feels that way about you!
16 “spue thee out of My mouth”… “you make me sick”
You like your coffee hot, right? Soda cold, right? Lukewarm makes you sick. Quite a serious statement for the God of the universe that created them at that church, that they are nauseating to Him!
These 7 letters were given that we might examine our own hearts and lives, and our own church!
Now, if it’s possible for a set of conditions to exist in church that make God sick, then we need to know about them, so we can avoid them at all costs!
Before we look at this church, let’s look at the city of Laodicea, in which this church was located.
4 facts:
1. All of their water came from a unique, above-ground system of aqua-ducts. They brought their water into town from 2 sources: ice cold water from the top of the Phrygian mountains, which were snow covered. The other source of water was from the hot springs of Hieropolis. They are still in existence today, and used by the government of Turkey. The water is as hot as you could possibly imagine, creating steam at its source. The problem was this, it didn’t matter which source they brought their water in from, by the time the water got to the city, it was lukewarm (room temperature). Despite their efforts to have hot and cold running water, they had to get used to it being lukewarm.
2. It was a very wealthy city. In 60 A.D., Laodicea was completely destroyed by an earthquake, and historical records say it was completely rebuilt by the wealth of it’s people, w/ no outside help whatsoever! They were totally self-sufficient.
3. It was the world headquarters for eye-care. Eye diseases were quite common in the first century. The Apostle Paul likely had one of these disfiguring eye diseases. The hospital at Laodicea developed an eye-salve that became world-famous for curing eye diseases.
4. They had a special process in Laodicea, whereby they could die wool black. This black wool was known far and wide, and was used by many to make elegant garments.
File that away. We’ll come back to it. (Lukewarm water / wealth / eye-care / black wool)
Now let’s talk about the church at Laodicea…they represent today’s church, from 1900 to the rapture, which could be any day now! Today’s churches are mostly lukewarm.
4 Things: Condition / Commendation / Cause / Cure
1. Their condition
15-16 He says, you’ve lost your zeal / vigor / fervency
Ill.—Milk. I love it! Especially w/ Oreos. But it better be cold. Or, in the form of hot chocolate, it better be hot!
Commercial: man tips up jug of milk, suddenly spits it out into the sink / wife in next room says, “Honey, the refrigerator isn’t working!”
The people in Laodicea went to great trouble trying to get something hot or cold, but they ended up w/ neither.
Jesus says to the church there, because your brand of Christianity is lukewarm, I want to spit you out of my mouth.
When is a Christian lukewarm? When they grow comfortable, complacent, lethargic spiritually…and not even know it! Or, not even care!
Lukewarmness is the opposite of what the songwriter said, when he wrote: “I’m pressing on the upward way, new heights…”
That’s the attitude God is looking for.
One thing that all Christians have in common w/ all churches: They never stand still! You’re either going forward, or backward.
Ill.—soldier in civil war, couldn’t decide if he was for the north or the south, so he put on a union coat and confederate pants…when they found him he was dead, face down, and had been shot in the front and stabbed in the back!
Jesus said, I would rather you be cold than lukewarm, or halfway. At least then you would be able to feel it, and recognize you have a problem! But even better, I wish that you were hot, on fire for God, but you’re neither…you’re lukewarm, comfortable, complacent, cozy, and convenient. You’ve replaced zeal w/ indifference / enthusiasm w/ apathy. You’re not really up, not really down / in or out / with it or without it / you’ve got just enough Jesus in you that you can’t enjoy the world, and enough of the world in you, that you can’t enjoy Jesus! Just riding the fence. And it’s Jesus who says, if you won’t get in, get faithful, get busy, and get serious, then just go ahead and get out!
It’s an all or nothing existence that we live as Christians. And I want to know, why be halfway? As Christians we have every reason in the world to be on fire for God, and when we’re not, we ought to be ashamed!
“If I wasn’t a fireball for my God, what would I be? I’d be ashamed!”
We have in our possession an inexhaustible gold mine of spiritual riches…the Bible…God’s love letter to us!
I can be forgiven! That thought alone ought to light our fire.
I have the promise of heaven! Until then I have the presence of God, supplying my every need!
Ill.—On theroad to Emmaus, 2 followers of Christ walked w/ Him after His resurrection, not recognizing who He was…after they realized it, they said, “Did not our hearts burn within us!” He lives inside of us and goes with us everywhere we go, how can we not be on fire?!
We have the Spirit of God…at the moment of salvation I was baptized of the Spirit / sealed / indwelt by…and now we can have the privilege of being Spirit filled…how can we not be on fire?!
We can have God’s fellowship, and thru His Word He speaks loud and clear to our hearts if we will listen…and thru the privilege of prayer we can talk back to Him…real communication w/ my Creator, my Savior, my God!
No wonder Jesus said to this church, you make me sick, when they were satisfied w/ a mediocre spiritual existence.
That’s the condition of this church…they were lukewarm.
2. Their commendation
You can almost always find something good to say about someone, can’t you?
Joke—guy went to preacher and said, “My wife is not responding to me, what do I do?”/ preacher: “compliment her every day”/ “I don’t know what I’d compliment”/ “you can always find something, go think about it!”/he went home, approached his wife, and said, you know, for a fat gal, you don’t smell much!
You can almost always find something to compliment. Mama told me if you can’t find something good to say, don’t say anything at all…which is exactly what Jesus Christ did. He had no compliments, no commendation to this church whatsoever! All 6 churches before it, no matter how bad they were spiritually, even a couple that were full of lost people…the unsaved, even those He commended for something. The hot as well as the cold, He had some good things to say to them…but not to the lukewarm. Our God hates spiritual complacency / indifference
Condition=lukewarm Commendation=there is none
3. The Cause
16 “Because…rich / increased w/ goods / have need of nothing”
All 3 of those expressions are expressions of materialism.
Rich and everyone knew it… Their reputation
They said, “We’re in good shape”…Their ego
God said, here’s what I know about you! And He piles up 5 things against them:
End of 17
That is a stunning statement…for of all 7 churches in Rev. 2 & 3, no doubt this church had the fanciest building / highest class of people in it / largest annual budget
But, the Lord says, here’s what you really are:
wretched… unhappy, dissatisfied (though rich! Elvis Presley, at height of his career said, “I guess I’m the most miserable man alive! Michael Jackson sure followed in his footsteps just like he wanted to)
miserable… sometimes translated, “pitiful” (you think everyone envies you, but actually, you are to be pitied!)
poor… A shocker! They never thought of themselves like that before! Rich materially, but in God’s economy, they were stone broke!
Blind… unable to receive spiritual truth
Naked… God says, outwardly you try to look like one thing, but I see right thru it.
The point is: they were just the opposite of what they thought they were!
You’d better make sure that your own spiritual estimate of yourself
matches up w/ God’s knowledge of what you really are.
At the bottom of it all was materialism, which led to self-sufficiency, which led to complacency
Their condition…lukewarm The cause: Materialism
4. Cure
17 Find true riches…spiritual riches. Get your priorities back in line. Put Me first in your life, get on fire for God!
White raiment= symbolic of God’s righteousness. They had been walking in self-righteousness, and shaming the name of Christ as if they had been walking around naked! They were famous for their black garments, but they needed white.
Eye salve= They were blind to reality / living in a fool’s paradise / proud of a church that was about to be rejected…that made God sick.
They were famous for their eye salve, and the ointment that God
prescribed is found in v. 19
Nothing clears your spiritual vision like confession and repentance.
I want each of us to stop right now and examine our own lives…
Ask yourself the question, “Do I make God sick?”
Is my prayer life lukewarm? “I pray, but I’m not really into it.”
Is my witness lukewarm? “I might invite to church, but don’t witness”
Bible reading lukewarm? “I only do it occasionally.”
Giving lukewarm? “I find myself giving grudgingly, not cheerfully.”
Attendance lukewarm? “I come a lot!” That wasn’t the question, it’s all or nothing / hot or cold / every opportunity or
…don’t worry about it, go to the lake or something, rather than do
it halfway, and on top of that, make God sick! Let’s rise above!
Ill.—many years ago in India there was a missionary / he was
walking along a crocodile infested river / saw a Hindu woman
standing there, staring at the river / in her right arm she held a sick
baby, and with her left hand she held the hand of a healthy 2 year
old child / He knew what she was doing…contemplating throwing
her baby to the crocodiles…as an offering to appease pagan gods /
He pleaded w/ her not to do it, to no avail / He left, returned 2 hours
later, the 2 year old was gone, the sick baby was still in her arms / he
began to weep and said, “Why did you do this? It’s bad enough
that you sacrificed one of them, but why the healthy one? Why
not the sickly one? / With a look of disgust on her face she said,
“Sir, I don’t know how you Christians do it, but we give our gods
our very best!”
We should be ashamed when we don’t give God our very best!
v. 20 Salvation – Jesus stands at the door and knocks!
http://gbcdecatur.org/sermons/Laodicea.html
