November 17 Sermon - The Churches of Revelation - Laodicea
So we have come to the end of our look at the churches of Revelation, today being the last day.
And it’s been a fascinating journey to see some of the challenges that the early church faced, and how Jesus directly, through this Revelation in the Book of Revelation, called the churches to a higher place.
The issue in the church in Laodicea, as we’ll see, is passion or a lack of passion for God.
It’s also about the way that those who were wealthy among them were impacted negatively by their own wealth.
Let’s start at verse 14 of chapter 3:
To the Church in Laodicea
14 “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation.
Laodicea was one of the first Christian churches. But it also has the grim distinction of being the only Church of which the Risen Christ has nothing good to say.
The city of Laodicea had certain characteristics which have left their mark on the letter written to it.
First, it was a great banking and financial centre. It was one of the wealthiest cities in the world. How wealthy?
In A.D. 61 it was devastated by an earthquake;
but its citizens were so wealthy and independant that they refused any help from the Roman government and out of their own resources rebuilt their city.
The church of Laodicea was filled with people for whom this wealth was normal.
So it’s perhaps not surprising that Laodicea could boast that it was rich and had amassed wealth and had need of nothing.
It was so wealthy that it thought it did not even need God. That attitude of the city, the culture around it, was infecting the church.
It was a great centre of clothing manufacture. The sheep which grazed round Laodicea were famous for their soft, violet-black, glossy wool.
It mass-produced cheap outer garments.
Laodicea was proud of the clothing (garments) it produced.
The church of Laodicea was filled with people for whom this was normal.
Laodicea was so proud of the garments it produced that it never realized it was naked in the sight of God.
It was a very considerable centre of medical knowledge. Thirteen miles to the west, between Laodicea and the Gate of Phrygia, stood the temple of the Carian god Men.
In particular the temple was the centre of a medical school which was transferred to Laodicea itself.
This medical school was famous for two things throughout the world, ointment for the ear and ointment for the eyes.
Laodicea was so conscious of its medical skill in the care of the eyes that it never realized that it was spiritually blind. The church was part of this culture.
These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation.
This is the way that Jesus describes Himself as he speaks to the church of Laodicea.
Jesus is the Amen, the last word. He is also the First Word (“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”).
He is the Word, period. The spoken truth of all that God is, Who became flesh and dwelt among us.
He is the witness that is faithful and true in everything He says and does. Every other witness has an incomplete picture. A witness’ testimony can be accurate, but only from their perspective.
Have you ever wondered why there are 4 gospels in the beginning of the New Testament? Why not only 1? Because normally, one witness is not enough.
2 Cor 13:1 "Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses."
So we have 4, count ‘em 4 gospels, all of which tell the exact same story from different perspectives.
From that emerges the gospel, the truth of what Jesus did and said when He was here.
So Jesus is the faithful and true witness. AND, the ruler of God’s creation.
The One Who created everything out of nothing. The One who brought order out of chaos, and Who rules over all.
Consider for a moment the sheer power of creation, the energy that created the universe.
Consider that monumental task of bringing all things into being when there was nothing. Let’s have a look.
Creation Video HD: https://vimeo.com/290190430
These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation.
So the One Who speaks to the churches is the ruler of creation, the Creator of heaven and earth. And the Creator of you.
God ruled over your creation - your conception, healthy birth; your childhood.
Think for a moment of God sovereignly ruling over your life - from teenage, in your 20’s, 30’s, 40’s to now;
through all your hardships and mistakes. God faithfully created and He lovingly sustains your life.
And if you know Jesus Christ today as your Lord and Savior, you know him as the one Who has redeemed your life, and who will in no way ever drop the ball in your life, he will complete what he started, he will do what he does out of love.
Out of passionate love for you. God is the God Who starts things and carries them through until they are complete. God is the God who loves you with an everlasting love.
15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!
16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
These are strong words. Because the Laodiceans are neither cold nor hot, they have about them a kind of nauseating quality, which will make the Risen Christ vomit them out of his mouth. Vomit is the actually word in the Koine Greek.
The exact meaning of the words is interesting. Cold is ‘psuchros’ and it can mean cold to the point of freezing. Hot is ‘zestos’ and it means hot to boiling point. Tepid is ‘chliaros’.
Things that are tepid often have a nauseating effect. Hot food and cold food can both be appetizing, but tepid food will often make the stomach turn.
Close to Laodicea stood Hierapolis. It was famous for its hot mineral springs.
Often hot mineral springs are nauseating in their taste and make the person who drinks them want to be physically sick.
That is the way in which the Church at Laodicea affected the Risen Christ.
So what is Jesus sick about? The one attitude which the Risen Christ totally condemns is indifference.
You know, an author can write a good biography if he loves his subject or hates him but not if he is coldly indifferent.
Of all things indifference is the hardest to combat.
In the most recent federal election in Canada, 65% of people who could vote did vote.
That means 35% of the people who could vote didn’t care to vote.
Could the 35% have had an effect on the outcome of the vote? You bet they would.
So indifference is a serious problem that Jesus saw in the church in Laodicea.
Jesus doesn’t say what kind of indifference, what kind of lukewarmness He is concerned about.
Given His Lordship over creation, given the suffering that Jesus Himself went through to save humanity and reconcile all things to Himself, could it be the gospel itself that they Laodiceans were lukewarm about?
Maybe.
Maybe because of their wealth and privilege they were indifferent to people who were suffering, to people who were poor.
That would be a big problem because God is always close to the suffering, and He remembers the afflicted.
Let’s go on. Perhaps we’ll understand as we continue along on our passage today.
17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.
So…too much money and believing we are self-sufficient and don’t need others - we don’t need God, we don’t need a thing.
That attitude creates lukewarmness. Having everything they wanted in terms of material things led them to not being able to see what bad shape they were truly in.
It’s said that the wealth and arrogance of the Roman Empire led to the fall of the Empire.
If it can do that to an empire, it can do that to a city, to a church, to a person. What’s the antidote to lukewarmness due to abundance?
Well, it can start with thanksgiving to God Who has given the abundance.
Then it can go to sharing what you have with those who do not have.
All the while, we can realize that whatever wealth we may have doesn’t change the fact that we need God. We need Jesus. Amen?
18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
Why does Jesus mention gold, clothing and eye salve (eye ointment)?
He is speaking to them about their situation - their spiritual situation.
Their material possessions including gold, representing wealth, was making them complacent and believing the lie of self-sufficiency.
That was contributing to what made them lukewarm.
Instead, Jesus wants to give them the purest gold, refined in the fire. He is speaking of things of eternal value and spiritual significance.
18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
Likewise the source of their wealth, their industry-clothing, and their very popular medical solutions for Eye problems, salve - all these material distractions Jesus wants to stop being distractions.
Jesus is offering them the spiritual counterparts to their 3 major industries. Each item was a way to refer to genuine salvation.
Jesus tells them he will give them white clothes, a symbol of purity and holiness. Jesus tells him that he will give them his salve for their eyes, to give them true spiritual sight, true discernment and insight.
The church in Laodicea needed to “buy” salve from Jesus so that they could truly see their spiritual condition.
Such salve would destroy their self-deception and restore their spiritual vision.
Ultimately so that they might see Jesus for who he is: the one who deserves our worship. He is worthy of our passion and energy.
Church back then and church today - He is worthy. He alone is worth your worship and adoration and your time and energy to glorify His name.
It’s clear that STUFF was getting in the way for the Laodicean church.
It was making them proud and deluded into thinking they were self-sufficient and didn’t actually need God.
But Jesus wants the things He gives us to be received as the blessings that they are.
Those blessings are first a sign of His goodness, intended to go TO us to bless us and go THROUGH us to bless those around us.
So…take what you have and use it for God’s glory.
Everything you’ve been given - intelligence, emotional intelligence, giftings, abilities, even your marriage, your relationships... bring all these things to Jesus and let Him use them through you for His glory.
19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.
Put your hand up if you’re a parent. Do you or did you discipline your children?
Was that because you didn’t like your kids, or because you loved you kids.
Good parents discipline their kids because they love them and want the best for them.
God loves us and wants the best for us, SO HE DISCIPLINES US. He corrects us. He sets us on the right path, and when we veer off it, He picks us up and redirects us.
William Barclay is helpful here in pointing out that this teaching runs throughout Scripture. "I rebuke and discipline all those whom I love."
There is a very lovely thing about the way this is put.
It’s actually a quotation from Proverbs 3:12, but one word is altered.
In the Greek of the Septuagint the word for love is agapan which means the unconquerable attitude of goodwill which nothing can turn to hate; but it is a word which maybe has more of the head than the heart in it.
And then in this quotation, the Risen Christ changes agapan to philein which is the most tender affection.
We might well paraphrase it: "It is the people who are dearest to me on whom I exercise the sternest discipline."
He disciplines us because we are dear to Him.
Why? Why does God correct us? The amazing thing is that He loves us as we are, He calls us as we are to Himself, He giuves us a heart to respond to the gospel, and He accepts us into the Kingdom as we are. We can’t work for our salvation.
He adopts us through the sacrifice of Jesus, the shed blood of the Lamb of God...as we are.
No work can proceed us into the Kingdom of God. We can’t earn a thing. His salvation is a free gift.
AND...He loves us so much that He will not allow us to stay as we are. He wants to transform us. He wants us to be like HIM.
That’s in part because He wants us to be His people out and about in the community, being His likeness, doing His will, in love, with gentleness, kindness and constancy, with grace and goodness in all of our interactions.
That is how He deals with us-kindness and constancy, with grace and goodness. And that’s how He deals through us.
Someone said this: "God the great Master-builder, squares and polishes with many strokes of the chisel and hammer the stones which shall find a place at last in the walls of the heavenly Jerusalem....
It is the crushed grape, and not the untouched, from which the costly liquor distils."
There is no surer way of allowing a child to end in ruin than to allow him to do as he likes. It is a fact of life that the best athlete and the finest scholar receive the most demanding training.
The discipline of God is not something which we should resent, but something for which we should be deeply thankful”.
19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.
20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
So here is the gracious call of Jesus to the lukewarm, to the ones who have been neither hot nor cold, neither passionately FOR God and HIS Kingdom, nor strongly against it.
He stands. At the door. And knocks. (Anyone watch the Big Bang Theory - Sheldon knocks 3 times - Penny x 3)
Jesus stands and knocks. Knock x 3 Matthew. Knock x 3 ______.
Jesus is knocking. He is eager to come in.
He is eager to come in and eat with you and you with Him. This is His generous loving kindness.
Jesus knocks no matter what the condition of our house. Where are you at? Have you invited Jesus into your ‘house’, into your life?
Have you ever placed your trust in Jesus? Told Him you believe in Him, that He died for your sins.
That you trust that He gave His life so that you would have eternal life now? Have you received Him as your Lord and Saviour.
We never know the hearts of all those who join with us to worship on Sundays.
But we want to make room for perhaps the one or few who right now are ready to receive Jesus Christ.
If that’s you, I’m going to pray a prayer of faith along the lines of what I have just been talking about. So let’s make space for the one or so who may want to do that right now.
