The sun showed them no mercy. Directly overhead, it blazed and beat down on them. They were tired and hungry and very thirsty, so the sight of a well … even a Samaritan well … was a more-than-welcome sight. Jesus and the Disciples didn’t have a jar or a bucket with them, so they had no way to draw water out of the well to slake their thirst. Can you imagine being that thirsty and that close to water but you can’t reach it? So, Jesus sends His disciples into the nearby town of Sychar for food, while He sits down by the well and waits for someone from the town with a jar or a bucket to get water from the well. There’s not much chance of that because most people collect their daily supply of water early in the morning to avoid the mid-day heat. But Jesus knows that His Father will provide … and sure enough, a woman comes walking from the village towards the well carrying a water jar.
She slows down and eyes Him suspiciously. He’s clearly not a local or anyone she’s ever seen before. When she’s within earshot, the stranger asks her if she can give Him a drink of water from the well. “What?” she balks. “You want me, a Samaritan woman to give you, a Jew, water from our well?” “Woman,” Jesus calmly explains, “if you knew the generosity of God and you knew who I am, you would be asking ME for a drink … and I would give your fresh, living water.”
“How?” she asks. “You’re asking me for a drink of water because you don’t even have a jar or a bucket of your own to draw water out of the well. How can you, on one hand, ask me for water and, at the same time, say that I should ask you for water? This is the only well around. Do you plan on doing like our ancestor, Jacob, and dig us a new well?”
Jesus smiles because He knows that she doesn’t understand. He explains to her: “Everyone who drinks the water from this well will get thirsty again and again and again. You’re here to get water today and you’ll probably be back here tomorrow or the day after tomorrow to get more. But … I’m not offering you the kind of water that you find in this well. Nobody can provide you with the kind of water that I’m talking about. You see, if you drink the water that I am offering to you, you will never be thirsty again … not ever.”
“Never thirst again? Sir, give me some of that water so that I don’t have to be thirsty ever again and then I won’t have to keep coming here during the hottest part of day to avoid the sneers and stares of the townspeople” (paraphrased from John 4:4-16).
Water. So important to life … literally more important than food. An average person can last between 30 to 40 days without food but only three to four days without water. Jesus was trying to help the woman at the well understand that her “spirit” … her “soul” needs spiritual water… spiritual water that only He can provide … just as much as her physical body needs physical water.
As I’ve mentioned in the recent past, we tend to turn a jaundiced eye to the Romans because of their treatment of our spiritual ancestors but their innovations changed the world. For example, their development and skillful use of “aqueducts” made it possible for cities like Laodicea to exist without a natural source of water nearby. Laodicea was one of three sister cities in the valley of the Lycus River. Colossae was famous for its many springs. Hierapolis was know for its hot mineral springs … and Laodicea was located at the intersection of the North-South Highway connecting Pergamum and Attalia and the East-West Highway connecting Antioch and Ephesus … which made it an important and very prosperous trading center in Asia Minor … or the region that we know today as Turkey and Syria.
The city of Laodicea was founded in the third century BC by the Seleucid or Greek King Antiochus II, who named the city after his wife, Laodice. How’s that for a Valentine’s Day present, huh? Under Roman rule, Laodicea became one of the wealthiest cities in the world. At the time that Jesus had John write these letters, Laodicea was a powerful commercial and banking center. Just as Thyatira was famous for its purple cloth, Laodicea was famous for its fabric made out of black wool. What really made Laodicea so important and so well-known was its medicines. The main Roman temple in Laodicea was dedicated to Asclepius, whom they believed was the god of healing. One medicine, for example, was “Tefera fragia” or “Phrygian powder.” In a time and place where eye ailments were common, “Tefera fragia” was used to cure a wide range of eye ailments. It came in tablet form and you crushed it up, mixed it up with a small amount of water, and put it on your eye and hopefully it would cure the particular eye ailment that you had. I guess they had “Big Pharma” even in John’s day, amen? Needless to say, “Tefera fragia” was one of the many things that made Laodicea a very, very wealthy city.
What good is money, however, if you don’t have water to drink, amen? Laodicea may have had tons and tons of money but they didn’t have a natural supply of water … which meant that all of their water had to be “aqueducted” or “piped in,” so to speak, from Laodicea’s sister cities of Hierapolis and Colossae. Water that came from the springs in Colossae may have started out cold, but by the time it reached Laodicea it had become “tepid” … “chliaro” (key-lar-o) in Greek. As you know, “tepid” means “lukewarm” … neither hot nor cold. The water from Hierapolis came from hot springs. The water from Hierapolis may have started out hot but it would cool down to “chliaro” … or “tepid” … by the time it reached Laodicea. Not only was it tepid or lukewarm, but it was also full of minerals which, if you’ve ever had to drink “hard” water, you know that it doesn’t taste very good … or it’s a taste that you have to get used to. So, the citizens of the wealthy and prosperous city of Laodicea had everything they needed for a comfortable lifestyle … except for good, clean, refreshing water. Hummm …
“I know your works,” Jesus says to the Christians in Laodicea. “You are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are ‘chliaro’ … because you are tepid, lukewarm … I am about to spit you out of my mouth (paraphrasing of Revelation 3:15-16). Now, this is my “pay-close-attention-to-the-words” moment of the sermon. When Jesus was speaking to the woman at the well, was He speaking about the kind of water that comes out of a well or a faucet? Or was He talking about something else? When Jesus accuses the Laodicean Christians of being “chliaro,” did you notice that Jesus never used the word “water” or refer to “water” anywhere in His letter to the church in Laodicea? So, what is Jesus talking about? Well … let’s find out, shall we?
How do you make a hot cup of coffee lukewarm? All you have to do is … nothing. Just let is sit long enough and wait and it will become tepid, lukewarm, right? How do you make iced tea tepid? Again, all you have to do is … nothing. Just let is sit there and it will eventually warm up to room temperature, right? In order for water to become hot or cold, you have to do something to it to make it hot or cold, amen? If you want it to be chliaro … lukewarm … you don’t have to do anything … just let nature and physics take its course.
How do you make a church chliaro? That’s right! You don’t have to do anything. Becoming a tepid or lukewarm church doesn’t take any effort at all … none. All we have to do is sit in the pews, sing the same old hymns, hear the same old sermons over and over again, and guess what? Eventually you’ll end up with a tepid church full of lukewarm Christians.
I doubt that the Laodicean church started out “chliaro” … tepid … lukewarm, do you? So what happened? “For you say,” Jesus writes in verse 17, “I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.” The city of Laodicea was so wealthy that when it was devastated by an earthquake in 60 AD, they didn’t need any financial relief or help from Rome. Wow! Wealth and self-sufficiency can breed arrogance, however. Their wealth gave them a sense of security and made the Laodiceans feel like they were in control. Jesus says, “Not so! You are not in control at all. I am the origin of God’s creation. I am the source of all you have. Everything that you have originated ultimately with me.” We sometimes think that we’re self-made men and self-made women, don’t we? But we, as Christians, how that that’s foolish. We know that everything that we have is from God, amen? “For every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning,” says the Apostle James (James 1:17).
Their wealth and their self-sufficiency led the Laodiceans to believe that they were invincible … that they didn’t need God. Wealth can be a great tool in the hands of pious, humble people but it can also be an insidious spiritual distraction that can lead to spiritual blindness. Laodicea was a wealthy banking city that had squeezed the church into its own mold. The spirit of the marketplace had crept into the values that were part of the church. They said they were rich … but Jesus said that they were poor and pitiable. They said that they had need of nothing … Jesus said that they were blind and wretched. They thought that they were prosperous … Jesus said that they were naked.
In his commentary on the Book of Revelation, author Leonard Thompson said:
“The church at Laodicea, with her unconscious need, was lulled into false contentment by their temporal sufficiency. Spiritually they were in a wretched state but they didn’t realize it. Without the real joy of the Lord they were miserable in spite of their temporal wealth. They were poor because they were without any real and eternal possessions. And they lacked the eyes of faith that could ascertain the true riches which endure forever. They were blind to the things which could only be seen by spiritual sight and they were naked of any spiritual clothing, the righteousness that comes from God, even though they were clothed with rich garments of the world such as silk and wool” (Abingdon New Testament Commentary – Revelation; 2011; Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press.)
Think about that for a moment. The Laodiceans were wealthy … famous for banking … and yet Jesus says that the Laodicean Christians were poor. The Laodicean Christians lived in a city famous for its wool and cloth… and yet Jesus says they were naked. The Laodicean Christians lived in a city that produced a potent medicine for the eye … and yet Jesus says that they were blind.
If you want to see what the Laodicean church was like … just look to the condition of the church in Europe today. I’ve traveled a bit around Europe. I even have friends there. I’ve stayed in their houses, ate at their tables, gotten to know them. Like most Europeans, they are good, descent, hard-working, well-mannered people … who see no need of church or Christ in their lives. In a land where magnificent cathedrals usually dominate the center of town, most Europeans only set foot in a church four or five times in their lives … when they get baptized or Christened as children, which they do more out of ritual or rite of passage than they do for any religiously or heart-felt reason … when they get married … again, more of a ritual since they consider the “real wedding” the “legal” one performed by the state or government at city hall … and when they die. They will also go to church for their friends’ weddings or when other members of their family or friends have their children christened and, of course, funerals … but sadly, that’s about it. And here’s a sad and telling statistic: Muslim mosques are going up at twice the rate that Christian churches are being closed down.
Christianity has all but disappeared in Europe and has almost no noticeable influence on the lives of most Europeans. When I invited my friends in Belgium to go to church with me, they were polite and tried not to show their annoyance but they made it pretty clear that I could go if I wanted to but they were in no way interested in going with me. This is what happens when a church forgets what its purpose is and loses its vision. It becomes an empty ritual, a symbol of a past that no longer exists, and offers little to no guidance and comfort in the lives of the people.
I don’t know if you know what’s going on in the church at large these days but the situation at the church in Laodicea is an apt description of what we’re becoming … and that should break the heart of anyone who loves the church and loves Christ. Christ is barely mentioned in some churches. Oh … there may be a reference to Jesus or to something He said but most sermons really amount to a pep talk or a motivational speech. I won’t mention any particular television ministry but there is a famous “preacher” … I put that in air quotes … who preached for years before anyone noticed that he rarely, if ever, quoted scripture. He now makes sure that he quotes at least one or two scriptures during his sermon. Pull me from the pulpit if I ever do that, my brothers and sisters. Seriously. Christ is the heart and soul of the Church … period. If not, the Church has no heart and soul as far as I am concerned.
Jesus is trying to tell the Christians in Laodicea that He needs to be at the center of their lives and their community if they hope to survive and do the work that Jesus has called them to do in their corner of Asia Minor. “Listen!” He writes. “Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking” (Revelation 3:20).
Now, here’s the thing. Over the centuries that passage has been treated as a way to evangelize non-believers. “Listen, my friend, Jesus is knocking at the door of your heart and you need to answer.” But who is Jesus really talking to in His letter to the Christian community in Laodicea? He’s not talking to a bunch of non-believers or un-saved pagans. He’s talking to a community of believers who were once on fire for Him … who did the work of spreading the Gospel with joy and enthusiasm … but whose hearts had grown lukewarm over the years and Christ, who was once the Power and Presence in the center of their lives and their community, was becoming more and more of an after-thought.
Think about the image of Jesus having to knock at the door of the church for a moment. Picture it in your mind … Jesus standing OUTSIDE the church knocking and asking to be let in. That image should break your heart. Where is Jesus in relation to the community in Laodicea? He’s outside and the door is shut. He has to knock and ask to be let in. I mean, that’s a tragic picture, don’t you think? According to the Book of Revelation, this will be the condition of the church in the last days. Sadly, Jesus Christ will not be a part of His Church. He will not be in the middle, as He should be, but outside … knocking on the door … asking to be let in … trying to reach out and save the Church before it’s too late and the Church’s heart grows cold and stops beating altogether. In the beginning, Jesus called His Disciple to come and follow Him. In the end, He has to comes to us and stand outside the door of a church that professes to know Him and knock, asking to be let into a community that bears His very name! “When the Son of Man comes,” Jesus once asked His Disciples, “will He find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8). If He were come to our church today, what would the answer be?
In 1854, William Holman Hunt painted a famous portrait of Revelation 3:20 called “The Light of the World.” It is a painting of Jesus standing outside of what appears to be the door of a run-down cottage. Thistles have grown up around the door. If you look at the grass leading up to the door, it has grown over the path. Vines and weeds fill the lower edge, top, and right-hand side of the painting.
There stands Jesus, the Light of the World, holding a lantern in His hand casting light into the darkness of the world that surrounds the cottage. “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (John 1:5). With His other hand, the Savior is knocking at the door … waiting to bring the light … His light … into the darkness of the poor soul or souls inside … suggesting that Jesus stands outside of our hearts and knocks, waiting to be invited to bring His light inside.
On one occasion, a man went to visit the artist and complained that the artist had made a mistake … Hunt had forgotten to paint a handle on the door. “No,” Hunt explained, “I did that on purpose. There is no handle on the outside because the person on the inside has to be the one to open the door.”
On the one hand, what a tragic picture Jesus paints. Standing outside the door, knocking and asking to be let in to a church that has kicked Him out … out of its center … out of its message … out of its programs … out of its ordinances … out of their hearts. And yet, on the other hand, what a powerful picture of hope! Jesus is standing at the door ... knocking and asking to be let in because He has not and will not give up on this church! He knocks because He wants back in, hallelujah! When we stop knocking at His door, He comes and starts knocking on our door. The Christian community in Laodicea might be “chliaro” … tepid … lukewarm … but Jesus is not!
Now … on the surface, verses 15 and 16 can come across as judgmental and not loving at all. “I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm,” says Jesus, “I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” Some translations say “vomit.” What you need to hear in this passage is the intensity of Jesus’ passion. Think about it. Jesus is accusing the Christian community in Laodicea of being “chliaro” … of being lukewarm … but He says it with great passion, doesn’t He? His reaction to their lack of passion is to react violently and spit them out. He is not passive about them. He is not passive about their lack of enthusiasm … He is passionate about their lack of heart. Their lack of love and zeal breaks His heart, so He lights His lantern and goes off into the darkness in search of His lost sheep and when He finds them, He stands at the door of their heart and knocks.
One of the central themes of the Book of Revelation is that God will never, ever give up on us even though we may give up on Him. “I reprove and discipline those whom I love,” says Jesus in verse 19. “Be earnest, therefore, and repent. Stop walking away from me. I have come for you and all you have to do is come and answer the door and I will come in.”
It’s pretty impossible to just stand aside and do nothing when someone you love is headed down a sure path of destruction, amen? It sickens you. It sickens your heart and you’ll do anything and everything you can … shout, holler, cry, bribe, punish, get on your knees and beg … to let them know that you’re not just going to stand there and do nothing and watch them destroy themselves. What Jesus is saying in verse 19 is that He chastens and disciplines His children in Laodicea because He loves them too much to just stand there and watch them slowly fade away and die.
And Jesus feels the same way about you and about me and about His churches. God loves us loves us just the way we are … but He also loves us so much that He just can’t leave us the way that we are, understand? He wants us to get past where we are so that we can get to the place where we ought to be … where He wants us to be. As Bible commentator James Hamilton explains it: “Jesus loves you and wants you to be righteous … so He confronts you in your unrighteousness. If Jesus did not call His people to repentance, He would be sending them a message. Do you know what that message would be?” Hamilton asks. “The message would be: ‘Go to Hell’” (Revelation: The Spirit Speaks to the Churches. 2012. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Pub.)
Jesus’ letter shows that He hasn’t given up on the Christian community in Laodicea … that He doesn’t want them to go to Hell. He wrote it because He loved this poor, wretched, blind, naked, pitiful bunch of people. He loved them so much that He rebuked them … He chastened them … rather than let them blindly go on to their self-destruction and eternal damnation.
The Greek word that Jesus used for “rebuke” or “reprove” describes a process that involves pointing out a problem and convincing someone to do something about it. The Greek word that He uses for “chasten” or “discipline” refers to a process of “correction” or “punishment” that is done to get an individual to stop doing the wrong thing and start doing the right thing … to train them up in the right way to go and to grow. In other words … to get them to … say it with me … “repent!” “A zeal or eagerness to get right with God must replace the lukewarm spirituality that characterized the church,” says author Grant Osbourne, “and the zeal will be seen in repentance” (Revelation – Verse by Verse. 2016. Bellingham, WA: FaithLife Corp.).
Jesus is calling the community in Laodicea to repent … to turn from what to what? To turn from the world and from their self-sufficiency and back to Him, who will provide them with what they really need. The Laodiceans apparently had plenty of money … enough to rebuild the city after it had been destroyed by an earthquake. That was pretty impressive, amen? In a town full of banks and bankers, Jesus speaks to them in a language that they can understand. “For you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.’ … Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich.” (Revelation 3:17-18). Gold that has been refined by fire is pure gold. It stands for the kind of righteous character that has been proven genuine through testing … you know, through rebuke, reproof, chastening, and discipline. Only Jesus can take a self-righteous person and make them truly holy … pure, set apart for His purpose and not the world’s. The Laodiceans already had lots of wealth and could buy most, if not all, of the things that they needed or wanted … but all the money in all of their banks couldn’t buy them what they really needed. What they really needed could only be bought with spiritual gold … and only Jesus had the kind of pure, refined spiritual gold that they needed to get the spiritual things that they must have in order to fill their hearts, satisfy their spiritual needs, and cover their spiritual nakedness. The Laodiceans needed to put their trust and faith in Jesus and not in their banks … a tough challenge for a city and community that was full of bankers and merchants and investors, amen?
Jesus was not condemning them for their wealth but pointing out that their wealth and their false sense of self-sufficiency was blinding them to their spiritual needs. “Therefore,” says Jesus, “I counsel you to buy from me … white robes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen” (Revelation 3:18). What a stark contrast … the Christians wearing white robes in a town that had a financially successful reputation for manufacturing black woolen cloth. Again, think about it. What is the advantage of black cloth? It hides dirt and stains, amen? Jesus was offering them the same white robes of righteousness that He offered the Sardians, whose clothes were soiled. Like the Christians in Sardis, Jesus promised the Christians in Laodicea that if they conquered they would walk with Him, dressed in white, for they, like the Sardians, would be worthy (Revelation 3:4).
For those who manufactured “Phrygian powder” or “Tefera fragia,” Jesus offered to sell them salve to anoint their eyes so that they could see (Revelation 3:18). The tablets or powder that the Laodiceans produced could cure a wide range of eye ailments and, in some cases, even prevent blindness but could not cure or prevent the Laodiceans’ blindness. Jesus was the only source of ointment or powder that the Laodiceans needed to cure their spiritual blindness. And here’s the beautiful part. Once they received Jesus’ ointment and they could once again see … they would see the truth of their situation … they would see the path of destruction that they were on … they would see Jesus … they would see how far they had strayed from Him … and they would repent. In the words of John Newton, “I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see” (United Methodist Hymnal, #378).
So many Christians today have forgotten what it’s like to have spiritual insight. Instead of looking at the world or their problems through the lens of God’s Word, they do like the rest of the world and seek insight and wisdom from the internet, Facebook, or the pundits on TV. Some of us have not seen things through our spiritual lenses or our spiritual senses for so long that I doubt we would know a spiritual truth if it came and knocked on our front door, amen? Look around you. Without our spiritual glasses we can mistake evil for good and good for evil, amen?
“Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door,” says Jesus, “I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me” (Revelation 3:20). Again, it is Jesus who will provide the food. “Come,” says God. “Come all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy. Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good” (Isaiah 55:1-2).
“To the one who conquers,” says Jesus, “I will give a place with me on my throne, just as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on His throne” (Revelation 3:21). How can we conquer if we are distracted, if we blindly pursue our own desires and ambitions, if we chase after hollow things that we think will make us happy? How can we take our seat next to Jesus if we’re perched on the thrones of our own self-sufficiency? How can we expect to be with Him in eternity if we make Him stand outside and knock in the here and now, amen?
You all have taught me that strangers go to the front door but friends go around to the backdoor. Is Jesus a stranger knocking at your front door or is He a friend who is welcome to come in the backdoor and make Himself at home because He is home? Are we earnest … are we zealous … are we enthusiastic … or are we “chliaro” … tepid … lukewarm … when Jesus knocks on the door of our heart? Imagine inviting in the “Amen, the faithful and true witness, the origin of God’s creation” (Revelation 3:14) to come into your home … to come into our church … to dine with us on spiritual food and teach us spiritual truths.
Where is Jesus in your life? Where is Jesus in the life of this church? Is He standing outside, knocking, asking to be let in? Or is He in the center of your heart? Is He the “Amen” of our church? How can you tell? How can we tell? Simple. By taking our temperature. Are we “chliaro” … tepid … lukewarm … or are we on fire … brimming over with zeal and enthusiasm? If not, then we need to pray to Jesus to give us the ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to us and to our churches. In fact, let’s bow our heads and open our hearts and our church right now to what Jesus may be trying to say to us …
Lord Jesus … the Amen, our faithful and true witness, the origin of God’s Creation:
We are sick and tired of being only halfway in our faith. We don’t want our faith to be “chliaro” … to be weak and tepid. We don’t want our love for You to be lukewarm. If we are enthusiastic, make us more excited, more enthusiastic. If we are filled with zeal, make us overflow with zeal. If we are only “chliaro” … lukewarm … then we ask You to help us to be all in with everything we’ve got … to give You everything … heart, mind, and soul. If we are on fire, may we burn even brighter. If we are about to flame out, blow on the embers of our love and set us on fire again! We want to be cups of cool, refreshing water for the people in our lives
.
When You knock … be it at the door of our church or the doors of our hearts … forgive us for having locked You outside. If that’s the case, we are asking You to come inside now. Sit down … and share a heartfelt meal with us. May the doors of our hearts, may the doors of our homes, may the doors of our churches always be open to You. Please open what only You can open … our hearts … and keep them open.
In the name of Jesus, the Amen, our true and faithful witness, we pray … and would you join with me in asking God to make it so by enthusiastically saying … amen … and amen!
