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Churches of Revelation#7 - Laodicea
March 2006 • Chris Rowney
These messages are also available as audio podcasts at www.tcfnet.org.au/podcasts
CANS OF DRINK who wants one? (or I’ve Got a coffee)
Oh – before I do that you might like to know.. the cans havn’t been in the fridge – in fact they’ve been sitting in this bucket of warm water all morning.
And the Coffee – well I bought it an hour ago or so..
Not so appetising when it is lukewarm is it.. well neither is our Christian Faith.
In one of the more graphic descriptions in Scripture, the passage we look at today has God describe the Ladicean church as so unpalatable, as neither hot nor cold but lukewarm, and so he will spew it out of his mouth!.
Lets look at what it says…
“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.
ASIDE about RULER (arche can mean beginning, can also mean first as in most important as in RULER)
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.
17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realise that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.
18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so that you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so that you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so that you can see.
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 him, and he with me.
21 To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.
22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.””
Revelation 3:14-22, NIV.
Very quick recap on idea of the seven letters.
Background to Laodicea..
Australia has a few places famous for bad quality drinking water - I’ve no idea if it is true but people have often said Adelaide is one of the few places ships won’t take on water..
Well Laodicea was a bit like that.. the nearest water was miles away and it had to be piped to the city.
You may or may not know that Romans got pretty good at plumbing, aquaducts etc – well they piped the water (actual picture of the pipes used) and by the time they got it it was luke-warm bot refreshing and worse had lots of minerals in it so probably tasted pretty foul…
Jesus picked analogies that hit close to home – when he talks of their church as being lukewarm, unpleasant to drink – they understand just what he means…
Laodicea, despite this was a rich city..
WEALTHY – famous for banking, for fine wool and for a medical school that specialised in two things, one of which was an ‘eye salve’
Again, as with the water - God knows how to bring his points home.
To a rich city, he says YOU ARE POOR
To people famous for fine clothes he says YOU ARE NAKED
To a place renowned for its eye medicine that relieves blindness he says
You are BLIND!
What would he say to us to get our attention?.. – (what’s the greatest insult to a surfer – ??)
Like a few weeks ago we have another church where the reality as God sees it is not in line with the reputation they think they have.
It’s a heavy handed rebuke – and often preachers will dwell on that and talk about how lukewarm we are, or the church is..
BUT look at this
Those I LOVE I rebuke and discipline
– Jesus LOVES this wretched, poor naked blind pitiful bunch of people
He loved them SO much that he won’t leave them as they were.
He gives them advice – counsel
BUY FROM ME the things you need
While Philadelphia had an open door standing ready before them, Laodicea has a door – and Jesus is at it – but this time he want US to open the door…
Lets unpack those ideas a bit more….
Firslty to clear up misconceptions (there are many in Revelation!) it MIGHT be that the Hot refers to people on-fire for God, and the cold to those who give God the cold shoulder and don’t care about him – and that being Lukewarm is to be mediocre – halfhearted in your Christian faith
That is certainly not a good thing to be – but I think that BOTH HOT and COLD here represent desirable things.
Like the idea of a Cold can of drink – or a Hot Cup of coffee – in different ways they are good – but neither is of any use luke warm.
Laodicea is not just mediocre not just half hearted, they are not fit for use at all.
I think the position of being self-deceived plays a big part of this – they think they are ‘Rich, have acquired wealth and don’t need a thing’ I pray that we are not deceived in that way..
So – from today’s passage we learn that God detests the ‘lukewarm’..
I doubt that the Laodicean church began as Lukewarm – I am sure in their initial stages they were Hot and Cold – they were useful and refreshing.. but why not now?
Why do cold things become lukewarm, and why do hot things end up luke warm?
It is quite simple really - The surroundings effect them!
How much we are in danger of being declared LUKEWARM depends on How much our surroundings have effected us – how much ‘the world and the pursuits of society’ where those conflict with the pursuit of our faith have contacted us and surrounded us and caused us to become like them..
The longer I leave the can of drink and coffee here, the closer they will get to ‘room temperature’ – to whatever is going on around them.
UNLESS something is being done to work against that tendency in our lives as Christians – WE WILL end up Lukewarm!.
We don’t have to put any effort into becoming luke-warm – we will just find it happening.
You know – a little ‘google’ searching can find amazing things
Here we go with CSI – TORQUAY..
FORENSIC EVIDENCE..
Determining time of death
The time of death is a critical piece of information for investigators attempting to understand the cause of suspicious deaths.
Temperature
The temperature of a body can be used to estimate time of death during the first 24 hours. Core temperature falls gradually with time since death, and depends on body mass, fat distribution and ambient temperature. If the body is discovered before the body temperature has come into equilibrium with the ambient temperature, forensic scientists can estimate the time of death by measuring core temperature of the body.
Great phrase ‘AMBIENT TEMPERATURE’ - something that is dead will end up the same temperature as what is around it!…
A long time ago I wrote down a thought in my Palm to use in a sermon – and I guess today is one of those days.
Are you a thermometer or a thermostat? A thermometer tells you the surrounding temperature – a thermostat can do something to change it!
If we are just thermometers we will becomes lukewarm
Or to use some other terms Jesus employs
Wretched – pitiful – poor – blind – naked…
HOWEVER – and this is what I always love about Jesus, about God, about what I find when I read the Bible – he doesn’t leave us in that position
We can come to him to get what we need
(But how can we afford it..) he says to BUY FROM HIM..
Buy from me gold refined in the fire, so that you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so that you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so that you can see.
well the answer s that we can buy without cost!
LOOK AT THIS GREAT VERSE FROM ISAIAH!
“1 “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
2 Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labour on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
3 Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.”
Isaiah 55:1-3, NIV.
And another in Revelation itself..
“17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.”
Revelation 22:17, NAS95.
We don’t need money – we don’t need to earn or deserve what he wants to give to us
But on the other hand it isn’t exactly free ----
We must BE EARNEST and REPENT.. I have spoken often of repenting – of making a change in our choices
What is it to be ‘earnest’ (or maybe your Bible says be ‘zealous’..) it means to be enthusiastic, to have a passion for the things of God.. and the ‘tense’ of the word suggests we keep being that way!…
- again we find that we need to take an ACTION – to open the door at which Jesus stands…
A lot of times this verse gets used in an Evangelistic appeal – to those who are unsaved we say Jesus is ‘knocking on the door of your life’ open it to let him in… But today – and I think when it was first written to a CHURCH in laodicea this was addressed not to those who weren;t believers yet – but to those who were, but had become Lukewarm..
LAST WEEK we looked at the open doors of opportunity – with only a passing mention to the use in Revelation of ‘doors’ as meaning intimacy with God.,
But today, the door is all about Intimacy.. and the promise Jesus speaks to us if we are serious about our faith.
SO HOW DO YOU OPEN THE DOOR? How do we avoid becoming Lukewarm?
First and Foremost - Prayer…
When looking at History you sometimes don’t find the whole story in one place.
In two different books that Robyn happened to be reading in the past week.. there is a story that demonstrates the danger of losing our first love (like Ephesus) and of becoming lukewarm, (like Laodicea) but then reveal how to Open the door to Jesus..
On Holiday I bought a 2nd hand book about the missionary efforts of .Gospel Recordings’..
Page 142 of lost for words…
In the 1950s…. two missionaries came asking for records in the Enga language, they weren’t made yet, so they promised to post them after they arrived in PNG. They took a wind up record player, and some marching band records..
This is their story…
That is a great story.. but we cannot leave it there.
Another small book on prayer mentions the same people group, picks up the thread of the ‘ENGA church twenty years later..
They had ended up at ‘room temperature’ even after such a dramatic beginning. BUT opening the door to intimacy with Jesus brought restoration and Revival.
Step one to being a thermostat – PRAY
Jesus says if anyone ‘hears my voice’ he is talking to us! And at its most basic, prayer is just that,, talking with God.. if you think you hear him challenging you to more – then open the door by talking back.
Come to ME Jesus says.
The Laodiceans thought they didn’t need to go to ANYONE – they already had it all.
Acknowledge our need – a thermometer is self contained – it doesn’t need anything – the mercury just responds to the room..
BUT a thermostat must be connected to some POWER!
“5 apart from me you can do nothing.”
John 15:5, NIV.
Acknowledge our need - come to JESUS
Be prepared for fire – don’t expect everything to be easy
Be open to change – New clothes! A departure from sin.
Be prepared to see – a new vision – see with new eyes first yourself, then the situation around you –
The second MAIN challenge I want to give you for this year is another ‘3’
You may remember 3 months ago my challenge to everyone of you to invite
one person to 3 things
Your home, a church tea, and a church service
Well the second 3 is this.
Spend 3 minutes a day praying, at least for the next 3 months!
Not much of a challenge – well try it – learn the Lord’s prayer if you don’t know anything else to pray – if you can get to a church prayer meeting (Sunday nights 7pm, Sunday 9:30 before the service) then great – or meet with a friend – but maybe you can pray when you are putting on your shoes – or cleaning your teeth - find a time just 3 minutes
If you pray already great – try to add 3 more – but if your prayers are random and irregular – then just start with 3 minutes of focussed ‘Earnest remember’ prayer..
So to close today lets pray the Lord’s prayer together –
Our Father in heaven,
Honoured be your name.
Your Kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours.
Now and for ever. Amen
