Christ is here with us.
Suppose I wasn’t able to make it back from Seattle this morning and we decided to invite Christ to bring us the message this morning. Suppose He physically comes to speak to us. I wonder what He would say to us...
Let’s just say He would give us an indication of how committed we were to Him.
Let’s just say He had this spiritual thermometer that He could check our spiritual temperature.
Let’s just say He would check our spiritual temperature, each one of us. I wonder what He would find. I wonder...
Christ did something very similar to that to the churches we’ve been looking at in Revelation 2-3. John has been writing down what Christ has to say to each of these churches.
This morning we come to the very last of 7 churches that Christ speaks to. And I just can’t get out of my mind what He says to us today...to you & to me right here almost 2000 years later.
Let’s check it out in Revelation 3:14-21.
This is a message to a group of Christians that’s playing games with God.
They profess Christ, but He’s not a reality in their lives.
You know, I really can’t figure out why a person would want to waste their time claiming to be a Christian if they really aren’t serious about it. I mean, really!
Why waste your time if there is no reality behind your commitment? Why?
Why do you come to church every week if you are not committed to Christ?
Why bother?
Christ has some strong words to say here in verse 14.
Take a look at what He says...
1. THE INVESTIGATOR (v. 14)
Christ Himself is the Investigator.
I think it’s interesting how Christ describes Himself here.
He says, 1st of all that He is “the Amen.” Why does He do that?
He’s saying that His Word is truth. He is the truth.
He’s the way, the truth and the life, right?
He’s the truth, and what He says is true.
2nd, He describes Himself as “the faithful and true witness.”
Christ is the perfect witness because He is faithful and true.
3rd, Christ describes Himself as “the ruler of God’s creation.”
He’s the Beginning and the End. He’s qualified to evaluate us.
Before we look at His evaluation, before we see His indictment, let’s look at a little background to the city and Laodicea and the church there.
[Background to the church in Laodicea]
Remember these cities are all located in what is present day Turkey in Asia. Remember these cities are all located in what is present day Turkey in Asia.
• The church in Laodicea seemed to have everything. It was a rich city. It was a banking and financial center.
They even minted their own coins.
• It was a city of fashion. It was famous for the type of wool it developed. It was black and glossy.
• It was a center for medicine. It was famous for some eye ointment that was shipped around the world.
• It was proud and independent. An earthquake leveled the city in 60 A.D. and the people were proud that, without any help from the Roman government, they were able to rebuild the city.
• They had an interesting water supply. A 6 mile long aqueduct brought the city’s water supply from the south. It either came from the hot springs to the south or the cool wells from the north. Either way, by the time, the water got to the city, it was lukewarm. It tasted awful not only because it was lukewarm, but it had all kinds of minerals in it.
• It was a city of compromise. They really didn’t stand for anything. They learned to compromise and accommodate themselves to the needs and wants of others.
I go into that detail because it’ll become significant in what Christ says to this church.
What does He say?
What is Christ’s evaluation of this church?
2. THE INDICTMENT (vv. 15-17)
• Lukewarmness (vv. 15-16)
Pretty strong stuff, huh? Christ is saying they were like a drink that’s supposed to be hot or cold, but when you drink it, it’s neither; it’s lukewarm
On a hot day, you want to have something cold to drink.
On a cold day, something nice and hot tastes good.
Imagine if you are expecting it to be either hot or cold, but when you taste it, it’s just lukewarm. Christ is saying that lukewarmness makes Him puke!
Let’s take a closer look at these 3 spiritual conditions that Christ talks about here:
(1) Cold Ones
What does it mean to be cold, spiritually speaking? It refers to the many people in the world who are totally turned off to Christ. They want nothing to do with Him. They don’t pretend to know Christ. They are lost, unsaved, irreligious, and cold.
Now, why does Christ say He’d rather a person be cold or hot? Does He want some to stay unsaved? NO! What He’s saying here illustrates the point that it’s sometimes easier to reach a person that is cold than one who is lukewarm.
(2) Hot Ones
This refers to committed followers of Christ.
They are sold out for Christ.
They are enthusiastic about their life with Christ.
There is no doubt where they stand with Christ.
(3) Lukewarm Ones
This refers to those who profess to be Christians, but don’t really belong to Him.
They nauseate Christ, because they know the truth, claim to accept it, but really reject it by their apathy and indifference.
These people make a mockery out of Christ.
No one is further from God than the one who makes a false profession of belonging to Christ!
You see, this is Satan’s lie.
He wants you to play the religious game.
But it nauseates Christ when we play this game of being lukewarm, apathetic, and indifferent.
To the point that He wants to spit you out of His mouth!
The second indictment Christ makes on this church:
• Self-sufficiency (v. 17)
The sad thing is that these kind of people don’t even recognize their own problem.
They think they’ve got it made!
They think they don’t need God!
Listen: If we ever get to the point that we think we don’t need God, we’re in serious trouble!
Christ moves from making an indictment on these kind of people to issuing an invitation to them. He invites them (and us) to do several things...
3. THE INVITATION (vv. 18-20)
• Become rich (spiritually) (v. 18a)
You can be rich with money, but poor spiritually.
In Matthew 16:26 Christ asks what good is it if you owned the whole world, but lost your own soul.
Christ’s invitation: “Get the real thing!”
Trade your money in for something really valuable.
Trade in your money for something that will last forever.
He says to buy some gold from Him. What is that? Gold=righteousness.
How do you buy it? By faith! By giving yourself totally to Him!
• Be pure and holy (v. 18b)
Remember that Laodicea was a fashion city?
Here they thought they had all the latest clothes of the world, but Christ says they are naked! Why?
Because they didn’t have the pure clothes Christ gives.
White clothing=holiness & purity.
• Open your eyes (spiritually) (v. 18c)
Do you see what’s so ironic about this? Here these people prided themselves in having this world famous eye ointment that could help people see; yet they were blind spiritually! Christ invites them (and us) to use the real eye ointment that will open up their eyes spiritually.
• Repent! (v. 19)
If you claim to be a Christ follower, if you claim to be a Christian, yet you live no differently from those who are not following Christ, be ready to hear some words from Christ!
He wants you to change! He tells you to repent!
If you are really fooling those around you into thinking that you are a follower of Christ, when deep-down you know you’re not...
Christ has this to say to you: “REPENT!” Turn your life around!
Accept, by faith, the new life Christ offers you.
• Here I Am! (v. 20)
Christ says, “I’m here! I’m knocking!”
All you have to do is open the door (lit=”doors”)
What doors does Christ have in mind here?
(1) The Door of your Heart
Notice He’s definitely talking to individuals here. “...if anyone...”
He’s talking to you.
He’s knocking on the door of your heart.
He wants to come in.
He wants to share your life with Him.
Door=access, entrance.
Christ wants access to your life.
He wants to come into your life and eat with you, live with you. He wants to spend the night...for a lifetime.
(2) The Door of your Future
If you let Christ into your life, what happens? Christ will come in!
He will have a close relationship with you, if you let Him.
He wants to have an intimate, personal relationship with you.
But, He won’t force His way in.
The ball’s in your court.
You’ve got to take that first step and open the door and let Him in. And let Him into every part of your life.
There are no secret compartments.
No place that is “off limits” for Him.
He wants free reign of your life!
I started off this morning talking to you about your spiritual temperature...
If Christ were to take your spiritual temperature this morning, what would He find?
Would He find you cold? Hot? Lukewarm?
Why don’t you take some time to take your own temperature.
On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being cold and 5 being hot, and 3 being lukewarm, what’s your temperature?
Where would you rate yourself?
[Pause, take some time to think about it]
There’s another way to look at it. How many of you feel comfortable driving a vehicle with a stick shift?
Let’s say your life is like a stick shift this morning...
Let me ask you:
What gear are you in? Right now. This morning.
Are you in Reverse? You’re headed in the wrong direction?
Are you backing off from God?
Let me encourage you:
Change gears! Get going with your life!
Give your life totally to Christ! Let Him take over!
Maybe many of you are in Neutral.
If you’re in neutral, you’re not going anywhere, are you?
You are just idling! You can maybe coast down a hill in neutral, but that’s the only way you can move ahead, right?
Christ has some strong words for those coasting through life.
You are the lukewarm people Christ is talking to here.
What would Christ say to you if He were here physically with us this morning?
What would He say to those of us who are in neutral?
Get out of neutral!!! Get in gear!!!
Maybe some of you are in 1st gear.
Hey, that’s great, but you won’t be able to go very fast in 1st gear. If you’re stuck in 1st gear, get your speed up to move into 2nd, then 3rd, then 4th, then 5th.
There’s no telling where Christ will take you if you let Him take over.
What does Christ want from us, anyway? Nothing less than 100%!
He paid the ultimate sacrifice for you, how can you not give Him 100%? What does it involve? 100%!
Can’t I just give 90%?
What about 95%, that’s pretty good, right? No?
How about 99%? No? How about 99.9%? Isn’t that good enough?
If you think that 99.9% is enough, let me apply that same principle to other areas of our life. Is that OK with you? Guess how many documents would be lost by the I.R.S. (Internal Revenue Service)? If you applied the same standard of 99.9% to them, it would result in 2 million documents being lost every year.
Applying the principle of 99.9% being good enough to banks, 22,000 checks would be deducted from the wrong back every hour. Applying the same principle to new parents leaving the hospital, 12 babies would be given to the wrong parents every day! Applying the same principle of 99.9% being good enough to the United States Post Office would result in 18,322 pieces of mail being mishandled every hour!
It’s obvious that 99.9% isn’t even good enough by the world’s standard.
Christ wants 100% of you! He wants all of you
Listen: Our lives require us to respond and take action on the things that matter the most in life!
There’s a reason you were born into this world, on this planet, at this specific moment in history!
What would change about our world if action replaced indifference?
What would change in your life if action replaced apathy?
Christ wants you totally sold out to Him!
He wants you to be on fire for Him!
He’s knocking, He’s waiting...
