Trinity Baptist Church

The Right Kind of Church

Laodicea: An On-Fire Church

Revelation 3:14-22

 

For the last several weeks we’ve been opening the mail of the seven churches of Asia Minor to see what the Lord says about being the right kind of church. The letters the Lord sent them by way of the Apostle John are found in Revelation 2 and 3.

 

Not only are those actual historic letters sent to real churches of the first century, they also have the address of modern New Testament churches on them as well because the same things that received approval and criticism from the Lord back then are still true today.

 

I also think it important to remember these letters have our address as individual believers on the envelope.  In fact, every letter ends with the same instruction: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”.

 

So we listen as the body of Christ, we listen as individual, local New Testament churches and we listen as individuals with the body, functioning in the local church to hear what Jesus says to us. 

 

Today we come to the final letter.  It was written to the church in a place called Laodicea. As we’ve seen with some of the others, many of these churches tend to reflect the atmosphere of the city where they are located.  That was certainly true of the church of Laodicea.  The city of Laodicea was the chief city of Phrygia.  It was about 45 miles southeast of the city of Philadelphia.

 

The city was known for a three things in particular.  Laodicea was a banking center.  It was a very wealthy place.  The city was adorned with lavish, public facilities that reflected their opulence and affluence.   

 

From that developed a sense of self-sufficiency.  In A.D. 17 when an earthquake destroyed the city of Laodicea, they were so very proud that they refused to accept any help from outside sources. In their estimation, they didn’t need anything from man or from God.

 

It was also a clothing center.  They were known for breeding a particular type of sheep that had very beautiful raven black wool and that wool was used to make beautiful garments. So the people there were well dressed.  They were a wealthy, affluent, self-sufficient people who let it be known, even in the way they dressed.  

 

And thirdly, there was also a medical school in the city of Laodicea that had a famous ophthalmologist who practiced there. He had developed an eye treatment that was made from Phrygian stone mixed with olive oil or water to form a salve and many came to Laodicea seeking treatment for eye problems.

 

So here was a city that was known in many ways for its affluence and health and finery. They concentrated on health and prosperity and living the good life.  It would have been a good place to live and raise your family and in this city, God had placed a church.

 

We don’t know how it got there.  We don’t know if Paul planted it or ever visited it.  If he did, he never recorded it.  But apparently, he was very concerned about it since he mentions this church four different times in his letter to the Colossians.

 

Apparently, somewhere along the way, something got off track with this church.  In this letter, we do not find one word of approval or commendation.  All of the others had at least one general commendation, or a group of whom the Lord approves.  It might be for their labor or intolerance of evil or faithfulness or love or patience, service or purity, but the Lord finds something positive to say.

 

But to the Laodiceans, the mouth of Jesus is absolutely silent when it comes to finding something good to say about them. And yet they were  the church of all of the seven that had more opportunity, more money and prestige and influence  than any of them.  They had everything going for them, and yet there is no commendation at all.

 

And I want to you to notice how the Lord introduces Himself to this congregation who had grown powerless and tepid.

 

Verse 14

 

He calls Himself the Amen.  In the Old Testament that is a reference to God Himself.  Jesus Christ is ascribing deity to Himself.  He is the Amen.

 

Then He calls Himself the Faithful and True.  That speaks of His stability.  Aren't you glad that Jesus Christ is faithful to us?  Aren't you glad that Jesus Christ never cools off in His commitment to us?

 He is the faithful one.  He is the true one.  He does not dilute.  He does not dissipate truth.  Every promise, He keeps.  Every judgment He pronounces, He brings.  Jesus Christ is the Faithful and True.

 

He is also, according to this statement, the beginning of the creation of God.  That does not mean that Jesus was the first thing God created or that He was a created being at all.  It means that Jesus Himself is the source and the origin of creation. He is where it all began.

 

John 1, verse 3, says, "All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made."  In other words, everything exists because of His creation.  Everything grows because of His permission.  He is the origin.  He is the source of all creation.

 

So Jesus is saying, “The Amen, the true and faithful Witness, the beginning of all the creation of God has this to say to you.”

 

Now what did that mean to the Laodiceans?  Here was a people who were really impressed with themselves.  They had power and position and money and affluence and right off the bat Jesus says, “I want you to understand Who I am.  You don’t have anything I didn’t create.

 

You don’t possess anything I didn’t loan to you.  So everything you have that you’re bragging about, you have only because I let you hold it for a little while.  And you need to understand I’ve got some news for you.”

 

Then He offers them

 

verses 15-17

 

The complaint of the church of Laodicea is two-fold.

 

First of all He complains about their spiritual indifference. 

 

verse 15

 

If there is one word used to describe this church that stands out more than any other it is the word “lukewarm”.  And from that one-word description we discover the right kind of church is not lukewarm, but instead it is to be on fire.

 

I remember hearing the story several years ago about a church that caught on fire, and as the preacher stood there watching the building go up in flames, he noticed the town drunk standing there beside him.

 

And it kind of aggravated the preacher that the old boy would come to watch it burn although he never attended.  He finally turned to this guy and said,, “Why would you come to watch tonight when you’ve never bothered to come before?”  The drunk said, “It’s the first time I’ve ever seen the church on fire!”

 

I don’t know if the church at Laodicea was ever on fire or not, but when the Lord sent this letter to them, I can assure you they were not.  They are described as being “lukewarm”.  They weren’t hot.  There was no real commitment to the things of God.  They were not totally involved for God.

 

But at the same time, they weren’t cold.  They hadn’t walked away from God or turned the other direction.  Instead, they were lukewarm.  They had the appearance.  All the doctrine was in place.  The organization operated smoothly.  But they were tepid and complacent.  Comfortable would describe them.  The picture is of those who’ve settled in to a lifestyle that is non-confrontational and causes no disturbances.

 

And I would suggest there is nothing more miserable in the world than sheer mediocrity and that was the problem of the church in Laodicea.  Jesus is saying basically that the church of Laodicea was kind of an in-the-middle kind of church.  They weren't totally cold, but they weren't on fire.  They were lukewarm, a tepid church.

 

There's an interesting background to the city of Laodicea that comes to bear on this church.  Laodicea was one of three cities in a tri-city area with Colossae and Hierapolis being the other two.

 

Those cities had an interesting situation concerning their water supply.  Colossae was known for its cold water.  There was cold water springs there.

 

On the other hand, Hierapolis was known for its hot springs.  People would come to those hot springs because they had healing powers to them.

 

The city of Laodicea was in between and had no water supply, and so what they had to do was build aqueducts from the two.  They brought cold water down from Colossae and hot water up from Hierapolis and by the time those waters got to the city of Laodicea, they were lukewarm.

And in addition to the temperature, the water was hardly fir to drink with a horrible taste.

 

And what the people of Laodicea experienced every day with their water supply was what Jesus uses to illustrate the spiritual condition of the church.

 

Here was a church and it had no emotion.  It had no enthusiasm.  It had no passion.  They believed in the cross, but they were not moved by it.  They believed that people were lost and needed Jesus Christ, but their hearts were not stirred and broken because of it.  They were indifferent. They were lukewarm.

 

It's like the little girl in Sunday School.  The memory verse for that day was, "Many are called, but few are chosen."  She got it a little mixed up and she repeated it this way, "Many are cold, but a few are frozen."  There are some churches like that.

 

I'm speaking to some Christian today who is not totally cold but you're not on fire for the Lord.  You're a lukewarm, callused, indifferent Christian.  The Lord Jesus Christ has a word to speak to us.  He doesn't want us to be lukewarm.  Jesus wants us to be on fire for Him.  .

 

Then in verse 16 we find that graphic reference to being spewed from the mouth of Jesus. In fact, the original word in the Greek is much more graphic than spewing or spitting.  The Lord Jesus Christ is saying you're neither cold nor hot, you're lukewarm and it causes me to want to vomit you out of my mouth.  It is a word that pictures extreme disgust.  It is a word that pictures distaste and a violent reaction.

 

 

This is extremely strong language from our Lord Jesus says, "You are neither cold nor hot.  You are indifferent.  I will vomit you, I will spew you out of my mouth."  Jesus is saying that a lukewarm church makes Him sick.  The last thing we want to be is a church that makes Jesus Christ sick.

 

He talks about their indifference.  Why is an indifferent church, a lukewarm church, so distasteful to Jesus?  Isn’t it interesting that Jesus would rather a church be cold as to be lukewarm?

 

It seems to me a little bit of warmth would be better than no warmth at all, but that’s not what Jesus says.  Why is it worse to be lukewarm?

 

I think it’s because the guy who is lukewarm is just warm enough to be satisfied and a church or a Christian that is lukewarm is hard to do much with.  You can preach and they will just sit there and say, "Uh huh."  You can talk about inviting people to church and they say, "Ho hum."  You can talk about lost people dying and going to hell and it doesn't stir them and it doesn't move them.

 

They can sit in church and have an appearance of holiness but Jesus says, “You make me sick because I can’t do anything with you or for you.  I wish you would get cold enough to seek the heat or hot enough to burn for the Lord instead of just sitting there so miserably mediocre.”

 

In fact, if I had to choose between a church that was too emotional or too formal, give me the emotional.  I can tone down a fanatic a lot quicker than I can warm up a corpse!

 

Think about what a lukewarm church or Christian says about the Lord.  Maybe the reason Jesus is so sick to His stomach is because of the way He’s being misrepresented in the world.  Jesus Christ was a man with a burning passion in His heart.  He was on fire and it carried Him all the way to the cross of Calvary.

 

The disciples were men on fire.  The early church was a church on fire.  God wants our church to be an on fire church.  Don't be an indifferent, unconcerned church or Christian.  Jesus was complaining about their spiritual indifference.

 

Then He talks about their spiritual ignorance.

 

verse 17

 

Here we discover their true condition.  And notice the phrase at the beginning of verse 17, “you say”.

 

Here’s what they thought about themselves.  They thought they were in good shape. They didn’t need anything.  I think that's four of the most amazing words in all of the Bible to me. Here is a church that said we don't need anything.

 

Would a church ever get to the point that it felt like it didn't need anything from Jesus?  Would a Christian ever get to the point that he or she would say, "I've arrived spiritually.  I don't need to get closer to the Lord.  I don't need more of the presence of Jesus.  I don't need more of the power of Jesus Christ."

 

This one did.  The Lord said so.

 

Somewhere along the line they lost their spiritual discernment.  They could no longer tell true from fiction.  You can get to the point that you are so spiritually ignorant that you don't even know what you need.

 

He said, "You don't know that you are wretched," which means to be oppressed with a burden.  "You are miserable," which means to be pitied.  He talks about them being poor.  That means they were living in spiritual poverty.  And they were blind, groping in the dark.  .  He's saying that you are blind.  He's talking about spiritual blindness.  "And naked."

 

Remember, they were living in the lap of luxury.  There they say in beautiful garments to cover them physically, but no righteousness to cover them spiritually.

 

And Jeuss steps on the scent to say, “Contrary to public opinion that says you need nothing, you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked.  dAnd because of your spiritual ignorance, it is so hard to minister to you because you’ve got it all and you’ve capped it off with a little Sunday morning religion.  But would to God you would wake up to the true condition of your life!

 

Then he offer them 

 

 

verse 18

 

The Lord is giving them a way out of this mess and He offers them three things that are very interesting.

 

First of all He says, "Buy of me gold tried in the fire."

 

Now at first blush, that doesn’t sound right.  After all, salvation is all of grace and all free and can’t be bought, and yet Jesus says, “My counsel is for you to buy the gold and clothing that I offer.”

 

I want you to understand something:  I hear people say all the time that salvation is free but that’s not true.  Salvation is extremely expensive.  The forgiveness of your sin and mine cost Him everything Heaven had to offer.  That means our salvation literally bankrupt heaven and that is neither cheap nor free.  Never forget that salvation cost God everything.

 

Salvation is not free from our standpoint either.  It will cost you something to follow Jesus. In fact, it will cost you everything!  It doesn’t cost in that it requires works for you to do to earn it or a price that you can’t afford but must pay.  But it will cost you repentance of your sin.  It will cost you the surrender of your life to Jesus.  It will cost you by requiring you turn your back of the world.

 

And they only way we’ll ever know life and salvation is to say, “Lord Jesus, with the purchase price of my total surrender to you, I give myself to you and ask you to let Jesus come in and be my Savior.

 

Now remember, they were proud of their banking industry and their wealth.  And Jesus is saying to this complacent, lukewarm, self-absorbed bunch, as He says to you and me, “Stop being so concerned about the riches of this world and get in on real riches by making an investment in the righteousness of God and garments made available by My shed blood.”

They had their eye salve that healed physical eye ailments but Jesus said that you need to give some eye salve that will touch your spiritual eyes so you can see the things of God.  Physical sight I important, but God help us to have the spiritual eyes of our souls opened to see God in His glory, to see a lost world that needs the Lord Jesus Christ as its personal Savior.  He counsels us that we will come to Jesus and get our riches from Him.

 

verse 19

 

He continues His counsel with a promise of correction.  He says, “I'm going to deal with your indifference.  I'm going to deal with your lukewarmness. I love you so much I'm going to rebuke you and then I'm going to chasten you."

 

Do you notice how carefully the order of the words is laid out?  He says, "I love you, I rebuke and chasten."  Chastening is an indication of love.  

 

And notice He tells them to be “zealous” and repent.

The word zealous means comes to a boil.  Get on fire.  The Bible says that we are to be fervent in spirit serving the Lord.  This is no time to let up, back up, shut up, or stop until we get to glory.  We've got a lost world out here that needs Jesus.

We need to be closer to the Lord than we've ever been.  We need to be more on fire for the Lord Jesus Christ than we have ever been.

 

Our Lord's counsel is to be zealous and repent.  Ask God to forgive you if you've got a cold heart.  Ask God to forgive you if you've got a class that's a lukewarm class.  Maybe God wants to use you to stir that class up.

Maybe God can work in your life to stir the fires of evangelism and zeal for Jesus Christ in your church.

 

Finally, listen to

 

 

verse 20

 

What a sad picture.  Here is the Lord Jesus Christ who shed His blood for His church and yet He is on the outside knocking, trying to get in to His own church.  Unfortunately, today there are multitudes of churches and multitudes of Christians and Jesus is knocking, seeking entrance.

 

The cure Jesus proposes for a lukewarm church intrigues me.  Some would say, “Well what we need is a new preacher.”  Others would suggest a committee to study the issues.  But to the church that has become so lukewarm it has been vomited out of the mouth of God, Jesus says, “Just let me in.”

 

It's interesting to watch how the invitations narrow as you get closer to these last churches.  To the church of Thyatira He talked about the rest.  In the church of Sardis He talked about the few.  Now in the church of Laodicea he says, "If any person, any man."

 

What He's saying is anybody can be used as a committee of one to bring Me into the fellowship and into the Sunday School class or into your personal life if you will open up the door and let Me come in.  "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock."  How in the world will the church ever be what it ought to be if Jesus is on the outside?

Every closed system of life has to have an outward source of energy or it will die.  Take, for instance, if you don't put heat in a boiler then it becomes cool.  If you don't put electricity in a freezer it becomes warm.  There always has to be some infusion of energy from an outside source.  A closed system cannot survive.

 

That's the way it is with a church and that's the way it is with the Christian life.  Jesus Christ must come in His presence and in His power and in His fullness to keep things on fire and to keep things warm.

 

So Jesus says, "I'm knocking.  Anybody who wants to can open the door."  Do you see the sweet promise here?  He says, "I will come in to him and dine with him."  I like the older translations that use the word “sup” because that reminds me of supper.

 

We had three meals when I was a kid, breakfast, dinner and supper.  Those who are more refined eat breakfast, lunch and dinner but they miss a spiritual truth by eliminating supper.  We observe the Lord’s Supper, not the Lord’s Dinner.  And here the reference is to supper and that is significant..

 

The Greeks had three meals also.  The Greeks had breakfast which was just a little bread and soaked wine.  Then they had a midday snack.  But the evening meal was the full meal.  The day was over and you could sit down and talk together and have intimate fellowship with one another and a full meal.

 

Don’t miss what Jesus is saying.  He says, "If you'll open up the door I'll come in and it won’t be for breakfast or lunch.  I’m coming for supper and we’re going to spend some time together.”

For how long?

 

Verse 21

Here’s the promise:  Accept His invitation and for all eternity and you will behold Him in all His glory and sit in His presence and have sweet fellowship with Him.  And all you’ve got to do is open the door.

 

If you want to keep your heart hot, invite Jesus to come in and be there in all of His presence

 

Most of you have probably seen the beautiful painting by Holman Hunt called "Christ, the Light of the World”.  When he painted that picture, Holman Hunt invited a group of his peers to come in a look at it.  One of them said to him, "Mr. Hunt, you have left the handle off the door."  Mr. Hunt said, "Oh, no.  I didn't leave the handle off the door.  The handle is on the inside because you have to open up the door and let Jesus come in."

 

Did you know that if you will open up your heart to Jesus then Jesus will open up His heaven to you?

 

Let's bow our heads in prayer