Revelation 3:14-22 Making Jesus Hurt

You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. Well, good morning. Welcome to Recast Church.

I'm Don Felsick. I'm the lead pastor here. I'm glad that you're here because without us being here, we wouldn't have a church, right?

So I'm glad that you're here. Every Sunday morning I arrive. I arrive here about 8 .30. I don't know how many of you know this, but I get here about 8 .30

and I usually just walk around the school and pray for about an hour. And I pray for the church.

And I think it's important for us to understand that when I'm praying for the church, I'm not praying for a building.

I'm not praying for a set of programs, but I am praying for people.

I'm praying for you. I don't know every Sunday who's going to show up and who's going to be here, but I am praying for you. I'm praying for us.

I'm praying for what God desires to do in us, in us this week through the hearing of His Word and in us through this week through acting on His Word as well.

And so I'm praying often for you by name as God brings you to mind, but then also for our church in general and for those who are going to be visiting with us this morning.

And so welcome. I'm glad that you're here. If this is your first time with us,

I ask you to please fill out that connection card that you received when you walked in. You can turn that in in the black box back there.

And then also see Haley about a free gift that's provided for you there. So check that out at the welcome table that's out there.

Any offerings that anybody chooses to give also go in that black box that's out there. We don't pass an offering plate here.

We do that intentionally not to disparage other churches that do that, but I've often, have any of you ever been in a situation where the plate passes and you feel like like that pressure to put something in it?

And we don't want anybody to give out of that pressure. We want you to give out of an act of worship to God that it's intentional that you're doing that.

And so that envelope is provided for you. Don't feel the pressure from the envelope either, but the envelope can just be recycled out there if you're not going to use it this morning.

Otherwise, if you do choose to use that, it goes in that same black box where the connection cards go out there.

So with those details out of the way, this morning we're going to be looking at the last of the seven churches in the book of Revelation that Jesus is auditing.

I mean, if you think about these in terms of an audit or a sit down talk with these churches, evaluating how they're doing, this is the last one of seven that he's been dealing with.

And Jesus this morning isn't going to pull any punches. Now we've seen him talk to a suffering church with gentleness.

We've seen him talk to a loveless church with a bit of a stern attitude towards them, saying you need to, you need to grow in your love and return to the love that you had at first.

We've seen him, a variety of different aspects of the way that Jesus interacts with different people, different churches at different times, but he doesn't pull punches here.

He doesn't kid glove the church of Laodicea. The soft and gentle Jesus that our culture often wants to espouse and push forward, and when it's, if it's ever in our culture popular to talk about Jesus, then it's most often the

Jesus who is very tolerant. He looks very American. He looks very much like the culture around us.

Have you ever noticed that Jesus sometimes begins to be camouflaged in the terms of the culture around us and the way that things look?

But that soft, gentle Jesus that's tolerant and always merciful and always accepts everyone, well, that Jesus doesn't show up in this text.

He's not here. He doesn't make any guest appearances. Instead, Jesus outright tells the church of Laodicea, here in our text, in no uncertain terms, you make me sick.

Now, that might be a startling comment from Jesus to a church, and yet that's exactly what he says.

He says in Greek, you make me sick. And what makes

Jesus sick may surprise us and really bring this message home to us this morning in that it's not the things that maybe, maybe we ought to be convicted that the things that often make us sick about our culture, the things that frustrate us the most, are not necessarily always the things that make

Jesus the most sick. Because the very thing that makes Jesus sick regarding Laodicea is,

I would suggest to you, a common struggle in most American churches. It's a common struggle for you and I.

So when we recognize that this letter is written to churches, but I give you full permission to apply this message to yourself.

Once we walk through it, once we study it, once we know what Jesus is saying to the churches, then we need to remember, as I said at the beginning, that when

I'm praying for the church, I'm not praying for some general organization or some corporate entity.

I'm praying for people. The church is people. So what Jesus says here to the church is to real individuals, including you and I.

So these are things that he is indicting us on, things that he's saying, watch your life and consider these things regarding what

I have to say to Laodicea. Well, you recasts should be thinking about it, recast being us, the people of recast church.

And of all the seven churches, the one that I believe preaches the most directly to the average church in America is this last one, the church in Laodicea.

Because Laodicea is, as I've mentioned, Ephesus was the loveless church. Pergamum was the compromised church.

Thyatira, the polluted church. All of these churches had a bit of a slant that Jesus was addressing with them.

But Laodicea is the self -sufficient church.

They don't need anything. They've got it all well in hand. They're organized. They've got something to offer

God. They've got something to bring to the table. And they are eager to please

Jesus with all of their efforts and the things that they are able to do. And Jesus says, you're self -sufficient and I'm on the outside.

By the end of this text, we're going to see that actually the church was so self -sufficient that they really didn't need Jesus to keep doing what they were doing.

And he's going to say, I'm on the outside and I'm knocking. I'm knocking and I'd like to come in and fellowship with you if you'd have me.

If you'd let me come in, man, we could we could we could have fellowship and we could we could be together in this effort. But instead, you've left me out in your self -sufficiency.

This is a church that believes and outright declares, I don't need anything. And Jesus has a very different assessment of them.

The church thinks that they're doing just fine. They don't need his help. And as a matter of fact, maybe a church like this has the mindset that maybe

Jesus just needs a little something from us. Maybe he's the one who needs the help. And although we might not state it directly, although that might like rub us the wrong way, in practice,

I would suggest to you that maybe some of us even live our lives that way. Maybe like Jesus needs something from us and we've got a lot to offer him.

And man, is he lucky to have us. Does that sound a little American? Does that sound a little like the

American church? It sounds a little like me. Sounds like me from time to time.

I can live that way as well. So God forbid that we be found in a place as a church where Jesus is left on the outside knocking, saying, hey, if somebody would come and open the door,

I'd come in. If you just welcome me, I'd be in there. Where he's left out and we go about the busyness of serving him in our own strength.

And yet I'm afraid that we may all find deep conviction in the words of Jesus this morning as we dig into this text. So as we read, we're going to sing some songs and then we dig into God's word.

Please open your heart to what God wants to communicate to you this morning from this text. So let's open our

Bibles to Revelation chapter three. We're going to be looking at verses 14 to 22 to the end of that chapter.

Again, that's Revelation 3, 14 to 22. If you have a device to navigate over there, if you have a Bible, check it out.

If you don't have any of those on your lap and you're not able to follow along in the reading, if you just do me a favor and raise your hand.

I'm not trying to call you out. We just have some Bibles back here that someone's willing to hand out. We want everybody to have a copy of the word of God on their lap so that you can actually see these things and follow along.

But Revelation 3, 14 through 22, let's read what God desires for you and I to hear from him.

This is his word, his revelation to you and me this morning. And to the angel of the church in Laodicea, write the words of thee, amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.

I know your works. You are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot.

So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing. Not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.

Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. So be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him, and he with me.

The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.

Let's pray as the band comes to lead us in worship this morning. Father, we need your presence here with us.

We have so many things that clamor and are moving around in our minds right now.

So many things that would draw our attention away from you. And so, Father, I pray that even as we have an opportunity in music to sing before you,

Father, that you would allow that to be refining, focusing for us this morning. That this would be an opportunity for us to regain that perspective that we often lose throughout the week.

That you are worthy of our fervor. You are worthy of our zeal. You are worthy of an offering. Father, I pray that our worship would be indeed that.

It would be an offering to you in worship this morning. Not that we have something to give to you, but you are worthy of it.

And so, Father, just even encountering you would move in our hearts to worship you this morning.

Father, we don't want to be a self -sufficient people. We see in your word that you declare for us to not be self -sufficient, but to lean on you.

And yet, we find ourselves all often throughout the week moving in that direction. So, Father, would you transform us by the hearing of your word that we might go out and live a dependent life upon you in Jesus' name.

Amen. You can stand up if you need to. If the chair gets uncomfortable, get up in the back and stretch out. I'm rarely distracted by anyone.

You know, that doesn't mean you can keep your cell phone on, but yeah. And if you need to use the restrooms, go out the door and use the restrooms on the on this end of the building, please.

We want to reserve the restrooms. Those who are familiar with the building, there are restrooms down here, but we want to keep those for the children's ministry only.

So, a men's restroom is upstairs and the women's is downstairs on this end of the building. So, if you need that, take advantage of that.

But keep your Bibles open to Revelation chapter 3, verses 14 to 22. I'd like for you to have that on your lap so that you can reference it, look at it, see it, actually identify that that is what we're talking about and working through and you've got it on your lap there.

Think about this with me for just a moment. To be an American is to have a can -do -it spirit, right?

Would you agree with me on that? That's just fundamental to our culture. That's just a part of who we are. You know, we say things like, if at first you don't succeed, yeah, you got it.

Or even more to the heart of the attitude, maybe there is no try and so to the real heart of it,

Yoda himself, that great American Jedi who said, do or do not, there is no try.

Okay, so it's got a just -do -it attitude, just like Nike, right? Is it Nike or Nike?

Nike, thank you. Okay, just wanted to clarify that for some of you that it is Nike. There's a little debate going on.

That was a personal inside joke, but it is Nike, right? But yeah, just do it, right?

We have a I -don't -need -anyone -to -assist -me kind of attitude. I don't need anyone.

If you want something done, it's best done yourself, right? You've got these sayings and a lot of people have said you can tell a culture by their sayings, right?

Have you ever heard that before? You can tell what is core, what is central to a people by the quips and the quick sayings and the idioms that they use and things like that.

And so you can tell a lot about us by that. And I believe that to a large degree, we as a culture in America are so completely saturated in a radical independence that starts from childhood on the way up that it's often difficult to identify it because it is such a strong part of our lives.

It's like the fish swimming in the water who doesn't know what water is, right? Because, you know, it doesn't define water because, hey, that's just, you know, it's just part and parcel of daily life.

And I think that's the way independence is to most of us. It's very hard for us, in other words, to pull back and look at our own lives and identify how radically independent we really actually are in our core, how radically independent we feel.

Now, I've even found myself thinking as I was trying to think and just let, I really try and I pray every week that God would convict me first before I ever have to stand up here and share these words with you because if I'm standing up here and this hasn't hit me where I live, then

I don't really have a passion or a zeal to be able to share it with you in the way that it ought because this is powerful, this is the word of God, and it should first and foremost impact me as I'm studying it.

But I began to, so I began to think about my own independence in the way that I think, in the way that I process stuff, and I found my heart quick to justify myself as if to say

I'm not self -sufficient, I just like to get stuff done, right? Can anybody relate to that statement?

Like, I'm not, I'm not self -sufficient, I mean, I just, I just like to get, get stuff done or I'm not too independent,

I mean, I'm willing to tell other people what to do from time to time. So, you know, I've got relationships, I mean, I can tell,

I can tell others what to do and that's, that's good. No, that's not the heart of it. If we take an honest assessment of our own hearts right now at the start of this message and ask yourself, how do you feel about asking for help?

So that's a, that's a fundamental place to start. How do you feel about asking others for help? Maybe further step, further question, how often do you actually ask others for help?

How often do you think this phrase, I don't have what it takes, I don't have what it takes,

I need someone else. Now, some of you are kind of going, well, that's starting to get a little closer to home and maybe you do feel that in your core because the fact of the matter is, even in our radical independence, there's a lot of insecurities in our heart, would you identify that?

But you might feel it, but how often do you admit it that you don't have what it takes? That's not very

American to admit that I don't have what it takes. So, I say all that to say, man, we are close to the church in Laodicea.

Laodicea was a radically independent and self -sufficient city. As a matter of fact, the city was so self -sufficient that when it was destroyed by an earthquake, now you'll catch a theme as I've preached through these seven churches, there was one, you'll get a picture that there was one massive earthquake that leveled western

Turkey during the first century A .D. and it was a massive earthquake and it leveled this area.

Laodicea suffered greatly, almost a complete loss of the city structures during this time.

FEMA stepped in to fix everything. It wasn't really FEMA, that's a joke, but the

Roman Empire literally did step in and offered support for the rebuilding of Laodicea, a key

Roman city, and they rejected it. They said it'd be like New Orleans after Katrina saying, you know what, we'll do better than the federal government will in our rebuilding.

We've got this one, we've got the resources, and historians actually say that Laodicea was rebuilt with their own resources and it was rebuilt extravagantly, increasingly, exponentially better than the original city ever was, and they never once leaned on Rome for the funds to rebuild.

This is a city that knew what it meant to reject assistance, knew what it meant to reject help.

We're going to see that that had an impact on the church. It was a city, by the way, that was renowned for medical practice, especially the development of eye salves used to help with various eye issues of the day, and so they also had a bustling wool trade, and the black wool of Laodicea was in demand all over the

Roman Empire. This was what was worn on the red carpets. This is what they spun the fashion out of of the day, and so the red carpet for whatever, you know, the

Grammys, Emmys, whatever, all of those awards, you know, and you see all the fashion and Laodicea was in the center of that bustling industry of, it was just, they said that maybe there was something, there was actually a rumor that there was something in the volcanic soil that when it produced the plants that it just made extravagant wool on these animals that lived around Laodicea, you know, just they didn't really know what it was, but man, the wool that came out of this place was the center of fashion.

They produced fine clothing, but not only that, but they had the hoity -toity citizens that were able to afford the fine clothing as well.

It's identified from ancient historians that many of the citizens were the equivalent of millionaires in our day and age, so they were extremely wealthy individuals in the city of Laodicea.

One particular citizen recorded in history was wealthy enough to literally buy his way into royalty by individually sponsoring an entire temple, so he built a temple to one of the gods and was declared, well, you know what, bro, you can be a prince because you're so wealthy.

That kind of thing was going on in Laodicea, and so with all this wealth, can you blame them for their independence?

I mean, can you blame them for not reaching out for help, for being so self -sufficient? I mean, they weren't pretending to be powerful.

They just really were, right? And Jesus, of all people, should have been able to see it wasn't their fault for being so good, right?

It's meant to be sarcastic, you guys. And to a church in this context then, with that kind of radical self -sufficiency, with that kind of resources available to them,

Jesus writes to them and wants to remind them a few things about himself first. He sets the stage and says,

I want to tell you about me. Let me tell you who's talking to you for just a second. He says, I am the amen, the faithful and true witness.

I'm the primary over God's creation. Jesus doesn't ever waste words, and he introduces himself this way, in a really colorful way.

I'm the ending and the beginning, is what he's ultimately getting at. And he says, I rightly identify truth, because the things that I say actually match up with reality.

And I mentioned a few times in this that God knows you better than you know yourself. Some of us have this notion about what motivates us, and we think we're pretty keyed in on who we are.

And how many of you have taken some personality assessments or personality profiles and revealed some stuff about yourself?

And maybe you're, maybe you've gotten into like doing some of that stuff or through your employer, and you're getting honed in on the idea and focusing on who you are.

And we don't scratch the surface of what motivates us and who we are. How many of you ever just been confused by yourself, and confused by your own motivations?

You're like, why did I do that again? I know, I know a punter who's probably confused about some things that he did yesterday.

I mean, just in case anybody was into watching a little something, I think he's probably wondering what was going on there.

Sorry, poor guy. Man, I, you know, we ought to pray for that kid, for real. No, I'm just serious.

I'm just being serious. I mean, he's got a lot of, I'm sure he's just frustrated with himself. But anyways, and then that was not in the notes, you guys.

I'm serious. Now I'm totally lost, and it is going to take me a second to get this.

Jesus, identifying himself, sorry. He's the truth, and what he says actually matches up with reality.

That's where we're going with this. So he knows us better than we even know ourselves. So when he says something is true of someone, it's reality about that person.

Are you getting me? That's what he's saying. I'm the faithful and true witness. And by the way, when he says he's faithful witness, he's saying

I'm faithful to testify about things. I actually do talk. Like you could be an eyewitness to an account, but if you're not faithful to testify, guess what?

It doesn't even matter that you were an eyewitness to the events. So you've got to be faithful to testify first, but then you also have to be true in what you testify.

So when he says I'm faithful, and I'm the faithful and true witness, I am willing to say reality, and I do speak it.

I actually do both. And then by calling himself the Amen.

Not a title that's used often in scripture. As a matter of fact, it only occurs twice as a title. Once for God in the Old Testament, once for Jesus in the

New Testament. See a little something there theologically. Identified of God, he is the Amen in the

Old Testament, the Father, and of the Son in the New Testament. Making equivalence between the two of them.

But what's it mean to be the so be it? Direct translation from Amen. When we say that at the end of a prayer, you're saying may it be as it has been declared.

May these things be the way that they are, they've been spoken. So he says I'm the so be it.

In other words, Jesus is the final word. He is the seal that accomplishes the future.

He is the one that makes it come to pass. And he is not, by the way, the first created thing as it might appear or sound like in English when it talks about the beginning of creation.

But he is the primary. That word beginning can be primary or ruler or first in preeminence.

In other words, he is the preeminent of God's creation. And Laodicea is about to get a rude awakening.

They're about to be shaken from what they thought was reality to what is true. And so Jesus makes sure to clarify that he is the standard for assessment.

He is the standard for auditing churches. He is the standard for auditing lives.

And he has the right to tell us what is true of us. Praise God that he's willing to, that he's the faithful and true witness that is willing to not allow us to to be mired down in our sin, but is willing to come in with conviction, with authority to tell us what is right and wrong.

We live in a culture that has no authority, that has no framework, that has no foundation for right and wrong.

But Christ is the foundation. He is the standard and the judge who has the right to say what is true of you and I.

And he's going to declare it here in this text, at least towards Laodicea, and some cautions toward us as we take on his indictment of this church.

Have you ever been assessed by someone else and thought that's your opinion, in all honesty, in your mind? You're like, you know what, you're entitled to think and view me how you want, but that's not right.

That's not the right assessment. And I want to tell you, we should always be open to learning from criticism of others. But if you've ever been, like me, criticized by someone who barely knows you,

I have some people who interact with me regularly on Facebook. I haven't seen them in 15 to 20 years. Everything they say is always negative.

I haven't unfriended them because I don't know why. But have you ever had that person?

Maybe some of you have that person in your life. I think probably most of us do. Always critical. Or someone who you haven't seen in years and they just come in storming,

I know you and I know this and I know that. And it's like, bro, I haven't seen you since high school. Really? Is this where you're going to go with this?

Like, get to know me before you just start criticizing me. But that's not what's going on here.

It's not someone who barely knows this church that's going to indict them. Jesus says to Laodicea, I know you and you can trust my assessment, so here it goes.

I know your works, Jesus starts off saying. I know your works. Jesus sees the deeds of his people according to verse 15.

But for Laodicea, he identified that their deeds are lacking something. Something significant.

They are neither cold nor hot. And Jesus wishes, he says,

I would that you were hot or cold, which has been confusing to people, and we're going to get there in a second. But instead of being hot or cold, they are lukewarm.

And again, he emphasizes for effect a couple different times. You are neither hot nor cold.

So he says, I'm going to spew you out of my mouth. I'm going to spit you out of my mouth according to the NIV translation,

I mean the ESV translation. But spit is a really nice gentle term here. It's really kind and it is not accurate.

And not every time that the words are translated. And I don't want to give you the impression that every single time you see, you read the

Bible, you're reading it wrong or something. I mean it's just a gentler way of saying this phrase. But at the same time, this is a medical term.

We still use this in modern medicine today. We get the word emetic from this word in Greek.

So those of you who are trained in medicine or have any kind of medical knowledge, all of a sudden you had a thought when

I said emetic, right? Because it has something to do with blowing chunks, okay? This is not a gentle swish of the mouth forcing your mouthwash out before a meeting in the morning.

This is where I get to use more juvenile terms, okay? I get to throw in a couple of juvenile terms in the middle of this message and get say like things like chunder or yak or blow chunks or barf, okay?

Or yawk? Was that the one, Dave? What was it? Yeah, yak. Okay, whatever. But seriously,

Jesus is saying to this church, he's not saying, oh I'm gonna spit you out of my mouth. He's saying, you make me sick.

That's pretty, I mean I think that's like a bit harsh in the Greek, okay? You make me sick.

When I see you, when I see your works, it makes me want to blow chunks. And it's like, what?

Really, Jesus is saying this. You make me want to go to the medicine cabinet and get some

Pepto. Pepto Bismol. Which ironically is the way that you could get me to throw up on the spot.

You give me Pepto Bismol, I will throw up even at the smell of the stuff. It goes back to childhood memories. I don't know, it's a bit messed up.

But the thing that's supposed to make you well, makes me sick. So now I know what

I'm getting for Christmas from some of you. But please no, please no.

Even those little candies, do you ever have the little, there's those little pink candies that taste like Pepto, never mind. But sorry.

But we need to work a bit to make some sense of what the problem is with the church in Laodicea. Because the phrase, you know, the phrase hot and cold, and he says,

I wish you were, I wish you were neither hot nor, I wish that you were either hot or cold.

And when he says, I wish you were cold, it's like, wait a minute, I thought that he would like maybe a little bit of life in us, right?

If you had a little bit of heat, that would be good. If you had a little bit of spiritual fervor, you had just a little bit of spiritual friction in your life to produce a little bit of heat, how many of you think that's better than being spiritually dead, spiritually lifeless, spiritually cold?

Does that sound right to you? So what is he getting at here? And in this church, further, it appears that they were doing some works, right?

Do you see that in the text? I know your deeds, I know the works that you're doing. So laziness doesn't seem to be the problem in Laodicea.

But instead, what Jesus is zeroing in on is this hot and cold issue. Their works were lukewarm.

And this is where historians and archaeologists help us make sense and better understand the scriptures.

You see, for many years, Christians wrestled with why Jesus would prefer that you were completely cold spiritually instead of at least a little alive spiritually, have just, like I said, a little bit of spiritual heat there.

Because Jesus said things like, if you have even the faith of a mustard seed, you could do amazing things for the kingdom.

So all of a sudden, as he's saying, you either need to have spiritually, you need to be at the spiritual boiling point, or else you should have nothing.

That doesn't seem to make sense of Jesus. But once you understand from archaeology and from history, the water supply of the city of Laodicea, things begin to snap into focus for us.

The water supply to the city of Laodicea was, in a word, nasty. It came from a hot spring that was rich in minerals, traveled about five miles to the city in hot pipes and exposed aqueducts for most of that.

People from that era testified that the water had a foul odor and was basically a perfect lukewarm temperature by the time that it arrived.

Now, I can say this, my in -laws live over in Battle Creek, and I think if you've been around, you've been around West Michigan, some of the water smells like sulfur over in certain areas.

Have you ever had that? Maybe some of you have that in your home. I know that it really varies from just neighborhood to neighborhood what the water quality is.

I lived in a neighborhood called Brownstone for a while for a reason, because anything that the water touched turned brown from the rust.

But have you ever drank lukewarm mineral water? Gross, right?

The flavor really is enhanced by the temperature. Do you know what I'm talking about? And I can drink, at my in -laws house,

I can drink their sulfur water just fine if it's just frigid, like near freezing, then

I can gulp it down and I can survive it. But you get that stuff anywhere near even just chilled a little bit, and oh man, it is nasty,

I can barely gag it down, even after a run. I'd rather have a coke after a run there than water.

But that's just the way that it is, and that's the way it is in some places. So that's kind of like the water here in this area.

And even today, in this area of modern -day Turkey, due to the volcanic activity, so you're dealing with wells that go down deep, and then you're dealing with a volcanic area where there's magma closer, the crust of the earth is thinner in this area, so they still have to chill their water.

If you have a well in this area of the world, you still chill your water before you drink it. Even if it's just to put it in cans and jars and setting it in the shade, it has to be cooled.

It comes out of the ground naturally at a higher temperature. So that's the way that the water supply was in Laodicea, it was lukewarm.

Colossae, about 10 miles to the east, had one of the only cool freshwater springs in the entire area.

To the north, about seven miles, Hierapolis was famous for its hot springs that were used medicinally, and people would go there to chill and relax, think hot tub.

So Jesus here is saying, I wish you were like the hot water that is used for soothing aching muscles, useful, at least for something, or that you were like the cool water that refreshes and helps quench thirst, useful for something, but you are not of any true help either way.

Hot water, how many of you like to have hot water? Grateful for hot water? How many like to have cool water?

Depends on context, right? Both are a positive thing. Both are useful, just in their own rights and in their own ways.

So this is not a spiritual measurement, this is a useful measurement. How useful are you being?

And he says, you, Laodicea, you're not useful. You're not useful to benefit others, you're not useful to benefit anything.

This lukewarmness is further defined in verses 17 and 18 by defining deeper what was the issue, what was wrong.

How do we do works that are useless? You know, take for example feeding the poor. It seems like as long as you're feeding the poor, isn't that good and helpful no matter what motivates the person who's doing it?

Doesn't it seem like something good happens there no matter what? But not in the eyes of the true and faithful witness.

In the eyes of Jesus, the value of our works are compared by an invisible non -human standard.

So we might look at somebody's works and go, man, they are a good person, they're just fabulous. But like the song we sang earlier, it's about an inside -out transformation.

Don't you know bad people can do good things? And often good people can do bad things? And Jesus is the one who holds the answer to whether you're a good person or a bad person.

Did you know that? It's by his assessment. We're going to see that it has something to do with where he is in relationship to your life.

Is he outside knocking or is he in here transforming from the inside out?

That's key. What makes their works lukewarm begins with a wrong assessment, a wrong self -assessment.

Their good works began with an assessment that they were rich and needed nothing, according to the text. They didn't need anything, they had it all.

They were pretty confident that they were pretty much awesome. They were indeed wealthy by the world's standards, just like you and me.

They entered into the realm of works and deeds on the foundation that they had a lot to offer, they had a lot to give.

Man, Jesus was lucky to have some of them around. But I believe the core of what makes

Jesus nauseous is this grotesque disparity between their assessment of themselves and the reality that was available to the eyes of Jesus.

He could see what they thought of themselves and see who they really were, and that was what was nauseating to him, to see the difference, the vast difference between what was true of them and what they thought of themselves.

It's not that they served the poor or helped others or did whatever works they did that's the focus of Jesus' indictment.

He's not saying, hey, you're doing the wrong things, go get the right actions, go get the right behaviors.

He's like, go get the right assessment of yourself first. The heart of his critique is that they think they need nothing, and when he looks at them spiritually, are you ready for it?

These are the adjectives that correctly, accurately define these who are self -sufficient.

He says you're wretched, you're pitiable, you're poor, you're blind, and you're naked.

Whoa. Imagine thinking, I know it's going to take a stretch, but imagine thinking that you've got a lot to offer.

Okay, probably a stretch for most of us, right? But imagine that you think you have a lot to offer while those are the adjectives that correctly describe you.

That is what is true of you while you think you are, let's just say the boom diggity, okay?

Going a little old school there, okay? But you think you've got it going on, and he's like, wretched.

This is one of the strongest Greek words of negativity that the Greek word uses.

You are in deep distress, you are in deep trouble, you're in a pit, and you are not going to be able to dig your way out.

That's wretched. In a pit, and in your own strength, you're not getting out.

Pitiable. Pitiable as a word implies that they are a church in need of mercy. You need to throw yourself like at a king's feet for mercy, begging for clemency.

Someone who doesn't believe that they need anything, doesn't recognize that they need mercy.

Have you ever, you know what I'm talking about? If you think you're doing everything okay, do you ever, does the word mercy apply to that context?

No. If you think you've got it all together. So the word pitiable applied to them would have been shocking as this church, as this letter was being read to them, they would have been like, us?

You're reading the wrong letter, reader. You know, get, move on, move on. There's something else here. You're missing this.

You must have transposed Laodicea and Sardis, or something. So move on, because we're doing great.

So the word pitiable applied to them. It would have been shocking to them. And usually a person who doesn't think that they've done anything wrong, doesn't take it too well when they're told they need to seek forgiveness.

I know all of us have been there, where somebody is, if somebody wants you to ask for forgiveness, probably your spouse.

And you don't think you've done anything wrong, so why should I be the one to ask for forgiveness when you're the one who did wrong?

Right? That never happens with Lynn and I. So I mean, I just collect, sorry, once in a while.

Like I think, you know, twice now, maybe. Yeah, maybe a little bit more than that.

Twice a day, I think she just said. But yeah, that kind of thing happens, right?

Like, and it's usually I'm the one that's stubborn, and I'm like, I didn't do anything wrong. Well, and then a couple hours later, or a couple days, a couple weeks,

I don't know. But eventually I, you know, I come around to say, you know, I think that this is,

I think that you're right. You know, this is, I did some wrong in here. How many, in all honesty, it takes us a while to sometimes recognize our faults, to recognize our wrongs, to recognize what, and sometimes it gets confusing in our mind.

I mentioned not knowing our own motivations, not knowing what was going on there, and then realizing later, yeah, that was kind of, that's kind of harsh, the way that I said that, or whatever.

So usually a person who doesn't think they've done anything wrong, to say, you need to seek forgiveness. Well, that's, that's kind of crazy talk, and that's exactly what

Jesus is saying to this church. They think they've got everything just right, and he's saying, you need mercy.

Wait, mercy is a, I've done something wrong word. That I need to be treated unfairly, in the sense, mercy is an unfair word, in that it's saying,

I'm going to get something I don't deserve, or I'm not, I deserve some punishment, and I'm not going to get it.

That's mercy. But what if I don't think I deserve any punishment? Fundamental to the

Christian faith, then, this is, this is key. Fundamental to the Christian faith is a correct assessment of ourselves.

I want you to hear Jesus carefully in this text. He wants his church, that's you and me, to know how desperate our situation is.

He wants us to know how deep we are into this mess. So what is your self -assessment?

Pretty good? Doing fine? Have quite a bit to offer? In need of nothing?

Come needy, my friends. Jesus correctly identifies that you need to recognize how desperate your situation really is.

Piles on further. Poor, blind, naked.

Very ironic terms in this specific city. Very ironic terms.

Think about it. These who had a lot of money in the bank, he says you're spiritually bankrupt.

These who produced in war some of the finest clothing in the entire Roman Empire, you're spiritually naked.

These who produced eye salve to heal everyone else were themselves spiritually blind.

And so in verses 18 to 19, we get the remedy. We get the fix. And what is key in verse 18 is the source of the healing.

We find that a church that doesn't have a correct assessment of themselves, people who don't have a correct assessment of themselves, will slowly and maybe even accidentally begin to leave

Jesus out. And what we need most is to come to Jesus. To come to him.

And when Jesus corrects our view of ourselves, we realize that we need credit in our spiritual account that we can't provide.

If we're bankrupt, where are we going to get the spiritual credit? We need to come to Jesus. And then when we find that we are spiritually naked, we need to come to Jesus to be clothed.

If we are blinded, we need healing for our spiritual eyes. And Jesus is the one who opens blinded eyes.

So recast church, listen carefully. Your account is empty. Your account is empty.

Come to Jesus. Your shame is exposed in nakedness. Come to Jesus.

If you lack the ability to see things correctly, come to Jesus. And he will provide for you pure gold, white garments, and medicine for your eyes.

Do you come to Jesus for the strength of your life or do you dig deeper into your own empty bank account?

Do you stand boldly in your shame? Do you pretend to see and to guide others, all the while being truly blind?

In verse 19, Jesus reminds the church in Laodicea and us that he reproves and disciplines those he loves.

It's really cool that in this context of pretty harsh words to this church, he says, but I love you.

But I love you and I love you enough to discipline you. I love you enough to bring harsh words to you.

I love you enough to say the tough things. This ought to encourage us. He's not trying to cause us pain, but he's trying to steer us in the right direction for the sake of our own souls.

He is being harsh and direct, like a father ought to be direct if his son's playing in the road, playing with matches, or doing something harmful.

He is being harsh. He is being direct. And what his direct words are driving us towards at the end of verse 19 is two key words, zeal and repentance.

Now in this sermon series, we talked a lot about repentance, that being a turnaround in our lives, that being a switch.

So he wants us to turn away from sins, but he also wants us to become zealous. And I don't believe what he wants us to become zealous for is his rules.

There's a lot of people in this world that are really zealous and excited about rules. They love checklists. They love to hold others to this set of rules.

And that's not what he's trying to steer us toward. But rather, he wants us to be zealous in relationship with him.

He wants to be zealous in fellowship with our Savior. The solution to doing works in self -sufficiency is not more zeal for rules.

The solution to the problem is a zeal in our neediness that comes hungry and thirsty for help to the foot of the cross.

Jesus, by the way, in this text identifies, he wants you and I to be religious zealots.

That's a scary word, isn't it? In our culture and in our society, that might not be a popular word, but it's a language of Jesus here in our text.

Be religious zealots. In other words, you should be a little bit more crazy in love with Jesus than makes your neighbors comfortable, than makes your co -workers comfortable, than makes your extended family comfortable at gatherings.

You, it would be okay and acceptable and actually beneficial for you to be a little bit kooky to, in a religious way, to people around you.

Like, like that your love for Jesus should look strange to the world around you because they don't have any any pattern for that.

They don't have any understanding of that. He says be zealous for relationship with Jesus Christ.

Our zeal should be towards the one who has saved us, the one who adds credit to our spiritual account, the one who clothed our shame, the one who opens our eyes to see.

But this one has been excluded in Laodicea and far too many churches today. Look at verse 20. Jesus tells the church where he is in relationship to them.

He is on the outside asking for someone to let him in, to let him in.

What a scary thought that we could think ourselves in with Jesus only to find that he has been on the outside knocking.

This is something that each one of us needs to take very seriously in our own lives.

I don't care if you're an elder, if you're born in church and mom went into labor on, you know, during prayer meeting or on Sunday morning.

It doesn't matter what good you have done. If you, if you've done really great deeds, you've supported food banks, you've given to the poor, you've done all different kinds of great things in your life, what matters is the answer to this question, where is

Jesus in relationship to your life? Is he on the outside asking for you, knocking, and let me in?

He doesn't, he doesn't barge down doors. He doesn't, he doesn't break his way in. He's, he's knocking. He's saying, let me in.

I'm here and I've got the answer to the problems in your life, but you just have to open up.

Just let me in. Where is he in relationship to your life? And I'm not talking just to unbelievers.

Jesus wrote verse 20 to a church. He wrote verse 20 to a church.

By their self -sufficiency, they've barred Jesus from their gatherings. They became so self -sufficient that they really didn't need him.

And the picture here in verse 20 is that Jesus still wants in. He hasn't given up on them yet.

He doesn't just walk and say, I'll find another place to do my work, but he stands at the door and knocks.

And anyone, the text says, anyone, notice it's a person now, he's talking to a church, which a church is always like a plural noun because it's a bunch of people.

He says, anyone, anyone who hears and opens the door is going to get supper with me.

He offers deep fellowship in that culture to eat a meal with somebody was a reconciling event. And he says,

I offer to you reconciliation and deep fellowship. And he offers credit to the spiritual account.

And just like, just like Bill Smith preached about a month or two ago about dining with Jesus, great picture of his willing and open desire to have fellowship with his people from this text.

He offers deep fellowship. He offers credit to the spiritual account. He offers clothing for our shame. He offers spiritual insight.

Or you can just leave him standing on the doorstep. Or you can just leave him standing out there knocking while you scurry around in your pretend world, pretending to do stuff for him.

And he's not even welcome. Barred him out. Jesus is on the doorstep, knocking, faithfully knocking, still knocking.

Let me in. Let me in and I'll clean up the messes. I'll, I'll, I'll give you,

I'll sustain you during the hard times and I'll be here with you. The one who conquers, meaning the door to Jesus to receive his fellowship, to receive his credit, to receive his white garments, to receive his sight.

The one who becomes zealous in a relationship with Jesus that is ultimately taking Jesus way too seriously for the world around us.

Taking Jesus way too seriously. How many of you would, would love to be categorized as somebody who takes Jesus way too seriously?

You know what? In reality, you can't do what I just said. You can't take him too seriously.

He's the lord of the universe. He's the savior of the church. He is the hope of all.

He is the one who died for us and rose again three days later. And he is the object of our eternal worship.

Or he's standing at the door. And that's where we've left him. But you cannot worship this one too much.

Way too seriously for our modern culture should define us. The one who overcomes in this way.

The one who, the word zealous by the way is a boiling word. It kind of mixes the metaphor a little bit and gets a little bit like with that hot and cold lukewarm thing.

It's, it's, it's, it's a fervency. And now I really do believe that he is talking about our spiritual life when he talks about being zealous.

It is a, a boiling point of love. And the one who overcomes will be granted rights and authority on the new earth that I don't fully understand in this text.

Look at verse 21. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne.

So whoa, wait a minute. In the same way people have, I've, I've, I think taken this a bit far with the notion that just in the same way that Jesus sits on the throne with his father, we will do the same.

And so there's been some various opinions about this. I trust Jesus. I know that whatever this reward is, it's going to be good.

But I want to be careful to state not more than what this reward actually declares. Some think that the conqueror will rule with Jesus and I agree with that.

I think there's going to be some sense of ruling on the new earth for those who overcome. Others think that he's just going to let us sit with him and talk with him on his throne.

That would be pretty cool too. But some has gone, some have gone so far as to say we will become authorities just like Jesus.

In other words, we'll be like the son of God in, on the new earth. And I don't think we will rule on the new earth ever in the same way that Jesus rules on the new earth.

But I do believe that we'll be given various levels of authority based on our lives here in this world.

But Jesus gives good gifts to his people and I believe the new earth will be super amazing for those who have had fellowship and have opened up the door to Jesus in this life now.

So please listen, recast. Please hear these words. The spirit has spoken and verse 22 wants us to hear, wants us to listen.

And some of us are exactly in the crosshairs of this intense text. Have you ever been too self -sufficient?

Are you living as if you have no need of Jesus? Have you sickened him by your false assessment of yourself?

Have you kept him outside, knocking? If your answer is yes to any of these questions, in humility, in humility consider, prayerfully consider, skipping communion this morning and then come and talk with me at the end of the service.

It'd be my goal to lead you to the one who has pure gold to add to your account, to bring you to the one who can clothe your shame, to introduce you to the one who can open your eyes to spiritual truth, to introduce you to the one who's knocking and asking to be let in.

But if you're here and you're all in with Jesus, not to say that you're perfect, not to say that you've got it all together, not to say that you don't trip and stumble, we all do in many ways, then

I'd encourage you if you're all in with Jesus, if you recognize that he is the object of my worship, he is the the place that I go to for hope and for help and for rescue.

I encourage you to come to the communion table this morning, but not until not but only after you say this prayer.

I'm going to go in and read it to you and then I'm going to leave it up there so that you can reflect on it and focus on it.

I'm not asking you to just repeat it with me, I'm going to read it to you and then ask you to just meditate on this prayer before you come to the table in worship.

The prayer goes like this, God please increase my zeal for Jesus. Forgive me for the ways

I have tried to do it all on my own. Thank you for the blood of Jesus that clothes my nakedness.

Thank you for his body broken for the forgiveness of my sins. Thank you that his righteousness is credited to my account.

Thank you for opening my eyes to see the glory of Jesus who is the final.