The Lukewarm Church - Letter to the Laodiceans (Revelation 3:14-22)

So let's turn to Revelation chapter 3 and tonight we're going to be looking at the seventh and final church

This is the church in Laodicea. So this is known as what?

Yeah, this is known as the lukewarm Church, so like in Sardis it is believed that this congregation for the most part is

Unregenerate so the majority of people Many of the people in this congregation.

It's believed that they don't really know Christ as Their Savior, so maybe they started out well when the church was first planted maybe 30 40 years

Prior but at this point around 90 AD 95 AD the people are just not committed

Some of them, you know, they would say they believe in Jesus, but they really don't some people perhaps were even denying

Christ's deity we'll talk about some of the theories But just as far as the seven churches go all together

As a whole it is believed one theory about the seven churches is that they represent

Seven ages of church history. So you have the entirety of church history and Many people believe it's broken down into seven ages and that we are currently living in the

Laodicean Church age now who has heard that Statement you've heard a pastor maybe talk about the

Laodicean Church age. I want raise your hand I want to see the hands of who's that heard that Okay, so only two

I'm surprised it's only two but that's a common thing you might hear And I'm not saying that's the correct way to look at it, but that's it.

It's common. We'll talk about that more later on But before we read these verses 14 through 22 just a couple things that might help going forward and Understanding what is being said and why the city of Laodicea it contained

Great wealth so the people there were well to do however in the city

They lacked an adequate supply of water. So water had to be brought through an underground

Aqueduct system that means the water by the time it got to Laodicea Didn't really taste all that good or fresh so that may be what's in play when

Jesus says, you know I'll I will spew you or vomit you out of my mouth also in the city the main industries were banking wool and medicine, especially they were known for their eye salve or the medicine for the eyes, so Keep those things in mind that that might help

Understand us understand what's being said and why so let's read Revelation 3 14 through 22

The Lord speaking he says and to the angel of the church of the

Laodiceans Right these things says the amen The faithful and true witness the beginning of the creation of God I know your works that you are neither cold nor hot

I wish that you were cold or hot So then because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot

I will vomit you out of my mouth Why because you say

I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing and yet you do not know that you are wretched miserable poor blind and naked

I Counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire that you may be rich and white garments that you may be clothed that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed and anoint your eyes with eye salve and you may see as Many as I love

I rebuke and chasten therefore be zealous and repent Behold I stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door

I will come in to him and dine with him and he with me to him who overcomes

I will grant to sit with me on my throne as I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne

He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says To the churches, all right

So the lukewarm church when you hear the church the term lukewarm, what do you think of someone who's lukewarm?

What's the problem? Okay, they're going through the motions

They're not really passionate on fire for God. They're not hot But then they're not really cold either.

I mean they say they believe and they're going to church and But They're not cold.

They're not hot. They're lukewarm. Jesus says I wish you were either cold or hot now

Does Jesus really want them to just drop out and be unbelievers? I don't think that's what he wants

So it's kid it's somewhat disputed what is meant, but that's that's the typical reaction

Anyone else want to share and you hear the term lukewarm? What does that mean? Okay Yeah putting on a show going through the motions, okay, so yeah, like I said, that's the common response

So the fact that Jesus says to this church, I want to vomit you out of my mouth

I mean, that's pretty bad. That's pretty strong language Some people would be shocked to discover that Jesus ever said something my

Jesus wouldn't say that This is pretty harsh So in Sardis remember we saw

Sardis was the dead church It's hard to imagine something worse than being dead

Well, if there's any church that was worse any situation that was worse, it's it's this right here

Jesus wants to vomit them out of his Mouth, so we don't know a whole lot about the church of the

Laodiceans It's brought up the only other thing in scripture we have it's brought up four times in the book of Colossians So based on some of the statements you wonder if the church at Laodicea Was dealing with some of the same issues that the

Colossians were dealing with We're not really sure but one potential problem most commentators believe it was something like this because this was an issue in Colossi and they they mentioned the

Laodicean so the idea is there are people in the church that had a wrong view of who

Jesus was or they were just flat -out denying his deity and obviously if that's the case then

That's about as bad as you can get if you have a church that's denying the deity of Christ I mean, you're not even really a church not a legitimate church at that point

So those of you who have been attending Sunday school, or maybe you watch online

You know that we've been talking about church history and one of the early heresies that the church had to deal with was the heresy known as Arianism.

Okay. So the Arian heresy is this idea That you're denying the deity of Christ, but you're saying that Jesus is

He's second only to God, but he's not God Like he's the first creation of God.

Jesus is Lord. He's way up there, but he's not divine So some churches have a teaching.

Well, Jesus is an angel. He's the Archangel Michael whatever, but he's not God So was that what's going on here?

A lot of people believe yes, so the letter starts out and who's speaking?

I'll ask you again, right? This isn't John in his opinion Okay, you're not here's the

Apostle John and what he thinks about the church at Laodicea No, this is Christ himself So he says and to the angel of the church of the

Laodiceans Write this these things says the what? Amen, so Jesus is referring to himself as The amen, so this is a very unique Title for Christ he is the amen now when someone says amen

Okay, this happens once in a while on Sunday morning, even on a Wednesday night from time to time

I'll say something and one of you will respond by saying Amen.

Now when you say amen You say okay. Well That's a way of saying

I like what you just said. So I'm saying amen But what is the word amen actually mean?

So be it the most literal Translation would be you know, it's true.

So if I say Jesus is Lord Amen, you're saying it's true.

You know, I agree because it's true You remember during Christ's ministry.

He would say things. I think it's the King James He's verily verily

I say unto thee right and the word Verity means truth so verily means

I Think this is the NIV truly truly. I say unto you so Verily verily or truly truly

I say unto you, but if you look in the Greek Jesus is saying amen Amen, I say unto you so it is true.

It is true. So what is Jesus he is He's the truth right the way the truth and the life the book of Isaiah 65 verse 16 refers to the

Lord as the God of truth So here it's being applied to Jesus or he's saying this about himself

Because why all God's promises in Christ are yes and in him

Amen, it's it's true Okay, so Christ is the amen. It says he is the faithful and true

Witness so once we understand what's being said, I think it's pretty clear

Then we get to a statement. That's not so clear Jesus refers to himself as the beginning of the creation of God And this is where the false teachers have a field day with this statement

Okay, so I mentioned the book of Colossians a moment ago Paul said something similar in the book of Colossians, so you don't have to turn there, but just make a note

Colossians 115 It makes a very similar statement So in Colossians, he says

Paul says Jesus is the image of the invisible God the firstborn over all

Creation so here in Revelation. He's the beginning of the creation of God Paul and Colossians says

He's the firstborn over all creation so clearly Something significant is being said

But it's a little vague. It's it's not Obvious to most people so false teachers will capitalize on things like this and that's probably

One of the issues that was happening in the Church of the Laodiceans is it's believed they're denying the deity of Christ So here's the belief what how they would understand this statement and what they're

Still twisting to this day with the Jehovah's Witnesses. They will say that Jesus is the beginning of the creation of God so when

God created the heavens and the earth God created Jesus first and Then God used

Jesus. He created all things through him So you following so God created everything but the first thing

God created was Jesus or he the Christ now, what's the problem with that?

Yeah, well, yeah, it doesn't say that In the beginning

God Created now we do see in John chapter 1 that all things were created through Christ by him and through him

But yeah, God did not create Jesus Okay Jesus is is

God right John 1 1 he was in the word was in the beginning with God and he was

He was God. So Jesus is not a creation But that's probably what some of the people were teaching so Jesus refers to himself as the firstborn or the the first of the creation of God Let me just get the correct wording the beginning.

Sorry of the creation of God Paul says he is the image of the invisible God so some people will twist that to mean

Jesus is a creature But ironically the the passage that people today and today the the

Aryan heresy lives on with the Jehovah's Witnesses But ironically the passage that they like to twist to deny the deity of Christ is actually

Affirming the deity of Christ. So if it doesn't mean that Jesus is created, what does this?

Phrase mean that Jesus is the beginning Well one commentator says this that Christ being the beginning of the creation this corrects a

Heresy apparently present in Laodicea as in Colossae that Christ was a created being

The claim is that Christ is the very first creation of Jehovah instead beginning instead of the beginning of the creation what this means is that Jesus is

Literally the originator of the creation. So he isn't the first thing created.

He's the one who Created he's he's the originator. Okay, and besides the term firstborn also refers to Rank you remember in Scripture the firstborn son

Was the son who was in charge? He got a double portion of the inheritance.

So firstborn refers to Christ in his rank that Jesus has the preeminence.

He is Lord over all creation, so We we good on that.

We we understand Jesus is not a Creation Okay creation came from him

So if that's the problem in Laodicea that people had a wrong view of who

Jesus was if that's being tolerated and especially if the pastor knows this is a

Belief that the church has and he's not really dealing with it or God forbid that he himself

Believed that I mean this is a serious Serious error and it might explain why

Jesus is so disgusted with this church that Bears his name and yet they're denying who he really is.

I mean the whole purpose of the Christian Church I mean, there's many reasons why we're here

But one of the main reasons is to bring glory to Christ who is our

Lord he is God, so if a church is robbing Jesus of his divinity

Yeah, Jesus doesn't look favorably on such a such a church so Point being it was happening back then and it's still happening today.

Now. What did I say? Who who's the Main group today who is teaching this? Arian heresy that Jesus is the first creation of God Jovis witnesses, so who's had

Jovis witnesses knock on your door? Okay, and if you haven't had it if hasn't happened yet, you know

Cove it is over so now they're back out You know, they're they're knocking on doors again so what they'll do is they'll knock and they may seem like nice people and I'm sure you know on a human level they are

But they'll they'll try to tell you. Hey, we believe in Jesus. But what does it mean to believe in Jesus?

Yeah, well that yeah, that's one person's definition that well he existed he was a guy who lived

Long ago, but believing in Jesus is much more than that, isn't it? First of all, you have to have the right

Jesus. So when we get to Matthew chapter 16 on Sunday morning We're gonna cover

Peter's great Profession of faith where he says thou art the Christ, but then he defines

What that means that the Christ is what Yeah, the Son of the

Living God So by calling Jesus God's Son that is a reference to his divine nature

Right, because if if you have a pure man and you have a son your child

Has the same nature as you? Right, so we're children of God, but we're children through adoption

We do not have that same nature as God Jesus does so Jesus is divine

So, you know the the Laodiceans would say we're Christians We believe in Jesus, but if they're denying his deity like eat guys, you've missed the whole point.

All right Any questions on that? I think that's that's our best

I don't want to call it a guess an educated guess but that's that's what a lot of commentators believe

Was was going on so we're good on that no questions. All right

So, let's move on to verse 15 Of course if they are denying his deity

They have crossed the line, you know, Jesus would remove the candlestick now.

They're no longer a true church Maybe they're about to cross the line. Maybe they've crossed it

But Jesus says in verse 15, I know your works that you are neither cold

Nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot so one way to illustrate this and I Forget when it was but I must have been preaching on Revelation Sunday morning.

And I don't know if you remember this Tony totally ruined my Analogy who remembers this but I was talking about people they like Cold drinks right a cold drink is refreshing.

So on a hot day you'd like something cold On a cold day like today you would want something hot so tea or coffee

So people typically with their drinks they like it either cold or hot

These are beneficial. I said nobody likes a drink. That's lukewarm and he's like, well

I do you know totally ruined it but Don't tell him

I said that but if he watches you'll see it for himself But you know, that's that's one idea that that could be an idea of what's being said then nobody likes a

Luke Luke warm hardly anybody So if you had a glass of milk and it's you know warm who likes warm milk some somebody probably likes that but it's like Your coffee has been sitting out too long or a drink that's stale and you take a sip and you want to spit it out

Right, so that's one way of understanding it but I think the bit why

Jesus used this illustration is probably because of Laodicea and their

Aqueduct system. So like I said at the beginning It's well known in history.

They had a problem with water. So here's what one commentator said

There is a nearby city named Hierapolis and that that city was known for its hot spring so people

Would go and they would bathe in the hot springs and it was believed to have medicinal purposes and it's like a hot tub

It'd be very enjoyable. Okay, so Hierapolis was known for its hot springs Colossi was known for cold refreshing Mountain streams but Laodicea had dirty

Tepid water that flowed in for miles through an underground Aqueduct system so visitors who would come into the city and they didn't know about this

They would go and get a drink the Laodicean water and whatever. They're used to it tasting good or good enough

They would drink the Laodicean water and oh, they'd you know, spit it out I was gonna do that as an illustration for you, but then

I'd make a mess but You've seen it done before but That's probably why

Jesus used this Analogy, so the church at Laodicea the people there they were neither cold

They were not rejecting Christ. They say hey, we're Christians. We're part of the church

But they're not hot. They're not filled with spiritual zeal They don't really have a good understanding even of who

Jesus was probably instead the members there were lukewarm They were

I guess you would call them Hypocrites they professed to know Christ They claimed that and yet their lives were something very different because out of the whole thing

You know, maybe it was a tradition at this point their parents knew Christ They were brought up in it and it was just something that you do you go to church because it's just what you do

That's the way it was in this country a lot of people you you go to church because it's the thing to do it's not really the thing to do anymore, but That's that's the way

It was here. So maybe that was the situation that either way we know their spiritual condition is not good so with that knowledge verse 16 makes total sense when

Jesus says so then because you are lukewarm and neither cold Nor hot

I will Vomit you out of my mouth verse 17 because you say

I am Rich have become wealthy and have need of nothing and yet you do not know that you are wretched miserable poor

Blind and naked so you can see that the Laodiceans they thought very highly of themselves

You know part of me just looks at this and I wonder if like American Christianity would kind of fit this description like we have it so good.

We're so comfortable We think we're all that we have it made You know, and there are some people that are very proud and self

Self -satisfaction can lead often lead to self deception. So the members that Laodicea were

Sophisticated they had wealth they had comfort they had everything they needed and yet spiritually they were lacking across the board and Most significant when

Jesus what's the one of the things he says about them that you are naked, right

Obviously, he's not Speaking like literally they're not literally walking around naked.

What's he talking about? They're not clothed with what?

Right the righteousness of faith Okay, so we are clothed if you look at the way the

Bible describes it the New Testament. We are clothed with Christ's Righteousness, so it's like a garment in the book of Revelation later on it'll talk about the

Saints being clothed with white Linen and it's the righteousness of the

Saints. So when you place your faith in G We're all born into this world, you know dead and trespasses and sins

We're spiritually naked if you will and when we believe in Jesus, we are

Covered we are clothed. Okay, so they are what they're naked, but they don't even realize it

They think oh, we're we're great. We're great Christians. We have everything we need and then Jesus I Mean this must have been a

Devastating letter. I don't know. I wonder when this was read to the church because that's the whole purpose of Jesus sending these letters

John was writing it down. It'd be sent with the messenger to the church. The pastor would open the letter. Can you imagine?

The pastor reading this letter to the congregation, of course, it's speaking to him as well

He's not Beyond all this I don't know what what what was their reaction that's it's a guess but You wonder if they really believed it

Like who sent this is this a forgery? This really isn't from Jesus. I mean,

I would assume that's how they responded. I don't know So you could say that the church the members in Laodicea the people

I think the best term would be they were nominal Christians, what is it?

Where does that word mean nominal? Little in name only right?

Yeah Christians in name only so this leads into the subject of the so -called

Laodicean Church age so we touched on it briefly at first where some people believe the seven churches of Revelation When it comes to you know, seven is symbolic for completeness

So some people believe that It represents pattern churches I've told you this is kind of the way

I view it that every church in the world today kind of fits into one of These categories, you know, we're either like Philadelphia or Laodicea or Sardis one of these seven so Representative churches pattern churches.

That's one theory Another theory is that the number seven again meaning completeness

That seven is chosen because it represents kind of the whole of church history so many people believe that there are seven ages of church history and of course

Laodicea is the last letter and Many people believe we are

Approaching quickly the end times so they would say we are living in the Laodicean Church age, so that's that's another way of looking at this.

I Remember the first study Bible I ever had the header for each of the seven

Churches it had a date, you know the year whatever 33 to 425

That's the Ephesus Church Age. I remember that I don't I wish I still had that study

Bible I could take a look at it, but that's a common theory. So Here here's for example they would say that the first age of church history was

Ephesus and that that was from the year 33 up until You know,

I'm kind of making this up because I don't know exactly what they say all the lists said something different but the

The Ephesus age would have been from 33 to 325 Smyrna represents 325 to 600

Pergamos represents 600 to 900 so you understand that each church represents

This time period of church history. Okay, so that would leave us

I think in the study Bible I had it said that the faithful church age was from the

Protestant Reformation right up until 1900 so that was like the best time period and Christianity if you look at that time period it was growing right it went from Europe to the

United States and I think just in the 1800s and early 1900s

Missionary endeavors were like at an all -time high and the faith was spreading and spreading but somewhere in the 20th century

Especially in the mid, you know 1900s 1950s 1960s 1970s things started to go downhill and they've been going downhill ever since so whenever it started 1905 or 1965

Again, people give different dates The claim is we are currently now living in the

Laodicean Church Age So what does that mean that the majority of professing

Christians not all? but just the majority are Like the church and Laodicea the majority of Christians are nominal

They're not really fired up for Jesus They don't flat -out deny him.

But yeah, we're Christians, whatever, you know, what's on Netflix today? Like I got better things to do don't bother me

Like that's kind of the attitude. Is that the attitude of the average? Professing, you know something like that So churches today

And I don't necessarily hold to this theory that that's what Jesus meant like different ages

However, I do find this theory interesting Because like I said starting in the 1900s things things are going downhill.

You really can't deny that Europe is almost completely apostate at this point and 1960s things started going downhill here.

So if you look at it now The majority of Protestant denominations, so the historic

Protestant denominations the Methodists the Episcopalians the Lutherans the

Much not all but the majority are now Lukewarm or you might say the term that I usually use is liberal and You know,

I don't want anyone to misunderstand that term because the word liberal actually means what it means generous

Like it's good to be liberal in that sense that you're a generous Person, for example,

James 1 verse 5 says if any of you lacks wisdom Let him ask of God who gives to all

Liberally in without reproach. So the word itself isn't bad, but in a theological context theological liberals

Don't believe in the supernatural they typically deny the deity of Christ They don't believe

Moses part of the Red Sea So I just I think most of you know how I'm using the terms, but just so you're sure so most churches today

Protestant churches are Lukewarm liberal whatever apostate.

It's a bad situation right living in New England. You know this this isn't news The Catholic Church Same thing.

I just saw this morning or last night that the Pope made comments where He he likes to think of hell as being empty

You know that he said I hope that's the reality now it's one thing for you to like kind of desire like we want everyone to be saved and I get that if that's what he was saying

But there's reason to believe that the Pope actually Thinks that like that.

He's a universalist. So anyways long story short most of the established churches are

They're lukewarm. That's just that's just the reality. So Are we living in the

Laodicean Church Age? I don't know. I don't know if that's If that's true or not, but it does kind of describe

The times the day and age any you want to refute that do you think if I'm wrong?

I mean try to make the argument on the other side any questions on that Yeah Yeah.

Yeah, and you wonder what was being preached From this pulpit, of course, they probably didn't have an actual pulpit.

Maybe they did but You know for Jesus to say I want to vomit you out of my mouth

I mean the message must have been not all that great, right? So we are living in a time based on biblical teaching.

It does seem That things will get worse and worse and worse until the rapture happens

At that point the tribulation begins and we're going to get into all of that in chapters

Four five six and the rest of the the book, but yeah

That's the Laodicean Church Age and there could be something to it. Let's move on.

We're almost done verse 18 What's the solution if they recognized? Yes, we accept.

This is a letter from Jesus We do need to repent. What do we do? Jesus says in verse 18

I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire that you may be rich in white garments that you may be clothed and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed and anoint your eyes with Eyesalve that you may see

So it just like with the other letters. This is just a different way of saying

Hey you guys need to repent and you need to get saved a lot of you just you need to have your eyes open to the truth

I am I am the Lord you need to Get saved believe in me the three industries

I said we're banking clothing and Medicine, so the Laodiceans knew about banking.

That's why Jesus probably said you need to get some gold Right, you know about clothing so you need to put on The clothing or the righteousness of Christ and cover up your spiritual nakedness and you know about medicine

So you have this product Eyesalve you need to apply some of that and open your eyes to see these spiritual truths

And then you see the statement Revelation 3 20 Jesus says behold I stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door

I will come into him and dine with him and he with me. I think we've all seen that famous painting

With Jesus standing there he's knocking at the door Who knows what

I mean and what everyone notices about the door? There's what there's no doorknob like he can't get in a lot of times

Pastors will use this and they'll say Jesus is knocking on the the door of the sinners heart

You know saying let me in well. I mean that's fine to preach it that way and apply it that way

But what's actually being said Jesus has been kicked out of the church Like they don't have any use for Jesus Jesus has been kicked out of the church

He's on the outside looking in and he's knocking trying to get let in to his own

Assembly, and that's a pretty sad situation. So this is the church in Laodicea.

Maybe there's somebody watching online right now, and they They're in a church like that and they realize that My assembly is lukewarm and I need to get into a good church that actually preaches the gospel

Maybe somebody recognizes that I personally am lukewarm. You know,

I've been going through the motions I haven't really committed my life to Christ. I'm just kind of doing it because this is what

I What I do Well, if this does apply, you know to him who has an ear let them hear if this applies