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

The Lukewarm Church and the Condition of Laodicea

So let's turn to Revelation chapter three. And tonight we're gonna 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, 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 altogether, 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.

Raise your hand. I wanna see the hands of who's 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 it's common.

And 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 a 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, it didn't really taste all that good or fresh.

So that may be what's in play when Jesus says, you know, 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 might help 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 that 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 into 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 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 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 somewhat disputed what is meant, but that's the typical reaction. Anyone else wanna share when you hear the term lukewarm, what does that mean? Okay. Just putting on a show.

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 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 Colossae and they mentioned the Laodiceans. And 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, 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 does the word amen actually mean?

So be it. So be it. The most literal translation would be it's true. So if I say Jesus is Lord, amen, you're saying it's true. I agree because it's true. You remember during Christ's ministry, he would say things, I think it's the King James, 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 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 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 in Colossians says he's the firstborn over all creation. So clearly something significant is being said, but it's a little vague.

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, 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 the Christ.

Now, what's the problem with that? It doesn't say that. Yeah, well, yeah, it doesn't say that. It says in the beginning. In the beginning, God created. Now we do see in John chapter one that all things were created through Christ by him and through him.

But yeah, God did not create Jesus. Okay, Jesus is God, right? John 1 ,1, 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 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 passage that people today, and today, 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 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 are we good on that? 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 church. So point being, it was happening back then, and it's still happening today. Now, what did I say?

Who's the main group today who is teaching this Arian heresy that Jesus is the first creation of God? Jovah's Witnesses. So who's had Jovah's Witnesses knock on your door? Okay, and if it hasn't happened yet, COVID is over, so now they're back out, and 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 on a human level they are, but they'll try to tell you, hey, we believe in Jesus, but what does it mean to believe in Jesus?

Yeah, well, 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 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? The Son of the living God.

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 you're a 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 yeah, the Laodiceans would say, we're Christians, we believe in Jesus, but if they're denying his deity, like, guys, you've missed the whole point, all right?

Any questions on that? I think that's our best, I don't wanna call it a guess, an educated guess, but that's what a lot of commentators believe 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. 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've been preaching on Revelation Sunday morning, and I don't know if you remember this. Tony totally ruined my analogy.

Who remembers this? Well, 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, and he totally ruined it, but don't tell him I said that, but if he watches, he'll see it for himself.

But, you know, that's one idea. That could be an idea of what's being said. And nobody likes a lukewarm drink, hardly anybody. So if you had a glass of milk and it's, you know, warm, who likes warm milk?

Somebody probably likes that, but it's like, ah. Or 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 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 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 just 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 tasting good or good enough, they would drink the Laodicean water and they'd 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 the whole thing, 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. I mean, that's the way it was in this country. A lot of people, you go to church because it's the thing to do.

It's not really the thing to do anymore, but that's the way it was here. So maybe that was the situation then. 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.

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, and there are some people that are very proud, and self-satisfaction can often lead to self-deception.

So the members at 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 one of the things he says about them, that you are naked, right?

Now 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? Righteousness. 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 Jesus, we're all born into this world, dead in 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 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 would 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 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 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 patterned 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, patterned 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 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 wish I still had that study Bible. I could take a look at it, but that's a common theory. So 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 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 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 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, 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 and 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 likes to think of hell as being empty.

You know, and he said, I hope that's the reality. Now it's one thing for you to 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 the reality. So are we living in the Laodicean Church age? I don't know. I don't know 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?

I think we're also living in a time where they just preach what they want to preach and not God's word.

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've 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 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 recognize, 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 eye salve that you may see.

So 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 were 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, eye salve, 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 door of the sinner's heart, 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 led into 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'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. 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 do. Well, if this does apply to him who has an ear, let them hear if this applies.

He says in verse 21, we'll close with this. 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.