Laodicea...The Oblivious Church

What’s the purpose of a garage?

A garage is a place designed to keep your car, isn’t it?

Dictionary definition… “a shelter or repair shop for automotive vehicles.”

Now I don’t know the condition of your garage, but I would venture to say many of you have one just like mine...it ends up being home to a lot of other stuff besides the car—

When the place designed as a shelter for your car doesn’t have room to house your car, it’s time to do some de-cluttering.

In reality, garages aren’t the only collectors of clutter.

Our lives as believers can tend to collect a lot of “Christian stuff” over the years...It’s not bad stuff, we collect, it’s just stuff.

For example…in my own life, I’ve got at least 7 different print Bibles (somewhat endless supply of e-Bibles on my laptop), collection of Christian podcasts, countless Christian books, Christian music CDs, Christian plaques displayed in my office and home, 2 degrees from a Bible college and seminary, certification from an international Biblical counseling organization, etc

Those are just the physical things I can touch…what about the things I can’t touch…like the considerable amount of hours spent ministering to others, the years dedicated to ministry, the 2 am runs to the hospital, the countless hours spent in study...

Many of you can claim the same things…In some way, we can point to “stuff” we collected and sacrifices we made to minister to others and we place a value on those things as if those things give us a good standing with God.

As we amass all this “Christian stuff" over time, we also develop a tendency to forget it is all about Christ...that’s what the Christian life is all about, or at least, it’s supposed to be. It’s all about Christ.

Sadly, many of us have periods in our life where we have gathered so much “spiritual clutter” that we believe they communicate our spiritual standing is in good shape…as a result, we become oblivious to the reality of our true spiritual condition.

That is where we find ourselves this morning as we conclude our study of the churches of Revelation…I want to take just a moment and remind us of why we embarked upon this study and what we have learned.

We need to be aware of the dangers both internally and externally that can have an impact on us individually and corporately.

These were real churches in real time with real people with real struggles.

These churches are also representative of the universal church in every generation...What Jesus says to them, he says to us…what was evident in their lives is/can be evident in our lives…the condition of their church is a reality in some churches today and has the potential of becoming a reality in other churches if corrective actions are not taken immediately…Open Door is not exempt from any of these messages.

Ephesus — The Careless Church — Return to Him

The lost their motivation for service because they were not being careful to cultivate a vibrant relationship with Christ.

Smyrna — The Suffering Church — Stay Faithful

Don’t be afraid of what this world can do to you when you stand up for Christ…your eternal home is secure.

Pergamum — The Compromising Church — Reject the Need for Cultural Acceptance

They had compromised both morally and theologically because they failed to expel the false teachers.

If we compromise the truth of Scripture for cultural acceptance then we are contributing significantly to the continual erosion of the authority and sufficiency of Scripture and the gospel.

Thyatira — The Tolerant Church — Hold Fast to the Truth

Some had accepted the false teacher Jezebel who was leading people away from Christ and into immorality.

Jesus calls us to hold fast to the truth…it is our responsibility to reject those who teach anything contrary to Scripture…

Sardis — The Dead Church — Wake Up and Stay Vigilant

This church was left alone by the Jews and the Romans because it was not a threat to them…they weren’t impacting their culture for Christ, they were absorbing their culture.

we must stay vigilant to always be moving forward in our proclamation of the gospel and the power of Christ to change lives.

Philadelphia — The Faithful Church — Empowered By Christ Himself

Jesus commended this church for her faithfulness in a wicked time…he reminded her of His character, that he sees what they experience and he encourages them to remain faithful being equipped with His power opening doors for them to minister.

He promises to deliver them because they have persevered.

This morning we examine the last of the seven letters…it is the heaviest of all letters…for in this letter, Jesus declares this church makes him sick!

Historical Context of Laodicea

Laodicea was located in the Lycus Valley along with the cities of Hierapolis and Colossae.

Two important imperial trade routes converged here making it a wealthy commercial center, the richest in Phrygia.

It was known for banking, the manufacture of black wool clothing, and a famous medical school with ointments (Phrygian powder) for the ears and the eyes.

Because of these industries, it was so wealthy, that following a devastating earthquake in AD 60, Laodicea rebuilt itself without any assistance from Rome.

So naturally, all of this wealth attracted the attention of Rome and led to abuses by the governmental authorities.

The government forced the citizens of Laodicea to allow Roman soldiers to live in their homes and eat their food and to provide clothing for the officers.

Despite its prosperity, it did have one major weakness: an absence of an adequate and convenient source of good drinking water.

By means of aqueducts, it received water from either the hot springs of Hierapolis that cooled to lukewarm or from the cooler waters of Colosse that warmed to lukewarm.

Archeological discoveries provided evidence that the water in Laodicea was afflicted with a calcium carbonate content that made the water impure and caused vomiting.

We don’t know how the church here began, but we do know that Paul had an influence here.

Colossians 4:12–15.

The letter to the Colossians was to be sent to the church of Laodicea as well as Paul’s letter to them be sent to Colosse.

Colossians 4:16 “When this letter is read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and you, for your part read my letter that is coming from Laodicea.”

The affluence of Laodicea infiltrated the church making it particularly vulnerable to self-reliance…this church was deluded into thinking they were good before God because of all the clutter it amassed...it is that context that we read this letter from Jesus to this church that was oblivious to her condition.

Main Point: Rely on Jesus and His Resources Instead of Your Own!

Let’s take the rest of our time to consider four directives that ought to drive us to a greater dependence upon Christ.

We Must Trust Jesus Because He is Completely Dependable.

Revelation 3:14 ““To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this:”

Trust what He says

Jesus identifies himself here as the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the Beginning of the creation.

Amen - is a term that when spoken indicates a strong affirmation of what is said…it declares “let it be so”…literally he is saying “the Amen says these things”...in the Old Testament we find the same Hebrew word in Isaiah 65:16.

Isaiah 65:16 ““Because he who is blessed in the earth Will be blessed by the God of truth; And he who swears in the earth Will swear by the God of truth; Because the former troubles are forgotten, And because they are hidden from My sight!”

Here in Isaiah it is translated as God of truth…

In reference to Jesus here in Revelation it is a declaration that Jesus is the God of truth…completely trustworthy…He is the affirmation of God…

In a moment, He is going to tell them the truth about their spiritual condition.

True witness…it is the Greek word we get martyr from...

Some witnesses may tell the truth but prove unreliable because they do not appear to testify, others might faithfully appear to testify but are false witnesses and mislead.

Jesus is both faithful and true.

He knows us, He sees us, His estimation of us is completely accurate…He is always absolutely honest with us.

Trust Who He is

“Beginning of Creation” — this is a Greek word that can mean either first in time (beginning) or first in rank (ruler).

It is similar to what we find in Col 1:15 and Col 1:18...Remember I said earlier that the church in Laodicea was to receive the letter Paul wrote to the Colossians…Jesus is appealing to their knowledge of that letter.

Colosse was plagued with a heresy that denied the full deity and eternality of Jesus and even questioned the genuineness of his humanity.

Because of its close proximity to Colosse, this church no doubt faced that same problem.

Jesus is correcting that teaching and asserts He is not a creature or part of creation.

Jesus is telling them He is the Supreme Creator and Ruler of the universe who has the right to make such a harsh critique of his church.

Jesus created both the world and the church…this church…He is the first in time and position…this church had either forgotten that or ignored the truth that Jesus alone deserves the exaltation and preeminence…Everything they possessed came from Christ, whether spiritual or material wealth.

They lost sight of who He is and what He is doing…Jesus is going to complete what He started, with or without the church of Laodicea…Jesus didn’t need them, He desired to use them.

His credentials give him the right to say what He is about to say...

We Must Beware of Self-Reliance

Self-Reliance Renders Us Useless to Jesus

Revelation 3:15–16 “‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. ‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.”

Jesus is using a figure of speech here and to understand what Jesus is saying we need to remember the city of Laodicea, in spite of its wealth, had a significant problem with its water supply.

Hierapolis had hot medicinal waters and Colossae had cold, pure, refreshing water.

Both of those were useful and wonderful and people delighted in those.

The water of Laodicea was useless…by the time it reached Laodicea through the aqueducts it was lukewarm and so polluted it made people vomit.

Hot = meaning boiling hot…Cold = freezing cold…Lukewarm…room temperature…carries the additional idea of something being useless.

Think of it this way…to make water hot you have to do something…to make water freezing cold you have to do something…what do you have to do to make water lukewarm…NOTHING!

The lukewarm church/Christian does nothing to impact their culture…they are neither spiritually refreshing or pointing people to the spiritual healing found in Christ alone...

The lukewarm church/Christian becomes just like their environment. Rather than changing the world around them, they let the world change them.

When we allow the world to change us instead of Jesus, we are of no use to Him!

Their attitude of self-sufficiency and independence renders them useless for His purposes!

As a result, he is ready to spit them out…I will…hasn’t happened yet, there is still time to change...

Spit = polite way of saying vomit...

Your self-sufficiency keeps you from providing healing for the spiritually sick… we need to be a spiritual hospital where the restoration of the soul is found in our relationship to Christ alone...

Your self-sufficiency hinders your ability of providing refreshment for the spiritually thirsty… we need to be a spiritual oasis where people hear the truth of how Jesus provides new life and all we need for life and godliness

Your lack of dependence upon me causes you to badly misrepresent the life-changing power of the gospel…does the evidence of our life point to the reality of Jesus ruling in our hearts?

Self-Reliance Deludes us with Arrogance

Revelation 3:17 “‘Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,”

Instead of the church influencing society, the society influenced the church.

The context seems to indicate the church had adopted the norms of Laodicea and carried them over into the spiritual realm.

Jesus as the true witness reveals their thinking…they had become arrogant believing God was pleased with them.

say — present active indicative…continually saying…it was an ongoing problem.

rich — not sure whether they were saying they had an abundance of material wealth or believed they had enough spiritual wealth.

have need of nothing — whatever the case, they boasted in their self-sufficiency and had no need for Jesus. They were spiritually blind.

We need to beware of becoming arrogant and deluding our own thinking...

We should never become content of staying where we are spiritually…there should always be desire for growth and maturity…

Beware the thought patterns of “I don’t need…(List and Explain)

Beware of slipping into a state of such total indifference that you no longer care about your own spiritual condition.

Lukewarmness is a a sin that more often infects long-time churchgoers than it does new believers.

You know how the system works, you know the lingo, you know where to sit, how to get along in a worship service, and you know how the machinery of the church works.

What once seemed new and exciting now is old hat to you. It becomes as comfortable as an old shoe.

You’ve been a Christian so long that it’s easy to take it all for granted.

Self Reliance makes us Unaware of our Spiritual Poverty

They thought they had plenty of righteous character…but Jesus reveals how He sees them…

Wretched — miserable, unfortunate, a word used of ravaged lands especially in times of war, devastated countries, pillaging.

Pitiful — the object of extreme pity

poor — extreme poverty, like a beggar or pauper, (Laodicea bragged of its wealth, commerce, and banking industry)

blind — cannot see the reality of their spiritual condition, (Laodicea prided itself on its ophthalmic school and Phrygian eye powder used as medicine for the eyes.)

This church was oblivious to their spiritual condition and their need.

They were depending on themselves believing their own righteousness was good enough.

naked — God sees them as they really are, they are unable to cover their shame, (Laodicea boasted of its famous black wool)

Jesus exposes their spiritual condition as destitute and desperate…these believers were in desperate need of revival!

We Must Rely on Jesus

Revelation 3:18–19 “I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. ‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.”

All is not lost for this church…Jesus advises (counsels) this church to turn to Him for what they need…FROM ME!

I find it incredibly instructive that Jesus does not command change here…he could have, but He didn’t.

I also think it prudent to pause for just a moment and ask the simple question where do you turn when you are in need of help?

He borrows language from the market place and alludes to the Old Testament passage of Isaiah 55:1 ““Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost.”

The currency is always the same…faith, trust, radical dependence on Him and only him.

Jesus speaks directly to the self-deception of the Laodiceans…listen to His counsel.

We need His riches

Gold refined in the fire — genuine gold, pure gold, not the fools gold

This reference is to the process of purification of gold with intense heat…the impurities rise to top where they are scraped off and discarded…leaving behind the pure gold and of higher value.

Faith is sometimes referenced as being like fine gold — 1 Peter 1:7…the pride of self-sufficiency demolishes faith…the church is urged here to recognize its inadequacy and in faith seek the face of God...

This church was placed in the city of Laodicea for a reason…to reach her citizenry with the gospel…instead of walking by faith to find ways to humbly influence her city, they had been infected by the pride of the city and became comfortable with who they were…there was no dependence upon God for all things...

We need His righteousness

Jesus invites them to secure white clothing…why?

To cover the shame of their nakedness…nakedness was a sign of judgment and humiliation…to receive fine clothes was a symbol of honor and acceptance.

for Jesus to call them out for being naked he is pointing to their lack of genuine righteousness...

White garments are symbolic of the pure righteousness that Jesus offers to His saints.

Revelation 19:8 “It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”

Jesus is calling them to reject the self-sufficient focus on the externals and instead focus internally on exemplifying the righteousness of Christ…we can have the largest buildings, the most robust budgets, the most active programs, etc, but if we are not progressively growing in His righteousness, we have nothing

We need His remedy

Laodicea was famous for its eye salve called Phrygian Powder…Jesus counsels them to take His medicine because they were spiritually blinded to their need and lacked a vision for God’s program.

Their spiritual blindness could only be healed by looking to Jesus in the gospel and to His word for instruction.

Pride blinds us to the reality of our spiritual condition…compromise and complacency become “spiritual cataracts” that shut out the light of spiritual insight.

We need to pray that God would reveal our spiritual blind spots where we no longer see…we need a regular, daily intake of the light of His Word.

The self-sufficient church is blind to her spiritual poverty…there is no preaching the truth about sin, repentance, and need of grace...

The self-sufficient church is more concerned about maintaining a good reputation and has very little vision to further the kingdom, to make disciples,

The self-sufficient church lacks the ability to be discerning…there is no standard of truth, man’s opinions are the final authority instead of God’s Word...

We need His rebuke

This is the amazing part of this letter…we would never expect someone who just told us we make them want to vomit to tell us they love us in spite of that.

But that is exactly what Jesus does here…as many as I love…Jesus does not leave them nor us without help.

He reproves = corrects

He disciplines = like a parent with a child

This echos Prov 3:11-12 and Heb 12:5-11.

In his loving way, Jesus disciplines us so he can educate us and bring about repentance and change.

Jesus loves you enough to want you to be righteous…to confront your in your unrighteousness...to give you His Word…to call you to greater levels of faithfulness and repentance.

Jesus calls them to repent of their self-sufficiency ( a decisive act of turning away) and be zealous, earnest (an intense and sincere conviction...an ongoing attitude).

We Must Open Our Hearts to Him

Revelation 3:20–22 “‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. ‘He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down 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.’ ””

Perhaps you are familiar with this picture depicting this verse…Jesus stands outside a door knocking, and if you notice, there is no knob on the outside of the door...

This verse is often used in evangelistic appeals which is not entirely wrong because it does depict what happens in the life of the unsaved.

Jesus never forces his way into someone’s life…he stands at the door and knocks…if they open by responding in faith to him, he does come into their life and then develops an intimate fellowship with them.

However, the context of this verse is that it is addressed not to the lost, but to the church at Laodicea.

The travesty in this picture is that Jesus, who loved the church and gave himself up for her, is on the outside of the CHURCH wanting to come in...

Remember what I said in the beginning about the relationship of the citizens of Laodicea to Rome…the government forced them to allow Roman soldiers to stay in their homes and to feed them and provide for them.

This is a stark contrast between Jesus standing at the door and knocking and the Roman soldiers forcing their way in…Jesus knocks, waits to be invited in, and then HE PROVIDES the meal.

The self-sufficiency of this church had pushed Jesus out…they were oblivious to the truth that they had allowed so much of their world into their lives, there was no room for Jesus…

Because Jesus is not going to force his way in, we have a responsibility to listen and obey and open the door…(to de-clutter our lives)

What happens when we invite Jesus back into our churches/lives...

We find intimate fellowship with Him.

Dine = In the Middle Eastern world, an invitation to share a meal was characteristic of hospitality and the occasion for intimate fellowship with family and close friends.

Just last week, we enjoyed table fellowship as well as communion... that is a foretaste of a future table fellowship in the messianic kingdom and the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev 19:1–10).

It is hard to imagine any follower of the Lamb rejecting this magnificent invitation to dine at the table of the King

Jesus appeals to anyone who will listen…Jesus can do mighty things in a church when there is at least 1 individual who desires intimacy with Christ.

We are given the right to sit with Him on His throne.

Jesus promises the one who is a “victor,” an overcomer, a conqueror, the privilege of sitting with Him on His throne, just as He has sat down with His Father on His throne (v. 21).

To sit “with” Jesus means any and every blessing we receive in kingdom life we receive by virtue of our union with Christ.

Our joint reign with King Jesus rings throughout Revelation (1:6, 9; 2:25–27; 5:10; 20:4–6) as well as the whole New Testament (Matt 19:28; Luke 22:28–30; Rom 8:17; 2 Tim 2:12).

And we are victors because of the victory He won. As the Son shares the throne of His Father, we share the throne of the Son.

Because of our union with the victorious Lamb, we not only get heaven; we also get a throne.

Lesson for Life — Make the Right Choice

All of us have something in common with the Laodiceans this morning.

We’re in church. They were in church. They were church members. Many of you are church members.

And some of us may have something else in common with them.

We are in church today but Christ is on the outside.

He may be on the outside because we’ve never invited Him in—we’ve never been saved.

Or He may be on the outside in the sense that our lives are filled with clutter.

Thankfully, He is knocking. He’s speaking words of grace to us this morning, offering to come in and save us from our sins, and give us eternal fellowship with Himself.

We have a choice to make.

It's very simple. We can either respond to His gracious offer and open the door to Him, or we can spurn His offer and keep right on living the way we have been.

Which will it be? I plead with you to listen to Jesus' voice, open the door of your life to Him, invite Him in, and enjoy the thrill of His life-changing presence.

Series Summary

A church (or a Christian) must be careful not to lose its first love (Ephesus).

It must trust God in the midst of suffering (Smyrna).

It must not compromise its doctrine (Pergamum).

It must not waffle on its morality (Thyatira).

It must be on guard against spiritual deadness (Sardis).

It must walk through open doors for sharing the gospel (Philadelphia).

It must avoid at all costs becoming lukewarm in its passion for Jesus (Laodicea).

Revival is both an individual and a church matter.

God deals with people one person at a time. He deals with churches one church at a time.

Sometimes, like Laodicea, we have everything in our life and in our church except the Lord Jesus. God forbid that that would be true of us, of you, or of me!

Are we listening to what the Spirit says to the churches?

Let’s ask for God’s help.