The Church of Laodicea

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Good morning and welcome to Living Faith Church. I am so excited to be able to worship Jesus Christ with you on this amazing Sunday. If we have never met before, my name is Aaron. My wife Stella and I are honored to be able to serve on the Pastoral team at LFC. Today we are in week seven of this series called Seven - looking at the letters of Jesus to the seven churches of the province of Asia Minor. These seven letters can be found beginning in the book of Revelation chapter two, and today we are looking at the final letter written, and this is the letter to the church of Laodicea.

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:

15 ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot.

Revelation 3:14-15 NASB95
Have you ever felt useless, undesirable, not helpful, or not wanted? I think there is only one thing worse than being useless, and that would be this; being useless and not not knowing it.
Out of the seven leters, this may be the most preached on. Many sermons have been written underscoring the hot and cold message of this letter. Yet, I want us today to look deeper than just hot and cold and see if there is a message to this church that would challenge us today at LFC. And we will begin by understanding the city of Laodicea.
In 95 A.D. Laodicea was the prominent city in the Lycus Valley. It was was located on a major trade route, it was was known for it’s woolen textiles and rich agriculture. Laodicea was incredibly wealthy. This can be noted when reading historical records and realizing that in A.D. 60, the Lycus valley was leveled by a devistating earthquake; but according to Tacitus, while nearby cities rebuilt with the help of Rome, Laodicea refused Roman money and used it’s won wealth to restore itself. Laodicea’s wealth and sophistication were evident in its grand Roman coliseum for gladiators dedicated to Vespasian and Titus, it’s multiple Greek-style theaters, an imperial cult forum, and three city gates connecting it as a major hub in the Roman road system.
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Laodicea was located equidistant to both Heiropolis and Colossae. Both of these cities had their unique and distinguishing factors. Colossae, sitting on a mound above the Lycean valley was the home to a cold-water spring. This spring provided refreshing water for its residents and those on the trade route. Hierapolis was built 300 feet above the valley, and was home to a natural and medicinal warm springs. Interestingly enough, Laodicea had no fresh water of it’s own. Even though there was a small water source nearby, it would dry up in during the hot summers. So, water was plumbed in via a large aquaduct system comeing from the souther city of Denzili. Water would travel through these aquaducts for as long as six miles. And while the system and engineering of inverted siphoning was amazing, there is suggestion to believe that the water that arrived in Laodicea was a tepid luke warm temprature and undesirable for drinking.
The message intended for the reader is not a message of faith or fervor. And we must understand this. Many teach that the hot and cold analogy given here is intended to communicate the message “get on fire for God”. And while this is a great message, it fails under the test of appropriate exegesis when we realize that Jesus tells the church of Laodicea, “I wish you were hot, or cold”. If faith and fervor were hot, then why would Jesus say He wish we were cold, not faith filled and not fervent? An appropriate understanding of this passage would realize that Jesus was using the waters of Heiropolis and Colossae as a reference, but not as drinking water, but as water that is both healing, like a hot spring, and refreshing as a cold spring, but as waters that serve a specific purpose to those who come. In other words, be useful! Let’s be honest, not one wants luke warm water! What does Jesus say?
Revelation 3:15

‘I know your deeds

The same message Jesus gave to everyone of the seven churches. Because these leters are intended to remind us that our works will be tested by fire. And Jesus has tested the works of the church of Laodicea and He has found those works to be neither healing like that of a hot-spring, nor refreshing like that of a col-spring. The wounded are not finding healing, and the thirsty are not refreshed. In other words, nothing is happening. And Jesus says to the church, I’m not even requiring you to be both, just be one or the other. Simply be useful, but how you are- you are useless, undesirable, and I cannot somach your works.
Now, Jesus diagnoses the condition of the heart of this Laodicean church. The church is not useless becuase they were made that way. Hear me out. If you feel useless, if you feel purposeless, this message is for you today. No one is useless by Gods making. We become useless when our heart becomes inward focused. A useless person is one who has an inacurate measurement of their own self. They either exagerate their ability or exagerate their inability- it can go either way. For Laodicea, they exagerated their ability according to Gods eyes.

‘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,

Listen to these words church, and let the Word of God challenge you today. For the church of Laodicea, their natural worth eclipsed their supernatural worth. Their earthly ability superceeded their heavenly ability. They could build their own kingdom with with hands of mankind, but had forgotten that “Upon this rock, I will build my kingdom”. The kingdom of God is not a kingdom built by human hands, but a kingdom built through human hands by the hand of God. It’s called anointing! It’s called Spirit! It’s called an outpouring of Gods grace!

In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;

Romans 8:26 NASB95

I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,

1 Corinthians 2:3 NASB95

If I have to boast, I will boast of what pertains to my weakness.

2 Corinthians 1:30 NASB95

And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

2 Corinthians 12:9 NASB95

For indeed He was crucified because of weakness, yet He lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, yet we will live with Him because of the power of God directed toward you.

2 Corinthians 13:4 NASB95
Look again at what Jesus says to the church of Laodicea:

‘Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” a

You think you are so strong, so powerful, so sufficient, yet you don’t know that you are actually none of these things. The message is clear- get a realistic view of yourself from the eyes of God! See yourself for who I say you really are.

18

In order to understand the words of Jesus, you have to understand the irony of this language. “I advise you…” is taken from Isaiah 55:1 when the prophet says: “you who have no money…”. Laodicea has all the money one could ever want, and Jesus says- you have nothing in my eyes. So what does one who has nothing have? Only their life- So Jesus says: Buy from me, with the cost of your life, gold refined by fire.
Why does Jesus introduce Himself at the beginning of this letter as

…the faithful and true Witness

Revelation 3:14 NASB95
Literally “the faithful and true martyr” The one who did not love His life, but gave up His life as a ransom for us all.
The message to the church today is this: Are you so comfortable in what you have, your pleasures, your way of life, your coming to church and doing your spiritual duty, that have allowed yourself to sink into uselessness in Gods kingdom. Are you like the church of Laodicea; where you have everything naturally and nothing eternally? God would say to you, the very same thing He said to the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:21

Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete,

It doesn’t mean that your money, your comfort, your wealth or ease is useless or evil. But rather it means that if it is not producing a kingdom reward, lives saved or people discipled; if it is not cold-spring of refreshing, or a hot-spring of healing, it is nothing in Gods eyes.
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