End Times Study

The Church at Laodicea - Foolish Church

It has been three weeks since we have been in our study of the end times, the last time we looked at the 6th of the seven letters to the churches, which was the letter to the church at Philadelphia.

Tonight we are going to look at the final letter of the seven, the Letter to the church at Laodicea the foolish church, or what most people know it as the lukewarm church.

I. Destination: V. 14

Revelation 3:14 CSB

14 “Write to the angel of the church in Laodicea: Thus says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the originator of God’s creation:

We know from our previous studies of the letters that the angel of the church is the pastor of the church, is who Jesus is referring to here as the angel of the church.

Here he is writing to the church in Laodicea: was located on the southern bank of the Lycus River, a tributary of the Maeander River in the southwestern region of ancient Phrygia, in the area of modern Curuksucay in central Turkey.

The ancient town stood on a plateau nearly a hundred feet above the river. Although it was undoubtedly a station on the caravan route from Ephesus to northern Syria.

Laodicea grew to wealth in prominence during the Roman rule, when it was a way station for the extensive shipments by which Rome exploited Syria.

Laodicea was also known for its manufacturing of special eye salves, as well as flossy black wool cloth.

About 35 years before this letter was written, Laodicea was destroyed by an earthquake, but it had the wealth and ability to rebuild, and it did so fairly quickly.

The Lord presented himself as the Amen, which is an Old Testament title for God which is seen in Isaiah 65:16 where the word truth is the Hebrew word amen.

Isaiah 65:16 CSB

16 Whoever asks for a blessing in the land will ask for a blessing by the God of truth, and whoever swears in the land will swear by the God of truth. For the former troubles will be forgotten and hidden from my sight.

The Lord was about to tell the church at Laodicea the truth about its spiritual condition; unfortunately, they would not believe His diagnosis.

The Laodicean Church was blind to its own needs and unwilling to face the truth. Yet honesty is the beginning of true blessing, as we admit what we are, confess our sins, and receive from God all that we need.

If we want God’s best for our lives and church, we must be honest and let God be honest with us.

Jesus continues to identify Himself as the faithful and true witness, the originator of God’s creation: As the originator of God’s creation - Jesus existed before God’s creation and is sovereign over it.

Colossians 1:15 CSB

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

Jesus was preparing the people for the stern word of rebuke that he was about to give them.

II. The Rebuke Vs. 15-17

Revelation 3:15–16 CSB

15 I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot. 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth.

Jesus does not offer the church at Laodicea any words of commendation, He did not find anything that he could tell them they were doing good at.

They were pictured in Jesus’ eyes as utterly abhorrent because they were lukewarm.

In the Christian life, there are three spiritual temperatures: a burning heart, on fire for God, a cold heart, and a lukewarm heart.

The lukewarm Christian is comfortable, complacent, and does not realize his need. If he were cold, at least he would feel it! Both the cold water from Colossae and the hot water from Hieropolis would be lukewarm by the time it was piped to Laodicea.

If the church were cold, if it were a stranger to Christ, like the heathen, or even if it cherished a positive animosity against Him, He would not approach it in the character of a judge; it might yet become, hot.

It has just enough Christianity to come under condemnation, but not sufficient to attain to blessedness, for the reason that it is not hot.

In verse 15, Jesus says, I wish that you were cold or hot, when a drink that is meant to be cold gets warm or one that is meant to be hot gets warm, and you take a drink from it, a lot of times it will cause you to be nauseous.

Jesus says, because you are lukewarm I am going to vomit you out of my mouth, when you drink something and you are expecting it to be cold and it is not or expecting it to be hot but it is not, you want to spit it out, Well Jesus says, you are not hot or cold, and therefore, I am just going to reject you, vomit you out of my mouth.

III. The Cause of Lukewarm. V. 17

Revelation 3:17 CSB

17 For you say, ‘I’m rich; I have become wealthy and need nothing,’ and you don’t realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.

The Laodicean problem, the reason they were lukewarm, was that they had gathered earthly wealth and instead of relying of God for their needs, they had gotten to a point where they thought they did not need God any more.

They would say, I am rich, and wealthy and need nothing, what happens is we get comfortable in church, in a ministry, and things start to go good, everything is working and running smoothly, and we start to say and think, look what I have accomplished, look at how I am doing.

We begin to get content, and we forget about God, we think we can do it without God, we forget that it is all about God, and that God is the one that put it all together, that has allowed that ministry to prosper.

And God can take that ministry, our life, our wealth, our health, anything he wants from us at any time he decides.

No matter what it is, God has control over it, and no matter what God is the reason it is going as good as it is, we better continue to seek Him for it and rely on Him, and thank him for all that he does.

Do not get lukewarm, Because without God, we are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked, but with God we are the riches we will and can ever be.

We must remember it is all about Jesus, we are just vessels to be used by him to complete the mission and ministry that He has called us too.

IV. Exhortation Vs. 18-19

Revelation 3:18–19 CSB

18 I advise you to buy from me gold refined in the fire so that you may be rich, white clothes so that you may be dressed and your shameful nakedness not be exposed, and ointment to spread on your eyes so that you may see. 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be zealous and repent.

How were the Laodicean people to overcome their lukewarmness, well, Jesus gives them the solution.

Pay the price to get true gold tried in the fire. This suggest that the church needed some persecution; they were too comfortable. Nothing makes God’s people examine their priorities faster than suffering!

The Laodiceans were blind, they could not see reality, they had lost their vision. They got to caught up in themselves, and what they wanted to do, they were proud of a church that was about to be rejected.

Peter teaches that when a believer is not growing in the Lord, his spiritual vision is affected, which we see in 2 Peter 1:5-9

2 Peter 1:5–9 CSB

5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, 6 knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, 7 godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 The person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins.

These people could not see themselves as they really were. Nor could they see their Lord as He stood outside the door of the church. Nor could they see the open doors of opportunity.

They were so wrapped up in building their own kingdom that they had become lukewarm in their concern for a lost world.

The solution to the problem of blindness to put eye salve on their eyes, this is not just some eye salve you get from the local eye doctor though, this is eye salve that comes from the great physician.

This eye salve would help the people to see the spiritual situation that they were in, the spiritual needs that they have, and then it would bring them to be earnest and repent.

As Jesus says there in verse 19, He loves us and rebukes and disciplines us, so we need to wake up and repent.

V. Promise Vs. 20-22

Revelation 3:20–22 CSB

20 See! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. 21 “To the one who conquers I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Jesus dramatically pictures himself outside the church knocking on the door. The appeal is for those who hear him knocking to open the door.

To whoever opens the door, Jesus promised, I will go in and eat with him and he with me.

With Jesus on the outside, there can be no fellowship or genuine wealth. With Jesus on the inside, there is wonderful fellowship and sharing of the marvelous grace of God.

Many times we use this verse to call non-believers to salvation, but in reality Jesus is calling the believers at Laodicea to open the door and allow him back into the church.

The people had gotten so full of themselves, they had pushed Jesus out of the church, and now He is calling on them to allow him back in and promises that if they will he will come in and eat with them and they with him.

In verse 21, Jesus tells them the one who conquers, in each letter, we have heard about the one who conquers, that is the one who overcomes the problem that He addressed in the letter, here is the problem of lukewarm.

Therefore, those who overcome, or conquer being lukewarm, He will give the right to sit with him on the throne just as He also conquered and sat down with the Father on his throne.

Jesus tells us how to overcome lukewarmness in the letter, by facing persecution, being tried in our faith.

James 1:2–4 CSB

2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

When we go through trials and tribulations in this life, we must understand that we might not see how or understand how, but there is a reason for them, and God will use them to grow us spiritually, to strengthen our faith in him, if we will keep our eyes on Jesus.

Verse 22, closes the letter to the church at Laodicea and the seven letters with a familiar invitation if you will: Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.

These letters just like the epistles and the rest of Scripture was passed from church to church in order that all believers would be able to learn from them.

These letters to the seven churches come directly from Jesus Himself, and they were relevant to the first century churches when he dictated them to John, and they are still relevant today for us to learn from.

We today need to listen with our flesh ears and more importantly our spiritual ears to what the Holy Spirit is saying to the churches, and to us personally.

What is God trying to reveal to us in our personal life, that we may need to change, that we may need to adjust, or stop, or do.

Maybe we need to open the door in our life, because we have pushed Jesus out, and it is time to allow Jesus back in to sup with us.

Maybe it is time we put Jesus back in first place in our lives and on the throne and start serving him and his will, instead of serving our wants and wishes.