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The Church at Laodicea
Good afternoon.
I hope that everyone is doing well and enjoying what has been so far a beautiful weekend.
Today we are looking at the last of the letters to the churches.
Todays letter is addressed to the church in Laodicea.
It is the letter I believe has come to look most like the church in America.
Not every church but it does many.
The problem is that wealth has a tendency to cause spiritual laziness.
And this laziness causes a break in our relationship with Jesus that we often times don’t even see.
And here’s the thing it doesn’t take a lot of wealth to get there.
Just a little will suffice to cause this split between you and Jesus.
My hope is that this is not true of any who are in this room.
But I know otherwise.
I say this because I have seen the affect that it has had on myself and other first hand.
Wealth leads us away from feeling the need for Jesus in our lives.
It creates lives void of time in the word and in prayer.
Listen, if this is you?
Know this.
It’s ok.
Because there is hope.
Jesus is standing right here right now right next to you simply waiting for you to reach out to him.
So if you feel far from Jesus then let’s look at this letter and find the fix.
Laodicea
The city of Laodicea was situated at the crossroads of three very important roads in ancient Rome.
As a result of this location it had become an important city.
In particular in the areas of industry and banking.
As a testament to its wealth in AD 60-61 the area was hit by a severe earthquake.
Many of the surrounding cities suffered significant loss.
Laodicea alone was able to rebuild without needing to borrow from the imperial treasury.
This was one of the wealthiest if not the wealthiest cities in the region.
The city was well known for its medical school and in particular the creation of both an ear ointment as well as an eye-salve.
Remember this point.
Because God is going to use this information later in his letter to the church.
We are going to find in our passage that the church was quite prosperous and it appears that outwardly it was quite successful.
There is no external persecution from Roman officials, Jews, or even false teachers.
This church was a prime example of a nominal, self-satisfied Christian church that had become completely complacent in their walk with Jesus.
And as result the culture around them pretty much left them alone.
Satan had little to fear from this church.
Now that we have some background information concerning the city and the church let’s look closer at the letter.
We read in verse fourteen
Jesus Revealed
Let’s look closer at how it is that Jesus reveals himself in this first verse to the church at Laodicea.
He begins with the words “The Words of the Amen.”
The Word of the Amen
The word Amen here is actually the representation of a Hebrew idea using a greek word.
In common English today we don’t have a singular word that translates this idea very well.
What this phrase is conveying is that God is the faithful one, He is reliable and trustworthy.
He can be trusted to keep his covenant with his people.
Next Jesus reveals himself as the faithful and true witness.
Faithful And True Witness
The key to understanding what Jesus is revealing about himself here is the word witness.
Because in the previous statement we said that Jesus is faithful and trustworthy to keep his covenant.
We could say that therefore Jesus is a faithful and true witness.
In essence he can be trusted to communicate the truth to us as a witness as to what has happened, is happening now, and is still yet to come.
Finally, Jesus reveals himself as the beginning of God’s creation.
The Beginning of Creation
My favorite commentator on the book of Revelation likes to say that Jesus as the “Beginning” of creation is the source and origin of creation.
The problem with this is that this isn’t clearly found in the meaning of this word.
Could it be.
Sure, it’s possible.
But I don’t believe likely.
Jesus in our letter was initially introduced as the first and the last, the alpha and the Omega.
And we are going to see these descriptors again as we near the end of our book.
These ideas present a picture of Jesus as being transcendent of and above all of creation.
The greek word used here that everyone translates as beginning can and is often times used secularly during Roman times to mean a supreme ruler.
As my daughter likes to point out context is very important.
And so I believe giving the context of of the book and the letter to Laodicea Jesus is revealing himself as the one who rules over all of creation.
So Jesus is faithful to His people.
And his witness to us in the Scripture are to be trusted as true.
Why?
Because Jesus is the ruler over all of creation.
This is who Jesus is revealing himself to the Laodicean church as.
He continues in verses fifteen and sixteen and says,
I don’t know why, but recently in my household there has been a rash of people taking water from the kitchen sink and choosing not to first check the temperature.
And well, for some unknown reason this week in particular.
That water has been lukewarm.
And everyone that has done so has instantly wished they had not.
And their first response is to get that gross water out of their mouths.
LUKEWARM = DISGUST/GROSS
But why?
It doesn’t actually have any difference in flavor.
It’s just water.
But there is something particularly disgusting about lukewarm water that is gross in our mouths.
And this is how Jesus describes the relationship that this church has with Him.
He would almost, it appears, prefer that they chose false doctrine or something adverse in their relationship with him.
But just an indifferent, nominal, complacency in ones relationship with God is the most dangerous and disgusting to God.
It almost sound like anything would be better than the nausea inducing lukewarm relationship that they have chosen to have with Him.
The obvious question that comes from this statement is what is your relationship with Jesus like right now?
If it’s lukewarm I would suggest finding a solution.
Because Jesus says that he will spit you our from His mouth.
Not sure about you but this sounds like an irrevocable rejection of the Church at Laodicea.
And I believe that this strong language is needed.
It is needed to wake those of us who may be on cruise control in their relationship with Jesus.
Spiritual indifference is not the place you want to be.
Don’t worry I will address this a bit more when we wrap things up this afternoon.
Jesus continues in verse seventeen and says,
Wealth has an alluring trait to it.
I am rich = I need nothing
Here is how the church tends to work.
It’s clearly not always true, but it is definitely something that needs to be watched for.
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