The Church of Laodicea

Tom Shrader teaches on Jesus's letter to the church at Laodicea, the final message to the seven churches in Revelation. He explains how this wealthy city's lukewarm water supply perfectly illustrates the church's spiritual condition - neither hot nor cold, but disgustingly lukewarm. Jesus calls out their self-deception and complacency, offering to restore intimate fellowship with those who recognize their true spiritual poverty.

“What makes the Christian faith unique among all of the faiths in the world is ours is about a God seeking us, not man seeking God.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: What Christ Says to the Church (Revelations)

Recorded: 2004

Duration: 39 min

Themes: complacency, repentance, wealth, pride, intimacy, fellowship, deception, restoration, struggling with pride, comfortable christian, wealthy believer, spiritually lukewarm, church member, self-deceived person, materially blessed, avoiding accountability

Scripture: Revelation 3:14-22, Revelation 2-3, Acts 24:25, Philippians 1:6, Matthew 5:3, John 1:1

Theological Themes: ecclesiology, church discipline, spiritual blindness, divine judgment, christology, spiritual poverty, sanctification, becoming holy

Full Transcript

If you have a Bible or an app or whatever you're using, if not the hard copies in front of you, open your Bible to the book of Revelation and the third chapter and today we pick up in verse 14. We're looking at the seven churches that are in the book of Revelation chapter 2 and 3. To remind you they are seven actual churches. Some of you have your big Bibles with you in the back are maps and in that map you can go and see Paul's missionary journeys and you'll see these seven actual churches. If you come from Patmos, the island in the Mediterranean, we had a group of 44 who were on Patmos two weeks ago and they tell me it was just really cool. I always visioned it as a little rock for some reason but there's about 4,000 people that live on Patmos today.

If you come inland from Patmos, if you go essentially a little northeast, you come to Ephesus and it starts a kind of an oval and Smyrna and Pergamum and Thyatira and Sardis and Philadelphia and then the last of the churches is Laodicea. So let's read this, make a couple of comments along the way, then we'll break it down and lots of application for us today.

The Letter to Laodicea

To the angel of the church at Laodicea, so that's the general pattern, the recipient, strength, weakness, action, promise. To the angel of the church at Laodicea, write these things. Jesus identifies himself, He customizes the introduction to fit the circumstance that He's going to address, in this case at Laodicea. These things says the Amen, the faithful, the true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.

Verse 15, I know your works that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot, so then because you're lukewarm, neither cold or hot, I'll vomit you out of my mouth. Verse 17, because you say I'm rich and have become wealthy and need of nothing, you do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, naked, blind and naked.

I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in fire that you may be rich, and white garments that you may be clothed. The shame of your nakedness may not be revealed. Anoint your eyes with salve that you may see. Seems kind of a weird phrase to drop in there, but it's going to come together really quickly when we get into it.

Verse 19, as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten, therefore be zealous and repent. Verse 20, a verse that might be familiar to many of you if you've been around Bible stuff for long, behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I'll come in to him and dine with him and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on the throne as I also overcame and sit with my Father on His throne.

So the letter, like the previous six, is addressed to the angel, the elder, the teaching elder at the church, in this case of Laodicea.

The Historical Context of Laodicea

Here's some background on Laodicea, and really important, I love this stuff, really important, and I think will make this application and letter come to life. Laodicea was founded in 250 BC. It was important, as you look at it, for its military position. If you came on land there, this was a place that you could use to hold off any kind of attacking, warring army.

It was known for a water problem it had. It had these very famous hot springs that were therapeutic, but it also was how they got their drinking water, and the hot springs were six miles from the city. So by the time the water got into town, it wasn't hot, wasn't cold. It was renowned as, you should see your face, just to look on you, it's that you can tell. And so, this is a huge problem, but the application, you can see the imagery, the people would connect with it real quickly.

It had a large Jewish population, I don't know how they know this stuff, 7,500 Jewish males. So for the Christian faith as it expanded, that's always a tension, always a challenge.

The Three Industries of Laodicea

Here's the big three. It was a center of banking and clothing and medicine. It was a center for banking. You'll like this, some of you who are the hardcore libertarian types will enjoy this. In 61 AD, the city was destroyed. Rome came in to offer support and rebuild the city, and they said, no thanks, we don't want to be beholden to anybody. We'll build it our way. And they could do that. It was a banking center, and so they pulled that off.

They also raised sheep that were black sheep that produced this magnificent wool, very inexpensive, and allowed them to manufacture these beautiful garments and sell them inexpensively. So that generated cash, and it was a medical center. There were medical students literally from all over the world that came to study, particularly in two things. They had invented a salve, an oil, that was used for the treatment of ear disease and eye disease. So you can see the physical imagery of the spiritual truth being able to hear and see.

So I just mean, it was kind of a combination of Wells Fargo, Nordstrom's, and the Mayo Clinic. They had a lot going for it, a lot of industry growing on here. So it was a great city. Paul comes in, church is established.

A Personal Challenge

Now Jesus writes back to this church, and let me give you this. This is a big, if you get this, it takes, I think, the enrichment of this to the next level. I was talking to somebody the other day, and they said, I'm really enjoying this study because I see the seven characteristics, and I'm having a fun time seeing where I fit. Remember what we said at the beginning? These churches represent seven types of churches that you'll find in all of history, and we said churches are made up of people, so the challenge becomes, what type of person am I?

Now I'll give you some parameters. This is totally judgmental, but I don't mind doing that. If you have been around this Christian thing for a while, and if you go to a good church, there's a good chance Laodicea represents you. So that's the tease.

Jesus' Self-Identification

Here's how Jesus identifies himself. You see it in the last part of verse 14. He's the Amen. We think of Amen typically as a response. Here's a statement, Amen.

What it represents is much more than agreement. Jesus is the final authority, and He is faithful, and He's true. He's genuine. Jesus doesn't say He speaks the truth. He says, "I am the truth." I'm a true witness. I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. He hides nothing. It's plain. It's clear.

He's the beginning of creation. In the beginning, John tells us, the Word, Jesus was with God, and the Word was God, and Jesus is the one who creates. Jesus is the one who begins creation. One author writes this: Jesus speaking to the chaotic abyss of Laodicea's failure can make her anew, as He once made the whole world.

Jesus Can Make You Anew

Here's what I know. I've been looking at most of you for a solid year now, and you look about the same every week. Haven't lost many pounds, haven't gained many pounds. You haven't lost a ton of hair. Hair's still gray. You look the same. My guess is in a year that circumstantially, your life has had these ups and downs to it, but it's very hard to see.

Just demographically, with this many people in the room, some of you have to be going through some very tough times. Had a gentleman come up I taught at one of our campuses on Sunday, and he said, "Can I meet with you?" I said, "Well, I'm getting ready. I got a really busy week. I'm trying to get out of town. I'm writing seven new talks. I got a whole bunch of stuff I want to do. We're going to be gone. How about if we go till August? We get back at the end of July."

Here's what he said: "I can't wait till August." You would have never known that by looking at him. When I waved at him, he was standing there, playing with his kids, talking to his wife. She's all smiley. He had an okay look on his face. So you might be in that boat right here, right now. What Jesus is saying to you is what He said to Laodicea: I can make you anew. You're a new creature in Christ.

Breaking the Pattern

We talk each week about the general outline. This week at Laodicea breaks the outline. It's the only one of the seven churches that Jesus does not mention a strength. For whatever reason, obviously He's God, so He knows what He's doing. He doesn't mention a strength, but He nails the weakness. It's lukewarm.

One author just has this little phrase: "Lukewarm is the worst form of blasphemy." I don't know if that's true or not. I can tell you, lukewarm are the toughest people for a teacher, at least for me anyway, to deal with.

The Danger of Familiarity

I mentioned we'll go to Cannon Beach, and we'll get in there Saturday, and we have a session Saturday night, two Sunday, two Monday, two Tuesday. On Saturday night, we'll be in a room, it'll seat about 250 people, and it'll be pretty full. They'll welcome, and they'll start to lay out, here's what we do with kids, all the housekeeping stuff. Then before we get started tonight, they'll ask, "How many of you have been here before?"

This is a conference center. Family Conference has been going on at this joint since the 50s. The lady that started Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center, her sister started Christian Women's Club. These are old, hardcore, long-term Christian people with a cool vision. They went into Cannon Beach and bought the Cannon Beach Hotel, which was this run-down, 10-bedroom place. They got a vision that they wanted to open a conference center where people, primarily from Portland, could come and have - here's the catchphrase - "a vacation with a purpose."

Isn't that a great idea? Come and hang out at the beach, and then twice a day, bring them in and smack them around with Bible teaching. That's what they did. It's changed over the years. But they'll say, "How many of you have been here before?" And 80% of the hands will go up. Of those 80%, there will always be at least one family for whom it's an annual event - this is the Fourth of July, so that's a big deal up there. There'll be great-grandma, great-grandpa, grandma, grandpa, mom, dad, and it'll be four generations.

I went on, and I'm going through the guys that have spoken up there, and the list goes on and on. It's Swindoll, and Howie Hendricks, and J. Vernon McGee, and John MacArthur. This'll be the 96th talk I've given up there. Well, these people have heard all this stuff. They've come through the routine. They know where they stop to get candy on the way in. They've already made a trip downtown to get candy. Now the Bible can be part of it. It's not hard to grow lukewarm. You need to be honest and self-aware.

Hot, Cold, or Lukewarm

Here's what He said: you're not hot, you're not cold. I like my food and beverage the way it's supposed to be. The only time I drink diet soda is with Mexican food. If we go get Mexican food, I'll say I want a Diet Coke with a lot of ice, because it seems to me that's the way you're supposed to drink diet soda, or iced tea, or whatever. Why would I have iced tea if I didn't have a lot of ice in it? Sandy'll go, "I'll have a Diet Coke, but not much ice." That doesn't make any sense.

My food that's hot - I don't mean spicy, temperature - I want it hot. What Jesus is saying here is, "I wish you were hot, or I wish you were cold." He's not saying, "I wish you were apathetic and cold and dead." I'd rather have you hot, but you've carved out this place in the middle, this spiritual Switzerland that doesn't exist.

Jesus is very clear. You're either for Me or against Me. You either get this, and you follow it, or you don't. It's not like, "Well, I'm agnostic. I don't have enough information." You're against Him. Jesus is very deliberate. There's a guy by the name of Felix.

The Lukewarm Problem

Felix had what I call a Philly name - and Paul is sharing with Felix. He's a bad, bad guy. In Acts chapter 24, verse 25, reading from the message, Luke tells us, "As Paul continued to insist on right relations with God and his people, about a life of moral discipline and judgment to come, Felix felt things getting a little too close for comfort and dismissed him and said, 'That's enough for today. I'll call you back when it's convenient.'"

You know people like that. You're not really even planning it, but they'll go, "Hey, there's something different going on in your life. What is it?" They're hoping it's a pill or you're working out or something. They don't want to hear Jesus. You start to tell them, "Well, it's Jesus," and they're intrigued and compelled. At the same time repulsed and say, "I'll get back to you at another time." That's a no.

"I know your deeds. I wish that you were cold or hot. You're not." This doesn't sound very Jesus-like, but He says, "You make me want to throw up." It's the toughest crowd.

Dealing with Spiritual Indifference

If I sit down with somebody and they go, "This whole faith thing is a crock. I don't buy it. You're nuts. You've committed intellectual suicide," I've been down there. If you sit down with a Bill Maher kind of a guy, though you're not going to make necessarily much headway, at least you have the roles defined.

If you sit down with somebody and they'll go - here you go. I remember one day I was all wound up and I was just grinding and grinding, "You stink," blah, blah, blah. A guy's going out and here's what he said: "That was really interesting." Really? I mean, you ought to either be repulsed or on board, but interesting? I don't know what to do with that.

Two Types of Lukewarm People

You may be here today in one of two spots as it relates to this lukewarm. You've been around all this stuff for a while, but you've never made a commitment. You've never come to Christ in repentance and faith. Never acknowledged your sin and His provision for that. You might be - because I'm going to contend the people at Laodicea might even have been religious people.

Or you might be somebody who's come to faith, and of all the talks I've done in the last year, I think the one that got the most response was coming in here and talking about being in this faith and it just becoming routine. I'm just going through, I'm hearing the same thing, I'm going through the same motion, I'm doing the same thing, I meet with the same people. You can get in that routine and not even see it.

That's what He's saying here. He's saying, "You're blind to this." You see it in verse 17? "You say you're rich and you say you're wealthy and you don't need anything."

Lack of Self-Awareness

They lack - here would be our term in our culture today - they lack self-awareness. You don't realize you're not okay. "You're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked."

I was talking to a friend about a mutual friend. Now it sounds like gossip, but it wasn't. I just said, "How's he doing?" And then he said something. I said, "He's never really climbed on board with the faith." Here's what he said: "He doesn't need anything."

You know people like that. If they want something, they get it, they buy it, they rent it, they lease it. If I want to get back to the Quad Cities in October, I got basically two options now. I can go through Denver and back out - it's a four-hour layover on the way back. Or I blow into O'Hare, miss 48 planes, and sit on the ground while all weather breaks out around me and get to the Quad Cities. This guy, if he wants to go to the Quad Cities, he just calls, he goes to Scottsdale Airpark, they load the bags, wheels up in a minute and 40 seconds, and he's going to be there in three hours and change. I talked to him about TSA and he's going, "I don't know, I don't experience TSA. That's for you, Tom."

The Problem with Self-Sufficiency

Here's the problem with these people. I wrote these words: they're smug, self-sufficient, complacent. They've got plenty of cash, they look good, they've got all the trappings, but they don't see the real need.

Sandy and I - and I'll tell you, we've been married now 49 months. I knew this when we dated, we didn't date very long, and that's always a - I don't know, my friends were worried that it was too fast. "Do you know her?" I said, "I don't know what else to do. I ran the financials, and I know her blood type. I don't know what else to do. She's not going to be any more honest with me in a month. We're both lying to each other about who we are, so let's just get married and get it over with."

My three big things in my life are television, politics, and sports. Those are my three big ones. So a year like this year, other than the two candidates are so repulsive that - I'm sorry, because I've kept that out of here pretty much, but I'm so sick of this whole thing. But I still watch. Sports, this is a bad time. I mean, I'm down to college baseball. This is how far I've fallen. So it's not quite football. And television.

Well, Sandy hates politics, sports, and television. She never had a television. We were talking the other day about raising kids, and we were talking about different things. "Did you watch Sesame Street?" She said, "Well, we didn't have a television. We did things." I said, "Oh, well, that's too bad. You should have had some money and got a TV, and you'd have been happy."

So I'm gradually breaking her down. We just binge watch old series. We went through West Wing, which was great. We're into Blue Bloods now, second season, 12th episode. I really like - it's one of the few shows I've ever watched where I like every character. I love Danny, and I kind of like Grandpa a little bit. I love Erin. I love that little Nicky, the little fifth. I like the show.

If you watch Blue Bloods, a central piece of that show is Sunday dinner. Dinner always begins with grace in a conversation, and it looks like they're having lamb chops or pork roast. They've got potatoes. It's very old-fashioned, and I have a lot of people, when I say Blue Bloods, comment on that. That's just great. That's how it was.

Here's how I see the people at Laodicea. They're saying grace, and they probably pray publicly, and they probably go to church, though they complain on the way in and out, I'm sure. They're probably reading something. They read that Bible maybe once a week. They practice a quiet time, whatever that means anymore. Give a little cash. They're not too involved. So they're able to see themselves as good people.

The Danger of Self-Deception

Years ago, I was doing an Easter service, and we did, I think, eight services on Easter morning. It was a lot of work, and I'm wearing down physically. The first one was like at 4 or 5:30 or 5, I don't know what it was, but we're into this, and I used to wear a coat and tie, so I'm miserable. Finally, I got up on like the fifth one, and I said, I don't understand why you people come on Easter. I don't get it. I mean the ones of you that are visiting. If you want to pick a Sunday, pick next Sunday. There'll be nobody here. You can park wherever you want. The childcare will be better.

We'll see people on Christmas and Easter, and I always try to make a point. I'm glad you're here, that we get to talk to you, but I'm sad because you're walking out thinking you're okay, and you aren't. If somebody said to you where to go to church, you'd say Redemption Gilbert, but you don't. You come here to get your card punched on Christmas and Easter. You're not okay, and you're worse off. That's the people at Laodicea. They said, I'm okay. I go to church, and I go, nah, here you missed the point.

True Spiritual Poverty

They thought they were rich, but they were really spiritually bankrupt. Blessed are the poor in spirit, the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, and as you know, in the Greek, there's two words for poor. One is what we might call working poor. These are people that are working two jobs, three jobs, and barely getting by. That's not the word that Jesus uses.

The other word for poor is totally bankrupt, sitting in a corner begging, not saying do you have any spare change, begging, hiding, totally dependent on whatever comes into that pot to live on. He said, that's what you are. You thought you were rich, but you're poor. You thought you were clothed in these beautiful clothing, but spiritually, before God, you're naked. You think you can see. You think you got 20-20 vision, but you're really blind.

So that's the point of self-awareness for you. Easy to deceive ourselves. The only person on the planet that I give the benefit of the doubt is me. I'm hypercritical of everybody else. I'm a lot better than I used to be, which is a cop-out, because you're still bad. But to accurately see who you are, who you trust.

When Jesus Is All You Have

We have a song we sing at church, Jesus is All I Need. It's a cool little song, but I have a hard time singing it, just because I know I don't live that way. I think it was Corrie Ten Boom who said, and this is great: You don't know that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have. As long as you got plan B, as long as you go, I'm really banking on this deal, but if that doesn't work I, I'm really counting on this but.

What Jesus is saying, I think primarily to this church, and because they're in church, I'm even going to make a leap that maybe they're Christians, is you're saying Jesus is all you need, but you're counting on your own skill, your own cleverness, your own wit, your own works. Work my way to heaven.

I was talking to Neil Pitchell, who is our administrator at church. We have seven minutes left, eight minutes left, and he had kind of a smile on his face, and I said, are you having a good day? He said, I'm having a great day, and I said, why? And his answer was, well, there was a lady who came in today who's been at church the last three weeks, and she's coming out of a denomination. I'm not going to tell you which one, because that'll lose the power. You can figure it out. It's a denomination, very religious, lots of works going on, and she said, I've heard about grace, I want grace, I'm so, and then she started crying, I'm so tired of trying to be good enough.

You're never going to be good enough. You've already blown that. That's a sweet sound. That's that word grace.

The Discipline of Love

What comes out of this is a great picture. He says in verse 19, "As many as I love, I rebuke them, I chasten them." It has to do with training. If God loves you, He's going to discipline you. The fact that He disciplines you is good news in the sense that it means you're His kid. He doesn't discipline you or rebuke you if you aren't His kid.

I was a reasonably strict parent, I think. I certainly spanked, well, not often, but when I deemed it necessary. I always tried to reel myself in to make sure I was disciplining in love, not punishing in anger. But we had a lot of kids in our neighborhood that were way worse than mine that really needed somebody to knock them up the side of the head or discipline them or do whatever it is you're going to do. But I never did, though they deserve it, because they weren't my kids.

Standing at the Door

So He says, I'm going to rebuke you and chasten you, verse 20, and we're going to have to close with it. "Behold, I stand at the door and I knock. If anyone hears my voice and open the door, I come in and dine with him and him with me."

Now, you've heard that verse, probably, taught that Jesus stands at the door of your heart and He's knocking and He's waiting for you to invite Him in to come into a relationship. In fact, there's a very famous painting that you'll see with a guy standing at the door. I assume it's Jesus, don't know, never seen a picture, but he looks like Jesus.

The Doorknob Picture

And He's standing like this, but what's unique about that picture is what? No doorknob. The implication is you're on the inside, that you have to open it. We're talking about salvation now. Now, this is unfair to drop this bomb with four minutes left, but your salvation is not based on you inviting Him in but on Him breaking down the door. Think of Blue Bloods, think of Danny going on a bus, breaking down the door. That's God coming in to get you.

What makes the Christian faith unique among all of the faiths in the world is ours is about a God seeking us, not man seeking God. But I think what He's writing to, and the picture here, is to the church.

The Dinner Invitation

The word "dine" - they would, in that day, eat three meals. A breakfast would be dried bread dipped in wine. A lunch would be something they would eat during the day along the side of the road. I was at the Red Light the other day and there was a construction project that some guys were working on. Not a big project, small one. There were like five guys sitting there eating lunch. And it just caused me to just thank Jesus that I'm not doing that. Not because it's below me, it's just I'm not wired for that. That's not my deal. And they're eating lunch and I thought of the lunch that Jesus is talking about here. That's how they'd eat lunch, along the side of the road.

But the big meal was dinner. Dinner would bring the whole family together, maybe friends, and it would go on and you'd have like real conversation and talk. You talk to young families today, they don't do that anymore. The question we used to have in our generation is "How often do you eat out?" Now we ask, "Do you ever cook at home?" One of the gals that Sandy works out with said to Sandy the other day, "You'd be so proud of me. I made dinner last night, not just chicken McNuggets from a box, but I cooked chicken and asparagus." And she said, "It's the first time, they've been married 10 years, first time I've made dinner." And you don't have any money and you're fat. I can tell you why - you're eating out. I mean, you can't live like that.

Well, this is the dinner. And Jesus is saying, here's where interaction takes place.

Jesus Wants to Be Part of What's Happening

So here's what Jesus is saying to you and me. "I'm standing at the door," and He's saying to the church, "You know, it's pretty cool what you got going on in there. The music's good, the video's good, the lights are coming, the smoke is blowing, all this stuff is going on, it's pretty cool. You got almost everything you need except me. And I want to come in and I want to be part of that."

See, that's you. That union that you have with God is unbreakable. Somebody asked the question just the other day, and you get the question all the time, "Bob was a Christian and he kind of walked away and he died, is he in heaven?" So I said, "Well, you define that in the question. You said Bob was a Christian. Christians go to heaven." Now, we could debate whether Bob was a Christian or not, I don't even know the guy. So I don't know, all I can tell you is, if I'm a Christian, I'm as sure of heaven as the saints that are there.

Union vs. Communion

So it's not a picture of me hanging on to Jesus, it's Jesus hanging on to me. My union with Him is unbreakable. My communion with Him is based on me. I was listening to Howie Hendricks talk the other night and he said, you know, he was a street kid in Philly and God saved him and somebody gave him a Bible and they wrote in the front of it. And I've thought ever since, it had to be written in the front of all of our Bibles: "This book will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from this book." All right, it's as simple as that. This book will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from this book.

It won't affect the status of my union - that's unbreakable. "He who began a good," Philippians 1:6, "He who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Christ Jesus." That union's unbreakable.

The Vitality of Spiritual Life

But the vitality of that - haven't you experienced it in your life? There's just sometimes where spiritually, it's like you're in, it's the equivalent of being in the zone. You're Steph Curry and the bucket looks like it's six feet wide. Now, not in game seven, but it looks like it's six feet wide. Sometimes spiritually, it's like, "I can't miss. I'm just going to knock this down." I get over every putt and boom, everything looks big.

But there's other times where the cup looks like it's - when I coach third and fourth grade girls basketball, what I did at the beginning of every year first practice is get a ladder and get two basketballs and I climbed up and I would hold, because the two basketballs fit inside the hoop. And these girls were blown away by that because you look at it and it doesn't look like one ball's going to go through there - you had two. And I said, "Girls, this is a big old bucket." And some days it looks like that, but some days it doesn't, and the difference is my sin.

Jesus' Call to Involvement

To those of you who are maybe here and saying, "I'm really struggling, I'm not hot, I'm not cold. I'm going through the motion," Jesus is saying, "I don't just want you to participate, I want you to be involved. I want you on fire. I want you to live this as though it's true. I want your life to be characterized by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. And I'll come in and I'll provide that work."

What you do - we don't like this word - what you do is submit to Him.

So that's the seven churches. Take by the door of church five and six and grab those on the way out. Leave me something so I can get that mailed to you.

Father, thank You for this truth.

Apply it to our heart. Thank you for the men and women that are here. It blows me away when I come in and see people week after week. God, I pray that this time is helpful and useful to them, to us, and that we glorify You. We pray it in Christ's name, amen.

All right, have a great summer. See you.