The Church of Laodicea
Tom Shrader examines Jesus's letter to the church at Laodicea in Revelation 3:14-22, the only one of the seven churches that receives no commendation, because its self-sufficient complacency had made it spiritually lukewarm. Drawing on the city's history as a wealthy center of banking, clothing, and medicine, Shrader shows how Laodicea's confidence in material prosperity masked its true spiritual poverty, blindness, and nakedness. He closes with a call to zealous repentance and an invitation to the intimate relationship Christ offers to all who will open the door to Him.
“Jesus is saying, listen, if you're mine and I love you, I will discipline you. Those whom I love I reprove and discipline, therefore be zealous and repent.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: What Christ Says to the Church (Revelation)
Recorded: 2010 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 41 min
Themes: lukewarm faith, repentance, complacency, spiritual blindness, materialism, self-sufficiency, zeal, intimacy with christ, feeling spiritually dry, comfortable in sin, struggling with pride, wealthy believer, nominal christian, long-time churchgoer, middle age, spiritually complacent
Scripture: Revelation 3:14-22, Isaiah 65:16, Hebrews 1:1, Luke 14:25-33
Theological Themes: ecclesiology, church health, sanctification, spiritual poverty, biblical prophecy, revelation, christology, means of grace
Full Transcript
A Note on Susan
Before we get into the text, I want to take a moment to give an update on Susan, because not a day goes by that people aren't stopping me and asking about her. I talked to her yesterday and said I think it's time to do a little update, since we haven't done one in a while.
She was diagnosed November 22nd — it will be six years ago this November, believe it or not. It has been a really hard road for her. I think she has been through four or five surgeries, and she has been in either radiation or chemo now for six years. About every three months they test, and the cycle is good results, less than good results, good results, less than good results. Several tests ago, there had been a little spot on her liver — that is gone. But the new test showed some active cancer on her spine, her neck, and some lymph nodes. Whenever that happens, it requires a new strategy in terms of the chemo. Whatever they are doing isn't working, so they change.
I told her the other day that we need to tell people so they can pray, and her face just lit up. One of the things we have learned over the last six years is the power and the joy and the comfort of simply hearing that people are praying for you. So please be praying for her.
Normally chemo day is Thursday, but she had chemo this past Friday, so I went with her. We were in the hospital for about five and a half hours, came home around 4, and she went to sleep around 5 and got up the next morning about 8 and then slept again. I just got a text from her and she said she is feeling better today. So anyway, be praying about that. God has done great things in our lives through this, but it has not been fun.
Introduction to the Series and the Text
Open your Bibles to the book of Revelation, chapter 3. This is our last Sunday in this series. We will start something new next week — anniversary Sunday — and then we will begin the book of James, which will carry us through the end of the year and into the new year.
Let's look at verse 14 in chapter 3. I will read it, make a couple of comments along the way, and then we will unpack it.
> "To the angel of the church at Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of creation says this. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. 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. I advise you to buy from me gold refined by the fire so that you could become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourselves, 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. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him and he with me. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit with me on my throne as I overcame and sat down with my Father on His throne. He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
The Seven Churches in Context
As we close this series, it is appropriate to make sure we put a bow around it, so I want to go back to what we established in that first week. What Jesus is doing here in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 is speaking to seven actual churches in seven specific locations — we traced them all. Most scholars say these seven churches also represent seven types of churches we will see throughout all of history, seven distinct characteristics.
A church body does not move in a monolithic way, and we may see all sorts of different characteristics present at once, but there tends to be one dominant trait. It is helpful for two things to happen. First, for us — especially as leaders — to examine which of these churches might serve as a direct warning to us. Even as I look at a church that is compromised, a church that is teaching false doctrine, a church that is dead, I don't believe we are any of those things, but it is a warning. It can happen anywhere. Second, churches are made up of people, so although we evaluate these things corporately, it is helpful for you to look at these characteristics individually and ask, does this represent me? Am I like the church at Ephesus that has lost its first love? Or am I like this church at Laodicea?
The Letter's Opening and Its Imagery
The imagery in this letter is really rich. It is addressed in verse 14 to the angel — which means messenger — and that is where the transcript continues.
The City of Laodicea
Laodicea is one of seven cities addressed in the letters of Revelation, and today we turn our focus there. Geographically, it sits 100 miles east of Ephesus and 40 miles southeast of Philadelphia, placing it at either the beginning or the end of the magnificent highway that connects all seven cities. The city was founded in 250 BC and held an important strategic military location — it would have been among the first cities encountered by attackers coming ashore on the eastern side.
The city had a notable water problem. It could not obtain fresh running water internally, so water had to be brought in from two outside sources: a hot spring and a very cold spring, each fed by an aqueduct system. By the time the water arrived in the city, both the hot water and the cold water had become tepid. The imagery this creates is rich — when Jesus says to the church, "You are lukewarm," the people of Laodicea would have immediately understood. It was like the water they drank every day, water they wanted to spit out.
Laodicea had a large Jewish population of approximately 7,500 males. More importantly for our understanding of the city, it was a center of banking, clothing, and medicine, and it was the wealthiest of the seven cities. It was destroyed by an earthquake in 61 AD — a fate that seems common among these seven cities — but what makes Laodicea unique is what happened next.
Rather than accepting government funds to rebuild, the city refused money from Rome entirely. With its strong banking industry and considerable wealth, it rebuilt on its own terms. The city also had a thriving clothing manufacturing base built around a distinctive black sheep that produced a beautiful black wool renowned throughout the region. They mass-produced garments — elegant, well-made, and durable — which generated great commerce.
Laodicea was also a city of medicine. A medical school there was famous throughout the ancient world, both for training physicians and for treating patients who came from afar. It was particularly known for two treatments: a salve for the ear that aided hearing, and a salve for the eye that aided sight. As you read through all of this, the richness of the imagery becomes clear — they would have understood exactly what Jesus was referring to. In our terms, Laodicea was Wells Fargo, Nordstrom's, and the Mayo Clinic all rolled into one.
Injecting Ourselves into the Story
Stepping back and looking at this city, it is hard not to notice how much it resembles the world many of us live in today. The issues the people of Laodicea dealt with are the issues we deal with. There would have been a time crunch, a demand crunch, shipments that needed to go out, commerce that needed to be completed, and books that needed to be balanced. Great wealth brought a certain ease and comfort, but it also brought distraction. That is the backdrop — and we are going to try to step into that picture today.
Jesus Identifies Himself
There is a general pattern in each of these letters: Jesus always speaks autobiographically, identifying Himself before addressing the church. Here, in the last part of verse 14, He says He is "the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God." Isaiah 65:16 tells us that God is the God of the Amen — meaning He is the definitive, final word. Hebrews chapter 1, verse 1 reinforces this: "In the past God spoke to our fathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these days He has spoken to us by His Son." Jesus is the final word.
This point about final authority came to mind recently in a conversation with a gentleman who has been deeply involved in a piece of Arizona legislation that was passed, implemented, challenged, and was scheduled for a hearing before the United States Supreme Court on November 3rd. I asked him about the procedure — how long before an opinion would come down. He said it varies depending on the Court's workload and priorities, but they would likely hear something in March or April. I caught myself at that point, because I was about to ask him: what if this doesn't go your way? The answer, of course, is that you are done. There is nowhere else to go. Once the Supreme Court has ruled, that is the final authority.
Everyone needs a final authority in their life. For some people it is their gut instinct. For others it might be Oprah, or Rush, or the Republicans, or the Tea Party, or the Democrats, or the Independents. It could be any number of things. For us, the final authority is this Word. And that is exactly what Jesus declares here — He is the Amen, the final authority, the faithful and true witness who speaks plainly, clearly, and genuinely. He tells the truth and hides nothing. He is truth, He reveals that truth, and He is the One who creates. In the beginning, God created. God makes everything new. His ultimate plan is to restore all things, and He begins that process by restoring His people.
Whenever we do baby dedications — and we did some that very morning, including Roger and his family — there is always a moment that captures this sense of new creation. There was a little girl that morning wearing what was likely a christening dress that had belonged to her great-grandmother, and —
The Greatest Miracle of All
Her grandmother had it, and she had it too. There is this angelic, literally angelic little look, and you see that and think, what a wonderful creature. And so cleverly they mask their sinfulness. The miracle that God does — maybe the greatest miracle of all — is that He takes us who are sinners and dead and separated from Him, and He allows us to come into right relationship with Him. We can be born again, a new creature, stuck in the same earth suit, but a new creature, with a new heart, with new likes and dislikes, with a battle that wages within us over sin — but a new creature.
Have you experienced that? Because that is the supreme task that we have. When you talk about East Valley Bible Church, what are we all about? It is about declaring to you the glory of God and the promise that He will redeem anyone who will come to Him in repentance and faith.
The problem we see with the people at Laodicea is that they wouldn't. They couldn't. And it really began with themselves — they didn't see themselves as they really were.
The Pattern of the Letters
There is a general pattern in these letters. First, Jesus identifies the recipient. Then Jesus speaks about Himself, identifies a strength, then a weakness, and then generally an action plan and a promise. This is the only one of the seven cities where Jesus mentions no strength. To the loveless city, or even the dead city, He was at least able to find something. But to this lukewarm city, He mentions no strength at all, which causes one author to write: "Lukewarm is the worst form of blasphemy."
Jesus Knows Everything About You
Look at verse 15: "I know your works." We have made this point six times already, so let us make it one more. Jesus knows everything there is to know about you. You cannot hide anything from Him. He is not discovering new information about you.
This is so contrary to our experience. Every person in this room has had the experience — in various degrees of intensity — of entering into a partnership, a marriage, a business arrangement, a friendship with somebody where it did not go well. You found yourself coming close to saying, if I had known that about you, I would have never gotten into this. I would have never married you. I would have never entered this business relationship. I would have never given you that other half of the best friends forever necklace. I would have never done it if I had known that about you.
Maybe I overreact to this because it is so revolutionary for me, but I want it to be for you too. As I thought about God, I never understood this until I came into a right relationship with Him — that He knows everything there is to know about me and loves me anyway. He is never going to say, "Tom, if I had known you were like that, if I had known you thought that way or acted that way or had done that, I would have never let you into this relationship." That is never going to happen.
Isn't that amazing? To me, that takes all the pressure off the relationship. Isn't that what makes dating hard? You want the other person to like you and then maybe fall in love with you. So in order to have them love you, you decide not to let them know what you are really like until after you marry them, when they are stuck. While you are dating, you say, I would never do that, I would never act that way, I would never say that — for fear of being rejected.
But He knows everything there is to know about you. That is maybe why I say it almost every time I teach: I cannot do anything to make God love me more, or cause God to love me less. That is incredible. That terrible, wretched sin you performed last night, or the one you are calculating for this week — when you do it, God will not love you less. That is not a license to sin; it is simply a picture of His love.
He comes back in verse 19 and says, "Those that I love I discipline." All those efforts driven purely by performance — trying to make God happy, trying to get Him to love you — you do not need to do that. He loves you anyway. The basis of our relationship is not driven by performance or fear, but by His love for us, which in turn allows us to love Him.
Neither Cold Nor Hot
He knows your deeds. He knows everything there is to know about you. And here is what He says — going straight to the weakness, with no mention of strength: "You are not cold, you are not hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. But because you are not hot or warm, I will spit you out" — the word means vomit. The word for cold means cold to the point of freezing, and hot to the point of boiling. You are tepid. You are warm gazpacho and cold lasagna. That is what you are. You are simply unappealing.
When you think that through, it is a powerful statement. He says, in effect, I wish you were either alive or dead. It is a strong polemic statement — no compromise.
I was listening to an interview with a biographer, and they asked whether he had ever started a biography and not finished it. He said yes, and he explained that he simply could not develop an emotion for the subject. He said you can write great biography if you love someone or hate them, but if you are neutral toward them, it produces a very ambivalent, lukewarm book.
There is no spiritual Switzerland. That is what Jesus is saying. He states it in the strongest terms: you are either for Me or against Me. There is no such thing in God's economy as agnostic. An agnostic is someone who lacks the courage to be an atheist — someone who simply says, I don't know. But you are either for Him or against Him. You have enough information. This idea of "mañana" — I will get to it another time, I want to avoid this subject, I do not want to deal with it — He is saying there is no room for that.
Counting the Cost
I'm in a group that meets for six consecutive Fridays about three times a year. We study various things, and right now we're going through some selected parables. The one we had this past Friday morning was from Luke 14 — the idea of counting the costs.
You don't need to turn there; I'll just read it to you. We started in verse 28, but really you could begin this dialogue in verse 25. From Luke chapter 14, verse 25: "Now large crowds were going along with Him and He turned to them and He said, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which one of you, when you want to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if you have enough to complete it."
He speaks in these polemic terms. The idea of "hate" there is about prioritization — it's loveless in other words. What He is saying is: if you have any of these things — your own family — they cannot be more important to you than Jesus. So when you look at something like what we saw with Raj and his kids and grandkids, what He is saying is: in my life, those kids, that wife — they cannot be more important to me than Jesus.
So whenever I'm talking to somebody who's saying, "Boy, I'm single, I'd love to be married" — if you're a gal, here's what you want: the best characteristic you could find in a guy is a guy who loves Jesus more than you. Guys, the best thing you can find is a lady who loves Jesus more than you. Because now the relationship has a shot at working.
Let me just finish this parable, because He says: "So then, none of you can be my disciples who do not give up all of his possessions." That is very radical language, very strong language. And that's what He is saying here — whatever doesn't work when it comes to Christ needs to be set aside.
Recalibrating Our Priorities
I get that. There are moments when we get there. I am constantly having to recalibrate myself, and if I miss a day or two or three I'm in real trouble. If I go very long without recalibrating and asking — what are my priorities, how did that priority go, what are the things that are important to me — I drift.
Life has this ebb and flow to it. If you're the grandparents who live by yourselves, one of the things you learn quickly is how selfish you are. All of a sudden the kids come over and you say, "We're really glad you're here — what time do you think you'll be leaving?" But in the first hour today we had a husband and wife dedicating four children, the oldest three and a half. If that is your life, free time is not something you talk about.
In whatever stage God has you in, the question is: are you being the man, woman, or student He has called you to be at that stage of life?
The Problem of Lukewarmness
You're not hot, you're not cold. He says, "I wish you were hot or cold, but you aren't" — so you literally make Him vomit. When I try to speculate what their church was like, my speculation is that it was very politically correct, very comfortable, very easy. Nobody was really driving anybody to make any sort of tough decision. He says: I would rather you never got started than that you became lukewarm.
Consider the idea of being vaccinated. I got my flu shot about a month ago, and I say this every fall — I'm reminded that I'm very leery of having a medical procedure performed at Home Depot. That makes me very nervous. The year before last I got a flu shot at a Baskin-Robbins. The gal there was great. I came in and said, "How are you doing?" She said, "You're the last one of the day." Then she said, "Do you think I can get one more vaccine out of this needle?" I said, "Hey, don't jack around with me like that."
But what they're doing — you understand — is introducing and activating your immune system with just enough of the disease that you'll never catch the real thing. And so the old phrase is: some of us have been inoculated with enough church or Christianity that when the real thing comes along, we'll never catch it. That's why He's saying: I would rather have you on a day like today home watching football than in here pretending you're okay. That is what He is saying to them.
Christianity Requires Wholehearted Commitment
He is saying: you need to understand this. Lukewarm Christianity is a contradiction in terms. As John Stott writes, Christianity is a fanatical religion, and every Christian should be a fanatic. What Jesus Christ desires and deserves is the reflection which leads to commitment, and the commitment which is born of reflection. This is the meaning of wholeheartedness — of being on fire, or aflame, with God.
He says: you have a problem with this lukewarmness. You don't understand the gravity of the situation.
Blind to Their Own Condition
See it in verse 17 — there's a connection here. He says: "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."
In our vernacular, they are fat, dumb, and easy. They are self-sufficient. They have everything they need. "I'm fine. I've got a few little things going on, but it's nothing big. I've got enough cash, enough stuff. I'm not worried about the next meal. I'm not feeling compelled in any certain direction. I'm okay."
I talked to a friend of mine years ago about his father, and I said, "Is your father interested in the things of God?" He declared: "He has no need." He has all the money he needs, has his own plane —
The Condition of the Soul
There is something about the hardness of heart that is striking. Even as people are sitting in a hospice bed or dying at home, rather than pausing to reconsider their lives, they become even more callous. I speculate that the people of Laodicea were good citizens who probably said prayers before meals, attended church occasionally, gave out candy on Halloween, and did all sorts of different things periodically — perhaps read a Bible, prayed, talked to somebody, or gave a little cash toward some philanthropic or even religious effort. They were okay, even by the world's standards.
But the Amen, the faithful genuine witness, the Creator who knows all things, looks at them and says, "I've got a real problem with you. You're lukewarm. You're not hot. You're not cold." He then draws a sharp contrast: you think you are rich, but you're really poor. He is not talking about how much money they have. He is talking about the condition of their soul.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit," Jesus says at the beginning of the Beatitudes. That is where a relationship with Christ begins — with an understanding of who I am spiritually bankrupt. In the Greek, the word translated "poor" here has different options. It could speak of the working poor, but this particular word speaks of somebody who is utterly incapable of taking care of themselves. You think you're rich and you have a bunch of stuff, but in reality you are poor, wretched, miserable, blind, and naked.
The Three Areas of Business
Notice that He goes right to those three areas of business we saw earlier — banking, clothing, and medicine. He says: you think you can see, but you can't. You think you're clothed, but you aren't. You think you have wealth, but you're poor. So His advice is direct and pointed.
"Buy from Me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich; and garments that are white, 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." He is saying: I will give you 20/20 vision spiritually. Through the Spirit of God, I will open your eyes so you can see things as they really are. You are poor, but I am here to clothe you. I am here to make you rich. I am here to take your faith and put it in the fire over and over again and refine it.
The Discipline of Love
Verse 19 says, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; therefore be zealous and repent." This is the training of a child. I have one t-ball game left — we will have completed what I believe is a 12-game season. I use the term "coaching" all the time, but the problem with that word is it implies an imparting of information that has been taken, disseminated, and implemented in one's life. We don't do that. We try to get them back to where they were when the play started. That is all we are doing.
On this team there are, I think, 12 humans. There are two of them who are real problems. After every game, I tell Susan somebody ought to call Sheriff Joe and just get the cell ready, because those two right there are on their way — there is no question about it. Haley arrived at that conclusion, Susan arrived at that conclusion, and I arrived at that conclusion separately. But there is really not much I do about it, or can do about it, because they are not mine.
The only two on the team with whom I have a real disciplinary relationship are my own grandkids, Braden and Yale. And even there, I am very careful to understand that as their grandpa, I am here to try to enforce behavioral standards that their parents have set, not my own. When I had kids — Sarah and Haley — I was willing to discipline them because they were my own. That is all Jesus is saying here. If you are His and He loves you, He will discipline you.
Discipline, Hardship, and Repentance
We need to get a realistic view that there will be the result of sin in our lives, but we must also be careful not to fall into the opposite trap. Do not think for a second that because you know Christ, because you are following Him and saying Jesus is Lord and your life has truly been transformed, that your life is going to be smooth and easy. Things are going to come into your life that come to everyone.
I was reading an article the other day about Joni Eareckson Tada. Some of you know her as the girl who, as a teenager, had a diving accident and has been a quadriplegic. Now she has cancer and is going through excruciating treatment. I would not say that is the result of sin in her life. I want to keep two things separate: if there is sin in your life, God tends to discipline it one way or another — it may be discomfort in your heart, it may come through something else. But do not think for a second that hardship means there is sin, or that because you are a Christian you will not face hardship. I want to reject that entirely. We see all around the world the hardship that people endure precisely because they are Christians, and you and I have little to none of that.
Here is what He says: be zealous — literally, get hot — and repent. Repent means to turn around. My fear is that repentance is one of those words we use, like "get saved," and we think it is done once and for all. It is not a once-and-for-all action. I come into the kingdom of God once and for all — that is done. But this repentance —
The Promise of Relationship (Revelation 3:20)
Here is the promise in verse 20: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him and he with me." We generally in the body of Christ see that as an evangelistic verse. I don't want to take away from that — there is the call to all people, that Christ is calling to all people and saying, "Come to me if you will." But in this context, this is written to the church.
He is saying, here is the deal. It is pretty interesting, that thing you have going at Laodicea. You have really cool rooms and great music. You have a killer bulletin, great video, the temperature is right, the seats are relatively comfortable. You are singing, you are taking communion — but I am not in it.
Dining Together in the Ancient World
The Greeks would have eaten three meals in the course of their day. Breakfast would be just a piece of dry bread — think a pop tart — dropped in wine. Lunch would be something they ate on the run. But dinner was the meal.
Their work day went from sunup to sundown, and with no electricity, once the sun was down, they were done. That dinner was a meal where they would linger. There was no Sunday night football, no dance lessons to get to, no football practice. The family would hang together, people would engage with one another, they would talk, there were no distractions, and the day's work was done.
Susan and I laugh about this all the time. We will go over to Southern California on vacation and inevitably end up having dinner or coffee or extended periods of time with people who live in Phoenix — some of whom go to this church — and the only time we spend with them is when we are in San Diego. But when we get back here, it is the busyness of life that takes over.
A God Who Seeks After People
Here is what He is saying. He is saying, if you open this door, I will come in — not for breakfast or lunch, but I will come in and sup with you, dine with you. I will have relationship with you. I will speak to you.
There is a uniqueness about biblical Christianity, and it is this: we have a God who seeks after people. No other religion really has that. Most religion presents a god who is up there, angry about something you have done, and you should assume he is justifiably angry and had better figure out what you can do to make him happy and satisfy him.
When we were in Bangkok, on street corners there were little statues and areas of worship where people would bring food to try to satisfy the gods. You go to church on first Fridays, or you go every day, or you give something up for Lent. You sing in the choir, you teach the youth — you are going to do something for God. But He says, no. I am going to come in and I am going to sup with you, dine with you, hang with you. We are going to have a relationship.
Think of it in the context of a human relationship where you talk to one another, where you spend time together, where you talk at various levels of intimacy. This is the most intimate of relationships, because the One on that side already knows everything there is to know about you. So what He is saying is, don't play any games — just come and talk to Me. You don't need to come and pretend that everything is okay when it isn't, because I know it isn't. You don't have to pretend that things are fine, or that your heart is right. That is what Jesus has described — the Hound of Heaven.
"He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit on the throne, and he will be with Me on the throne, as I am on My throne with My Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
Which Church Are You?
Let me put a bow on this. We asked: which one of these churches is East Valley Bible Church? Which one of these people are you?
Maybe you are like the church at Ephesus. Remember that church? It was hardworking, full of Bible study and discernment and learning — the things that make us say, that makes for a good church. But they had lost their first love. I think that love was the love for one another and the care for one another — a self-focus, even if it was expressed in spiritual terms.
The church at Smyrna was given no correction by Jesus. He said, I am not going to add to your burden, because you are already under great persecution. Some of you come in today afraid — it could be any number of circumstances you faced last week or will face this week. It could be the certainty of things you have done or the uncertainty of things that will come. And to you He says, don't be afraid. Not because those things won't necessarily happen, but because you don't have to face them alone.
The church at Pergamos was a compromised church. Maybe you are at the beginning of that. It starts with compartmentalizing your life — taking the things of faith and leaving them for Sunday or church settings, while telling yourself that in the real world, things work differently. Pergamos led to Thyatira, which was the church that tolerated false teaching, which led right to the church at Sardis — the dead church. Zombie.
A Word to the Faithful — and to the Lukewarm
The last two churches are Philadelphia and Laodicea. Philadelphia, which Tim talked about last week, is the faithful church. There was no condemnation for them. For the church at Laodicea, there is no commendation.
To the faithful church, to the faithful person, He says: persevere — don't stop. Past results don't guarantee future results. And if you are sitting there today and the lukewarmness
A Call to Return
Get hot. Repent. Become zealous. Trust in Me. God is saying, "I want to have that relationship with you."
We have Anniversary Sunday next week, and whenever there is an Anniversary Sunday — I have done this for all eighteen or nineteen of them — I always find myself looking back. I am glad and thrilled to see what God has done. I just hope that He is not done. I am thrilled to see what He has accomplished, but I do not sit and pine for the good old days.
Maybe that is where you are today. Maybe you are sitting there right now and thinking, "This is an interesting day, because this really does remind me — this is how it used to be in my life, but something has happened." The wear and tears of life, the circumstances, whatever they are, have gotten in the way, and now you find yourself a long way away.
Here is what God is saying to you today. He is knocking, and He is saying, "Let's have that relationship again." There is no reason not to have that vibrant relationship, except that you do not want it.
Closing in Communion and Prayer
We love to respond to the message. If you are over in the conference center, Tim will be over in a bit to close that out, but here in the chapel it is our time for communion. Tim is going to come and lead us in communion, and then the band will lead us in our time of worship.
Let's pray as they come. Father, we thank You for the amazing reality that You love us and You care for us. God, thank You that You have brought us to this point. Wherever we are in this — we may be in the midst of suffering or persecution, we may be in a state where we have lost our first love, we may have started the process of compromising, maybe even starting to adhere to some false teaching, maybe even dead — in the midst of all of that, You still say, "Come. Come to Me. Open that door." God, let that call go out to Your people. We pray that in Christ's name, amen.