LETTER TO THE LUKEWARM CHURCH

Revelation 3:14-22

The city of Laodicea lay at the hub of four important highways that came together in the fertile Lycos Valley. The road to Philadelphia and Sardis led to the north. A road leading to the coastal villages led to the south. The main road leading to Phrygia and Galatia led to the east and the main road to Ephesus led to the west.

Laodicea sat on a wide plateau in the foothills of the Lycus Valley. From there, you can look to the northeast on the one side of the valley and see the small town of Colossae. Across the valley to the northwest you can see Hierapolis with its hot springs and bleached white cliffs looking like a shroud of freshly fallen snow.

The city of Laodicea had been founded by the Seleucid king Antiochus II (261-246 B.C.) and named after his wife Laodike. Under the Roman Empire it had risen to prominence as a center of trade and banking. The city was known for the fine wool of its black sheep that grazed in the hills nearby. The wealth of the city had attracted a school of medicine that produced an eye salve known as "Phrygian powder."

There were several theaters in the city along with a hippodrome -- a race track for horse racing. These entertainment centers gave Laodicea the reputation of the Las Vegas of the province of Asia.

This is the church to which Jesus now addresses Himself. It is the last of the seven churches, though its members might have considered themselves to be the first.

This letter begins in the same way the previous six letters have begun -- with a dramatic picture of Jesus.

1. The Amen (3:14).

2. The Beginning of the creation of God (3:14).

Jesus is going to have nothing good to say about the church at Laodicea. He has addressed six other churches and, even though there have been problems, there was usually something good that could have been said about each one of them. That is not the case here. The problem was not one of false teaching. It was not a problem with gross immorality. It was that the church had grown lukewarm.

The city of Laodicea had a problem. It was in their water supply. The Lycos River ran down from the mountains and through the center of the valley, but it was subject to the flooding of spring thaws and so the cities of the valley were generally located some distance from the river.

• The ancient site of Colossae has not yet been excavated, but when I visited the site in 2004, I noted a cold, bubbling stream that runs past the site of the town. When I reached down to place my hand into the waters, I found it to be ice-cold, even though this was in early June.
• Hierapolis was built atop some hot springs. The water there is full of minerals and is thought to be therapeutic.
• Laodicea had a water system that tapped into some similar mineral water, but it was not as close to the source, for the water had to be transported via a series of aqueducts and piping. At the center of the city was a large water distribution manifold that moved the water to various locations. By the time it got there, the water was no longer the cold mountain water like you would have at Colossae and it was no longer the hot mineral water you would have at Hierapolis. Instead it was lukewarm. Tepid.

The church at Laodicea was much the same way. Their Christianity had gone tepid and stale. They were not cold and refreshing. Neither were they hot and on-fire for the Lord. They were lukewarm.

There is a lesson here. There are few things worse than spiritual complacency. To be satisfied with where you are spiritually is to commit spiritual suicide. You are always moving in your spiritual life. You are either moving toward God or else you are moving away from God. The danger described here is the danger of moving away slowly.

We’ve all heard of the experiment with the frog and the frying pan. You can take a frog and sit him in a pan of water and begin gradually heating up the water over a long period of time and the frog will sit there and be boiled alive, even though he could easily jump to safety. The complacent Christian runs the same risk. He looks at his spiritual condition and he is satisfied, so he makes no move to change it.

Jesus pronounces judgment against this church. He says, "Because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth." It is a warning that the church will soon stop being the church.

The spiritual complacency of the church at Laodicea was accompanied by a spiritual pride. They did not think they had need of anything. They were proud of what they were. They were proud of their wealth. They were proud of their pseudo-spirituality.

When Jesus spoke to the church at Smyrna, He described a poor church that was really rich. Now he describes a rich church that is really poor.

The church at Laodicea had falling into a "prosperity theology." They thought that their material wealth as a measure of their spirituality. Laodicea was a wealthy city. One of the sources of their wealth came from the black sheep that were raised in the nearby hills. This wool was taken and spun into fine clothes. To have a black Laodicean sweater was considered to be the height of fashion.

Jesus says these well-dressed Laodicean Christians are spiritually naked. It makes you stop and think. Walk into most churches on a Sunday morning and you will see all of the latest fashion. If those people were suddenly transformed into their spiritual clothes, how many would find themselves wearing nothing? How many churches are full of spiritual nudists?

Jesus calls them to come and to obtain for themselves that which they need:

1. Spiritual Funding: I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire (3:18).

What does this mean? This is not speaking of literal gold. The gold refers to those things that are of spiritual value. They include the fruit of the spirit. They are love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and all of the other things that take place when one is filled with God’s Holy Spirit.

These things must be refined by fire. Fire represents testing. Just as gold is purified when all of the impurities are burned out of it, so also the fruit of the Spirit in our lives becomes pure when all of the excess details of life are burned away. This can be done by the fires of persecution. It can also be done by the fire of a repentant heart. If these Laodiceans will repent and turn their hearts toward God, they can judge themselves and burn away their own complacency.

2. Spiritual Clothing: I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich, and white garments, that you may clothe yourself (3:18).

In contrast to the black sweaters of Laodicea, these Christians are advised to buy white garments. It is almost as though the black sweaters were a type of the spiritual condition of these Christians. They are to be traded in for the white clothes of righteousness. There will be a further mention of these white garments in the book of Revelation. It is seen at the coming of the bride.

And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. (Revelation 19:8).

In that passage, we are told the meaning of the white garments. They represent the righteous acts of the saints. If you are a Christian, you have been credited with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. But it does not stop there. You are now called to live a life that is consistent with that perfect righteousness that has been credited to you.

The Laodiceans are told to seek out those clothes -- those works of righteousness that are the sign and evidence of their new position in Christ. Does that describe you? Are you a complacent Christian? A spiritual nudist? Is it time for a change of wardrobe?

3. Spiritual Vision: Eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see (3:18).

I have a daughter. I love her very much and always have done so. But when she was growing up, I sometimes disciplined her. Did this mean I did not love her? Not at all. In fact, that discipline was a sign of my love and concern for her.

I have never disciplined the kid that lives down the street, even though he certainly needs it. I don’t tell that child what to do. Why not? Because he is not my child.

God’s discipline of me is a sign of His love for me. It is one of the evidences that I am His child.

Jesus is not saying that He does not love the Laodicean believers. To the contrary, He is warning them that because He loves them, He is going to have to discipline them if they do not repent.

They are to move from complacency to repentance. Instead of concern, they have shown apathy. Instead of being zealous, they have been complacent. Instead of repenting, they have been satisfied to remain in the same rut. It reminds me of a little poem I hear in college.

That isn’t very eloquent, but it gets across the idea. The problem with the church at Laodicea was that they were quite happy to go on doing the same things they had been doing. They were resistant to change and to repentance.

Holeman Hunt produced a painting of Jesus that you may have seen. It portrays Jesus standing at a door and knocking. When he first painted it and put it on display, his friends came to look at it. One of them remarked, "There is no doorknob." Hunt replied, "The doorknob is on the inside." There is some truth to this. We are called to respond to the knocking of the Lord. The invitation here is the same one that is seen in John 6.

There is a wonderful promise here. It is that if you come to Christ, you will not be cast out. If you open the door to Christ, he will enter.

Have you opened the door? Have you come to Christ in faith and repentance, giving Him open access to your life? It is not enough to hear the gentle and persistent knocking. It is not enough to attend a church or to be a nice person or to listen to a sermon. It is not enough to feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit. You must still open the door.

Each of the seven letters to the seven churches has ended on the same note. Each has ended with a promise. It has been a conditional promise. It is a promise to the one who overcomes.

How do you overcome? By opening the door to the One who is knocking. By obtaining from Him those things that are necessary to your Christian life. By believing that Jesus is the Son of God and trusting in Him as your Lord and as your Savior. To the one who overcomes in this way is given the promise of a throne.

This promise of a throne came up one time when Jesus was on earth. The mother of James and John came to Him with a special request. It was to ask that her sons might sit with Jesus upon His throne in the kingdom.

What was requested by her on that day is now promised to those who overcome. It is a promise of heirship in the kingdom. But first there is a requirement. It is that we overcome as Jesus has overcome. Just as Christ defeated sin and death on the cross, I also must face sin and defeat it.

How can I possibly do this? How can I defeat sin and death? I defeat sin every time I depend on the finished work of Christ on my behalf. I defeat death every time I trust in the hope of the resurrection. One day, just as I have been identified with Christ in His battle against the world and the flesh and the devil, so also I will be identified with Christ as he sits on His glorious throne.

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