The Church That Left Jesus on the Porch

Automatically transcribed — lightly cleaned for readability. Wording is the preacher’s own.

We are in our very last sermon for this series. So many of you have asked, what's with the lamps? And I recognize that we haven't talked about the lamps as much each week as we did the first week, because we were reading in Revelation about where,

The vision at the beginning of Revelation occurred, right? And Jesus is said to be standing among seven lamps, which signified the seven churches that these letters were about to go out to. And you know,

Has anyone ever been to a different church other than Conduit? Okay. How about this? Has anyone only ever really attended this church? Let's go. Okay. A few of you. I love that.

Well, I'll say for those of you who have never attended another church, your search is over.

But honestly, you will know that each church a little bit has its own kind of culture and identity and the way in which just like spiritual life happens in it. No lamp looks the same. No lamp puts out the same kind of light, right? No lamp kind of has the same function.

And so we didn't really have any like super special, plans with these other than to demonstrate and to illustrate that vision that John got of Jesus among the lamps, and we've had quite a few verbal altercations over who gets what lamps after this series, is over because these These were all purchased or brought here for this,

Specific thing. You all can fight me over this one because this one's going on my desk afterwards. So...

But today is our last, our last sermon in that series. And we're going to be talking, about the letter to the church in Laodicea. Which is a really often quoted portion of scripture. There are really two portions of this letter that are quoted quite a lot in the history of Christianity and even just in our own use of the scripture. There's talk about the church being lukewarm, right? And Jesus spitting them out of his mouth. We hear that a lot, right? I don't want to be a lukewarm Christian, right? There's probably one of the most, I don't know, one among the most famous or most used scriptures for evangelism. Revelation chapter three, verse 20, I stand at the door and knock, right? And we see the classic art piece of Jesus, like standing at the door that doesn't have a handle on the outside and knocking, getting ready to be let in, wanting to be let in. So we have these two things that are like, oh yeah, those are really familiar images. We talk about them a lot, but like many other pieces of scripture,

We sometimes forget that they exist within a specific context and in a specific reason. And for, and so let's take a look at those and look at this, this letter today and see exactly, maybe if we can get some deeper understanding of what those things mean, because Jesus and, Laodicea are not on really good terms in this letter. But there still is hope. Even in Jesus rebuke, there is a, there is a gentle invitation to reenter intimacy with him. That's beautiful.

So let's, let's read the letter here. Revelation chapter three, verses 14 through 22. And to the angel of the church in Laodicea, write, The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation. I know your works. You are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing. Not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments, so that you may clothe yourself, and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love I reprove and discipline so be zealous and repent, behold I stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into him and eat with him and he with me the one who conquers

I will grant him to sit with me on the throne, as I as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.

Now, this letter follows the same general format as the other letters have followed. That in the beginning, Jesus kind of describes some titles of his. In this particular letter, he says that these are the words of the amen. Amen meaning, ultimately just meaning true. Like when you, you ever, you, you know, you're not this pastor, but another pastor who's preaching really well, right? And someone in the congregation says, amen to that, right? They're what they're like, the literal meaning of amen is true. Like that's true. Affirming that's true, right? And so Jesus is calling himself the amen, the foundation for all truth, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation. And then he goes right into this commendation section or what would be a commendation section for a church that was experiencing a lot of spiritual health, like we talked about last week, the church in Philadelphia. But Jesus says something much different here. He says, I know your works. You are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot. Basically, I wish that you were either, you were one or the other.

I wish that you were either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

Let's talk about this verse a little bit here, because there's a lot of application that this verse has been given or has been used for in our lives. And by all accounts, I think many of them are appropriate in a general way, right? That lukewarm Christianity or living kind of this mediocre form of complacent spiritual pursuit of God is not a healthy place to be and not something that Jesus is really pleased with. So he spits lukewarm people out of the mouth, out of their mouth. But in order to have kind of that, like that kind of understanding of this passage, you have to accept some things that are really a little bit suspicious theologically to accept.

And so I want to talk about them and I want to talk about the context of the city of Laodicea and the other cities that lived around them and what perhaps Jesus was referring to here.

So we all kind of generally understand that when Jesus talks about being hot or cold, that there's some kind of reference to the church's or the individual's spiritual state, right cold meaning bad hot meaning, good right if you're spiritually cold that's bad right but if you're spiritually hot that's great but if you're spiritually lukewarm that's even worse than being cold, okay that's kind of like the traditional like typical way we've come to understand And this now.

So if we understand, or if we have like an idea of cold being spiritually dead, and hot being spiritually alive, then it seems kind of odd, both in the whole context of the gospels and of scripture, it seems kind of odd that Jesus would rather have the church in Laodicea be spiritually dead, than have any spiritual life in them at all by being lukewarm, right? We would have to come to accept,

That the preferable alternative of a church's spiritual life is for them to be completely dead spiritually in order to adopt this idea that it is lukewarmness that upsets the Lord the most. And so if we have this idea, we have to at least kind of wrestle with what that means here. Like, are you saying, does this really mean that Jesus would rather have me be absolutely spiritually dead.

Than have even like a halfway, like spiritual fervor or aliveness in me. That seems strange to say. And I would agree. That seems strange because what I see in the gospels is Jesus encouraging the faith of those who are like,

Lukewarm, who have had a little bit of spiritual faith and fervor added to the coldness of their hearts and are being sanctified in the Lord in the process of their lives, right?

So if it doesn't mean like, if it doesn't mean what we always thought it means, then what possibly could it mean? Well, let's just think about this for a minute. And what is lost really here in the letter to Laodicea is not lost in what we know about the history of the city and the surrounding cities or its neighboring cities. There was two main cities that were near, Laodicea, the cities of Hierapolis and the city of Colossae. Okay. Which where we get the letter to the Colossians. And, both of these cities were known for having.

A particular type of water in them. Hierapolis was the source of many, many hot springs that were seen as like having tremendous medicinal value for people. Meaning people in that area in Asia Minor would go to Hierapolis and they would bathe themselves in the hot springs because they believe that hot water was medically cleansing to them. If there had some kind of physical or even spiritual ailment, there was something special about that hot water. Colossae was the exact opposite. They had a lot of fresh springs feeding their city that produced this like, ice cold, beautifully crisp, clean water that was like perfect for drinking. Like it was just like the most awesome source of fresh, cold water that you could have. Now, Laodicea stood kind of like as a neighboring city to both Hierapolis and Colossae, but Laodicea was famous for a lot of things. One of the things that they were famous for is not having their own water supply. There was no source of water that fed that city, meaning there was no natural place where they could go and have their city residents fed by either hot water or cold water.

And so one of the engineering and financial marvels of the city of Laodicea, is that they would build, they build aqueducts, kind of like modern day pipes that would funnel water, from other cities and regions around it so that they could, have a water supply. And now if you can imagine in what is now modern day Turkey.

Building aqueducts or pipes or conduits or whatever you want to call them from other cities to Laodicea to feed the city, that whether the water started out hot at its source... Or whether the water started out cold at its source, by the time that it made its way through those aqueducts and got to Hierapolis, or got to, I'm sorry, got to Laodicea, it was what? Pretty lukewarm. It was neither hot, nor was it cold. It was what one commentator said was tepid, with huge amounts of calcium deposits in it. Meaning it was like, it had kind of, by the time it got there, it was not good for medicinal use and bathing. And it was not really good for drinking either. It was just kind of like, it was just like the best that they could do with the resources that they had in the situation that they were in. It didn't show up hot. It didn't show up cold. It wasn't like the water in the cities around it. It was both notoriously bad. It was notoriously bad for both healing and for drinking.

Now, what was good for healing in one place in Hierapolis and good for drinking in another place was not found to be very good or useful when it hit Laodicea. Most people had this sense of like, oh, what do we even use this water for?

And that was a known cultural reality in the city. It was like the life of everyone in Laodicea. Everyone was well aware of the quality of the water. It wasn't a secret, right? It was something that they dealt with every single day. And so Jesus, when he writes this letter to this city that has this historical issue with water coming from hot springs and cold springs to mix and come up pretty useless when it got there, certainly knew about this. And as he's writing to these people, he would have known, oh, I can talk, like if I talk about water, it's obviously gonna be appropriate to their particular situation. So Jesus here, I don't believe that Jesus was actually commending the Laodations to, hey, just be cold for crying out loud. Just be spiritually dead over being lukewarm. Jesus.

Was using their geographical location and their known water issues to make a striking metaphor for them to understand, their own purpose in the building of the kingdom and their own purpose to be on mission in the place that they are in the right spirit.

See, it appears that the spirituality and the actual way in which the church in Laodicea went about ministry to their city, their spirituality had become, Jesus says, like their water.

Disgusting and not really useful for anything. It's not hot. It's not hot. It's not cold. It's just kind of this lukewarm, tepid, calcium-filled, deposit-filled nothingness.

There's this sense of like, what do we even use this water for? Well, we can't really use it for anything. It doesn't have purpose or usefulness in either way, shape, or form. And Jesus is saying like, the church in Laodicea, you have become like your water.

Not useful in this direction and not useful in that direction. Useless in the worst direction.

You're missing something. Something is wrong with what is happening here. Now, the rebuke that Jesus gives the church here is more severe than most of your translations put it. My translation here in the ESV says that, so because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. The NIV says the same thing. I will spit you out of my mouth.

But I want you to be aware here that it's not like this casual, like you're spitting out a watermelon seed. Like you got something in your mouth that you didn't mean to have there and you just kind of like spit it out nonchalantly. That's actually not the word that's used here at all. The word that's used here, is the word emeo, from which we get the word emesis. From which is another way to say vomit, right? And so like the force of what Jesus says here is like.

Your spiritual life has become like vomit in my mouth. It's a pretty strong rebuke for the church, right?

And so the question is, well, what could possibly lead to such a strong rebuke about their, and like uselessness? And it all comes down to where the Laodicean church.

Put their hope and put their strength and put their power, right? Jesus says it in the very next verse here. He says in verse 17, well, in verse 16, it's like, because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. Verse 17, he quotes them. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.

I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing. Now Jesus goes on to say, but you don't realize.

You are actually wretched and pitiful and blind and naked. Laodicea was not just a place that had a bad supply of drinking water. It wasn't all bad there. Laodicea was actually had a lot of strengths and a lot of things that they were known for beyond their water situation. They were known for three things in particular in a positive way. Number one is that they were a significant banking center in Asia Minor, meaning like a tremendous amount of financial currency flowed through.

Their version of banking centers. They were very, very, very wealthy. They were so wealthy, in fact, that in AD 60, their city was destroyed and they, instead of receiving aid,

From the Roman government to help rebuild it, They said to Rome, no, no, no, no, no. We don't need aid. We're fine. We have enough money over here. We will rebuild our city under our own finances. And they did. So they were very, very wealthy. So they were known as being a banking center, but they were also known for producing a very rare form of black wool.

This black wool that could be used for clothing and textiles and something that was really, really, I mean, like we don't, black wool is like naturally black wool, very, very rare. And the third thing that they were really known for is that they had a really significant medical school in the city that was known mostly for developing a form of figrian, don't ask what it is.

Figrian eye ointment meaning some some type of substance that could be used to bring healing to the eyes when put in it so these are the three things that they were really known for tremendous banking institutions the production of black of really rare black wool for textiles and clothing and all of these things and for having a medical school that focused on health of the eyes.

And these were things, that the laodiceans took really significant pride in not just as a cultural value of the city but it seems as though some form of that pridefulness had seeped into the culture of the church,

That there was some sense of like almost deluded sense of independence. And Jesus in this moment comes and abruptly exposes the whole thing by saying like, listen, you do not realize that even though you're holding up yourself as like rich, capable, independent, needing nothing, having the ability to heal others, you are actually wretched.

You are actually, you are, how does he say it here? He says, wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, naked.

See, in their sense of spiritual and prideful superiority, they had become absolutely blinded to their true spiritual condition. And their own sense of usefulness as a center for usefulness around the world centered more around their own resources than it did with Christ's power. And so the Laodiceans were sitting in this place of like, we have all these things going for us. Why do we even need the power of Christ? Now, no one ever says that.

Right? We would never show up here on a Sunday morning and be like, hey, hey, fam, we're doing this thing without the power of Jesus this morning. We're just vibing. Like, it's going to be a great day. We don't ever say that, right? Because who would say that? But how often does our, does the actual practice of our lives, the practice of our ministry, the work of our hands, the words of our mouth, right? How, how often does it actually display that? Hey man, I'm just trusting in my own strength, my own resources, my own ability, my own power, my own calling, my own know-how. And if Jesus shows up great Jesus, yeah. Come bless the things that I'm doing Jesus. That would be great. But it, but it doesn't happen the other way. No, Jesus, it is only by your power. It is only by your strength. It is only through you that I am useful, that I have anything to offer the laodiceans were like mom we basically just like kind of don't need jesus because we got these useful qualities to us,

We're useful and jesus is like you're actually not useful you don't realize you're not useful you're lukewarm you're neither hot nor cold good for either thing.

See, God had blessed the Laodiceans with tremendous financial resources and other resources. The issue is not that they were wealthy and had a lot of things. It's what they used their wealth for and how they viewed their wealth in terms of their building of God's kingdom.

They used their wealth essentially as a way to eliminate their need for faith and trust in God,

Like we're just trusting in this over here, and instead they simply trusted in themselves they relied on themselves they lost all sense of pursuit of God's active presence in their life They kind of sat back on what they had gained, sat back on what they had accumulated, sat back on their reputation in the world. They'd just be like, it's really good to be us.

And had abandoned this sense of like pursuit of God's hope, of hope, like Jesus, no, like we need you every moment. We need you every hour. We need you every day. We need you in every situation without your power, without your strength. We are empty. We are, it is hopeless.

And so Jesus said, but you know, you are all these things, but you don't realize you're actually not those things. And perhaps the scariest thing is not realizing when you are spiritually blind,

Or naked or wretched or pitiable or poor. Often I will often say you've heard me say before I've actually said a lot in this series that it is a if we let him right if we allow him jesus, will do the grace-filled thing of pointing out the gaps between maybe people's perception of who we are and the actual inward reality of our hearts.

We often feel that like, oh, being exposed is a, I don't want to be exposed. Like that's a bad thing. It's actually like being exposed in this life is a grace-filled and gentle way, that Jesus draws your soul, your heart and soul to him, so that you're not eternally blinded and hardened and darkened and destroyed.

When God goes to work exposing the sin of our lives, no matter how painful and ripping and tearing it feels, it is actually his grace and gentleness that does that work. Saving us, not from temporary consequences, but from eternal consequences.

And so for a church and for a people who are sitting in this place of being like yeah we don't like you guys don't even realize what kind of shape you're in,

You don't even realize how wretched you are how poor and pitiful and blind and naked and shameful you are, and so even in this significant rebuke that jesus gives the church in Laodicea, there is a grace that is put upon them when Jesus says, let me expose exactly who you are, because then at least you'll have an opportunity to see it and repent.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7, verse 10, he says that godly grief produces repentance, that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. We often come to this place of having our hearts and our sin exposed and being like, oh, this is painful, I feel shame, I feel guilt, I feel embarrassment. And there is a sense where like, Listen, God's not trying to adduce shame upon you, but there is a form of godly grief in the midst of our sin that God uses to draw us into repentance.

When I am not grieved at my sin, I am in danger. When I am not grieved and not afraid, and when I am playing like holding hands with my sin in comfort, that is when I am in danger but godly grief when conviction comes upon my life, and grief happens because the exposure of my sin it produces something positive it produces repentance and that leads to salvation without regret.

Whereas worldly grief just produces death. So that, there is a grace and a gentleness even to the hard rebuke of Jesus for the Laodicean church because he's exposing and bringing a grief that leads to repentance and salvation.

Because he has called them some things that I would not want to be called by anyone, let alone Jesus, wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, wretched as being miserable or distressed or in ruined. Jesus says, you're in ruined, pitiful, like deserving of sympathy because of a pathetic condition. Spiritually poor, blind and naked. Now these are both metaphors for a spiritual condition. When when scripture talks about someone being blind not being able to see the reality of their spiritual condition when someone talks about or when the scripture talks about someone being naked it talks about how the shame of their life and the sin of their life is exposed before everyone this goes all the way back into the garden right adam and eve they were, naked and they ate of the tree right they ate of the fruit and immediately when they ate of the fruit they realized they were what? Naked and they what? They felt shame. Like there was this sense where sin brought on this awareness of a naked condition and shame, right? And then God did what for Adam and Eve? He clothed them, right?

Sacrificed an animal, skins covered their nakedness. And the first description of what God does in Jesus Christ is Adam and Eve in the garden had their shame caused by their sin covered, not because of something that they did, but because of something God did for them. I will cover your shame. I will cover your nakedness.

See, all of the, if you recognize something, if you can connect two points here, the things that Laodicea was known for and had strength in, a banking center,

Black wool, and the medical school, specifically for eyes, all of the areas that Laodicea was strong in and independent in Jesus. Jesus like, I don't wanna say he attacks, but he goes after him.

Like talk about calling a place blind that prides themselves on healing blindness. Calling a place naked that prides themselves on producing wool for clothing, okay? And so Jesus continues this line of reasoning in verse 18 and further. So what do you do in response to all this? This is the invitation of Jesus to come back into intimacy with him to the Laodicean church. He says, I counsel you to buy gold from me refined by the fire so that you may be, I would say like parentheses, actually rich. Forget about your banking centers. Buy gold from me that is refined by the fire that you may be rich.

And then remember Blackwell? What does Jesus say to get from him? White garments. White garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen.

And it's like one last pointed thing. Also, get from me salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. So Jesus struck at the heart of all of their independence, all of their contemporary usefulness all of the things that they prided themselves in all of the places where they thought they were superior and everything and Jesus is like, you need to get all of those things from me everything that you feel about those areas of your life that bring you strength they actually need to come from me otherwise you don't realize you'll just continue to live this wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, naked spiritual state.

So where does that kind of leave a church? Everything that Jesus said. Well, he goes on to say in verse 19, those whom I love, whom I love, I reprove and discipline. This is, again, going back to like, this is the grace of Jesus here.

Those whom I love, I reprove and I discipline. So what is Jesus saying to the Laodicean church as he's rebuking them for their spiritual blindness.

I love you. I love you, church. I love you. If I didn't love you, I would not be reproving you. I would not be disciplining you. I love you. And so because I love you, I'm going to say, I mean, listen, the world needs this truth. Reproof and discipline is a form of love. Okay? It is a form of love that is demonstrated most fully in the heart and actions of our Lord and Savior, right? But Jesus says, I reprove and discipline those who I love, so be zealous and repent.

See, it would be easy to hear this letter and assume that Jesus is kind of like done with the Laodicean church. But when he says, listen, those I love, I reprove and discipline.

Everything we've heard up until this point, the lukewarm water, the vomiting, the wretched, the poor, the blind, the naked, all of these words are coming from the mouth of someone who puffs them, just loves them. So Jesus doesn't bother rebuking people that he's given up on.

The rebuke is the love. The discipline is the love. Just like the doctor who tells you what the scans show, even though they don't want to. Because if they kept quiet in a moment like that, it would be harmful. They'll just let you die comfortably.

Then comes like one of the most famous verses in all the Bible, Revelation 3 verse 20. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me.

Now we very typically will, you know, we might put that verse on a gospel track or something like that. And truth, it's not wrong to use it that way. It's a beautiful verse. It speaks a lot to the heart of the Savior. But, like, listen, who is Jesus talking to here in this letter?

He's talking to a church. He's not talking to people who don't know him. He's talking to a church, those who have already expressed in some way, shape, or form. Faith in him. It is not a letter to unbelievers. It's a letter to a church. Jesus is standing outside his own church, knocking on the door.

Laodicea had its banks, it had its black wool, it had its medicine. They had built a church that ran just fine, it seems, without Jesus. And somewhere along the way, they became blind to even notice that, hey, what's Jesus doing on the porch?

Why is he outside? But I want you we I want we need to notice here what jesus wants when he gets inside the church,

I stand at the door and knock right what does jesus want, jesus doesn't come in to start tearing the place apart he's not coming into flip tables he's coming in to sit at a table.

I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I'll come in and I will eat with him and him with me.

Jesus does not, or he comes into eat and in that culture, sharing a meal wasn't just something that was casually done. It meant friendship, it meant fellowship, it meant belonging. The same Jesus who rebukes them wants to sit at their table. And then he goes even further and he says, in verse 21, the one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne. Jesus does not give the church in Laodicea this kind of seat in the corner where they're going to be punished for keeping him on the front porch. He gives them a seat literally beside him. The picture here is a picture that we see almost nowhere else in scripture. A throne is meant for how many buts? One right and what jesus uses here is he uses the term for double throne basalium, a throne not that's just that is just his and only he sits in it and the church stands off in the corner but he says no no no this is a double throne because it's for me and you, come and sit with me as I have sat with my father.

The invitation of Jesus is not just, hey, I'm going to come in and it'll be okay, but you're going to be punished over here in the corner.

He gives them a seat beside him. So the letter in Laodicea moves from rebuke, to a knock on the door, to a table to eat at, to a throne. And that truly is the same path that Jesus offers every heart that is just content in their own self-sufficiency. I don't need nothing from no one, especially Jesus, is an invitation to stop pretending, realize that.

That we need nothing, that stop, stop pretending that we need nothing. Open the door and let him in. The question this morning that we all want to leave with you,

Is, what part, what parts, maybe it's what part, maybe it's what parts, what parts of your life or of our life together as a church? Have we quietly arranged so that we don't need Jesus at all, actually? You can just stay on the front porch.

The beauty here is that Jesus is not threatening to leave. He's standing at the door in gentleness and grace, knocking. If you let me in, I'll fellowship with you and you with me all the way into glory. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Let's pray.

Father in heaven, we thank you for these letters to these churches. And although, Lord, we know that there's no letter to conduit here in Revelation, we still receive the truth of what you've offered to us in a way that brings, conviction and truth into our lives. Lord, may we be a church that honors and glorifies you in all that we do, trusting in you, Lord, and not in ourselves. In Jesus' name, amen.