Be Useful…. Rev 3:14-22 Sunday 15th July 2007
This morning we come to the last of the seven churches to whom Jesus wrote through the apostle John.
Geographically Laodicea was located around 120 miles east of Smyrna and some 60 miles south east from Philadelphia, which were the only two out of the seven churches for whom Jesus had no words of rebuke.
But Laodicea is the in worse state of all seven churches and spiritually it could have been a million mile away.
Because many towns were called Laodicea, which means ‘justice of the people,’ …… This city was always referred to as Laodicea of the Lycus, because it was situated by the side of the Lycus river.
As with the other letters Jesus begins by affirming the authority in which he speaks.
In the opening line he describes himself as the one who is the Amen ….The faithful and true witness… The ruler of God’s creation.
This is the only place in the Bible where Amen is used as a proper name……
…Although Isaiah 65:16, speaks of “The God of the Amen”.
Amen signifies truth, and stability. It is an expression of certainty.
Although we usually say amen at the end of praying…. So be it ….
Jesus often used this term at the beginning of sentences, to affirm the truth of his statement…
Where it is translated as verily or truly. …Verily I say unto you…. Truly I tell you.
John, in his Gospel often writes this as a double repetition to stress the emphasis that Jesus placed upon the truth of his statements.
Am-ane, am-ane… Truly ,truly… I tell you.
The word used for ruler….. as in Jesus being the Ruler of God’s creation means..
First in origin…. He created everything. First in beginning …... And also first in rank.
The parables that Jesus told in the Gospels all spoke to the people in ways in which they could relate, from their experiences of everyday life.
And his letter to the church at Laodicea, Jesus also speaks to its people in a manner that relates to everyday life in that city.
Laodicea was an extremely rich city and prosperous commercial centre…. renown for its banking houses….
…and the making of fine clothes and carpets.
In addition to fine clothes, Laodicea was famed for the manufacture of black woollen cloaks.
And black sheep from which the wool was obtained are still to be found in the area today.
Whereas the church at Smyrna knew suffering and poverty, but were describes as rich by Jesus…..
… because of their faith and witness.
The church at Laodicea knew wealth and integration.
They considered themselves to have everything that they need and to lack nothing…..
But were in fact seen as wretched, miserable, poor and blind and naked by Jesus.
They knew worldly wealth….. But Jesus counselled them to buy gold from him that had been purified by fire……
They wore clothing of the finest material and latest fashion.And as I said were famed for their black woollen garments
But Jesus counselled them to buy white garments from him so as not to be shamed by their nakedness.
In the Greek, the word that Jesus uses for buy can be used to refer to redemption, setting a slave free through purchase
The only wealth that will be of any use on the day of judgment is the treasure that we carry in what the Bible describes as jars of clay……These perishable containers that are our bodies….
And that treasure is ‘Christ in us, the hope of glory.’
The only clothing that will be of any use, is the robe of righteousness….. that can only be received through Jesus Christ.
Laodicea also boasted a school of medicine and its physicians were specially well known for the eye ointment that was produced there.
However the ointment that they produced was not able to restore their impaired spiritual vision.
And in their spiritual blindness they could not recognise that they were in fact wretched, miserable, blind, poor and naked. So Jesus counselled them come to him for ointment for their eyes so that they may see clearly.
So where do we find the ointment that Jesus offers us to restore our impaired spiritual vision, in order that we may be able to see?
The answer is the revelation of the Holy Spirit through God’s word to us in the Bible!
2nd Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. It is God’s way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing that God wants us to do.”
This is why each one of us must examine ourselves each day by running the plumb line of God’s holy word in the Bible over our lives….
Because that is the only true cure for impaired vision.
The only way to see our true state, to see ourselves as Jesus sees us.
Although a very prosperous and affluent city, Laodicea did not have its own water supply.
At Hierapolis, some six miles away, were hot springs where people went for medical cures.
At Colosse were cold springs, where cold water gave refreshment to those who were thirsty.
Laodicea however possessed neither.
Having plenty of money they built an aqueduct to bring in a water supply….But by the time it reached them the water had become lukewarm.
And just like lukewarm water, the church at Laodicea brings…neither healing for the sick…nor refreshing for the weary…..
And Jesus says to them, “I know all the things that you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, I will spit you out of my mouth.”
Why does Jesus say that he wishes they were either hot or cold….. rather than lukewarm?
Obviously if they were hot, they would be serving the Lord with a passion and zeal.
But on the other hand, if faith is cold there is still hope the Holy Spirit can move them to repentance.
Many testimonies have been given by people who have been so cold that they were actually in opposition to the Gospel….. but have been touched by the grace of God to the extent that they have become red-hot with conviction and zealous in their passion for Jesus.
To be lukewarm is to be indifferent, neither one thing or the other.
To be indifferent is to be unaffected and unconcerned.
So far Jesus has been counselling and advising the Laodicean church.
Now in verse 19, he gives them a direct commandment…
“Be diligent and turn from your indifference.”
To be diligent in this context is to be eager and enthusiastic, hardworking, full of strong desire and burning with zeal….To be earnest in deep sincerity and feeling
The theme for this morning’s message is ‘Be Useful.’
We cannot be useful to Jesus without being earnest in deep sincerity and feeling.
In the words of an old hymn:
He has no hands but our hands to do his work today.
He has no feet but our feet to lead men in his way.
He has no voice but our voice to tell men how he died.
He has no help but our help to lead them to his side.
No one will ever lead anyone to Jesus’ side from a worldly perspective…..or lukewarm indifference like that exhibited by the church at Laodicea… The blind cannot lead the blind.
No one will lead anyone to Jesus if they are so bound up in religious legalism that they have never met him themselves.
And neither will anyone lead them to Jesus’ side from a lukewarm incipit faith….
…. that expresses itself in a ritual of pomp and ceremony performed on Sunday.
They may lead someone to perform the same rituals that they do…….
But they will not lead them to meet with the risen Christ…And walk with him in the cool of the evening.
A more accurate translation of the Greek with regard to Jesus spitting them out of his mouth like lukewarm water is rendered by the NKJV …… in which Jesus states, “I will vomit you out of my mouth.”
Their indifference nauseates him. It makes him feel sick.
They attend church once in a while, call themselves Christians and give the outward appearance of being hot..
But inwardly they are lukewarm towards Jesus .
Sometimes they find that Christianity can be such a burden when there are other things to do. It interferes with their social life.
They are a church that has compromised with the world.
They are a people that have compromised their love for Jesus for the sake of worldly pursuits… and worldly comforts.
In many ways, the church there represents the western church age in which we now live.
The Laodicean church had moved so far from Christ….and the true witness of its purpose…..
that Jesus has been excluded and is standing on the outside of the door knocking for admittance.
It is a sad fact that Jesus is unwelcome in many churches today.
He is simply too radical….
Too threatening…
Too scary.
2nd Timothy 3:5 says that people will act as if they are religious, but they will reject the power that could make them Godly.
“Let’s have none of that Holy Spirit stuff in here,” they say.
Remember the words of Isaiah 29:13 – “These people say they are mine. They honour me with their lips. –
They repeat the words of the liturgy as if they meant them. They sing hymns and songs of praise but even as they sing them……
- their hearts are far away. And their worship of me amounts to nothing more than religious ritual.”
I know that many people here are familiar with the names of Brother Yun and other leaders of the Chinese House Churches.
It is estimated that in China some 30,000 people are coming to Christ each day. That works out at more than 10 million new disciples every year.
Notice I said disciples and not believers.
So when the leaders of the Chinese House Churches ask why…..
When there are more than two billion professing Christians in the world today…
That’s two thousand million,
When they ask “Why are there still so many needy countries and areas of spiritual darkness in the world today?”
Then we in the comfortable west would do well to listen.
This is what they say…..
“The problem lies in the kind of Christianity practiced by the majority of believers today. For countless millions of people, following Jesus is little more than a cultural experience.
Joining a church means little more than joining a social club. If the Bible is read at all it is from a sense of duty rather than as part of a relationship with its real, vibrant and life-changing author”…..
They point to one of the biggest scandals of western Christianity as being the number of church leaders who spend so much time trying to shore up broken relationships within their congregations, rather than fulfilling the vision for which God had called them.
“A church is meant to be a training centre and command hub for war,” they say, “not a social club where people give lip service to Christ while refusing obey his commands……
There are more than enough Christian believers in the world today. God wants more disciples.”
(extracts from, ‘Back to Jerusalem’ by three Chinese Church leaders. Brother Yun, Peter Xu Yongze, and Enoch Wang)
The kind of Christianity that they describe as practiced by the majority of believers today….. is in fact the kind of lukewarm, indifferent Christianity that was practiced by the Laodicean church.
….The kind of Christianity that nauseated Jesus.
Paul’s co-worker Epaphras, is credited as being the one who first took the Gospel to Laodicea.
And in those heady days of its beginnings, the church there would once have been a people who were hot for Christ…
But who allowed the worldly pleasures that surrounded them to dilute their hot passion into a lukewarm show of religion.
D.L. Moody once described the church as a ship and the world as the sea….
He said the ship was designed to be on sea, but was not designed to allow the sea to enter into the ship…
Otherwise it would be lost, and perish in the sea.
The sea that is the world has entered the ship that is the church … and reduced the warmth of love to the lukewarm of indifference.
The church at Laodicea is the only one out of the seven that did not receive any commendation at all, only rebuke.
Yet, although this church is criticized more severely than the others…….
Jesus’ love for them is also given greater expression.
There are two verses that radiate the mercy and love of Christ…
.. and affirm that he will never give up on those he loves…
Verse 19 - Jesus states that he corrects and disciplines everyone he loves.
Hebrews 12:5-6 – My child, don’t ignore it when the Lord disciplines you, and don’t be discouraged when he corrects you. For the Lord disciplines those he loves and he punishes those he accepts as children.
He disciplines and corrects those he accepts as children.
“You are accepted as children and I love you”, Jesus is saying to the people at Laodicea…
“And in my love I will correct and discipline you ..But I will not give up on you.
So be diligent, and turn from your indifference.”
In verse 20, Jesus’ words…. “Here I stand at the door and knock,”……
… are generally quoted as an appeal for those who don’t know Christ …
.....To open the door of their heart to him
But in this context they are actually addressed to the church in whose midst Christ had once stood.
Can you see the love of Christ radiating from this passage?
Psalm 23 says that his unfailing love will pursue us all the days of our life.” (v6)
And in that unfailing love…
Jesus is standing outside, seeking admittance into the lives of people who consider themselves to be Christians.
O love that will not let me go.
There are many today who acknowledge him but do not commit to him… and the outcome is disillusionment….Even despair for some.
He stands at the door and knocks.
Can we hear?
Can we discern his softly spoken voice above the deafening noise of the world?
There is no handle on the outside of the door where he stands …..and he will not force his way in.
The door must be opened from within.
“If you hear me calling and open the door,” he says, “I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.”
You know, there is going to be a great feast in the kingdom of heaven. And today just could be the last call for dinner.
Because there will come a time when we stand at the door of heaven and knock……
and that door must also be opened from within…......Opened from within by Jesus.
The first opening of the door of our heart to let Jesus in, is up to us…..
…And the opening of the second door into heaven….
being dependant on our response to Jesus
Is also up to us.
In Luke chapter 13, Jesus states, “The door to heaven is narrow. Work hard to get in, because many will try to enter, but when the head of the house has locked the door, it will be too late.
Turn from all indifference, be diligent and work hard to get in.
Is this a Gospel of works, rather than faith?
Absolutely not!
Martin Luther who championed the cry of the reformation: Salvation in Christ alone…. By faith alone…
Through grace alone …Also had this to say:
“Justification is by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone. If we say that we have faith but no works follow, that is evidence that our faith is not genuine. True faith always produces real conformity to Christ.”
True faith does not produce lukewarm indifference.
As people try to enter that door into heaven, Jesus says…
“Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles.’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you’.” (Mat 7:22-23)
These people who cry out Lord, Lord, to Jesus are people who are considered to be Christians.
They attended church, worshipped and praised….. Some of them even had powerful ministries.
They knew Jesus….. .. and Jesus does not dispute their claim that they knew him…. But Jesus says to them, “I never knew you.”
What does Jesus mean by those words, ‘I never knew you’?
Well Jesus tells a parable about sheep and goats in chapter 25 of Matthews Gospel. He says….
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered in his presence and he will separate them as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left. Then the King will say to those on the right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world……
You see I was hungry and you gave me something to eat….. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink.
I was a stranger and you made me feel welcome…..You cared for me when I was unable to care for myself.”
And they will reply….
Lord, I think perhaps your getting me mixed up with someone else. I don’t remember doing any of those things for you.”
And then Jesus said he will tell them….
“I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me.”
“I knew you.”
When you took to yourself that child who was alone in the world without hope and gave her love and a future….. ‘I knew you’.
‘I knew you’ when you visited that elderly neighbour who was all alone in the world.
It was because of you that he knew someone cared.
I saw the compassion in your heart as you gave those donations of money. I saw the hope that your generosity gave to those who had nothing…’I knew you.’
‘I knew you’ when you showed love and compassion to that young woman who had been used and abused all of her life.
Because of you she felt that she was worth something after all and chose life over suicide.
……“I knew you!”
And you know, it’s just possible that they may stare hard into Jesus’ eyes and say…. “Now I remember you.”
C. S. Lewis one famously stated that there will be some surprises in heaven.
Some of these surprises will be focused on who is there. Others will be on who is not there.
Then Jesus said he will turn to those on his left and say…
‘Away with you, you cursed ones into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his Demons!
For I was hungry and you didn’t feed me. I was thirsty and you didn’t give me anything to drink.
You were totally indifferent to my suffering and my needs.
Then they also will reply, ‘Lord, I don’t ever remember seeing you hungry or thirsty or on any kind of need whatsoever.”
And Jesus will answer them…‘I assure you, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’”
“In your indifference, never knew you.”
Jesus doesn’t judge by outward shows of religion.
He searches the hearts and true motives of all people.
There will now be no further mention of the church on earth in Revelation…
.. or in the Bible for that matter….
As John is invited in the opening of chapter four to “Come up here.” And John’s visions are now to be seen from a heavenly context.
Many take this to be what the theologians call the “Rapture of the Church.”
Which is Jesus taking the church to himself in heaven ….and out of the great tribulation that is to come upon the entire world.
In verse 21 of our reading….
….. Jesus says that he will invite everyone who is victorious to sit with him on his throne.
But whether we are still alive….. when without any prior warning….. Jesus returns for his church.
Or whether without any prior warning… … we die before he returns..
The important question for each of us is…
“Am I packed and ready to go?”….. “Is my house in order?”
Because, in essence, this is what these letters from Jesus are all about.
We have seen that for the church at Laodicea….Repentance would involve replacing their complacency with a passionate and zealous concern.
But the burning question is, are we prepared to look at ourselves with the same criterion?
If anyone here this morning knows that they need to repent…. or turn from indifference or complacency….
Or from lukewarm
Jesus is more than ready to give you a new start right here and right now.
He really is standing at the door of your heart right at this moment…..
And as I said earlier, this really could be the last call for dinner.