Loading summary
Transcript2 lines
- [00:11]
A
Let's pray together. Father, I want to thank you this morning for your peace. And God thank you for taking our sins, nailing it to the cross, and Lord Jesus, that you bore our sins away and paid the price for them. God, I pray right now that you would quiet our hearts and you would speak to us from your word. And we just invite your Holy Spirit to minister to us and to just apply what is shared. And may your truth find good soil in our hearts. Pray for your peace to guard Dave as he shares in Jesus name. Amen.
- [00:42]
B
Thank you. Good morning and greetings to each one of you. As you are well aware, I have been preaching through the seven churches in Revelation. And this morning we come to the last church, the last of the seven churches. And I suspect, although I don't know for sure, that the letter to the church of Laodicea is the one that we may have the most familiarity with. It may be the one that we have at least heard referenced different times. But I will also say that perhaps we have made some faulty assumptions or conclusions about this letter. What really the message is of this letter. And so I hope to challenge you in that way this morning. This is only the second letter, and the other one was the letter to Sardis, where there is no commendation to the church, and so there's only, I guess, critique might be one way of putting it, or a challenge or a message to change. So I have entitled this morning's message the Self Sufficient Church. And so turn with me to Revelation 3, and we're going to read the letter that's related to this this morning. So Revelation 3:14. 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 for 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 in to 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 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. So before we get into the text or the message of this letter, I want to talk about the city of Laodicea a little bit. And this is, like I said, the last of the seven churches. And this is the route that the letters would have been delivered. It was thought that this would have been like a mail route and so forth as well. So a fairly natural way of traveling. But Laodicea is about 50 miles southeast of Philadelphia and about 100 miles, mostly east of Ephesus. Laodicea was founded in about 250 BC, so it would have been during the time between the Old and New Testament by Seleucid king Antiochus ii. And he named the city after his wife. Laodicea was her name. And so that's where the name comes from. It was located in a fertile valley, and you can see a little. See a little bit of blue there, but it's the fertile Lycos River Valley. And there was two rivers that met there. And it was a very fertile area. While not correct as far as the scale and so forth, but Laodicea was located about 6 to 8 miles from two nearby cities, Hierapolis and Colossae. And so they formed a triangle. And we're familiar with Colossae. That was where Paul's letter to the Colossians was written. To the people in Colossae. We don't know as much about, or we don't have as much in the New Testament about Hierapolis. But Colossae was the smallest of these three villages or cities, I should say not villages. And Paul wrote letters to both the churches of Colossae and Laodicea about the same time, even though only the one has been preserved for us, and that's the one to Colossians. But I would really love to know what Paul wrote to Laodicea about 30 years prior to this message from Jesus through the angel, through to the church in Laodicea. Now, Epaphras is the one that evangelized these three cities. He lived there and he lived among them, but he was the one that was there. And Paul wrote to encourage him, but he was. I'm not sure that Paul actually ever visited any of these cities. Colossians 4. We read this Epaphras, and this is the closing chapter of Colossians who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you, the Colossians, and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis. So here we see that Epaphras is addressed as the one that has been overseeing these churches. A little bit earlier in Colossians, in chapter two, verse one, I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you writing to the Colossians and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face. So here we have a clue that Paul has not actually been there. He's not met these people, but he's heard about them and he's writing to them and encouraging them. And then in chapter four, a little bit later, from what we read earlier and when this letter has been read among you, the Colossians have it also read at the church of the Laodiceans and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea. So Paul would not have asked them to read the letter of Laodicea in Colossians had he not probably written it himself. He certainly knew there was a letter there. And so he's encouraging that whatever was written to the Laodiceans would also be ready with Colossians at Colossae. The city of Laodicea was not a small town. It was a major inland city and metropolis. In the first century, the city likely had close to 100,000 residents and some estimate that it may have been closer to 150,000. So, so it was a big city. For context, most first century cities had populations somewhere between 40 and $50,000 thousand people. And so this would have been two to three times bigger than most cities at that time. Colossae was actually quite small and it certainly would have been and would have been smaller than the 40 to 50,000. It's believed the population of Laodicea was a mixture of Greeks, Romans, native Frisians, and it's believed that there was also a large Jewish population there. What is probably and is evident from the message that the letter here in Revelation is that Laodicea was one of the richest cities in the Asia Minor in the first century and it was located among along the trading route. So there was a road that went over to Ephesus and the road that came down from Pergamum. And so they were sitting right there and they were able to benefit from all of the traffic, trade, traffic that came through that area. There were multiple agoras, which are places to shop and so forth. This is just a street that has been excavated. And so there was. But there was multiple agoras, there was multiple temples. There was two theaters, the one seating about 8,000 people, and another one that sat closer to 12,000 people. And it also had. The Odyssey was home to one of the largest stadiums in Asia Minor. They had a stadium that sat more than 25,000 people. And so it was a huge stadium that they had there. There were gates, fairly significant gates and temples, and you name it. This is just some of the ruins from there. So about the time that Paul would have written the letters to Colossia and Laodicea, there was an earthquake in this area in AD 60. It was in this Lycos Valley, and they did substantial damage to Laodicea. This was during the time that Nero was emperor. And it was also the same earthquake that damaged Sardis and Thyatira fairly significantly as well. So today, all three of these cities in this triangle, Hierapolis, Colossae and Laodicea, are in ruins. There's been significant excavation done at Hierapolis and Laodicea, but really none. There's been no excavation done in Laodicea. So this gives you a little bit of an overlook. This is actually a tourist map of the ruins of Hierapolis. But these ruins are mostly from several centuries after the time that this letter would have been written in Revelation. This is what was Colossae. And like I said, there's been no excavation there at all. But it's also a rather small site compared to the other two cities. So let's look at the text here and see what Jesus message to the Church of Laodicea may be instructing for us today. So back to the first two verses that we just read. 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're 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. So this first verse, Jesus is again creating a description, or he's describing himself. He's the Amen, the faithful and the true witness. He's the beginning of God's creation. And I haven't done this, but this morning I was thinking, I bet it would be interesting to go back through these seven letters and look how Jesus described himself in that first verse throughout the seven letters and see if there's any theme that you see or description that you may see emerging from that. I did not do that. But it's simply a description of who Jesus is. And then he gets right to the point. With the church of Laodicea, you are not hot or cold. You're lukewarm, which is, in my words, nauseating and disgusting. And it makes me feel like vomiting. Spewing out, spitting out is what Jesus was communicating to this church there. So what does this mean? I'm curious, how many of you have heard that this taught that God would rather have us be cold against God rather than lukewarm if we're not going to be hot for God? How many of you have heard that taught? Most of us, Unfortunately, I don't believe that that is the message is really what Jesus message was to the church here. As you're going to see, Laodicea, although a large city, had one huge problem. It did not have access to good drinking water. Now, a city of 100,000 people and not having access to good drinking water, that is a problem. Now, I don't know if any of you have ever tasted bad drinking water. I have. When I was a boy, one of my uncles in Kansas used to live a bit out west of the community and not so far from a creek called Salt Creek, and probably aptly named that just for a little bit of context. There is a huge salt mine under Hutchinson that extends for miles underground, 650ft under the ground, and it goes for miles in all directions. And I suspect that that's the origin of Salt Creek. But my uncle's water, well, water was awful. They knew it, everyone knew, almost tasted salty. But it wasn't just salty. It was worse than that. It had other minerals in it as well. And I don't know if you've, you know, if you've tasted ocean water by accident. It was maybe not quite that bad, but that gives you some idea of how the water tasted. I think maybe they may have used the water for cooking, but they would always serve lemonade or tea or something to try to kind of override the bad taste of the water. Now, that's not unlike the situation that was in Laodicea, but for very different reasons. Hierapolis was located about six or seven miles across the valley. And this is Hierapolis from Laodicea. And you notice the white there. It was a very popular city because of its hot springs and mineral baths. And I have several pictures here. So this is another Picture from Laodicea, and you can see it over there. But there is just a huge buildup of minerals from the hot springs that are there in Hierapolis. But I mean, those are still active today and it's beautiful. And people still go there for the hot baths. And so these minerals build up and run down the mountainside. People traveled from all over the Asia Minor to come here to these mineral baths for healing, for all kinds of ailments. So that was Hierapolis from Laodicea. Then looking down toward the south, you saw one could see the snow capped mountains behind or above the small town of Colossae, about the same distance away. So again, six, seven miles away. And so these cold streams made their way down the mountain, providing refreshing cold water, drinking water and irrigation for the fertile valley before finding its way onto the river. So Hierapolis had hot healing waters. Colossae had ice cold, refreshing mountain water. So Laodicea had bad water. So just think about this when Jesus is saying hot water, you're neither hot nor cold. So Laodicea had to pipe their water from the city, had to pipe their water into the city from several miles away. And by the time it had traveled five to seven miles in stone aqueducts or pipes, the water was lukewarm and didn't taste good anymore. Now, there's conflicting information on the source of this water that was piped to Laodicea. Some claim that Laodicea wanted both the cold water from Colossae and the hot water from Hierapolis and ran pipes from both, but ended up that both were tepid by the time they got to Laodicea. Others claim that they piped the water from the river, which would have been a bit closer, but it was downstream from where the cold water came down and where the mineral water came down and, and found its way into the river. And so the runoff of the mixture would have been neither cold nor hot. But regardless of the source, the archeological evidence shows the incredible mineral buildups in the pipes that were uncovered there in Laodicea. And there's many of these pipes that show huge mineral deposits inside their aqueducts. This was a fountain that was there and it is built up and covered with minerals as well. This is a much closer one and you can see there's pipes, they redo pipes every now so often because they would no longer probably be functional and so forth. And so this was the context of Laodicea and the context of the message from Jesus that you're neither hot nor cold, but you're lukewarm. So I believe when Jesus gave this message, they immediately made this connection. Both hot and cold are good, both are valuable, both have a clear purpose. And I think that that's true, you know, and that's true for us today. Jesus message to us today, even through this letter, is not one dimensional. He wants the church to be a place of healing. He also desires that we're refreshing to those around us, and that's what a church ought to be. But I think even getting beyond that, I think more, less specifically, God wants us to be useful in his kingdom and not useless lukewarm water. And that may look differently depending on. It's not the kind of thing that people just want to spit out or vomit when they come in contact with it. And so for me, for us today, let's look for and engage in ways that are refreshing or healing or some other useful characteristic of God's kingdom, and then just stay away from anything that's lukewarm and nauseating to God or others. That I believe is more what the message is than about being of being cold toward God. That has nothing to do with this. Continuing in verse 17, for you say, I am rich and have prospered. I have need of nothing, not realizing you're wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. Laodicea was very wealthy. It was affluent, it was prosperous, it was a financial powerhouse. Think in terms of, in today's world of New York City or London, that's the kind of influence and wealth and power that it had going back to the earthquake that happened in AD 60 during Nero's reign, which again was about 30 years before this letter. There was extensive damage done to Laodicea by this earthquake. And when there's damage, when an earthquake strikes, the Roman Empire would come in and say that we'll give you the money to rebuild your city. That happened in some of the previous cities that we had talked about as well. Interestingly, Laodicea refused the help from Rome to rebuild their city in AD 60. They're like, we can take care of ourselves. We don't want your help. We're rich enough to look out for ourselves. We don't need the Roman Empire. That's the kind of attitude that they had. Notably, the historian Tacicus, who recorded what happened during Nero's reign, says Laodicea, quote, one of the famous cities in Asia was overthrown by an earthquake and restored itself without any relief from us. Talking about Rome. And from Nero's perspective, they had no imperial Roman financial assistance. So it's likely that Hierapolis and Colossae also suffered damage during this time. And it's assumed, they assumed that they accepted this financial assistance, although there's not any record of them specifically doing so. What is recorded is that Laodicea did not accept those funds. And so here Jesus is challenging the worldview of these Laodicean believers, their opinions, their perspectives of themselves. While the city and culture was claiming to be rich, self sufficient, needing nothing, Jesus is looking at this from another dimension. Apparently that kind of thinking, the pride, this attitude and the self sufficiency that was in the culture and in the city had made its way into the local church. Jesus says, in reality, and you don't even realize this, but you're wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, naked, destitute. You're in really bad shape spiritually. Regardless what you may think of yourselves, the truth is that you don't realize how destitute and how poor you are in my eyes or in Jesus eyes. As I meditated on this verse, I kept asking myself whether this is any worse than what we see in our country today, all around us, even in our churches. We are rich, we don't need anything, we're self sufficient, we're economically strong. But what about our spiritual compassion condition? Are we really as Jesus in reality, are we like Jesus describes the Laodicean church, of being wretched, destitute, poor, blind, naked. I think it's a challenge that we ought to consider and contemplate. Then he continues in verse 18 with some advice for the Laodiceans. He starts out, I counsel you to buy from me. And then he mentions three things. But he's saying, rather than looking to Laodicea, look to me as a source of these things, these types of things. So Laodicea was a major banking center in the first century. They minted coins there, including a distinctive Laodicean coin engraved with we did it ourselves in Greek. So that kind of captures their attitude, their essence of who they are. They prided themselves in their independence and their wealth and their power. And so Jesus is suggesting that they buy gold from him and maybe alluding that, don't take that Laodicean mindset, rather buy your gold from me. Trusting the banking system or material wealth or economic security is foolish. But Jesus is offering something far more lasting, a spiritual wealth that is provided and refined by himself. One of the economic engines for the city was a luxurious. I'm sorry, there's the picture of the coin. One of the economic engines for the city was a luxurious cloth made from the hair or the wool I was not able to really determine of a rare breed of goats that thrived in the Lykos Valley. And so that's something that they were known for. And the goats were black, and the garments and clothing they made, their hair or wool was very expensive. It was stylish and very popular both in Laodicea and throughout the Asia Minor. And so Jesus contrasts these popular, luxurious black garments of the culture by counseling them to buy from Jesus white garments, so that you may be. As a way of demonstrating a transformed life and one that they're not following their culture, not shaped by the popular culture around them, suggesting that by doing that, they are actually covering the shame of their spiritual nakedness. And so that was another aspect that. So he's saying, don't rely on the coins from Laodicea. Don't rely on the black garments that are so popular and luxurious there in Laodicea. And then beyond that, we're also known for their amazing eyesalve. And this is believed to have been made out of the mud and minerals found in the river to which the cold waters of Colossae and the hot springs of Hierapolis flowed. Apparently, there were healing properties in the concoction that actually improved eyesight, and some even said it improved hearing. And it became a popular product throughout the Asia Minor. But Jesus again is telling the Laodicean believers that don't rely on this amazing eye salve, but rather come to me to get the salve to anoint your eyes, the salve to help you see better and spiritually specifically. But I think that that's what Jesus is encouraging the believers here is don't look to your city, your culture, for these things. But. But look to me for a superior alternative. Look to him. Look to Jesus as a source for living life. Not to be looking to those around them or the culture around them for the financial or clothing, luxurious clothing, or the medical needs, but rather looking to Jesus. And then continues in verse 19, those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. So be zealous and repent. Jesus is communicating here that he loves them in spite of these faults that he sees. He loves them and he's reproving them. He's disciplined them, and he's showing them where to go wrong. But there's a way out. They're not stuck there. They're not condemned. They were simply putting their trust in the wrong things, and they were looking to themselves and the city and its culture as a reference point for their spiritual lives. Rather than looking to Jesus, they had taken their eyes off of their Redeemer and were doing it in their own strength, with their own means. And so it was the Christians had their own version of we did it ourselves mindset. And Jesus is calling these believers to stop and repent. Their lives were being lived apart from Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. It was being lived entirely in their own strength and their own self sufficiency. As I ponder this, so much of this critique and warning reminds me of 21st century American church and perhaps even more specifically American Anabaptist churches. But there's hope. There was hope for the Laodiceans. Jesus loves us just as much as he did them. He loves us and there's hope. He will reprove and discipline those who are unwilling to repent and be zealous for Him. But we can show our zeal for Jesus as much as we do for the popular and the famous things all around us. Verse 20. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come to him and eat with him and he with me. I don't know how many of you think of the church of Laodicea when you hear this verse. I suspect most of us don't often. This is one of these verses that I feel is used independently and even out of context, just because it's a nice verse. And it is, I'm not denying that. But this is in the context of this message to the church at Laodicea. When I was a young boy, there was a picture depicting this verse hanging on the wall in our house. As best as I can remember is something like that. So whether I do it consciously or unconsciously, that's the image that I associate with this verse. I'm not saying it's inaccurate, but there's a lot more to it than just that. Laodicea had a significant Roman military presence, partly due to the gladiator games in this huge stadium that they had. And while you couldn't tell it from the picture, this is the remains of that huge stadium. And it's not been excavated, but you can tell a bit the size of it. It is massive. So gladiators, as you know, fight for their lives, literally. They were survivalists, and as such, they would invent new weapons to use in their fights and then they would become very proficient with them. Well, the Roman soldiers were anxious to learn from these skilled fighters, and so they would get them to. They would come to Laodicea, they would watch them fight, and then they would get them to train them how to use these skills and how to become. Yeah. And these weapons in their battles and so forth. And so there was just a lot of military Roman soldiers here, there in the area. Laodicea really became a military and entertainment outpost because of these games and this stadium and the. The people that it attracted. Now, under Roman law, there is something that's called anagaria. And this is basically laws that dictated how citizens had to treat Roman soldiers. So, for instance, this meant that any Roman soldier could demand a meal from anyone else when they were hungry. That's the same law that we read about in the Sermon on the Mount, where it talks about that a Roman soldier could demand that you carry something, pack a mile. That was also part of the Angaria, that soldiers could just literally demand things of citizens. And it wasn't limited to those two types of privileges, multiple things like that that they were just entitled to do. And there was no saying no when it happened. Under Angaria, a Roman soldier could knock on your door any time of the day or night and say, I need a meal. And you would have to provide them a meal. That was the law. You couldn't turn them away. You had to give them whatever you had and give them an adequate meal. And given the number of soldiers there in Laodicea, this would happen frequently. So again, Jesus is drawing a contrast here. Unlike the Roman soldiers who knock and demand something, when Jesus knocks, there aren't demands. He knocks and he waits. And should you choose, and you have the option to ignore the knock, should you choose to open the door to Jesus, he will come in and dine with you and invite you to sit down and dine with him, something that would have been unthinkable for a Roman soldier to do. So Jesus here is contrasting the demands that Roman soldiers put on the Christians and other citizens to that of himself. Yes, he'll knock, but he will patiently wait for an invitation to come in and then share a meal together, to fellowship together. Not demanding, but he wants a relationship. He wants to be a friend. And so he knocks, he waits, and it's up to us what we do with that. Verses 21 and 22. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, 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. Even though there is no commendation for the church at Laodicea, within these verses, there is an abundance of hope in the message that Jesus gives. It's not a message of judgment or condemnation either. But he is inviting the Laodiceans to repent. To repent of their lukewarmness, their self sufficiency. And when you do, when we do that, we have the privilege of sitting on the throne with King Jesus himself, the one who conquers, the one who's victorious over sin. Those who are neither hot nor cold, those who repent and confess their need for a redeemer beyond their wealth, success and prosperity of the culture. Those who invite Jesus to dine with him. And so this has been a real challenge to me as I just consider this for my own life, but even for us as a church. The Laodicean church did not realize their poor condition, their poor spiritual condition. I believe in their minds they thought they were on the right track. But Jesus pointed out that they did not realize their true condition. The phrase not realizing is really key there. It's like they were ignorant of their weaknesses. Just as we also need to recognize that there are limitations in our lives that we can't see that we don't even realize that Jesus wants to get hold of. Somewhere along the way, the church at Laodicea began trusting themselves more than they were trusting Jesus. They were also flourishing by all human standards. They had financial wealth, they had. I mean, I would suspect, there's no indication here, I would suspect that they reflected the culture around them a lot. They had successful businesses, they were culturally accepted. Notice there was no persecution here in Laodicea. They were flourishing economically. Everything seemed to be going well for them. And as we often tend to think when that's the case, God must be blessing them. But that was not reality. Jesus reminds them that just because they're flourishing in the world, that's no indicator of spiritual health. He revealed that their lukewarmness and extreme spiritual poverty in their hearts, their spiritual condition was exactly opposite of their physical material condition. They were putting their confidence in themselves, not needing God to carry on. But there was hope. Jesus didn't abandon them. He wasn't abandoning them. Rather he was calling them back to himself. But repentance is the key. Jesus invited them and invites us to repent of our self sufficiency and become zealous, either hot or cold in God's kingdom. He's knocking and he's waiting. The invitation is there. Lukewarmness isn't a lack of zeal. I mean, I'm sorry, lukewarmness is a lack of zeal. By recognizing and confessing that Satan has taken control of certain areas of our lives, Jesus is knocking and waiting and we can reclaim those areas with the help of the Holy Spirit and walk victoriously. The church Laodicea thought they were prosperous, successful and spiritual. But Jesus had a totally different assessment. They were lukewarm, blind, naked and destitute. They were a church saturated with self sufficiency. What do you think your spiritual condition is? And then the bigger question is what does Jesus think? And a question I think we should do well to consider. What would Jesus evaluation be of our church were he to write us a letter like he did to these seven churches in Revelation? So that's my challenge for you today. And trust that as we go from here we can be mindful of where our trust and where we're putting and our self sufficiency and that we truly look to Jesus for those things in our lives and live with zeal and repent of those areas that are lukewarm or unflattering to Jesus Christ. Let's stand together for benediction. Lord, thank youk for this pertinent passage of Scripture. And I pray that as we contemplate this as relates to our own lives, that yout would kindly show us those areas that we may not realize. How bad they look to you, those lukewarm areas of our lives. And I just ask that you would give us the zeal and fervor to live for you each and every day and moment of our lives. I pray too that you would give us the courage to acknowledge sin in our lives, acknowledge those areas where we are not trusting you and looking to something or someone other than you in those areas of life that we would be willing to confess and repent those and turn away from those. Lord, we want to be found faithful. We want to be hot or cold, zealous Christians, a zealous church for the building of your kingdom, for your honor and your glory in Jesus name, Amen.