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Lessons from a Lukewarm Church
Text:
Introduction
One Sunday during service, Jesus walks into the church.
As a church, we see Him and we walk up to Him to welcome Him.
He pauses, looks around and says, “You nauseate me!” “You make me sick!” “When I see you I want to vomit!”
Not exactly words of compliment and praise are they?
Tragically, these are the very words spoken by Christ to His church in the city of Laodicea.
Their spiritual condition was nauseating.
It made Christ ill.
Sadly, they were unaware of their true, spiritual status.
They believed things were fine.
But, Jesus says no.
You are like the lukewarm, unfit drinking water that your city is infamous for.
You are not like the cold refreshing springs of Colossae or the hot healing waters of Hierapolis.
You are lukewarm and I will not stomach this.
For this kind of church there is not a single word of praise.
Not one.
Only criticism and condemnation comes from the mouth of “The Amen, the faithful and true Witness”
No church should be happy with itself, satisfied with who or where it thinks it is.
There are some churches who say, “Well, we may not be much, but we are the best God has.”
It is always dangerous when we think we are something special to God.
We should continually remind ourselves that we are nothing apart from Him. We, in our sin, are easily deceived.
Our God does not need us.
In reality, we all desperately need Him.
We all need to pursue His glory.
Like the previous 6 letters in , this letter follows a similar pattern.
The difference: minus any word of praise.
Their condition is critical but not terminal.
Christ has the spiritual medicine and remedies for their healing if they will listen and act on Jesus’ advice.
“Why is it that new Christians create problems in the church?” a young pastor once asked a much seasoned pastor.
“They don’t create problems,” the much season pastor replied.
“They reveal them.
The problems have always been there, but we’ve gotten used to them.
New Christians are like children in the home: they tell the truth about things!”
The Laodicean church was blind to its own needs and unwilling to face the truth.
Yet honesty is the beginning of true blessing, as we admit what we are, confess our sins, and receive from God all that we need.
If we want God’s best for our lives and churches, we must be honest with God and let God be honest with us.
The Lord demonstrated three areas of need in the church at Laodicea that we can learn from.
1.
They had lost their strength (vv.
16–17).
In the Christian life, there are three “spiritual temperatures”: a burning heart, on fire for God (), a cold heart (), and a lukewarm heart ().
Lukewarm Christians are comfortable, complacent, and do not realize their need.
This allusion to the Laodicean water supply is a fitting metaphor for the activities of this church.
Laodicea had always had a problem with its water supply.
The city of Hierapolis, to the northwest, was famous for its hot mineral springs.
An aqueduct had been built to bring water to the city from the hot springs.
But by the time the water reached the city, it was neither hot nor refreshingly cool—only lukewarm and filled with minerals (impure), so it tasted terrible.
According to Christ, these believers were neither hot nor cold; instead, they were merely lukewarm, as bland as the lukewarm water that came into the city.
Many have thought that this cold and hot refers to spirituality—and that Christ would rather have “cold” people (without faith at all, or without any sort of growth) than “lukewarm” believers (who believe some).
They take the word “cold” to be negative and “hot” to be positive, with “lukewarm” in between.
Instead, both “cold” and “hot” should be taken as positive.
Christ wished that the church had cold, refreshing purity or hot, therapeutic value, but it had neither.
We enjoy a beverage that is either hot or cold, but one that is lukewarm is flat and stale.
That’s why waitresses keep adding hot coffee to our cups and refilling our cold water glasses.
The second law of thermodynamics requires that a “closed system” eventually moderates so that no more energy is being produced.
Unless something is added from the outside, the system decays and dies.
That is why, for example without added fuel, the hot water in the boiler becomes cool; without electricity, the refrigerant in the freezer becomes warm.
That is why the church cannot be a “closed system.”
Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches.
If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
).
The Laodicean church was independent, self-satisfied, and secure.
“We have need of nothing!”
But all the while, their spiritual power had been decaying; their material wealth and glowing statistics were but shrouds hiding a rotting corpse.
.
The Laodicean church was independent, self-satisfied, and secure.
“We have need of nothing!”
But all the while, their spiritual power had been decaying; their material wealth and glowing statistics were but shrouds hiding a rotting corpse.
2. They had lost their values (vv.
17–18a).
We read Rev. 2:9
that the church at Smyrna thought itself poor, when in reality it was really rich.
The Laodiceans boasted that they were rich, when in fact they were poor.
Perhaps we have here a hint of why this church declined spiritually: they had become proud of their ministry and had begun to measure things by human standards instead of by spiritual values.
It is unclear whether the Laodiceans were claiming spiritual or material wealth.
They may have been materially rich and assuming that riches were a sign of God’s blessing on them.
With their wealth came an attitude of self-sufficiency—feeling that they did not need a thing.
They were materially secure and felt spiritually safe—with no need for further growth.
Unfortunately, that attitude made them blind to their own true condition—wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.
It is unclear whether the Laodiceans were claiming spiritual or material wealth.
They may have been materially rich and assuming that riches were a sign of God’s blessing on them.
With their wealth came an attitude of self-sufficiency—feeling that they did not need a thing.
They were materially secure and felt spiritually safe—with no need for further growth.
Unfortunately, that attitude made them blind to their own true condition—wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.
To give you context, Laodicea was a wealthy city and a banking center.
The city was proud of its cloth and dyeing industries.
They had developed a black wool that had become famous all over the Roman Empire and was bringing huge prices.
Although they had wealth in their clothing, they were naked before God.
They were self-centered.
But Christ told them to purchase white garments (his righteousness) from him so they would not be shamed by their nakedness.
Perhaps some of the spirit of the marketplace crept into the church so that their values became twisted.
Have you wondered why some churches these days boast the size of their congregation, how many services they have on Sunday, or the number of programs they offer?
Are these the only things that are most important to God?
The board at the Laodicean church could proudly show you the latest annual report with its impressive statistics; yet Jesus said He was about to vomit them out of His mouth!
As a church, do we want to grow exponentially, but people’s lives are not transformed, or do we want our church to grow in spiritual maturity and yet the numbers grow at a slow, steady pace?
The solution that Jesus offers?
Pay the price to get true “gold refined in the fire.”
This suggests that the church needed some persecution; they were too comfortable “In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed (
).
Nothing makes God’s people examine their priorities faster than suffering!
Nothing makes God’s people examine their priorities faster than suffering!
3.
They had lost their vision (v.
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