Sermon Tone Analysis

Annette recently reminded me that at the end of this year we will have known each other for 20 years.

January 7 will mark the 20th anniversary of our first date.

Many of you are wondering now how she possibly could have lasted that long.

The answer is simple: I’m THAT awesome.

OK, well maybe that’s not the answer.

And I don’t really know the answer, to be honest.

It’s a mystery to me, as well.

One thing I’ve come to conclude about marriage during that time is that it seems to have been designed to reveal things about you that you never would have discovered for yourself.

I never knew that I snored until Annette started wearing earplugs in bed.

I’d have no idea what a terrible driver I am if it weren’t for her willingness to tell me all about it.

And, until she told me otherwise, I had always thought that I was funny.

The simple fact is that most of us go around deluding ourselves about ourselves.

Very few of us have a really clear picture of the person we are, but most of the time our spouses do — or at least they develop a clear picture after a few years of being together.

Today, as we conclude our study of Christ’s letters to the churches, we’re going to see an example of the very worst and most dangerous kind of self delusion and hear the testimony of the faithful Witness against the deluded people of the church at Laodicea.

We’ll be reading from , and as you’re turning there, let me give you some background to the passage and to the intended recipients of this message.

This is the last of the letters dictated by Jesus to the Apostle John through the Holy Spirit.

They were addressed to seven different churches in Asia Minor during the latter part of the first century AD, but they continue to be important to the church as a whole today.

We have studied them in an effort to learn about the kinds of things that Jesus Christ considers commendable and condemnable in the church that is his body and his bride.

You’ll recall that the church at Ephesus was commended for being vigilant to root out false teaching, but it was condemned for having lost its love.

The church in Smyrna received no condemnation, and it was commended for its faithfulness in the midst of suffering.

The church at Pergamum was commended for being faithful during persecution, but it was criticized for not rooting out false teachers.

The Thyatiran church was praised for growing in its love and faith, but it received harsh criticism for not conducting church discipline.

The sleeping church at Sardis had a reputation for being alive, but Jesus called it a dead church with only a few who had not failed in their calling.

The Philadelphian church received only praise, because it had done much with the few resources it had been given.

Each one of those churches was also given the challenge to overcome this world, along with a promise that overcomers would receive certain rewards in heaven.

Today’s text addresses the church in Laodicea, and I think that in some regards it is the most important message of them all for those of us who call ourselves Christians.

Laodicea was a wealthy town about eight miles from Colossae.

It was known for its banks, for its textile industry and for its medical school.

Based on his references to Laodicea in the letter to the Colossians, it seems likely that the Apostle Paul had a role in founding the Laodicean church.

He surely took great interest in what was going on there, as we can see in that letter.

The name Archippus also appears in the book of Philemon:

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Many commentators have concluded that Archippus was the son of Philemon, the wealthy Christian from whom the slave Onesimus had escaped and to whom Paul was writing his plea that Onesimus be taken back into that household as a brother in the faith.

Many church historians believe that Archippus left his home and went to Laodicea, where he became the bishop of that church.

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Looking back at that admonition in Colossians, then, if we take Paul’s tone as chiding rather than encouraging, we can begin to see what might have happened in the 30 years between Paul’s letter and the words of Christ that we will read today.

If the leader of this church had lost his fervor for the Lord, how long could we expect the members of the church to maintain theirs?

If the leader of this church had come to think of it as something less than the very embodiment of Jesus Christ on earth, how long would it take for the fellowship there to begin to resemble that of the local Ruritan Club?

If those who had been called to be salt and light to a lost world had lost their saltiness, then what good would they be?

These are some of the questions we should consider as we look at this passage.

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Note that Jesus identifies Himself here as “the faithful and true witness.”

Both terms describe His trustworthiness.

Jesus is the only witness who can testify to what is in our hearts, and there is nothing in our hearts that is hidden from Him.

He knew the hearts of those within the church at Laodicea, and He knows the hearts of those here today.

And He will bear witness to His Father of our standing before Him.

A witness in court can be salvation to the person who stands accused or he can be the one who seals the case against the accused.

His testimony can be the determining factor between a judgment of guilt or innocence.

In the case of those who call themselves Christians, it will be the witness of Jesus Christ that makes the determination.

In the case of the church at Laodicea, even the people themselves seem to have been deceived about their standing before God.

Look at verse 17.

It’s interesting to note that this city had been destroyed by an earthquake in AD 60, but the people there had rebuilt it without any help from the government.

They were wealthy and had no need of outside help.

But Jesus here calls them wretched and poor.

In fact, the word for “poor” here is ptocheia, which you may recall is the same word He used to describe the economic situation of the worshipers in Smyrna.

It means destitute.

In Smyrna, the believers were economically destitute.

Here in Laodicea, they had plenty of money, but they were spiritually destitute.

And yet they couldn’t see it.

They were blind.

Laodicea was also known for its medical community and for an eye salve that was produced in the area.

They could see physically, but they were blind spiritually.

The city was also known for its fine black woolen textiles.

They had wonderful physical clothing, but they were spiritually naked.

These are startling things to hear about a church, are they not?

This was, after all, a church that claimed the name of Jesus Christ.

It was a church whose members considered themselves good Christians.

In fact, they probably considered themselves great Christians.

But Jesus tells them here that they were actually no better than the Pharisees whom He had called whitewashed tombs with rotting corpses on the inside.

He knew their deeds, the evidence of their supposed faith.

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Now, the story about Laodicea was that they had no water source of their own.

Nearby towns had refreshing cold water from streams or hot water from springs.

Laodicea got its water from one of those hot springs, but by the time it got to them, it was only lukewarm.

Here, Jesus describes their spiritual situation with another reference to their physical situation.

And then He warns them of the judgment that will result if they do not turn to Him.

Jesus spent a significant portion of His teaching warning about the importance of a true conversion, rather than a simple profession of faith.

We have talked several times recently about the parables of , for instance.

In the parable of the 10 virgins, he told of five virgins who were not admitted to the wedding feast.

When they came knocking on the door to be let in, the bridegroom responded, “Truly I say to you, I do not know you.”

In the parable of the talents, he told of the servant who was thrown into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth because that servant had not served His master.

And in describing the throne of judgment, where Jesus will separate the sheep from the goats, He said He will send those who did not serve the least of their brothers and sisters to the eternal fire that has ben prepared for the devil and his angels.

Each of these examples tells us something about what it means to follow Jesus, versus simply stating our knowledge about Him.

Simply believing that Jesus exists is not something that brings salvation.

James wrote about this:

The evidence of true faith is works.

So the people of the church at Laodicea were lukewarm.

They demonstrated none of the deeds that would have been evidence of their salvation.

They knew about Jesus, and they even put on the show of religion — probably many of them were faithful churchgoers — but they had none of the fervor about it that would have produced heat.

And yet, they were not cold, either.

They had spent 30 years hearing the Gospel.

They knew the message of the cross.

They knew about the redemption from sin that Jesus offered as He died for our sins.

But they didn’t really consider themselves to be all that bad.

Probably in their community they were upstanding citizens.

Maybe they were members of the Rotary Club.

They had felt the warmth of the Gospel message, but they had kept their distance so as not to be considered odd by their neighbors.

There was a time in my life when I was the same way.

I considered myself a Christian — I had been raised in the church and knew all about the Gospel, and I had even made a profession of faith at a young age.

And I took some pride in the fact that I wasn’t one of those Jesus freaks.

I figured I could be a Christian and keep it under the radar.