Sermon Tone Analysis

Opening.

Imagine with me a scene from my teenage years: I’m 15 years old and I am in a summertime football league.

It’s late Thursday morning and the temperature is already at around 38 degrees outside in the dry North Okanagan city of Vernon, BC.

I have football practice at 1:00pm and I have to get myself there.

So I put on all my football gear except for the helmet, get on my bicycle and ride the 45 minutes or more to the other side of the town, where the terrain varies over many hills and valleys.

I get to practice and now the temperature is about 41 degrees and we go for it, running, tackling, and more running for 2 hours.

Then I get on my bike, still fully padded up and ride back home.

My throat is sore from being so dry and thirsty and all my muscles feel weak.

And then I grab a glass of water to drink, hopeful in anticipation of how much better I’m going to feel.

But what I don’t realize is that water is slightly above room temperature.

It’s lukewarm.

And I throw my head back and start drinking.

What would your reaction be?

I think most of us would spit that water out, even though we are so thirsty.

If everything in that story were true, that’s what I would have done.

I did ride my bike in those temperatures wearing my football pads, practiced for two hours and then rode home.

But I stopped at the store closest to my house on my way back and bought a cold, refreshing 950ml green gatorade and chugged it in three gulps instead.

I was so thirsty and that helped some, but I was still thirsty.

So I bought another one and drank it too.

But the idea of being really thirsty and then drinking lukewarm water still invokes a reaction in us, doesn’t it.

Today, we are finishing our summer series The Bible According to.. Me: Misunderstanding Scripture where we have been looking at well-known Bible passages that are commonly misunderstood and teaching what they really mean.

In today’s passage, Jesus talks about a church that is lukewarm and how he is going to spit them out of his mouth.

So join me as we read Revelation 3:14-22.

Pray.

There was a thing in the Christian culture of the 90’s and early 2000’s about “being on fire for Jesus.”

By that, it was meant that you were expected to be super enthusiastic about your faith, but in a loud and obnoxious way, wearing a cheesy, Christian T-shirt that co-opts and alters a brand, by wearing purity rings on your wedding finger and singing Jesus Freak by DC Talk in your car with the stereo blasting and the windows rolled down.

The root of that movement was a reaction to Christians not living their faith boldly and publicly.

So youth pastors, senior pastors, camp speakers and even some commentators looked at this passage and they interpreted hot to be “on fire for Jesus”, cold to be unbelief, and lukewarm to be a Christian who wasn’t overtly “out there.”

According to this framework, Jesus so hated us being lukewarm, for not being Christian enough that he vows to spit us out of his mouth (literally vomit).

While it would be best, in this view to be passionate, zealous and expressive of our faith, Jesus would prefer that we weren’t believers at all than if we were lukewarm Christians.

But when we look at the context of this passage from a geographical context, we see that Jesus is teaching something else entirely.

This passage is written to the church that is in Laodicea.

Laodicea was a well known city in Asia Minor, which is modern-day Turkey.

Laodicea was known for being one of the richest commercial centres in the world at that time.

It was so wealthy that when an earthquake destroyed most of the city around 60 AD, they refused government money to help rebuild it and did it all themselves.

It was also known for having a rich textile industry that specialized in black wool as well as having a prestigious medical school.

Laodicea sat about 17 km from another famous city called Hieropolis and 10 km from the city of Colossae (which is where the letter of Colossians was sent).

Now, I know these facts may sound like a boring school report but they all factor into helping us understand what Jesus is saying here.

Now, let’s go back into our passage and work through it with this context.

This is where an understanding of geographical and historical context is helpful.

Remember when I said there were two cities near Laodicea that were also well known?

These two cities each had a geographical feature that made them famous all over the area.

Hieropolis was known for its hot springs.

There were at least 17 springs with temperatures that varied between 35 degrees and 100 degrees People would come from all over to sit in the springs and allow the heat and the minerals to heal their bodies.

In fact, these springs still exist today and are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Back in the old country, where I’m from, you know, Alberta, Banff has hot springs as well.

People from all over the world come and sit in these waters, preferring the natural heat and minerals over the man-made ones of hotel hot tubs that have pickles floating in them because Bob ate a burger while having a soak.

Hieropolis was only about 17 km to the north from Laodicea.

About 10 km to the west of Laodicea was Colossae.

Colossae was known for its cold springs.

It was on the Lycos River, which was fed from the mountain snow and rain that came down from Mount Cadmus.

There was actually a spot where the river dropped off into a gorge and then came up farther down, where it connected to another river.

In summer, people would enjoy a dip in the cold water and feel refreshed.

One summer I served as a director at a Bible camp and we played this game where your whole cabin had to lie on the ground in a circle, put your feet up in the air and hold up a rubbermaid full of water with your feet.

Then you had to take your shoes off without using your hands.

If you did it wrong, the water would crash down and soak you.

Hilarious.

Well, we set up the game and I jumped in with a cabin to play along since it was really hot out.

But the game leader filled the rubbermaid with water from stream, which came down from the still-snow covered mountains next to us.

Well, we didn’t do the challenge very well and when that water fell down on me, I shrieked.

I mean it was so cold, when it hit me, my internal core temperature dropped by 7 degrees.

I can still feel it 23 years later.

I imagine the water at Colossae was like that.

Laodicea did not have its own natural water source so they built large aqueducts that carried the water from a source about 5 miles south of the city.

But by the time the water reached Laodicea, it wasn’t hot anymore, it was lukewarm.

Now, like we imagined earlier, if you have ever drunk water that was lukewarm when you are thirsty, you get a sense of what Jesus means when he talks about spitting it out of his mouth.

So with this geographical context, how should we understand what Jesus is saying when he says he wishes we were hot or cold?

Hot and cold are not set here in contrast to each other.

Jesus is not saying “Be hot - aflame with passion for me” or “Be cold - have no faith at all because no faith is better than lukewarm faith” He is talking about the type of Christians we are.

If we are hot, then we are Christians where others can find healing for their pain.

We are comfortable for them to be around and we can just sit together for awhile and make people feel better.

If we are cold, then we are Christians who bring a sense of refreshment and life, like when you drink really cold water after some exercise.

We energize others and motivate them forward, like splashing cold water on your face when you are a bit tired.

Jesus is happy with us being like either one of those.

But his criticism for the church in Laodicea was that they were neither.

Like lukewarm water, they were not fulfilling their purpose or being helpful to those around them.

They were Christian in name, but not in deeds.

But what does it mean to live a Christian life?

Do I have to wear the Lion of Judah T-shirt and listen to Toby Mac exclusively?

I think the answer is best found in two scripture passages.

Our purpose, our mission is to...

Matthew 22:37–39 (NLT)

‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’

This is the first and greatest commandment.

A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

and

In evangelical Christianity, we are deeply concerned with not having a works-based faith that says, “If I do this or that, God will love me and save me.”

Instead, we hold to a theology that says, “We are saved by what we believe - our faith - it is by grace, through faith that we are saved.”

The danger of this theology, which I believe is true, is it becomes easy for us to slide into a place like the Laodiceans did, where we are Christians by name, but we live apathetically toward God.

But God calls us to be a people whose faith is practiced - that makes a difference in our life and in the lives of others; where what we believe informs what we do.

The kind of faith that says, “I’m a Christian” but you don’t act like Jesus is offensive to God.

That’s why Jesus says he will spit you out of his mouth.

It’s a rejection because we are being hypocritical.

True faith always results in becoming more like Jesus in your character and in your conduct.

Jesus is challenging them, and us, to evaluate what kind of Christian we are - are we warm, caring, Christians who bring healing to people - are we refreshing and revitalizing Christians who empower others - or are we lukewarm Christians who aren’t living out our faith in a way that helps others?

For the Laodiceans, the manifestation of their “lukewarmness” was in their delusion about their need for Jesus.

Jesus says,

I mentioned earlier that Laodicea was a very wealthy city and that, obviously included the Christians as well.

While many others in the world at the time were living hand-to-mouth, praying daily for enough to get by, the Laodiceans had more than enough and didn’t feel a sense of need.

And while having lots of money isn’t a sin, our attitude towards our possessions can betray the sin that sits in our hearts.