These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

-Revelation 3:14-22

Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

-Joshua 24:14-15 (ESV)

What we said early on:

1. There is a renewed interest in spirituality, but, if it is not based on knowledge, it is nothing more than a self-induced, psychosomatic pep talk.

2. Truth and God are inextricably tied together.

3. Jesus said that true worshippers would worship God in Spirit and Truth.

This is extremely important because there is a:

Temptation to create God in your own image. He likes what you like and hates what you hate.

But The real God will inevitably contradict you.

When you attempt to relate to God without understanding who God really is, you will feel lost and frustrated, never sensing God’s presence.

You can’t relate to someone you do not know; the relationship will be superficial at best. The depth of your relationship with anyone is dependent upon your knowledge and understanding of who that person really is.

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 from 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 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.

-Revelation 3:14-22(ESV)

Laodicea

Among the seven letters to the churches in Revelation we find a letter written specifically to the church that once stood within these walls.

All other letters include words of affirmation AND words of correction.

The letter to the Laodicea does not include affirmation, only scathing condemnation.

The city was famous for many things, one of which was eye salve.

Yet, Jesus says,

• You are spiritually blind. You need salve!

• Your spiritual sight is so bad that you are blind!

• Worse yet: You don’t even know that you can’t see.

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.

-Revelation 3:15-16 (ESV)

Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.

-Revelation 3:19

Remedy = Earnestness or zealousness

Earnestness = Greek Word: Zealous

Therefore: Lukewarm Christians are Christ-followers without zeal for God.

When word is used in the New Testament, it is sometimes it is translated Zealous. Most of the time it is translated Jealous.

• Zealous = positive: I am committed to something!

• Jealous = negative, envious, jealous, the green-eyed monster.

Jesus warns continually about the damage jealousy can do. Jealousy can drive a person to do ungodly things.

How can Zealous and Jealous be the same word?

• Jealousy is to set your intentions on something or someone. You want something someone else has.

• If you set your intentions on yourself, you will be jealous of people who have what you don’t have.

If you set your love on self, the explosion of energy will be toward anyone who makes you look bad.

If you set your love on someone else, then the jealousy for them is an explosion of service and care on that person’s behalf.

"So, because you are lukewarm…"

A lukewarm person is not a hypocritical person.

The supreme passion of the Laodecians was not God! Their love had been set on something other than Jesus.

As a result: They are not jealous for God. They have no zeal for God. And the result? “Spit you out of my mouth.”

Would that you were either cold or hot!

-Revelation 3:15b (ESV)

Hot = Zeal, fervor, ardor, passion, intense desire; alive!

Cold = Dead: Have not yet awakened to the spirit. Just cold.

When you are Cold: You are ignorant and blind.

When you are Lukewarm: You think you see but you don’t.

1. Your identity is not in Christ—it's in having the “right answers.”

2. Your passion is not for Jesus but for moral boundaries that you don’t keep yourself.

3. Your joy is not in Jesus but in your own self-righteousness, which is why you are miserable—because you know you’re not that good.

4. You have not set your mind on the goodness of God’s provision and grace but upon your spiritual superiority which is why you have no time for those far from God.

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

-Colossians 3:1-2 (ESV)

What are you to set your minds on? Things above.

What is above? Christ.

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.

-Colossians 3:5-8 (ESV)

And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, 'If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.’

-Luke 7:37-39 (ESV)

And Jesus answering said to him, 'Simon, I have something to say to you.' And he answered, 'Say it, Teacher.' …Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, 'Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.

-Luke 7:40, 44-47 (ESV)

Here is the problem:

Lukewarm people are electrified by the fact that Jesus loves them—but they are not moved or transformed. It’s not the controlling principle of their lives.

Jesus is an addition to their loves, not the replacement of their loves.

Lukewarm people are further from being hot than cold people because:

1. They have knowledge without power.

2. They are impervious to the reality that they are…wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

3. They truly believe they are “in!”

4. They believe they are fully devoted followers of Jesus.

However, the truth is they have little to no knowledge of what that really means, which is the reason they seldom, if ever, experience God.

When Jesus sees proclaimed Christ-followers without zeal, joy, wonder, passion—what does He do?

Send down His wrath? No. They would not be good!

He simply says—“You turn my stomach! You nauseate me.”

He gets personal and visceral!

Why is Jesus being so serious and personal?

If “lukewarmness” is the Symptom, what is the disease?

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 from 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.

-Revelation 3:17-18 (ESV)

We know heaps about Laodicea!

• Textile Center: Clothes containing an exquisite black wool were made there.

• Financial Center: Laodicea was so wealthy that when they experienced a devastating earthquake that damaged much of the city, they did not request help from Rome.

• Medical Center: They were the “Big Pharma” of their day and produced ointments in high demand.

Jesus is bitterly ironic when He says:

“You think you are rich, well-clothed, healthy, that you can see.”

In reality, “You are naked, poor, and blind!”

One: Spiritually Naked

A metaphor for guilt and shame associated with unrighteousness. Jesus says, “You are unclothed in righteousness and liable for punishment.”

What happened?

• Did they take the garments off?

• Did they trade the garments of grace for self-sufficiency?

• Just as they told Rome, “We got this,” had they told Jesus, “We got this”?

• Rather than boasting in Jesus alone, were they boasting in their good deeds?

• Was their security in their own goodness?

• Did they display spiritual superiority?

Two: Spiritual Poverty:

You are spiritually impotent! In other words, there is nothing you can do about your condition. You can’t change or make yourself better.

Have the Laodiceans grieved the spirit to such a degree that the fire has completely gone out?

• Have they been so impacted by the business and wealth and self-sufficiency of culture that they no longer had time for prayer, worship, and Jesus?

• As a result, they have become blind again–they do not see spiritual realities.

• They trust in their own knowledge, wisdom, and provision.

Three: Spiritual Blindness:

You don’t know the truth about God.

1. You don’t know who God really is; you think you know Him.

2. You have truth without power.

3. You are ignorant without understanding.

4. And you don’t know you are ignorant.

Is it possible to have a church full of Blindness?

Is it possible to focus so much on YOU that you lose God?

Is it possible to be religious without being Christian?

The American Church

Most theologians believe that the American church is the church of Laodicea! There is a direct link to being wealthy, brilliant, accomplished, and having high achievement and being spiritually lukewarm.

When you have all your needs met, and are self-sufficient, the reality of God’s grace and provision does not grip your heart.

The knowledge that Jesus loves you is not a miracle.

You are not desperate.

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise…

-Hebrews 13:15a

Jephthah (Judges 11-12): One of the most horrific stories in the OT.

Jephthah is a leader in Israel and he sacrifices his daughter to make a vow to God.

Deuteronomy is clear that God detests human sacrifices, but Jephthah has allowed the surrounding cultures to infiltrate his thinking. The cultures around him did this type of thing all the time to get things from the gods.

The International Church

When Christians come from other parts of the world where the Gospel is growing like wildfire, they are taken aback.

When they come into the American Church, if you press them, here is what they say: They are appalled at how comfortable, safe and affluent we are.

Appalled by what?

• How little we pray.

• How much of our money we spend on ourselves.

• That we are afraid to let people know we are Christians while they are being put to death for identifying with Jesus Christ.

• That we are entertained by blatant sin.

The Truth is:

• We (you and me) are just as accommodating to culture as Jephthah was to his.

• We are just as Lukewarm as the Laodiceans.

There was a time when the church was very powerful. It was during that period that the early Christians rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was the thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Wherever the early Christians entered a town the power structure got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being “disturbers of the peace” and “outside agitators.” But they went on with the conviction that they were “a colony of heaven” and had to obey God rather than man. They were small in number but big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be “astronomically intimidated.” They brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contest. Things are different now.

The contemporary church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s often vocal sanction of things as they are. But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.

There is a lukewarmness in us in affluence that is based on pride and self-sufficiency.

• It spills into our spiritual lives and makes it nearly impossible for us to be transformed, overwhelmed, and melted by the love of Jesus.

• Jesus’ love and calling should be the controlling factor in our lives but it is not.

Too many western Christian’s lives are marked with:

• A lack of zealousness for God–there is no explosion of energy in His service.

• There is little to no pursuit of purity, no passion for sacrifice, no genuine generosity.

Why? Because we are not desperate.

Andrew Walls

He says that

1. Other major world religions are still centered in the same general geographic area from which they originated except for Christianity.

2. Even more intriguing, the center of Christian growth continues to move.

3. He suggests that Christian principles bring prosperity but then the prosperity brings a temptation to chase stability and respectability.

4. When that happens, Christian growth moves to an area where people are desperate enough to trust Christ alone.

In other words—we risk becoming Idolaters. Our trust is in the things culture values rather than in God.

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.

-Revelation 3:15-17 (ESV)

What is the remedy to this disease?

I counsel you to buy from 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.

-Revelation 3:18 (ESV)

The first way you escape Lukewarmness. “Get from me a white robe.”

1. The Laodiceans were self-sufficient. They needed no one including Rome.

2. Jesus reminds them that they need something they can not provide. Only He can give this—provide this.

White Robe? What is that?

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: 'Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.'

-Revelation 7:9-10

'Come now, let us settle the matter,' says the Lord. 'Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.'

-Isaiah 1:18

This is the robe of salvation and atonement that can only be received as a gift—never earned.

It is the robe of ransom, rescue, redemption, salvation.

When you truly begin to realize what Jesus did for you, your heart will be melted, and you will live for Him!

We have forgotten eternal life because we don’t mind the temporal one. We actually enjoy it.

Everyone covers their nakedness with something, the thing that proves their significance, their worthiness–without it, they are nothing. It’s their “gold.”

As a result—your love and pursuit and intense passion is for these things!

The only way that can ever change is through a Jesus Revelation. You must have your eyes open to what He has offered and provided for you.

Only when you wear His garment of salvation by Grace will you fall in love with Him and completely restructure your life to follow Him.

This is the Climactic Truth of my life: I can not guilt, manipulate or coerce you into following Jesus, to obey him in every area of your life.

These things occur when you truly get the Gospel into your life and take hold of the gold and robe of righteousness that only He can give.

The second way you escape lukewarmness is through suffering.

I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich…

-Revelation 3:18a

What is Jesus saying?

If you want to get out of lukewarmness into a real transformed life, you are going to have to walk through some very difficult times with me by your side.

Which one would you choose?

A. An easy life without intimacy with Jesus and little to no experience of God?

B. A difficult life with deep intimacy with Jesus and deep deep experiences of His presence.

Those who have exuded an intimate, deep, existential, wonderous relationship with Jesus are those who have gone through the most difficult seasons and have had Jesus come near and close and walk with them every step of the way.

Are you willing to ask yourself some hard questions?

1. Do I value my relationship with Jesus above all other things?

2. Am I willing to reorder my life to live as a disciple?

To pursue a relationship in prayer.

To pursue the truth of His word in Scripture.

To deny myself.

To obey Him with a life that resists things that contradict purity, seeking instead those things that honor and glorify God.

3. Am I willing to seek first the Kingdom of God in every aspect of my life?

His truth about my identity, sexuality, and calling.

His demand concerning the first fruits of my life.

His insistence that I proclaim His name in difficult places.

His mercy toward those who are less fortunate.

4. Am I willing to take a different perspective concerning the trials of my life?

Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.

-Revelation 3:19 (ESV)

If you can't say, “Yes” to all of these things it's because:

• You don’t want to give up control of your life.

• You don’t want to give up the freedom and liberty you have to pursue your luxurious and recreational opportunities.

• The idea that you would sacrifice your own pleasures for the sake of the Kingdom of God and the purposes of Christ coming to fruition in your life, terrifies you.

Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.

-Matthew 19:24

Why? You have other options, pursuits, loves that control you.

• You have set your love on something other than Jesus with such intensity that there is an explosion of energy toward other things.

• You are Laodicea—Lukewarm—and you nauseate Jesus!

Time to step across the line now.

Time to decide. No more Lukewarmness!

Time to reorder your life for the purposes of God.

Are you in or out?

The third way to get out of Lukewarmness is to open the door to His invitation.

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.

-Revelation 3:20 (ESV)

In ancient times when someone invited you in—asked you to dine with them—it was an invitation to Intimacy and Friendship.

When you sit down with Jesus to pray, are you desiring to be with Jesus or just get work done?

Are you sitting down to get something from Jesus or to ask for His presence?

How?

1. Grasp His grace. Rest and Revel in it.

2. Endure difficulty. Allow Him to get your heart again.

3. Seek His face. Earnestly desire intimacy.

Repent of your half-hearted commitment to Jesus!

Be jealous and zealous for God!

Set your love on Jesus with such intensity that there is an explosion of energy toward your relationship with Him.

There are three types of people in the room and listening:

1. Those of you who cannot see and continue in your sin without guilt and shame. You like the gospel of moralism and self-sufficiency and are here to check church off the list.

2. Those who can see but continue in your sin and neglect because the cares of the world are choking the Gospel right out of your life. Today is the day of grace but make no mistake—the day of accountability will come.

3. Those who see and are trying. Your effort is great even though you often fail. Receive his grace. He’s got you.

Keep reordering your life. He will catch you.

Repent.

Rededicate.

Receive His Grace.

Make a Decision