Revelation 3:14-22 The Lukewarm Church

Here are the notes from last weeks LightHouse:

Discuss: What trends in our culture have permeated and influenced the church?

Laodicea was a very wealthy city. It was famous for its banking and commerce, its expensive black wool, and its eye specialist. Each of these things made the city very wealthy, it was the Windsor or Alderly Edge of its day. In fact it was so wealthy that twice when it was badly damaged by powerful earthquakes the city refused Imperial disaster relief to rebuild and paid for it themselves. As a city Laodicea was wealthy, self-sufficient and proud.

The tragedy in Laodicea was that too much of the city had got into the church. The church was more like the city that it lived among than the Saviour who is its head.

As Jesus writes to this church he has some harsh words to say but the question is will they listen? Will a self-sufficient proud people respond to his rebuke? (14)The description of Jesus stresses his honesty, integrity and divinity. It’s easy to dismiss the words of someone who doesn’t know you very well, or who only sees you from time to time, or who only sees your public persona. We can even sometimes dismiss the words of those who know us best. But Jesus is “the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation.” The one who is speaking to them can be trusted, he sees, he knows, he rules, he’s God’s final word. The one through whom God created everything, they've heard this before in the letter to the Colossians (1:15f). Listen to me, is what (14)is saying. You can trust this diagnosis because of who gives it, these are words to hang your life on.

“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.” Jesus is using a picture that all Laodiceans are familiar with. Laodicea’s big weakness was its water supply. Hieropolis just up the road had healing hot springs, Colossae had refreshing pure cold water. But Laodicea had neither, they had to pipe water into the city, but when the hot or cold water arrived it was lukewarm and full of deposits. It was useless, undrinkable, it made you sick.

Jesus isn’t saying I wish you were passionate about the gospel or dead. Jesus wouldn’t wish them to be dead, in Sardis he wants to relight smouldering embers of faith, here there isn’t even that to work with. But his rebuke is that the church is useless, they’re like the cities water supply good for nothing. The church doesn’t refresh the spiritually weary and battered but neither does it provide pure healing water for the spiritually sick. It doesn’t care for its own or hold out the gospel of living water to those in need. In short it makes him sick!

Jesus gives two reasons why they have become like this, two questions it’s worth posing of ourselves, and a remedy that comes with a promise.

The Danger of Delusion: Are we deluded or self aware?

How good are you at seeing yourself? If I asked you to describe your physical appearance could you? How about your spiritual state? How often do you stop and ask yourself where you are at spiritually? And how accurate do you think you are in that assessment?

(17)As Jesus diagnoses the problem with this church and rebukes them for it we see that it’s easy to be deluded. “You say I am rich, I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realise that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” What a contrast. It is easy to be wrong about where we are spiritually as a church and as individuals.

The problem for the church in Laodicea is that they aren’t using Jesus criteria to evaluate themselves but societies. Their culture prizes wealth, the church prizes wealth. They see wealth as being a sign of spiritual blessing, as a guarantee that they are rich spiritually. But says Jesus you couldn’t be more wrong. They equate physically riches with being rich towards God, but they are not one and the same. They are wrong(17b) and tragically they aren’t rich they are bankrupt!

We mustn’t make the same mistake. Maybe it’s not in terms of riches, maybe that isn’t what blinds us as a church, but it can be anything that makes us think we’ve arrived. Number of people in church, our theology, our connections whatever.

We mustn’t be deluded as a church, we must evaluate ourselves as Jesus does, in the light of the mission he leaves us in scripture to love one another deeply and to call others to know Jesus and meet him in the church.

But neither must we be deluded as individuals we need to look and learn from what Jesus has to say to us. That’s why listening to God’s word and reading it are so vital. It saves us from delusion.

The Danger of Self-reliance: Are we independent or dependent on Jesus?

(17)Gives us another brilliant little diagnostic tool to help the church then and now evaluate itself. “I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.” What an amazingly arrogant thing for a church to say. This church is self-reliant, it prides itself on its independence. Just as the city refused Imperial aid in rebuilding so the church refuses divine aid and sets about building the church itself. But it is building with the wrong materials on the wrong foundations.

When we find ourselves saying to Jesus “I don’t need a thing, I’ve got it covered.” We are in spiritual crisis. It’s easy to think we’d never say that, and we probably wouldn’t articulate it, but do we ever say it in our actions? 

Are there times we rely on a product or a package rather than on Jesus? What does a lack of prayer say? What does a reliance on experience or past practice or knowledge say? What does a refusal to ask others for help say? Are there ways in which our actions say to Jesus ‘I’ve got it covered?’

Self sufficiency is dangerous to the disciple and to the church because (20)look where it puts Jesus. Jesus says “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 them, and they with me.” Here is the question; where is Jesus saying he is in relation to the church? He’s outside the church knocking on the door asking to be let in!

This church excludes Jesus not by losing its doctrine, not by stopping meeting together, not by stopping programmes, but by becoming self reliant, by being too shaped by the culture around it so that it prizes independence. Can’t you see that danger for us as a church and as individuals?

We must never reach the point where we are saying to Jesus ‘I don’t need you, I’ve got it covered.’ Where we operate by the worlds standards inside the church rather than listening to Jesus words.

How to Becoming Rich when you are Spiritual Poor

This letter to the church in Laodicea drips with Jesus grace and love as Jesus calls on this church which has effectively put him outside the doors to welcome him back in, as he calls on this bankrupt church to recognise its need and come to him.

(18)Jesus is what this church needs. He offers them gold in place of their poverty so that they have faith, white robes to cover their nakedness so they can stand before God without fear of judgement, and healing for their eyes so that they can see themselves, the world, and what makes for riches properly.

But how do they ‘buy’ them? First of all they need to come to Jesus, they are to buy from him and stop buying from the world! (19-20)It’s not something that can be earned(19), instead they need to listen to Jesus loving rebuke, accept his discipline, seek him and repent. Not half heartedly but passionately and honestly. They need to open the door of the church and invite Jesus in, not as a member but as its Lord and head and submit to his rule by his word. How do you ‘buy’ from Jesus everything you need? You come recognising your need and that he by grace has supplied everything you need and you go on depending on him in exactly the same way.

The question is will they? Will we?

Will we recognise Jesus diagnosis and evaluate ourselves in the light of it. It is possible that as a church and as individuals we have brought societies values into the church, have we? It is possible that we are excluding Jesus and his word and his rule, are we? It’s possible that we have become self reliant, relying on our resources, our know how, our riches, have we?

Jesus in love says recognise the danger, weigh yourselves, and come to me. I stand right here waiting for you to invite me in, to make me Lord of everything, if you’ll just open the door. Grace is available if you recognise your ongoing need of it.

Live for Real Riches

To a church in a city that was awash with riches Jesus ends with promises of real riches, eternal riches. Some riches that are, and some that will be, theirs when they repent.

Some are present riches; (18)faith, cleansed white robes which signify forgiveness and justification , and spiritual sight. (20)He also promises relationship, fellowship with him for the church if it invites him in. The picture he gives isn’t of a quick hurried drive though meal, it’s of the main meal of the day which was eaten slowly with time spent with one another as much the focus as the food itself. Jesus will come in and dwell within the church now. So that when the spiritually thirst come they will find Jesus, so that the spiritually weary and battered find refreshment for their souls because they meet Jesus there. Don’t we long to be a church like that?

And there is the promise of future riches and reign. (21-22)Those who overcome will share in the riches of Jesus reign, in fact they will reign with him. That picture of reign and throne points us on to chapters 4-5 where that throne and majesty and might is pictured. God reigning supreme and sovereign, worshipped for all eternity with his redeemed singing his and the lambs praise. A future where fellowship, relationship with Jesus and God the Father continues unbroken and unspoilt for eternity.

As Jesus finishes this letter with a call to listen the question is will they? Will we? It ends with a call to return to our Saviour and experience again his grace, to drink deep of it, and live life drinking of it. To be refreshed and go on refreshed in him as we make him Lord of his Church. As we long for a certain future.

Revelation 3:1-6 The Dying Church

Here are the discussion questions and notes from LightHouse recently:

“There is no such thing as harmonious co-existence between the church and the world, for where there is no conflict it is because the world has taken over”. Do you agree or disagree?

As Jesus writes to the church at Sardis he reveals himself as the one who holds the Seven Spirits of God and the seven stars. In other words he’s the one who holds the church in his hands, who is in control of it, who sees what is going on in it, whose Spirit is at work in it. The church will answer to him, he is its head and he knows it. But he also knows what privileges have been given to it, the Spirit is at work in the church, and in the Spirit the church has been given it everything it needs to flourish in godliness and to bring him glory.

But as Jesus reveals what he sees it does not make comfortable reading. This is a church that is on the edge of death, it’s in a coma and only a short step from the graveyard. There’s little to commend and even what there is to commend simply highlights the decay and death all around it. Sardis stands as a warning against the end result of a creeping spiritual complacency, of failing to live for Christ, of creeping compromise with the world.

Complacency always results in a drift towards death not life

Reputation matters, marketing matters, appearance matters. Bigger, glossier, louder, better. Everyone has a PR department, companies specialise in ensuring you have a positive on-line presence. Some even set themselves up specifically for churches. Your reputation matters. Sardis had the reputation side of things cracked. Whether it was how they thought of themselves or more likely the way others thought of them. They had the reputation of being alive.

So Jesus words would have hit them with a jolt! “I know your deeds; you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead.” Can you imagine the shock, the nodding heads followed by the dumbfounded expressions? Jesus sees through the reputation to the reality. That’s worth us remembering, whilst we may be able to fool those around us as to how we are spiritually, even where we are as a church – Jesus knows. He isn’t taken in, he doesn’t worry about our reputation he knows the reality. No matter how we try to keep things hidden Jesus knows.

We know that the believers in Sardis heard the gospel(3), that they began well(2) but now they have stalled, they have fallen into a coma. There is no progress, no desire, no appetite. And unlike the other churches there is no mention here of false teaching or of external persecution. They have stopped fighting the battle, they have compromised(4) the majority of the church have soiled their robes. They have settled in to the culture and because the culture doesn’t seem overtly hostile the culture has influenced and infected the church.

The church mirrors the city. Sardis was an amazing fortress, it was almost impregnable. It had huge walls and was surrounded by cliffs, in fact only twice in its history had it fallen to an enemy at its gates. And both times it was because of a lack of watchfulness. Twice watchman left a seemingly safe part of the city walls unguarded only for a small enemy force to scale the cliffs and open the doors to the city to the enemy. A lack of watchfulness has cost the city and led to its defeat and it is the same for the church.

It’s as if their safety and security has lulled them to sleep, it’s led them not to live a distinctively different gospel life. Their deeds are incomplete and they’ve stopped being different, they’ve stopped being alert and they’re in terrible danger.

The church has become a dormitory for sleepy saints, no longer fighting, no longer living distinctively. And it’s only a short step from being a dormitory to becoming a cemetery. And Jesus is horrified at what has happened to his church he died for. And he warns them that unless they recognise their state and do something he will come to them as judge. 

Don’t be too harsh on Sardis, don’t be too quick to condemn them. Because of all the churches this one perhaps most closely parallels the church in Britain. Comfort, ease and social acceptability leading the church to lack urgency, to fall into an evangelistic-less passionless, truth compromised stupor. And then to assume that’s the norm and settle into this comfort and begin to die.

It’s also a very real danger for us as a church and as individuals. To become complacent, to expect welcome and ease. And because we’ve become used to that not to be prepared for conflict, and when we experience it to be taken aback and instinctively want to appease, to compromise in order to enjoy the comfort and welcome we’ve become used to. To simply fit into the culture and mute distinctive Christ like living. To simply drift into spiritual apathy.

But complacency always results in a drift towards death not life. Compromise is dangerous, and apathy is a spiritual killer.

Wake Up!

Having delivered his loving warning Jesus exhorts this church to do five things in order to wake up. Because he is the one who can raise the dead, even dead churches!

a. Wake Up

They need to recognise reality, to accept Jesus diagnosis and throw off their spiritual sleepiness. They aren’t tired because they’re exhausted they are tired because they’re apathetic, they just aren’t bothered, and Jesus says wake up or else. There’s no room in the church for apathy! There is no way it is right to respond to the gospel with apathy. They need to be alert to the danger that they are in. If not they will never heed his warning.

b. Strengthen what remains

The church isn’t past the point of no return. They aren’t beyond rescue. There’s still a righteous remnant who have stayed faithful, who haven’t compromised, who have stayed awake, who are living out the gospel. The church is on the brink but not yet beyond it. If they will strengthen and support where it’s needed, if they will listen to this faithful few and live like them and learn from them then there is hope. But they need to act, they need to shake of their apathy and start being active.

c. Remember

Keep on remembering what you were taught. This church has heard the gospel, they responded to the gospel in the past. But time and complacency has led to compromise, forgetfulness and apathy. They need to remember what they were taught, and to keep on remembering it. They are to teach the gospel again and again. They are to recall what they have been taught, not just apathetically let it drift over them, but ensure they take it in and remember it. 

d. hold it fast

Means not just hear it but to put it into action, to obey what they remember, what they were taught. The gospel is not theory it is truth which brings radical practical transformation which impacts everything. It changes the way you see the world and calls you to live as Christ’s.

e. Repent

The church needs to be convicted of its sin and apathy and change. It needs to respond not just in action but from the heart. Jesus words should produce shock and godly sorrow for its apathy and complacency. It needs to turn around and live for its Saviour.

And it must do these things urgently or Christ will come and judge the church when they don’t expect it(3).

We need to stop here and ask ourselves both personally and as a church have I fallen asleep? Has apathy lulled us? Has complacency crept up on us?

Are we living for Christ? Are we living differently to those around me or are we compromising?

Am I spiritually apathetic? Am I continually learning more about what Christ has done for me and what it means to be in him? Is that fuelling my devotion and my love or are they just words and ideas on a page? Is that impacting my life? Am I putting it into action? Am I changing as I understand more of who I now am in Jesus? How have I changed in the last 6 months?

Or am drifting? And more worryingly am I content to drift? If we find we are we need to repent, to wake up, to put these things in place. Jesus is in the business of bring the dead to life of breathing life into dead bones. He lovingly warns because he longs for us to repent.

The Faithful few are not forgotten

I want you to notice very carefully that Jesus doesn’t condemn the whole church, Jesus knows not just the reputation and reality of the church but the reputation and reality of each individual part of that church. He knows some are comatose but some are living. Some have soiled their garments some have not. Some are apathetic whilst others are pressing on. I think there’s a lesson for us in that, don’t blanket condemn churches or denominations. That’s not our job.

In fact as Jesus encourages the faithful few that he will welcome them and they will be dressed in pure robes washed in his blood, that they’ll be welcomed and find their names in the book of life and be confessed and acknowledged on the last day. Just as Jesus knows the apathy and complacency of some he knows the faithful living of others. And notice he doesn’t tell them to leave the church. In fact they are the hope of the church for revival. Jesus sees this faithful few as the potential spark which could reignite the quickly cooling embers of the Church in Sardis.

The call is to live as the faithful few. Don’t compromise, recognise the battle, see the battle lines, listen and respond and follow your Saviour, longing for your victors welcome.

But we also need to pray for those who find themselves in sleeping churches, who are the faithful few. I think of a friend of mine who is a minister in a denomination which fits this image of Sardis. Who struggles with the compromise and decay he sees around him. But faithfully calls others back to Christ, who challenges other leaders within the denomination with the truth of the bible, and who teaches the gospel to his congregations. 

You can think of churches within denominations, of people within individual churches. Jesus knows, that is their comfort. As they labour to reignite a passion for Jesus, to turn around the compromise, to transform a church Jesus. We need to pray for them.

Jesus sees, Jesus knows, sometimes a church might be better off if it faced hardship and attack rather than comfort and security. But Jesus can raise a church to new life. He stands ready to warn, to forgive and to welcome.

What blind spots do you think we have in terms of compromising with the world?

Why do you think we fear persecution and false teaching? How might it be beneficial to us as a church and as individuals? How might it not?

When, and how, do you tend to drift towards spiritual complacency? How can others help wake you up?

The Suffering Church - Revelation 2:8-11

The church in Smyrna was a people under pressure. (9)They’re afflicted, they’re suffering. They’re in poverty – often Christians in the first century were from the poorer parts of society, but becoming a Christian could lead to loss of business, loss of jobs, even confiscation of property. Certainly it changed working practices and friendships and connections. You were treated like a social leper and lived on societies margins. Unrecognised, unloved, and voice less. There was no safety net of the welfare estate, no unemployment, incapacity or housing benefit. Within the church those with money shared what they had with those struggling.

Added to that affliction and poverty was the slander they were facing. We don’t know exactly what that looked like, perhaps there were malicious rumours being spread about their faith – we know that at times in history Christians have been accused of incest, of cannibalism and the like. Perhaps it was simply accusing them of subverting the city and Roman rule by refusing to worship the emperor, perhaps it was trying to get their protected religion status revoked. Whatever it was the church felt it keenly, it was having an impact.

Can you imagine how the church felt? Harassed and afflicted, in poverty struggling to make ends meet, slandered and whispered about on every side. But Jesus wants to encourage this church which might be tempted to adopt a siege mentality. To turn in on itself because everyone is against them. He wants them to see the true nature of the world they live in and to know the truth of their situation – Jesus rules, and their future is secure.

See the World ClearlyHow do you think of the world we live in? We tend to think of it as neutral. A bit like a spiritual Switzerland. Places like North Korea and Nigeria are hostile but Britain is not too bad. But the Bible thinks of the world very differently, Smyrna is one of the churches in Asia Peter wrote to. In 1 Peter 1he reminded them that they were scattered exiles living in a hostile world. A world where “your enemy the devil prowls round like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” A world where God’s people are to expect hostility and persecution.

Jesus reminds them of where they live and of the cosmic battle they are part of and that Smyrna is not neutral. The devil is active in oppressing and opposing God’s people, putting them to the test(10). The church is a kingdom outpost in enemy territory, and that brings pressure. There’s a battle to fight, an enemy to be overcome and a victory to persevere for.

But notice specifically in this letter where the slander is coming from. It comes from where? From the Jews. And notice how Jesus describes them they aren’t really Jews, but a synagogue of Satan. That’s a striking phrase isn’t it? God’s people are now those who follow Jesus, the Jews are no longer God’s people, but the Jews in the synagogue in Smyrna are opposing the church. Marking them out as God’s enemies, as those who now do Satan’s bidding, because they align with his goal of destroying God’s kingdom.

How do we see the world? It isn’t neutral. People around us aren’t neutral. Jesus gives us a glimpse into the reality of the spiritual battle that rages all around us. We live in hostile territory, Britain is increasingly open in its hostility. We need to expect hostility and opposition not just from other religions but even from those who claim they serve the same God we serve but do not. Mormons are not Christians, we need to recognise them for what they are. JW’s are not Christians and we must recognise them for what they are. Even churches which though they are churches are liberal and or dead in formalism but which attack us for being fundamentalist, for believing in the Bible, for believing Jesus died as our substitute. We must recognise them for what they are. They are not for Jesus but opposed to him.

What marks out the people of God is faith in Jesus as Saviour and Lord and you are either for him or opposed to him.

We need to see the world as Jesus shows it to us. We’re to expect opposition, poverty, and slander. We’re to expect attacks even from those who will claim to worship the same God but don’t. We need to expect hostility, to recognise the opposition, so that we live life expecting it and reliant on Jesus.

Know Jesus Rules NowThe danger in seeing the world as it is, is that the church in Smyrna and we are afraid. That we retreat into a holy huddle, hiding from the big bad world as it huffs and puffs and tries to blow the church down. But Jesus doesn’t want his church to retreat or to be afraid(10) but to be faithful. How can we do that in the face of such opposition? Because it doesn’t only know the world but knows that Jesus is sovereign now, he’s at the Father’s right hand now.

(9)“I know” appears twice. The encouragement for Smyrna is that Jesus sees what’s happening, he knows what his people are facing, and he writes encouraging them that he knows. But he writes to encourage them that more than just knowing he’s working through what they’re suffering to make them rich. In contrast to their material poverty this is a church that is spiritually rich. Again in 1 Peter 1 Peter inspired by the Spirit writes of trials “These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Christ is revealed.”

Through persecution and affliction God is at work, even as the Devil tempts them, to test and refine their faith. What Satan intends to trip them up and tear down God will use to build up and purify their faith. As he weans them from a love of comfort and the world, as he causes them to long for his kingdom come, as they entrust themselves to his care, know his love and live in the light of their confidence in his rule over history and in the resurrection.

This church may be poor materially but they’re storing up for themselves treasures in heaven. As they face the present they are secure because God is at work bringing good and glory out of the opposition they face. That doesn’t lessen the struggle but it does make the struggle purposeful.

We have that same confidence. When we face opposition we ought not to ask why but what is God teaching me? What is he weaning me from? How is he changing my loves and refining my treasures? How is he weaning me from the world to trust in him? God’s concern is not for our comfort but for our Christlikeness. Is that how we see opposition? Do we rest in Christ’s rule and purpose?

Faith in your ultimate Future should impact your short term living Jesus is sovereign not just over the present but the future. (10)He warns them that they face a period of intense persecution, which will bring imprisonment, and for some even death. But it’ll be for a limited period, 10 days, not literally but a time of testing which will be temporary and have an end. Jesus calls them to not fear but to be faithful. How can they do that? By having their faith fixed on their ultimate future and secondly because of who promises it.

I guess some of you will have heard the phrase “too heavenly minded to be any earthly use.” It’s a travesty that that phrase has been coined. Because the bible would tell us that being heavenly minded makes us of earthly use. It’s being heavenly minded that leads us to live by faith here and now, to persevere, to endure by faith, to boldly take the gospel to those who persecute and oppose us.

Living aware of their future is what Jesus calls them to here. What is it that awaits those who are faithful even to the point of death? “I will give you a victor’s crown”. The image is drawn from the games that were popular in Smyrna, a victors crown was a sign of recognition and honour for those who won the race. The equivalent of winning an Olympic gold medal. (11) “Those who are victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.” Smyrna may take your physical life but there is a far greater and more dreadful, more permanent judgement which Christ has saved you from. Live with your salvation in mind, live longing to receive from his hand your overcomer’s crown.

Do you see the encouragement here? You will overcome, victory is certain if you hold on. See what is yours already in Christ and be faithful, don’t give up, don’t give in. There’s a reward kept in heaven for you if you run the race faithfully.

Secondly this is certain, you can stake your life on it because of who promises it. (8)“These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again.” How do you know there is eternal life to be enjoyed, to long for, and live in the light of? Because of Jesus, he suffered, died, rose again and ascended to the Father’s side. He goes before you, he has set the pattern. He’s the guarantee, currently you share in his suffering but you will share in his resurrection and receive from his hand your crown of glory. Jesus stands waiting to give his faithful persevering saints a welcome and their reward for following him through suffering to glory.

What an encouragement, Jesus isn’t asking his church, us, to do anything he didn’t do. And he doesn’t promise us something he hasn’t proved is ours in him. So listen, hear, take this to heart(11), let it fill your heart with joy, let it fuel your faith, let it capture your vision and let it propel you to live boldly by faith striving to hear his well done. Confident that he has done it all and in him it is all ours.

So what difference did this make? What would it look like to listen and take Jesus words to heart?

Polycarp, was in the church when Revelation was written, he was probably a disciple of John. He went on become bishop of Smyrna and was arrested for not calling Caesar Lord and offering incense to him. Pressure was put on him to worship both Jesus and Caesar; if he recognised both as Lord he would be released. But he wouldn’t so he was sent into the stadium. Even in the stadium the Roman proconsul gave him one more chance: “Swear, and I will release thee; curse the Christ.”

This was Polycarp’s reply: “Eighty six years have I served him, and he hath done me no wrong; how then can I blaspheme my king who saved me?” Polycarp was burnt to death in that stadium.

Why? Because he didn’t fear, because he was faithful to the world as Jesus had shown it to him, to the present as Jesus had revealed it, and his future as Jesus had guaranteed it.