It’s In the Distance

Revelations 3:14-22
August 4, 2002
Janet Loughry

You finally hit the button to stop that irritating noise that wakes you every morning. You groggily get out of bed, stumble into the kitchen. You thank heaven above for coffee maker timers. Your heart actually skips a beat in anticipation as your pour your first cup of steaming, hot get-up-and-go-coffee. You take your first slurp and literally spit it in the sink. The coffee maker somehow has stopped keeping the coffee hot and now the coffee is lukewarm at best. I personally don’t drink coffee, but if someone hands me a glass of lukewarm milk. That would just about do me in.

Just think how much more Jesus wanted to spit out a lukewarm church. I can’t fathom it, Hear what Jesus says to the church at Laodicea and to us, from Revelation 3:14-22.

Laodicea is located on a trade route, about 60 miles east of Ephesus, which we visited last Sunday. It is in the country today known as Turkey. This large city was a wealthy city, much like Santa Barbara. It was also the financial center of Asia. When the city was destroyed the second time by earthquakes, it was so self-sufficient they rejected the offer from Rome for any financial aid in the rebuilding of the city. People of culture and refinement flocked to Laodicea because of its reputation. For it was known as the fashion center of the ancient world. The city’s clothing industry was world-famous for its black wool which yielded a cashmere softness with a deep, glossy violet almost raven color. Garments produced in Laodicea were valued throughout the Roman empire for high quality and value. Laodicea also boasted a medical center, where an eye salve was developed to treat eye diseases. It also developed an ointment of nard for ear diseases. Its doctors were so renown that their images were placed on the coins of the city. Laodicea was truly known for its wealth and its health around the world....and proud of it.

The church in Laodicea reflects the same values of the city. It has bought into the myth of self-sufficiency, through wealth and success just as the city, so much so, that the church has lost its zeal for the living Lord. It is as if the church says to itself and the world, "We are rich. We are prosperous. We need nothing. Actually we can manage well without God."

And now we find that Jesus knows them quite well also. And Jesus’ choice of description of lukewarm to characterize these Christians and the church as Laodicea is an image with which we are all familiar. Drinking water. Laodicea does not have her own local water supply. However, they developed a stone aqueduct system to bring the hot, medicinal water from her northern neighbor, Hierapolis, which had famous hot springs. The aqueduct also brought the cold, refreshing water from her southern neighbor, Colossae. This six-mile aqueduct in both directions, brings water to Laodicea. By the time the water reached Laodicea the sun has heated, or neutralized, the water to lukewarm...neither cold nor hot. As a matter of fact, the water was so distasteful it is nauseating.

The people know from their personal experience the reputation they have for their nauseating water. And so, Jesus goes with this image to the max. Now it is they, the people of the Lord, who are accused of the same disgusting condition, when Jesus says, "I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. So, because you are lukewarm...I am about to spit you out of my mouth." A pastor friend of mine says this translation is too genteel. In truth, the literal meaning of the Greek is, "I am about to vomit you out of my mouth!" You see, Jesus finds self-sufficiency distasteful, both in a person and in a church, because it breeds indifference toward Him. G. Campbell Morgan, a great British preacher, once said, "Lukewarmness is the worst form of blaspheme."

Jesus says that He can do more for Christians if we really cool off, become cold. The middle area is what is so deceptive because when we are there, we don’t know we’re there. Christianity is not for fence sitters. What Jesus is against in the Laodician church is what we don’t want in today’s church: a prevailing attitude of "live and let live; don’t rock the boat; don’t cause waives; it will all turn out okay." Nonchalance or this sort of apathy is repulsive to God.

This is what is called nominal Christianity. Nominal Christianity serves Satan’s purposes. That means Satan is then successful when our faith cools off, when we move away from Christ. We are being warned that when we put our trust in material prosperity, outward luxury and physical health then we, then we not only are not trusting Jesus, but we disgust him.

This Church in Laodicea is the only one of the seven churches that Jesus speaks to He finds nothing good. He finds nothing about which to praise. Jesus comes down on them hardest. He tells these sick Christians in this sick church that what is important is zeal...that is a wholeheartedness...a total, unflinching commitment to HIM - to Jesus Christ. He calls us to give our whole self to Him.

So just how did the Laodiceans ever reach this lukewarm condition? How can we be sure not to reach that disgusting, distasteful temperature? The answer: It’s in the distance. The hot water from Hireopolis and the cold water from Colosae turned lukewarm because of the distance from Laodicea. How do we become lukewarm toward God? We distance ourselves from the source of life....from Jesus Christ. Often we distance ourselves from the life source, in the very same way the believers at Laodicea did: And see if some of today’s spiritual lukewarmness might fit anyone you know: We go to work every day, literally, to live well and prosper, but we attend church only occasionally. Or we attend only when our schedule permits. Or we attend regularly, but how connected or involved in the life of the church are we? We might say Grace at meals, but there is no true gratitude in our heart. We act ethically toward others, but there is no love in our life. Many go to the gym regularly to keep, or get, our bodies in shape, but read our Bibles only when preparing for a small group, if even then; or worse, only when a crisis hits, if, in fact then.

In all this, Jesus Christ states who He is. He is The Amen, that is, the Establisher of all God’s promises. He is the foundation,. He is the One who is continually faithful and is always a true witness...is Jesus Christ. He is the Source. And the further we get from the Source the more lukewarm we become. Jesus gives the warning that He cannot stand a lukewarm Church - that is a lukewarm church filled with lukewarm Christians.

However, our Risen Christ also offers the antidote to this problem of being lukewarm. As Jesus counsels the believers of Laodicea, He counsel us. He wants us to receive gold refined in his fire, from Him, in order to be truly and eternally rich. He counsels to be clothed in the white robe of His goodness in order to cover the shame of our naked soul. And Jesus counsels to be healed with the salve of His salvation, in order that our spiritual eyes may be opened. He encourages us to turn from our own self-sufficient ways, to a new dependency on Him for our spiritual wealth and spiritual health.

One of the most famous religious pictures was painted by the artist William Holman Hunt in 1854. It is entitled the "The Light of the World." It is the picture of Christ knocking at a door - the door of the human soul. The picture comes right from this passage in verse 20.

Jesus, Himself, extends His invitation, which makes it all the more personal. He says, "Listen, I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me." Jesus uses the imagery of a door to suggest His desire to enter our lives through the threshold of our hearts. How much more personal could He make it. However, He is a gentleman who knocks, waiting for our response. He will not force Himself on the church, not any particular church nor on the individuals that make up His church. He waits patiently for our response. He offers us a no rushed visit, but a lingering of His presence, a lingering without haste. As with Holman’s picture without a handle on the outside, so it is with our heart. The door of our heart must always be opened from within. We must be the one to close the distance. And then we must continually be closing the distance with Jesus. We will not be lukewarm when we are constantly renewing our spiritual wealth and spiritual health with Jesus. We must be continually closing the distance with Jesus. To have a closer, more meaningful, wholehearted, personal relationship with Jesus open your heart to Him - perhaps for the first time today - and then again and again close the distance to our Life Source.