Dan Herold | Revelation 3:14-22 | May 1, 2016
The days of summer are quickly approaching and along with the calendar change typically comes a temperature increase. Yes, the days of 100 degree weather will soon be here again. When those days get here, there isn’t much that makes those days more tolerable than a nice tall, ice cold drink. You know that feeling don’t you…you just had to go outside to do a little work around the house or even just to go pick up the mail and the heat is just burdensome. As soon as you get back into your air conditioned house you just want to pour yourself a tall glass of ice cold lemonade or tea. Then, you take that first big sip and it is just perfect. You forget about how hot and miserable it was outside and you are refreshed.
What would happen if you were out of ice? Or if you had just made the tea or lemonade and it hadn’t had time to chill in the refrigerator yet. I know that happens to me every now and then. I still am thirsty, though, so sometimes I pour a glass and hope to be refreshed, but that room temperature tea just doesn’t quite have the same effect as an ice cold glass would. Have you ever done that? Or maybe you had a drink in your car and you get back in and want to see if it’s still good so you take a little sip and that warm Dr. Pepper taste fills your mouth. It makes you want to spit it out doesn’t it? It tastes awful! Then you have to start looking for gum or a mint to try to get that taste out of your mouth.
Ice cold tea, or lemonade, or Dr. Pepper is great. Piping hot coffee is pretty great too. If you take any of them at room temperature, though, or just kind of warm, they all taste awful. They make you want to just spit it out because the taste is so bad. That’s the image Jesus uses when he talks to us in Revelation 3:14-22. He speaks to us with words of warning and words of love. He warns us about giving him a bad taste in his mouth that he wants to spit out, but he also reminds us how much he loves us and wants us to love him.
In the first 3 chapters of Revelation Jesus is speaking and he sends seven messages to seven churches. Chapter 3:14-22 contains the last of the seven letters that Jesus spoke for John to write down and it is addressed to the church in Laodicea. The church in Laodicea was one of the early centers of Christianity. The church there was possibly started by Paul on one of his missionary trips and Paul talks about the church there in the book of Colossians. The town was a very prosperous place. There was a mint there where they made coins for the Roman empire, it was a center for trade, they had several huge theaters, and after the town was destroyed by an earthquake in the year 60 AD the citizens rebuilt the entire city using their own wealth—needing no help from Rome. By all outward appearances the church in Laodicea was doing alright for itself.
Outward appearances can be deceiving though. The seventh letter in Revelation, the one addressed to the angel of the church in Laodicea, is unique among the other letters that begin the book of Revelation. It’s unique because there is nothing that the church is commended or praised for…the letter is full of words of warning and reprimand. Jesus says to that church,
“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.”
Not even a hello, or a greeting of any kind. He gets right to the point,
“I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”
Now why would Jesus say that to church that appears to be doing well? The congregation was fairly large. They weren’t hurting financially. Their statistical report probably looked great! So why would Jesus say that they were lukewarm and he was going to spit them out? Actually he literally said that the lukewarm taste was going to make him vomit them out of his mouth…but why?
Jesus went on to explain why he was going to spit that whole church out of his mouth. He said,
“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.”
The Laodiceans thought they already had everything they needed on their own. Jesus was speaking to them through his Word and telling them what they needed, but they were ignoring him.
This letter was included in the book of Revelation because this wasn’t just an issue facing the church in Laodicea. It’s an issue that faces every congregation…it’s an issue that faces our congregation. We need to hear this warning that Jesus spoke about becoming too comfortable with ourselves—about forgetting that on our own we are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. When things go well—and they are going pretty well for us—we can be tempted to lose our focus and stop chasing the goal. We need to hear that if we become lukewarm Jesus is going to spit us out.
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Jesus gave us this warning—he scolded us—so that we could correct the problem. He says,
“Those I love I rebuke and I discipline.”
He didn’t just threaten to spit us out because he’s mad at us. He spoke words of warning because he loves us. He loves us deeply and also speaks words of love to us. He tells us to,
“Be earnest and repent.”
He doesn’t tell us to go undertake some big new ministry project. He doesn’t tell you to drop whatever it is you are doing right now and go be a missionary somewhere. He tells us to be earnest and repent…and if being earnest and repenting leads us down the path to undertake some big project or devote our lives to spreading the gospel in far away places that would be awesome, but it starts in your heart. Before you can tell anybody else about Jesus you need to know him and be on fire with his love.
Jesus isn’t hard to find. He is standing at the door and knocking and he says that whoever listens to his voice will share in all his blessings. Whoever puts their trust in Jesus and overcomes this temptation to be neither hot nor cold—to just stand still—will sit with Jesus on his throne in heaven. That’s how important this is. In fact, it is so important that Jesus says that whoever has ears needs to hear this message. There are only two possible outcomes…either you get spit out or you sit on the throne with Jesus in heaven. I think it’s pretty obvious which one we would prefer and Jesus would rather have it that way too. He’d rather share his throne with you than spit you out of his mouth.
All it takes for you to avoid being spit out is simple…be earnest and repent. You’d expect to have to accomplish some monumental task to win the privilege of sitting on heaven’s throne. After all, Jesus had to…he had to live a perfect and holy life, he had to die for the sins of the world, and then rise from the dead before he could reclaim his throne in heaven. But now, he just wants to share the throne with you. He wants to warn us about the biggest temptation that can knock us off the path to heaven—ourselves. Thinking that we are alright on our own, or that we have done enough and been good enough is the number one obstacle on our path to heaven.
That is why Jesus speaks word of warning and words of love to us. He warns us about the seriousness of that temptation and how easy it is to fall victim to it. We might not even notice that we are becoming lukewarm sometimes. He speaks words of love because he doesn’t want see us miss out on the blessings of heaven because we got tricked by our sinful nature. He speaks words of love because he wants to share his throne in heaven with us.
In 2 Timothy 1:6 Paul gives some advice to Timothy who was a young pastor. He tells him to
“fan into flame the gift of God.”
Jesus builds on that advice telling us how to fan it into flame,
“Be earnest and repent.”
Being earnest means taking an honest look at who you are and what you are—that you are a fantastically broken sinner that needs a Savior. That we truly are wretched, poor, pitiful, blind, and naked. But it also means realizing that Jesus has exactly what we need. He has gold to make us rich, bright white garments to clothe us, and salve to heal us and open our blind eyes.
And lastly it means we need to repent. Sometimes when we think about repentance we think it makes us weak—as though, admitting our sinfulness would diminish us in God’s eyes. In fact, it’s just the opposite. It takes someone who is spiritually on fire to repent. Admitting your sinfulness and trusting God to forgive is the greatest display of spiritual strength that we could ever show. When we stop repenting it is because we are lukewarm—we’ve grown comfortable with our sins. Stay on fire. Keep repenting. Even though they are difficult hear, keep coming back to Jesus’ words of warning. Keep coming back because they are also words of love—words that show just how great your Savior’s love is for you!
Amen.