A Lukewarm Church Needs to Need Jesus (Revelation 3:14-22)

Hi, I'm Pastor Creighton, and thank you for tuning into Newsong Churches Podcast.

We're a biblically faithful, gospel-centered Anglican church in Port Perry, Ontario, proclaiming the true and life-giving word of Jesus as we love and serve our neighbors.

You can learn more about us at newsongportperry.ca.

May God bless you today through his life-giving word.

The first lesson from Revelation chapter 3, starting at verse 14 to 22.

Revelation 3 · chapter mention

And to the angel of the church of Laodicea, write the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.

I know your works.

You were 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, 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.

The word of the Lord.

Behold, Jesus says, I stand at the door and knock.

So let's pray.

Gracious Lord Jesus, we come today with what little we think we have.

Maybe that's fishes and loaves.

Maybe that's a heart that is prone towards being lukewarm.

Whatever we have, Lord, may we give it to you.

And may we in exchange receive your abundant grace, your generous love, your very self.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Please be seated.

So I've heard it said that the opposite of love is not hate.

Have you heard this?

Those who have, what's the opposite of love if not hate?

Indifference.

Love encounters the other and responds with compassion, with affection, with commitment.

Hate encounters the other and responds with rejection or condemnation or what have you.

Indifference encounters the other and doesn't respond at all.

So we've been working our way through these early chapters of the book of Revelation.

And we're asking the question, what does Jesus say to his church?

Because I think if we want to ask that question, this is as fine a place to go in Scripture as I think we can.

In Revelation chapter 1, we saw that John is in exile on this island of Patmos.

Revelation 1 · chapter mention

He's receiving heavenly visions from the Lord Jesus, who stands as it were in the midst of his churches.

He knows his church, and he loves his church.

And he has something to say to his church.

And so in chapters two and three, we've been seeing Jesus dictate letters to John to get passed along from church to church in this Roman province of Asia Minor.

And these are real churches full of real Christians, just like us today.

And these letters diagnose the spiritual health of the church in Jesus' time, in John's time, and in our time as well.

If we can see ourselves in the spiritual diagnosis, we can also see ourselves in the gospel that Jesus has to offer.

And today we come to the seventh of seven letters that Jesus dictates to the church.

And here's what Jesus has to say to a church gathered in this Roman city of Lyodicea.

Here's what Jesus says: a lukewarm church, an indifferent church, needs to need Jesus.

A lukewarm church needs to need Jesus.

So I want us to interrogate that idea with three questions.

Number two, what do we do about our spiritual need?

And number three, what does Jesus do about our spiritual need?

A lukewarm church needs to need Jesus.

Interestingly enough, for all the churches that we've looked at, and we've looked at some seriously heavy letters dealing with some seriously unhealthy situations in these churches.

But this is the only letter of the seven where Jesus has nothing positive to say about this church.

Jesus has nothing good to say about a lukewarm church or lukewarm Christians.

And yet, if we're tempted to despair, I want us to hear this.

Even if Jesus has nothing good to say about lukewarm Christians, he has everything good to say to lukewarm Christians.

And so I want us to walk away with that gospel hope today.

Would you open up your order of service to the book to our revelation reading, or you can open up the Bibles in front of you to page 967?

Let's look at Jesus' letter to this lukewarm church in Lyodicea.

Let's ask our questions.

Question number one: What does it mean to be lukewarm?

Let's look at verses 14 to 17.

And to the angel of the church in Laodicea, right?

This is Jesus speaking.

The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning, you could say the architect of God's creation.

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.

I need nothing.

Not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

So what kind of conditions, condition are the Christians in Lyodicea in?

Doesn't sound good, does it?

Bottom line, verse 16, they are lukewarm.

The Lyodiceans would not have needed Jesus to explain this image to them.

Their only potable water source came by a Roman aqueduct, and when it arrived in the city, it arrived tepid.

Not cold enough to refresh on a hot day, not warm enough to soothe on a cold day.

Left alone, this water was no good for what it ought to do.

In fact, it could be so putrid that it left people nauseous.

But while the citizens of Lyodicea were honest enough about the condition of their water to do something about it, the church in Lyodicea was deluded about their own spiritual condition.

Jesus says, You say, so this is your self-assessment, Lyodicea, I'm rich, I've prospered, I need nothing.

So they believed they were self-sufficient.

They've got everything they need.

But Jesus knows their true condition and exposes the truth.

They are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

Do you see that in verse 17?

So here's Jesus' indictment.

The Lyodicean Christians had lost touch with how spiritually desperate and bankrupt they were apart from him.

Apart from Jesus.

Their delusion that they are just fine on their own has produced indifference.

It's produced a lukewarm faith.

Because convinced that they can take care of themselves and all of their spiritual needs, they never feel their need for Jesus.

So what does Jesus do with lukewarm Christians?

Verse 16.

Other translations could say more literally, you make me gag, or if you'll pardon the expression, you're gonna make me puke.

That's what Jesus is saying to a church.

One commentator writes this The Lyodiceans are not criticized for holding false ideas about Jesus Christ.

Their theology was apparently orthodox, apparently relatively good theology.

It's just that they held their belief respectfully, but without deep conviction, without passion, without accepting and living the concrete life-transferring consequences, and it made Jesus sick.

So it's unsettling, isn't it?

It's unsettling that Jesus isn't going to let church-going well-to-do Christians off the hook if they are self-deluded and indifferent to their Savior.

It literally turns his stomach.

So spiritual lukewarmness is the delusion of self-sufficiency that produces an indifference to Jesus.

Those who think they need nothing fail to see how desperately they need him.

So as a pastor, I meet with people often, and one of the things I talk about with folks, often enough, I would say, when folks want to get together with me, they usually have something they want to talk about.

Often at some variation of this question, I feel lukewarm about my faith, and I'm worried.

What do I do?

To that, I want to say this, because maybe some of you are wondering that right now.

First thing I'd want to say is that caring about your spiritual condition before the Lord is a good sign of spiritual health.

Lukewarm Christians tend not to care at all.

So if we're at all worried, if we're all anxious, Jesus doesn't want to leave us there, but it does suggest we care enough not to leave ourselves lukewarm.

Does that make sense?

Jesus doesn't want to make anxious Christians, but if we do respond with a sense of that's not where I want to be, well then we at least have a reasonably good sign of spiritual health.

Here's a second thing.

We should bear in mind that lukewarm faith starts with a delusion.

Did you notice that?

It starts with the delusion of self-sufficiency, that I am fine on my own.

And that delusion, that idea that spiritually speaking, I have all the resources I need to make it just fine, results in an indifference.

Because we don't know that we need Jesus if we feel like all of our spiritual needs are met.

Hey, coming to church might be a good idea, but I don't need anything, right?

So if that's the delusion, if we don't realize how desperately we need a savior, then we will only perpetuate a sense of lukewarmness towards Christ.

We don't need him.

So what's the solution?

We have to address the delusion that we're fine on our own.

If we can uproot that delusion, everything else follows.

If you've been in a 12-step recovery program or you know someone who's in a 12-step recovery program, you know that the first step in addressing addiction in spiritual recovery is this.

You have to honestly admit that you're powerless over alcohol, over narcotics, over narcotics, over sex, over codependency, over whatever.

Admit you're powerless and that your life has become unmanageable.

In other words, address the delusion and everything else follows.

Spiritually speaking, it's something like that that's happening here.

We cannot live with this idea that we are just fine on our own apart from Jesus.

You know, it reminds me of a conversation I had years ago with a missionary who was visiting from a majority world country.

This was a majority world country that was very destitute, right?

Does not have the luxuries that we enjoy that we just assume in the West.

And after this person shared, and after we spent some time together, I said to this missionary, you know, we'll be praying for you because it can't be easy to minister the gospel in a place where there is just so much overwhelming need.

And the person was very gracious for me and said, We need the prayers.

Thank you.

Keep praying, but kind of chuckles and says, Honestly, we're all praying for you.

And I go, What do you mean by that?

And this missionary goes, Well, where I come from, people have nothing.

Therefore, the hope of Jesus, the hope of the gospel, is everything to them.

You live in a place where you have everything.

And therefore, the hope of Jesus seems like nothing.

We need to uproot that delusion that we are just fine on our own and that we have everything that we need.

If we can uproot that delusion, everything else follows.

We cannot become lukewarm Christians toward Jesus if we know how much we need him.

Does that make sense?

So we see our need, right?

We see our spiritual delusion, we see our indifference.

Now, what do we do about that need?

That becomes the next question.

Let's look at verses 18 and 19.

Jesus says, Let me give you some advice, right?

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 solve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.

Those whom I love I reprove and discipline.

So be zealous and repent.

So what do lukewarm Christians who think they need nothing need the most?

Jesus tells them to buy, to acquire, to obtain three things that they lack.

What are those things?

Number one, gold refined by fire.

So this is very interesting to me.

Because Laodicea was extremely wealthy.

After a devastating earthquake in AD 17, the city famously refused to appeal to Rome for disaster relief and instead covered all the costs of repair itself.

And that was completely unheard of in the Roman Empire.

The city prides itself on its self-sufficiency, on its wealth.

And the Christians there likely consider themselves the most prosperous believers in the world, but Jesus knows their true condition, doesn't he?

You are, verse 17, poor.

They need some sort of gold so that they may be rich.

That is, truly rich.

So what is that gold that makes a Christian truly rich?

Consider 1 Peter chapter 1.

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

Peter writes this In God's great mercy, you, that is you the church, rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire.

Did you see that?

May be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

So what's Peter saying?

Faith in Christ is more precious than refined gold, because it lays hold of God's mercy, because it endures every trial that life can throw at us, and it leads to an eternal and unperishable glory.

Faith is more precious than gold refined by fire.

That's the first thing Jesus tells us to buy.

What's the second thing?

White garments.

So Laodicea was famous for its textile industry.

It exported a very high-end glossy wool throughout the Roman Empire.

And Lyodicean Christians were probably rightly considered themselves the best dressed Christians in the world.

But again, Jesus knows what's really going on.

How does he describe them?

Verse 17.

You are naked.

They need to be clothed, truly clothed, not with luxury garments, but in the righteousness that comes from Christ.

Didn't we just sing about that?

We are clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

Revelation 19, later on in the book of Revelation, it says that the fine linen, pure, bright and pure, is the righteous deeds of the saints.

Jesus wants to clothe us with a righteousness that comes only from Him.

That's why Anglicans do this funny thing where we wear a parachute.

It's meant to remind us that we Christians are clothed in the bright and pure righteousness of Christ.

Here's the third thing Jesus tells us to buy solve for your eyes.

So along with its wealth and its wool, Lyodicea was home to a prestigious medical school, and it was famous for developing an eye solve that was used to treat weak and failing eyes.

So people would come to Lyodicea from all over the world in order to be able to see again.

But Jesus knows that the Christians who live in Lyodicea are blind.

They were blind to their greatest need.

We just saw that.

Only the gospel of Jesus can open their eyes.

See, it shows how spiritually poor we are apart from Christ and how rich we are in him.

Only the gospel strips away the delusion of self-sufficiency and enables us to see Jesus and to see ourselves as we really are.

So what do lukewarm Christians need the most?

We need to acquire the true wealth of faith in Christ.

We need the true clothing of Christ's righteousness, and we need the true solve of the gospel of Jesus.

If that's where we are, friends, if we recognize our desperate need, if we desire these good things that Jesus wants for us, what do we do?

Well, Jesus gives us two imperatives in verse 19.

Be zealous and repent.

Sometimes I think the church uh gets zeal a little off.

Uh I know zeal often brings like citrus something to mind.

Anyway, that's a type of zeal, sure.

But uh like a, I don't know.

Don't dwell on that.

Forget I said that.

Sometimes I wonder if we think a zealous church is like a um like a supercharged church, like a jumping up and down, you know, loud music and light show kind of church.

Now I'm not trying to slam churches that might be like that.

But we think of zeal.

Sometimes I think we think of this emotive experience that is overstimulating and overwhelming and sends us flying out of church like, you know, a ball just fired out of a pinball machine or something like that.

And we think without that, I lack zeal.

And so often we look at our spiritual lives and we go, I'm just not feeling that feeling that I think I should be feeling.

I lack zeal.

Now, zeal, don't get me wrong, I think does have emotional content to it.

It does translate, I think, into moments of being just so joyful and so in love with Jesus.

You feel that charge of affection and commitment to him.

But even more than just an emotional experience.

True Christian zeal is something more like unwavering devotion to Jesus.

Something more like day to day, when I wake up in the morning, regardless of how I'm feeling, today I choose to follow Jesus.

Because where else am I going to go, Lord?

You have the words of eternal life.

One translation writes, instead of be zealous, it says, be diligent, right?

Be committed.

You are not an unzealous Christian if you feel emotionally up and down from day to day.

You're just human.

Your zeal is your commitment to Christ.

When you are in the valley, what do you choose to do?

Do you choose to run away from Christ or run toward him?

That's the measure of your zeal.

So be zealous, be diligent, be devoted.

Be zealous and repent, Jesus says.

Repentance is a turning around.

We've seen that before.

Turn around when you've treasured the wrong thing.

Lyodiceans have treasured the wrong thing, and they think they have no needs because of the things that they treasure.

Jesus is saying, you're treasuring the wrong things, you're treasuring lesser things.

Come and treasure the true thing, which is himself, isn't it?

I was thinking about our gospel reading last week, where a man comes across a pearl of great price, of unfathomable price.

And what does he do?

He goes home, sells everything he has to buy that field.

Because once he secures that field, he's secured that pearl as well, right?

For us, it's treasuring that thing that is the greater thing than everything else.

Is there anything that I withhold from Jesus?

Right?

These are loves that can compete with him.

If I lay down lesser loves, I discover a truer love.

By the way, the only treasurer who will treasure me back.

Because nothing else will do that, right?

What do we need to do about our need?

We need to obtain the things that we need the most and treasure Jesus.

Okay, but here's an interesting question.

Maybe you're wondering this yourself.

Jesus is telling these Lyodicean Christians, you are in serious spiritual poverty, and you need the most important things of your faith represented in what he talks about here.

You need to buy those things.

Okay, Jesus, I thought you just said I'm in serious spiritual poverty, that I have nothing.

How do you expect me to buy those things that I need?

It'd be a little bit like going up to a homeless person on young and dundass and being like, you know what they need the most?

You need to buy a house.

That would solve your problem.

Like, thanks.

Okay, let's not overlook.

Not just the fact that Jesus says to buy these things, but who to buy them from.

Did you notice that?

Buy them from me, he says.

So the question is, what is Jesus charging for these things?

And maybe the answer is this nothing.

It is nothing but grace.

After all, this is the same God who issues the invitation in Isaiah chapter 55, come buy without money, right?

Isaiah 55 · chapter mention

Come to Jesus.

That's what he wants.

He wants you.

He wants you to come to him because he loves you, and because he does not want to leave you lukewarm.

Come and buy with money you don't have because his grace is sufficient for you.

Jesus has everything you need, and he will hold nothing back.

So this leads us to our third question, doesn't it?

What does Jesus do about our spiritual need?

Let's look at verses twenty twenty-one.

Behold, Jesus says, 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.

So Jesus wants to give lukewarm Christians two indispensable gifts.

Notice that, by the way.

Lukewarm Christians, here's not two things I expect from you.

Here's two things I want to give you.

What's the first thing he wants to give us?

Verse 20, himself.

Jesus stands at the door and knocks.

See, when I hear this verse, it's usually quoted in an evangelistic context, in a gospel-sharing context.

And fair enough, it has a lot of implications for that too.

But let's remember that Jesus knocks, as it were, not just on the heart of the unbeliever, waiting to be let in for the first time, he knocks on the heart of those in the church.

This is a letter addressed to a church, isn't it?

This is a letter addressed not just to a church, but a lukewarm church.

When a church grows deluded about their spiritual need for Jesus, they think we're self-sufficient, and a church grows indifferent towards the good news of Jesus, the gospel, it's as though the church puts Jesus back out onto the street and says, We're good.

But what does Jesus do?

He doesn't abandon that church.

He stands outside and he knocks, waiting to be let back in.

Think about it.

No matter how indifferent you may be on your worst day, Jesus is still outside knocking on your heart.

And what happens when we let him in?

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and I will eat with him and he with me.

See, Jesus wants to make his presence known to us in fellowship and in friendship, but also in feasting and celebration.

See, the ancient majority world, they understood this.

They understood the significance of feasting, of sharing a meal together.

I have to confess, as a as a Canadian who lives in 2026, you know, this is my confession time, by the way, I often care more about where I eat than with whom I eat.

You know, at least let me give an example.

So if I were at a conference or something and some folks I just met said we're going to Chick-fil-A for lunch, I would be like, I am so there.

If my very good friends say we're going to Arby's for lunch, I would say, I'll see you afterwards.

You know what I mean?

Not so in the ancient world.

It's not where you eat or what you're eating, it's with whom you eat that matters.

If you don't believe me, you can ask Bevan Wallace or Brian and Val.

And they'll tell you the kind of unique, intimate fellowship and friendship that only sharing a meal facilitates.

That's the kind of intimacy Jesus wants with you and I.

He wants a friendship that is shared over a meal.

And friends, I don't think the Lord's Supper is exactly what Jesus is describing here, but I do think the Lord's Supper points us in the same direction.

We will feast and celebrate with Jesus when we come to him by faith.

And one day what we anticipate at this table will be a reality that we celebrate with him in his everlasting kingdom.

It is a unique, lasting fellowship that we will share with Jesus because he wants to give lukewarm Christians the greatest gift he can, which is himself.

And when he gives us himself, we get all the benefits that Christ has, which includes his authority.

Here's the second thing Jesus wants to give us.

I'll be brief.

Did you see what Jesus wants to give to a persevering Christian in verse 21?

He says, The one who conquers, the one who perseveres, I will give him, I will give her to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne.

We've already heard Jesus make a similar promise to the Christians in Thyatira, right?

By conquering sin and death on his cross, his resurrection, and his ascension, Jesus has earned the right to reign as King over all the universe.

He alone is the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation, or you could translate that the beginning of God's new creation, the hope of eternity in the kingdom.

And now as we see Christ, our King delights not to tyrannize us with his authority, but to share his authority with us.

This is the vision of God's new creation that we need always bear in mind when we think about heaven.

You and I will spend eternity not lazily strumming harps.

Maybe there'll be some harp music, I'm not sure.

But we will be exercising God-given authority for the good of all creation and of one another, all to the glory of God.

So what does Jesus want his lukewarm church to have?

First and foremost, himself.

And with himself, his authority to reign and rule for all eternity.

Do you see the answer to lukewarmness?

It's not try harder, it's let Jesus in.

When we expand our vision for how great and glorious and good and faithful Jesus is, what can our heart be but moved towards him?

And if our heart is moved towards him, surely we cannot grow lukewarm.

And when we expand our vision of Jesus, we expand our vision of how good the good news of Jesus is.

This is more than just oops, I'll try better next time.

And the good news is Jesus lets you.

No, the good news is that Jesus is renewing you and me and all creation, and we are caught up in it.

The good news only gets better as eternity goes on.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Do you detect any indifference from Jesus?

But if Jesus were truly indifferent, truly lukewarm toward this church, he wouldn't write them at all, would he?

No, a lukewarm church, as deluded and indifferent as it is, needs to need Jesus.

It needs to acknowledge its spiritual poverty and receive Jesus' good gift of himself.

Jesus may have nothing good to say about these lukewarm Christians, but do we see that Jesus has everything good to say to these lukewarm Christians?

It's not indifference that we detect, it's his love.

Did you see that in verse 19?

Don't mistake Jesus' discipline for indifference or for hate.

It is a result of his love that he addresses the things that are most wrong with us so that we can enjoy what is most good about him.

Do you feel lukewarm today?

Do you feel lukewarm this week or this month or this season of life?

It's not going to be trying harder that solves the problem.

It's going to be loving Jesus more.

And the only way to love Jesus more is to realize how much more Jesus loves you.

To come to Him again.

Because that love is revitalizing, it is vivifying, and it is good.

So expand your vision for Jesus' love and glory, his goodness and beauty and truth, his faithfulness, his delight, his joy and compassion.

Come, expand your vision even as you come to the Lord's Supper right now.

And friends, you will never be lukewarm.

Behold, Jesus says, 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.

Amen.

We hope that you've been blessed by God's word today.

If you live in the area, we hope that you'll come and worship with us in person on Sunday at 10 a.m.

If you'd like to learn more about Newsong Church, we'd love to connect with you.

Please find our contact information at newsongportperry.ca and reach out to us.

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Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.