Layover: Laodicea

“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write…I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spit you out of My mouth….therefore be zealous and repent” (Revelation3: 14-16, 19).

“Ladies and gentlemen, we would like to welcome you to B. L. Airways, where we are en route to Philadelphia. Our final layover before we reach that City of Brotherly Love will be Laodicea, which is due south of Sardis. So, sit back and relax; we’ll be there shortly.

“We’re now coming up on Laodicea. The city is situated on the Lycus River and was named for Laodice, the wife of Antiochus II. It was a very wealthy city during the Roman Period, known for the black wool industry.

“We hope you find your stay in Laodicea…exciting.”

I have heard of this church ever since I was a small child, but was a bit confused by Revelation’s description of it. I understood why God would want us to be “hot” in regards to our faith, but why are we told that being “cold” is even preferred to lukewarm? If we were cold, would that be similar to being dead, and thus the worst of all?

What I have discovered is that I had it all wrong. When John penned these words, he was not referring to our faith as being hot or cold. Rather, he was making a comparison which would have been well known to the people to whom he was writing. This area was known for its healing springs, where people would go for certain types of therapy. Some springs were cold, while others were hot. One would go to a particular spring depending on their physical need. A lukewarm spring would have been totally worthless.

I liken this comparison to what has become my own personal vice: Starbucks. I enjoy an iced triple caramel espresso way too much. Though many people cannot yet accept an iced coffee drink, it is quite refreshing on those dog days of summer. Hot coffee, on the other hand is the perfect addition to a blustery January morning. Whether your preference is hot or cold I’m sure we all can agree that a lukewarm cup of coffee is useless, as well as disgusting.

The Lord wants the same for our spiritual lives. He would rather we be hot or cold, because the only thing left is lukewarm complacency. The simplest definition I can think of for complacency is to shrug our shoulders and say, “whatever.” We either step out of the fight, or perhaps we do not even realize there is a battle waging around us. We fail to think of souls remaining lost, or of brothers and sisters in need. Above all, God is not the center of everything in our lives.

I have been reading “Baseball’s Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy” by Jules Tygiel. The book follows the story of Branch Rickey, a GM in the Major Leagues, and his decision to break the color barrier in baseball with a player named Jackie Robinson.

I have read much on the Jim Crowe practices of the South, where blacks were not given the same rights as whites. What I was unfamiliar with, though, was the frustrating complacency of the North. These whites would turn their noses up at the South, yet fail to do anything. Others would ignore. Mostly, northerners would deny that there was a problem with Jim Crowe at all. This is complacency…this is dwelling in Laodicea.

The question I had to ask myself upon reading about some of the horrific things in Robinson’s biography is this: Was the North at less of a fault than the South just because they may not have personally engaged in such practices? To this I respond emphatically: No! Their complacency made them at least as culpable as the South, and maybe more to blame.

What does the Bible say happens when complacency becomes the very definition of our spirituality? Revelation 3:16 says “I will spit you out.” It is the response you might have if you are expecting coffee that is iced or hot, but is lukewarm. Likewise, our complacency disturbs God’s palate, and He spews us out. It reminds me of the looks on my children’s faces when they are eating something they don’t like. Our complacency is bitter in God’s mouth, and as a result, He cannot use us.

Scripture expands on this in verse 20, when it shows Jesus being on the outside looking in. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.” One verse has the Lord separating Himself from us, while the other shows us keeping Him out.

The fact of the matter is when we are complacent we feel we are at our safest. This cannot be further from the truth. The separation that occurs between us and the Lord puts us in great danger, not of losing our salvation, but of losing any effectiveness we can have for Him. If Jesus is on the outside looking in, any ministry we attempt will fail, joy will be absent from our church experience, and we will never know what it means to be close to the Lord.

If we do find ourselves trapped in a pit of complacency, we are given some advice on what to do for help. Verse 19 tells us first to “be zealous” we are to be earnest in what we are doing—find the passion that drove us to Christ in the first place. We are next told to “repent.” When we ask for forgiveness with a broken heart, and a willingness to change, God is eager to accept out plea.

Verse 20 above gives the last two steps when Jesus is on the outside knocking to get in. We are to simply listen to Him, making our hearts receptive to His Spirit once again. When we hear Him and re-open ourselves, we will be able to commune with Him once again and be guided by His Spirit. God loves us and wants us to passionately love and serve Him.

“We hope you enjoy this final layover…and now we are off to our final destination, Philadelphia.”      

Layover: Sardis

“To the angel of the church of Sardis write…I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die….So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it and repent” (Revelation 3:1-3).

“Ladies and gentlemen, we at B. L. Airways would like to welcome you back to our flight, whose destination will be Philadelphia. For those of you just joining us, we have just two more layovers before our final arrival. We expect this leg of the flight to be quite short.

“We are now coming up on Sardis, so please return to your seats and put on your seatbelts. A little about Sardis…it was the capital city of Lydia in western Asia Minor, 50 miles east of Smyrna, which we saw three stops ago. The people of this city were known as great men of war, and enjoyed a city that was well fortified and easily defended. As a result the people here enjoyed a time of prosperity. The most notable site was the great Temple of Artemis, built in the 4th Century B. C., which stood 327 feet high.

We hope you enjoy your stay in Sardis.”

The main problem the city of Sardis experienced was complacency. It had once been so prominent that when its decline came, the citizens had no idea they were irrelevant. They relied so much on past glory, the city became dead. The façade of a healthy appearance was worn, while underneath was only decay.

This problem leaked into the church, as Revelation tells us, “You have a name that you are alive, but you are dead” (3:1). This sounds quite similar to something Jesus once said to the Pharisees: “For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Matt. 23:27-28). The church had become a dead institution, centered in a useless ghost town.

This is certainly true in our lives as well. We sometimes cling to past victories in our spiritual battles, and forget that the battle continues to wage. We hold on to memories of our conversion, but neglect the need for God’s salvation on a daily basis. The problem with clinging to the past is that certain parts of our spiritual life tend to be neglected. After too much neglect, we experience numbness. Too much numbness causes that part of our spirit to die. We maintain the appearance of life and vibrancy, when inside there is death and decay.

Now, this may appear to be reiterating what we discussed with Ephesus, in our first discussion of these churches of Revelation. Back then we talked about looking the part when our hearts are not really in it. When our heart is not right, it can mean our emotions have overridden what we know to be right, intellectually. Paul helps by telling us to renew our minds continually (Romans 12:2). In other words, when we constantly work to give our minds a rebirth, this can trump emotions that have run amuck.

The Sardis problem is different, though, because we are not talking about going astray. We are dealing with a part of us that is dead. What happens when a body dies? Well, sooner or later, rigor mortise sets in and the body begins to decay. Spiritually, when we have reached that point of death in a certain area, it cannot be fixed with a heart transplant or a bypass. When we find decay in our lives and we start to stink, no amount of scrubbing will fix the problem. That decay then spreads through us like a deadly virus.

Just look at sexual sins, for example. How many times have we seen lives totally destroyed because a pastor or church layperson could not get a hold on his lust. It begins somewhat small, like occasionally perusing porn on the internet. He takes it lightly, and does not fully take it to the Lord. It slowly grows into a full-fledged addiction, and then threatens to turn into actually adulterous encounters.

Most other area of his life appears fine, but in this area he has numbed his senses. The numbness, left unchecked, turns to death. Death gives birth to decay, which quickly passes to other areas of his life. His marriage is affected, his parenting is affected, his wallet is affected, and his relationship with the Lord is not only affected, but is nearly non-existent.

This is what death in the spiritual life looks like. The same can be said for whatever interferes with our godly living: gossip, pride, lying, or whatever. This death indicates that we have gone beyond our ability to get ourselves out. Even following the advice of Jesus or Paul seems to be impossible when we’ve fallen so far.

So what are we to do?

A look at Jesus’ encounter with his dead friend Lazarus can give us hope when we are at our lowest. Jesus purposely waited to go see Lazarus when he was called, because He wanted to make certain Lazarus was dead before He could work a miracle. Scripture says when Jesus got there and asked for the tomb to be opened, He was told the body would surely have started to smell. Lazarus was beyond the ability to help himself, and scrubbing him with soap to cover the smell would have been pointless.

So what did Jesus do? He said, “Lazarus, come forth” and that did it. Lazarus was immediately resurrected to life (though I’m sure he still needed a bath). We can find great truth in this when we appear to have life, but are really dead on the inside. The only way we can fix being dead is through the resurrection that comes from the lips of Christ. Whatever our problem is, we can fall at the Lord’s feet and allow Him to say, “Rise up, friend, and live again. I have come to give you life that is abundant.”

Revelation gives us four steps to go from spiritual death to life. We are to first “wake up (3:2),” which means to realize that there is even a problem. Then, “strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die” (vs.2). In other words, realize it is not all doom and gloom. There are great blessings we can acknowledge and take to the Lord in thanks. Thirdly, “remember what you have received and heard; and keep it” (vs. 3). We are to make a decision to tackle the sin in our lives.

The final step is to “repent” (vs. 3). This repentance involves feeling remorse, confessing our sin to God, and making the decision to walk on a new godly path. Once we truly repent and lay everything at the Lord’s feet Christ can come and quickens the dead parts back to life. Only then can we enjoy the full Christian life God intends for us.

“We hope you found this stop helpful…our next stop, which will be in one month, is Laodicea.”