Someone once did a survey of his church group, and he asked them: On a scale of 1-10, “1” meaning that you are very cold-hearted towards God, and “10” meaning that you are really “on fire” for Him — what number would you say you are?  He said his group members’ answers were almost all “4,” “5,” or “6.” Then he said: If you want to know what God thinks about you, just read Revelation 3:16!  “Because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.”

Is OUR church like that? Are YOU personally like that as a Christian? What does it mean to be lukewarm, and what can we do about it? The Lord shows us in our passage for today in Revelation 3:14-22, “The Church That Made God Sick.”

I.  God’s Response to the Lukewarm

The Lord says here in :15-16, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. (:16) So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”

Again, as we have seen every week in these seven letters, Jesus opens this letter saying, “I know.” He knows exactly where we are spiritually; we aren’t hiding anything from Him. He knows. You can look in the mirror today and say, of any area in your life: “He knows.” He knows. 

And what He says He knows here, is that the people of the church at Laodicea are “lukewarm,” “neither hot nor cold.” And His response to that is: I will spit you out of My mouth.” The word “spit” there, in the original Bible text, is literally “vomit.” God says spiritual lukewarmness makes Him vomit. That may be somewhat surprising. You might think that it would be the spiritually COLD who were offensive to God; but no, He says, it is the spiritually lukewarm who are so revolting to Him, that He will “vomit” them out of His mouth. That’s an extreme revulsion on the part of God. 

Some of y’all remember Cheryl & I were sick a few weeks ago and we missed that Sunday. I tested negative for COVID twice, but it was some kind of virus, and it was BAD. Both Cheryl & I had bad body aches for a couple of days, and then after a few days it went into our throat/lungs — but the worst for me was the stage in the middle, when I got sick to my stomach. Cheryl didn’t get it; I don’t how she managed that, but I did. And it was just horrible. I had not been sick like that for some years. But throughout that evening I kept getting more and more nauseated, and I was thinking, “Oh no; please, not that.” It is just the worst feeling. I HATE it. While it was happening, I thought, I just HATE this! There’s just not too much worse than getting sick to your stomach.

But what should really challenge us, is that JESUS says, THAT IS HOW OUR LUKEWARMNESS MAKES HIM FEEL!  The Lord is not indifferent to our indifference!  Our lukewarmness gives Him that horrible sensation of being sick to your stomach — and it will make Him “vomit” us out of His mouth!  We need to understand the intensity of feeling that God expresses here, towards lukewarmness. 

Would you ask yourself the question that group leader asked his group those years ago? If you were going to rate yourself towards the Lord on a scale of 1-10, what would it be for YOU? 5? 4? 6? More? Less? Where would it really be? And if you would honestly say, “I’m somewhere in the middle; I’m lukewarm” — do you see what that means? Do you see how it makes God feel that you are lukewarm like that towards Him? 

II.  The Characteristics of the Lukewarm:

So how do you know, if you are a lukewarm church, or if you personally are a lukewarm Christian? What are the characteristics of lukewarmness? 

We see a couple of things here:

A. Lukewarm in DEEDS

Notice first of all that in :15 Jesus specifically says, “I know your DEEDS, that you are neither cold nor hot.” Notice that He doesn’t say, “I know your FEELINGS.” See, a lot of times we’re all about “feelings.” I “feel” really close to God;” “I FEEL like I love God” — and we think that’s what He wants from us: a good feeling. And we SHOULD have good feelings towards God; He has done so much for us. But what He specifically mentions here about their being “hot” and “cold” is not any “feeling,” but their DEEDS. He says: “I know your DEEDS that you are neither cold nor hot.” It’s the Greek word “erga,” “works.” So Jesus is looking at our deeds, our works. And to the church at Laodicea He said, “Your DEEDS are neither cold nor hot.” They just weren’t doing much. It wasn’t that they were doing anything “bad,” per se. They weren’t doing anything harmful or destructive. But they weren’t doing anything GOOD either. And that made God sick.

We see an example of this very thing in the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25. A man gave some money to three of his slaves to take care of  while he was gone. Two of the slaves invested their money and made more money with it. But one just buried his money and did nothing with it. The master was furious. He said: You didn’t even put it in the bank and earn interest! He wasn’t angry because the slave did anything BAD with it; he was angry because he did nothing at ALL with it! 

But of how many of US today, might that same thing be said? Sometimes we might think: “Well, I’m a pretty good Christian; I am not doing anything ‘bad’: I’m not selling drugs, I’m not breaking into people’s homes and stealing things. I’m not ripping people off. But Jesus says it’s not enough that you’re just NOT doing bad things; that you’re “not ‘cold,’” in a sense — but are you “hot”? Are you positively DOING good things to advance the Kingdom of God in this world?  Jesus said the members at Laodicea weren’t. That was one of their problems: they were lukewarm in their deeds; they were neither cold nor hot in their works. 

What about YOU? Would you ask yourself today: “What GOOD work am I doing for the Kingdom of God?” Like we talked about last week, what “open door” has God given me to reach, teach, or care for people, for the Kingdom of God? Some of you can say “I’m teaching a class.” Some of you can say, “I’m working in VBS.” Some of you can say, “I serve in the Port Ministry.” We can’t all do everything; and we are all gifted in different ways. But is there SOME good work are YOU doing for the Kingdom of God? Make sure that you are. Get plugged in somewhere. Talk to me, or one of our ministry leaders. Volunteer on one of our ministry signup sheets as they go out. Get involved in SOME ministry. Just don’t be found by Jesus doing nothing. Don’t be lukewarm in your deeds. Make sure that you are positively doing SOME good work to advance the Kingdom of Jesus in this world. 

B. Lukewarm in NEEDS

Jesus says in :17 “Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,’ and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked …”

Jesus says here that the lukewarm church, or the lukewarm person, doesn’t think they need anything. He says they say, “I am rich … I have need of nothing.” They think they’re ok just like they are. But the truth is, though, that they are NOT ok. He says “You do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.” He said they THINK they are ok, but they are not; they actually have great needs. 

The first word he uses to describe them is “wretched.” When I read that, I thought, “wretched” is not a word we often use, what is a better translation — and I saw that virtually every major translation of the Bible uses this same word: “wretched.” But what does “wretched” mean? The Greek Bible word literally means, “to undergo/a callous.” It is the picture of someone who has endured so many toils and troubles, that they are covered with callouses. You’d look at a person like that and immediately say, “Oh, what a horrible life they’ve had.” THAT is the picture Jesus uses here. He says you’re “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked.” And the thing about each of these descriptions is, they indicate a person who has a need. A person who was poor would say “I know I have a need for money or help.” A person who was naked would say “I know I have a need for clothing,” and so on. These are people who would admit they have needs. But Jesus says the Laodiceans had needs, but they acted like they didn’t. They said, “I have need of nothing.” 

This is the exact OPPOSITE of what Jesus said in Matthew 5:3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” “Poor in spirit”  is the foundational quality of the Kingdom of Heaven. The word “poor” there means a “beggar,” who has to ask someone else for everything he has. But Jesus isn’t saying the FINANCIALLY poor are blessed; He says the poor “in SPIRIT” is blessed. The poor in spirit know they NEED GOD. They know they are not what they should be, spiritually — so they ask God to do for them what they CAN’T do for themselves. They ask Jesus to save them because they know they don’t deserve heaven on their own. So the poor in spirit, get the kingdom of heaven. 

So for example, today, if you know that you have sinned against God, and you don’t deserve to go to heaven, Jesus says you’re blessed — because you are in position, right now, to ask Jesus to save you, because of what HE did for you on the cross. We’ll give you an opportunity at the end of the service to ask Him to save you. (Or just do it right now in your heart!) But the key is, you have to recognize your need, in order to let Jesus help you. Admitting your need is the key attitude. You’ve got to humble yourself and say, “I need help.” 

In the immediate aftermath of John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, Vice President Lyndon Johnson was suddenly thrust into the Presidency. He immediately began asking President Kennedy’s advisors to remain on board. And his plea was the same to all of them: “I need you!” 

— To Gov. Pat Brown of California: “I’ve never needed help as bad as I need it now” (p. 409)

— To Martin Luther King: “I’ll have to have you all’s help – and I never needed it more than I do now.” (P. 408)

— To George Meeney: “I just called to tell you that you have been of inestimable help to this administration and to your country, and I need you as we’ve never needed you before.” (P. 406)

— To Ted Sorenson, JFK advisor and speech writer: “I need you more than he needed you.” (P. 399)

Over and over, Johnson told leader after leader: I need you. I need your help. Many of these men were not initially disposed to like Johnson or to support him, but because he humbly admitted his need for help, in that vital hour for our country, they gave him the help he needed from them.

The problem with the church at Laodicea, and the problem with many people today, is that they will NOT admit their need towards God. They will not humble themselves and ask for His help. In this way, pride will probably send more people to hell than any other sin: because so many are just too proud to ask God to forgive them and save them. I hope that you won’t be one of those people! Admit your need for God, and ask Him to save you today. 

But remember: Jesus is writing to the CHURCH at Laodicea. So even many CHRISTIAN people were not admitting their need for God. Could WE be doing that same thing? How can we know if we aren’t “poor in spirit,” if we aren’t admitting our need for God the way we should? One of the biggest giveaway signs that you think you don’t need God, is when you don’t PRAY.

They tell us that the great musician Johann Sebastian Bach began every composition he wrote, even his secular music, with a blank paper on which  he wrote, “Jesu, juva” (“Jesus help me”) or the initials “J.J.” (which stand for “Jesu, Juva”) on the upper left corner of the first page. (Johann Sebastian Bach, by Rick Marschall, p. 14)   

What a great way for Bach to start every work — even before he had written a word! “Jesus help me!” 

So when we do that same kind of thing: when in everything we do, we seek God and ask for His help, we are being poor in spirit. We are admitting we need God; we need His help. We are in effect saying like Bach did, “Jesus help me.” But when we DON’T pray about things, we are basically saying, “I don’t need God for this.” You might never say that out loud — and you probably never would — but you might as well. Because when you don’t pray, it’s the equivalent of saying, “I don’t need God.” 

So let this be a wakeup call for you. If you’re not praying about everything, then you are acting like you don’t need God! Evaluate yourself every day: Have I been praying today? Have I been asking God to help me today? Many afternoons I will look back on the day so far and ask myself: “How long has it been since I’ve prayed?” And honestly, too many times I have to say, it’s been too long. I need to be asking God for help more often than I do.  Let’s be like Bach. Let’s write “Jesus help me” on every corner of our life. We need Him. The old song says, “I Need Thee Every Hour,” and that’s true. We need Him every hour, every minute, every second. And if we ever forget that we need Him, like the church at Laodicea then we are in trouble. Let’s not be lukewarm in how much we know we NEED the Lord!

III.  Jesus’ invitation to the Lukewarm: 

Jesus says to them: “I advise you to buy from ME gold refined by fire … and white garments so that you may clothe yourself … and eye salve to anoint your eyes …”.  In ALL of these things in :18, Jesus is saying: “come to ME. I’m the One who has everything you need. 

And He gives His invitation in :20, “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.” Jesus says, you are needy. Admit your needs. Come to Me. In fact, He says, I am coming to YOU, knocking at the door of your heart, asking you to let Me in. But YOU have to recognize your need, and open that door, and let Him in. 

In the fall of 1968, in between terms as Governor of the state of Georgia, Jimmy Carter went on a mission trip to Springfield, Massachusetts, where they made visits and witnessed to people there. On the final day of their trip, a landlord in a nearby building mentioned that one of his tenants was a young father who had just lost his wife and gave up his baby. So Carter and one of his mission trip partners went upstairs to the man’s apartment and knocked on his door. At first, the father would not open up, so Jimmy Carter, standing in the hallway, quoted Revelation 3:20: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come to him and sup with him and he with me.”  The man did let them in, and Carter and his friend led him to Christ. Years later, Jimmy Carter said that leading that young man to Christ that day was “one of the most moving religious experiences of my life.” (Jonathan Alter, His Very Best, pp. 144-145) 

But that young father had a decision to make that day. He could stay where he was, and leave everything in his life the way it was — or he could let these men in, who might change his life. He decided to open the door. And his life, and his eternity, was changed, because he opened that door. 

That’s the decision that every one of us faces as well. We have needs. All of us have needs. Some of us need salvation. You’ve sinned against God, your life is headed the wrong way, and you are headed to hell and eternal destruction. You need Jesus to save you. Others of us HAVE been saved by Jesus, but we still have needs. We have medical problems; we need help in our marriage or family or relationships; we need help financially; we need help spiritually. Jesus says here in Revelation 3, I have what you need: Jesus says I have the gold you need; I have the garments you need; I have the eye salve you need; whatever you need, Jesus says, I have! And He says, I am standing at the door, knocking. I want to come in and help you. But whether He will come in to help or not, is up to US. Jesus said, “If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in …”. But we have to open the door.

CONCLUSION: 

William Holman Hunt was a prominent artist who lived in the 1800s, and one of his most famous paintings portrays this verse: Jesus standing and knocking at the door. There’s something very notable about this painting — some of you know what it is: there is no doorknob on the outside of the door!

Of course, Hunt did this on purpose, symbolizing that the door of your heart must be opened from the INSIDE!  YOU must make the decision for yourself, whether you will admit your need, and let Jesus into your life to become a Christian — OR whether you will let Him into your life to have the closer fellowship He wants to have with you as a Christian, or whether you will let Him meet whatever needs you have.  Jesus can help you. He has whatever you need. He wants to help you.  But whether He does, is up to you. “The ball is in your court,” as the old expression goes.

Jesus Christ is knocking at the door of your heart today. The question is, will you open the door of your heart, and let Him in?