SEVEN 7 - A STUDY IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION REVELATION 3:14-22 June 25, 2017

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1 SEVEN 7 - A STUDY IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION REVELATION 3:14-22 June 25, 2017 In 1837, Hans Christian Andersen published one of his most famous short stories, The Emperor s New Clothes. It was originally published with an anthology of stories including The Little Mermaid. I m guessing you remember The Emperor s New Clothes or are at least familiar with it, but let me remind you of the simple premise. A vain Emperor is obsessed with nice things and beautiful clothes. He was obsessed with getting new beautiful clothes and then showing off his impressive wardrobe. Two swindlers come into town, and after learning about the Emperor s obsession with clothes they hatch a plan. They tell the Emperor they will make him the most amazing clothes, anyone has ever seen. They will be made from the finest fabrics and best designs. They did say this new garb will have one interesting facet to it, a magical quality. The magical quality is that these clothes would be so impressive that only the smart/educated people and people who are fit for their positions would be able to see it. So the king paid gold and gave silk to the swindlers and they set about working. Except they kept all of the cash and the silk for themselves. They went through the motions of making the clothes, working late hours, using scissors and working on the loom, but it was all a ruse. The clothes were invisible because there were no clothes. The ruler sent various people in to check on the progress of the new clothes and obviously they could see nothing. They didn t want to appear dumb or unfit for their position, so they all reassured the king that the clothes were fabulous. The big day comes, and the swindlers dress the king in his invisible clothes. Because everyone wanted to appear smart and fit for their positions, they looked at this naked emperor and told him his new clothes were fabulous. Everyone agreed the clothes were spectacular and the king had never before received such praise. The story ends with a small innocent child in the street declaring the obvious, But he doesn t have anything on.

2 The Emperor s New Clothes is about pride. It s about groupthink. It s about materialism and conspicuous consumption. Maybe what is most powerful is the power of one voice to stand up and speak out, to say the obvious thing everyone else seems willing to overlook. The question for today of course is what causes humans to overlook something that is so patently obvious? What causes everybody to play pretend and look the other direction when the situation is so obviously clear? A similar situation was happening in Laodecia around 2,000 years ago. Listen to these words. Revelation 3: This is probably one of the most well-known passages in Revelation. This is the final church that Jesus addresses in Asia Minor, and it s also the harshest message. To the seven churches, you get a combination of commendation and condemnation, encouragement and exhortation. Most of the churches get some commendation and some condemnation. One church last week in Philadelphia gets all commendation and no condemnation. Now, Laodecia gets all condemnation and no commendation. He doesn t point to a single thing they are doing right. He has this bold proclamation, You think you are rich, need nothing, but in all reality, you are poor, naked and pitiable. When the Laodiceans considered themselves, they believed they were proudly walking the streets in the best of the best attire, and Jesus has the temerity to say, But you don t have anything on. What are they doing that is so wrong? They are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold. Just lukewarm. Many teachings on this passage leave you with the application based on a misunderstanding of this passage. Hot being good and cold being bad. Hot being a strong faith in Christ and cold being no faith. The application is to be white hot on fire for Jesus. Lukewarm is some sort of synonym for riding the fence. Seemingly, Jesus is saying pick a side. Be for me or against me, but don t ride the fence and be lukewarm. That s not the purpose of this passage.

3 Laodecia did not have its own water source, so it piped in water from surrounding neighbors like Hierapolis and Colossae. Essentially, Laodecia was like Los Angeles, relying on other people to provide its water. Hierapolis had hot springs which were noted for their healing attributes and medicinal value. Colossae had cold spring water that was delightfully refreshing to drink on a warm day. When you pipe in hot water and cold water over the aqueduct system over several miles, how do you think that water arrived in Laodecia? Disgustingly lukewarm. Have you ever been in a public park on a hot day? You are dying of thirst and walk to the water fountain, and you take a huge quick gulp. Usually the water comes out disgustingly warm. The trick of course is to let it flow for a few minutes and sometimes it will cool. Sometimes. A mouth full of warm water is almost worse than not drinking at all. That is the image in this passage. Hot water from Hierapolis was good for medicinal baths and some hot drinks served at banquets. Cold water from Colossae was delicious and refreshing. But the lukewarm water of Laodecia was gross and unappealing. It was enough to make Jesus gag. He says, I want to spit you out of my mouth. When Jesus says, Would that you were hot or cold, he is not saying, I wish you were a believer or non-believer. He s saying, I wish you were fulfilling some purpose, but you aren t doing anything. You re lukewarm. Why are they lukewarm? Why are they essentially useless in the Kingdom of God? Neither refreshing people nor healing people? What about Laodecia makes people want to gag? A little more about Laodecia. Many scholars believe Laodecia was one of the wealthiest areas in the known world. Laodecia was a banking center. It was the capital of a network of 25 cities, and it was famous for its excellent exports of textiles including wonderful black fabric. All of these things contributed to making them exceptionally wealthy. So much so, that when in AD 60 there was a massive earthquake that leveled their city, they refused the equivalent of emergency funds from Rome and rebuilt the city themselves with their own

4 money. They were rich and self-sufficient. They had all the money in the world, and they were the most useless for the kingdom. They had it all and it made them apathetic. You ve probably heard it before. The opposite of love isn t hate. It s apathy. Hate at least means emotions are involved even if they are negative. You can t hate something if there isn t still some amount of love, but apathy is having no regard or concern. That s really dangerous. Money can do that to individuals and to churches. All of this is wrapped up together, perceived self-sufficiency and tons of wealth can make people apathetic. Like lukewarm water that serves no purpose. Hans Christian Andersen grew up very poor. His father had very little education and his mother worked low-income jobs. His father died while Hans was still young and his socioeconomic situation only got worse. He went to a school specifically for poor children and he was forced to work to support himself. It was that upbringing that gave Hans a keen eye for inequalities and problems in the world around them and he wove them into his stories. Think about some of his stories. Early on they are about smallish or different people finding their way in a strange land, or they are about the problems with aristocracy and powerful people. Thumbelina is a tiny girl trying to navigate the difficult terrain of the forest and escaping from being put in an arranged marriage. The Little Mermaid tries to fit in and conform in a world she wasn t born into. The Princess and the Pea is a tongue in cheek look at the obsession with how this little girl deserves this princess role because of her sensitivity. The Emperor s New Clothes and Swineherd are about the dangers of pride and power. Hans Christian Andersen knew what it was to be poor and left out of the aristocracy, so he wrote about it through children s fairytales. Then something strange happened. He stopped writing political satire in 1841 early in his career. Do you know why? Alison Prince wrote a biography of Hans Christian Andersen and she notes that after The Emperor s New Clothes and Swineherd, the king of Denmark gave Andersen a ruby and a diamond ring. Oddly enough she notes, he never wrote another work that was critical of the crown or it s money.

5 Money does that. Money can lead to self-sufficiency and eventually apathy. Hans lost his hot prophetic water that would scorch those who were oppressive. Hans lost his cool refreshing water that would satisfy those being oppressed. He became lukewarm. Jesus sees the trajectory of the Laodecian church and tells them what is obvious to everyone else. You are poor, naked and pitiable. To the people of extreme wealth, he says you are actually poor. To the people making fabulous black fabric that everyone wanted for clothing, he says you are actually naked. To the people who are supposedly self-sufficient, he reminds them they don t even have their own water. They have to get it piped in from somewhere else. Not only that. It s gross lukewarm water. Poor, naked and utterly dependent on others. Money can lead to self-sufficiency and self-sufficiency can lead to apathy. Let me make sure and connect those dots clearly. Money leads to self-sufficiency for pretty obvious reasons. When you are younger and poorer, you need help from others. You ask for money from mom and dad, you get a scholarship, you get tax breaks, you get gifts. The obvious reminder for you in those days is you need help. If you are lucky enough, as time goes on and you have a paycheck that covers all of your bills and maybe then some, you can become selfsufficient. Which isn t inherently a bad thing. Just like money isn t a bad thing, but selfsufficiency in full bloom can lead to apathy. Here s why. When you start to believe the hype, that all you have is earned, that all you have you re entitled to, all you acquire is yours and yours only that s when apathy rears its ugly head. When all of that happens and selfsufficiency becomes toxic, it leads you to be apathetic to the needs of others because you are wondering why they aren t self-sufficient. You have forgotten the times that you got gifts or inheritances from mom and dad. You are forgetting the times you caught a lucky break or a grant. You are forgetting that you didn t contract a deadly disease through no fault of your own that ruined you financially. You are forgetting about how someone bailed you out during a hard financial season. Toxic self-sufficiency leads to apathy. I don t care about your problems. I don t care about your needs. Driving around in nice cars, going on nice vacations and not giving a single care to those in need or sick or pain. b

6 Please make sure and hear me. You can have lots of zeroes in your bank account and be apathetic or you can have one big zero in your bank account and be apathetic. This isn t about your net worth. I know rich people who are greedy, entitled and apathetic, and I know poor people who are greedy, entitled and apathetic. It goes both ways. The lukewarm gag-worthy problem is money that leads to shameless self-sufficiency and finally evil apathy. We had VBS at the church this last week, and I had to leave, grab a quick bite and get back for afternoon meetings. I went to a nice restaurant, some might call it a fine dining establishment, called Taco Bell. I don t go there often, but it is cheap and I think it still tastes pretty good. Maybe it tastes better because it is cheap. I am sitting there with my Mexican pizza and watch as two individuals come in. One is obviously a person who asks for money. I can tell this by the way he looks, and I can tell this because he literally brings his cardboard sign in with him. Then something strange happens. I watch as he looks for a place to plug in his smartphone. You heard that correctly. What do you do with that? You can go either way. You can get upset that he begs for money, but he has enough for a smartphone with a data plan. I had to ask myself what is upsetting about that, or what would not make me upset? If it was just a burner or old flip phone, would I be happy with that? Is he allowed to have a phone if he begs? I can tell your answer probably says more about you than it does about him. This wasn t Forbes Mill, and he didn t pull out an IPhone 7. That s called being a swindler. He was still obviously poor and dirty and he was eating at Taco Bell. The fact that my mind even asks why should he have that made me think I was leaning into my self-sufficiency. I was leaning over towards apathy to his needs and his station in life. The Gospel of God throughout the Bible is about wild unmerited grace. The Gospel of God again and again is a message of hope and redemption for those that do not deserve it. It s grace for the Ninevites even though they opposed and harmed the Israelites. It s grace for the prodigal son who wastes his father s money and sullies his good name. It s Jesus going to the cross for the disciples who fell asleep when he needed them most and ran away when he was crucified. Because that is the recurring theme of God s grace for us, the most

7 lukewarm gag-worthy thing you can do is be entitled to that grace. Entitled to that grace for yourself and apathetic for it s distribution to others. That is why God is so displeased with Jonah who is appalled at the leniency shown to the Ninevites. That is why the older brother looks so petty and revolting when the prodigal son comes home and he throws a fit. That is why Jesus looks at this lukewarm rich church and says, You guys make me want to throwup. Verses are beautiful reminders. Jesus says the disciples are those he loves. Jesus says he stands at the door and knocks. This is a stark contrast to the church in Philadelphia. They have been locked out by others and Jesus says he opened the door. But here, the Laodecians have shut Jesus out. He says, I m knocking and I d love to have a meal with you. Just as a not so subtle reminder, who did Jesus often get hassled for sitting down to meals with? Sinners, tax collectors and prostitutes. Let me sit down to a meal. May you be reminded that you are far from perfect, but I love you anyway. May you be reminded that you can rely on me and you don t have to be self-sufficient. Maybe when the meal is over, you will be energized and reminded to invite others to the table. Money isn t bad until it takes over. Self-sufficiency isn t bad until it takes over. Apathy is always bad if you find yourself indifferent to needs. If you don t have sympathy for the lost, hurt or needy, you have a problem. As a church, I m hoping we keep our eyes open. That we are always thinking about those outside of the church walls who need us. That we always have soft hearts to those who are down and out because by the very words of Jesus, there is nothing worse than rich apathetic Christians. They get no commendation from him and they make him want to puke. I reread the tale of The Emperor s New Clothes, and I was reminded of two things. 1) The king is worried he may be getting duped, so he sends in trusted advisers to check on the work and report back. Do you know who he sends in first? His trusted old minister. Surely he would tell the king the truth, but he of course doesn t want to look dumb or unfit, so he refuses to speak up. God help me or any of the pastors if we are unwilling to remind you and ourselves that we live in one of the wealthiest areas in the one of the richest countries

8 in the world, and it s worth occasionally speaking up. 2) I hope you all will be like that little child. May we as Christians be willing to speak out against the obvious problems and hypocrisies in the church. May we be always be willing to look foolish and unfit if it means that God s true nature is revealed. Giamanco video