Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Goldilocks.
She went for a walk in the forest. Pretty soon, she came upon a house. She knocked and, when no one answered, she walked right in. At the table in the kitchen, there were three bowls of porridge. Goldilocks was hungry. She tasted the porridge from the first bowl. “This porridge is too hot!” she exclaimed. So, she tasted the porridge from the second bowl. “This porridge is too cold,” she said. So, she tasted the last bowl of porridge. “Ahhh, this porridge is just right,” she said happily, and she ate it all up.
Once upon a time, there was a church in Laodicea, and, much like Goldilocks, the people in this church … well, they liked their porridge in just a certain way, not too hot and not too cold. They had begun their culinary journey by eating whatever was sent out from the kitchen by the Master Chef, accepting that he knew what was best concerning their porridge. But one day they realized that they were much too wise for this, and they began deciding for themselves what porridge was good for them and what porridge was not.
So they refined their taste, assumed more and more control of their diet and found an exquisite balance. Hot porridge was obviously out, far too controversial, and cold porridge was, well, cold, but that sweet spot in the middle was lukewarm perfection. They called it balance, finding the correct proportions of truth and life. They concocted recipes that fit their culture and times, sophisticated and discriminating. And in the process they achieved a foolproof blend of religion and life, and it showed in their dazzling success. They were now rich and in need of absolutely nothing.
So stunning was their success that they were sure that even the Master Chef would be impressed. And why not? Were his recipes not the basis for their work? Surely he should receive some of the credit for their success. And surely he must be pleased with their work.
And then one day a messenger hand-delivered a letter from the Master Chef himself.
REVELATION MESSAGE 10: Laodicea-The Wretched Church
The church at Laodicea is another on our list of very impressive churches. Just ask them.
(Revelation 3:17a ESV)For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing …
But we get a different impression as we read the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.
(Revelation 3:17 ESV) … not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
Our glorified Lord calls them wretched. We could also have named them the pitiful church, the rich but poor church, the blind church or the naked church.
We even could have named this church the Goldilocks Church as they liked their spiritual porridge not too hot, not too cold, but just right. They would have called it balanced; Jesus called it lukewarm. Which brings me to another name for that church. The “I Would Spit You Out of My Mouth” Church. Jesus said that because they were lukewarm that he would spit them out of his mouth.
Message: “The Wretched Church!” Message Text: Revelation 3:14-22
REVELATION MESSAGE 9: Philadelphia–The Church of the Open Door Revelation 3:7-13
What service or duty or work might God ask of a little church?
What are his expectations? I mean, if you think about it, how could a church small in size, with limited resources and little influence do anything meaningful in the cause of Jesus Christ?
Let’s not kid ourselves. Let’s face reality. No idealistic silliness or fanciful speculations. No human boasting and wishful thinking. Let’s talk about life in the real world, the bottom line, what matters.
But as we do this we shouldn’tstop at only what we can perceive or understand on our own as mere humans. Why stop there when we all know that reality extends far beyond this world? So let’s not limit ourselves or restrict ourselves to our human theories and notions.
What if we had someone who could speak ultimate reality to us? What if this morning, right now, we could hear from Someone who is the very essence of ultimate reality of both this world and the next?
