[#1 - BLANK SCREEN]

• This time of year, we regularly welcome people here on a Sunday who are just in the process of moving to Southampton. 

• If that’s you, it’s great to have you. And I trust you’re able to put down some roots and settle quickly. And I hope we can be a part of that as a chruch

• I don’t know what ideas you come with about this city of ours? What associations your mind makes with the name of Southampton? Maybe your first thought is the football club? First league match of the season is this afternoon! 

• Or perhaps the uni? Could be West Quay? 

• They’re all big for us. But of course historically, Southampton has been most known for the docks. And of all the ships which have passed through those docks over the centuries, there’s one which stands head and shoulders above the others in the folklore of the city. And that is – what? – the Titanic. It’s got to be, hasn’t it?

• I mean, the sinking of the Titanic on 12 April 1912 was huge for this city. This is where most of the crew came from. But 75% of those crew went down with the ship. Just think of the impact of that on this city of 25,000 homes as it was at the time.

• In one Southampton school alone, 120 of 240 children lost their father the night the Titanic sank. 

• The loss of life, especially among the crew, was horrific. 

• But the side of the narrative that has gripped most people’s minds about the Titanic over the years is actually not so much the scale of destruction as the scale of delusion among those on board.

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• I mean, not surprising perhaps. It was never actually called ‘unsinkable’ – that’s a myth that emerged later on – but the language of ‘practically unsinkable’ had been used of it. And the idea does seem to have got into people’s heads

• You’ve heard some of the stories, I’m sure.

• The binoculars for the lookouts on board the ship were apparently locked in a cabinet, and nobody could find the key. So what were the lookouts told? Break the cabinet? No: just use the naked eye to watch out. You’ll be fine. In fact the surviving lookout admitted in the enquiry afterwards that he had wondered if his role was even necessary

• Even after the ship had struck the iceberg, the delusion went on

• Some fragments of the iceberg apparently sheared off onto the deck, and what did the men do? They started a game of football with the ice

• Eventually lifeboats started to go, but the first few left with large numbers of empty seats. Why? Because apparently people felt safer in the warmth of the ship then the dark and the cold of the lifeboats. The whole abandon ship thing seemed just inconvenient and unnecessary

• One passenger joked that the bulky lifejackets being given out would probably just get in the way of a good night’s sleep; then he went back to the smoking room to read a book to wait for the panic to play itself out

• And on and on they go, the stories. Some with more truth to them than others, maybe. But the Titanic has become almost a parable of the delusion of over-confidence.

• Which is why I’m bringing it up today. 

#2

• Because the part of the Bible we’re reflecting on asks us that very question: is spiritual over-confidence going to lead you and me to destruction when we encounter the iceberg of God’s judgement?

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• We’ve been looking over these past 7 Sunday mornings at a series of letters here in Revelation chapter 2 and 3. They’re letters written by none other than Jesus himself, to a bunch of individual churches in the area of modern-day Turkey. But they’re cc’d – as it were – to all the churches, and effectively to us as well all these years later. 

#3

• You see that in the final verse, v22. 

o ‘Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches’

• In other words: these words of Jesus - to one church in one place – become – by the work of his Spirit – his words to all churches in all places. So listen well! Listen to the voice of Jesus and his Spirit. And if the shoe fits for you and your church, wear it.

• Listen!

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• OK, we’ve got that. 

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• But what does Jesus have to say that we’re to listen to?

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• Well, let’s have a look.

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First, listen to the reality laid bare by his truth

#4

• This is verses 14,15,16,17

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• Verse 14:These are the words of the Amen – in other words, the one who declares what is true.

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• …(the Amen)… faithful and true witness – that is, the one who sees things as they are and gives a true account of them.

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• You get the point here. Jesus is being identified specifically as the one who speaks truth about the way things are. And specifically here, about the way things are… in the life of the church in Laodicea

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• You see that? 

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• Verse 15: ‘I know your deeds’.

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• You can’t hide from me – says Jesus. You can’t pull the wool over my eyes. Maybe you can fool others. The referee in the England-Argentina game, for example!! Maybe you can fool yourself! But not me.

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• Because I’m the Amen – the one who lays bare the truth and speaks it out loud. The ultimate 100%-accurate VAR. 

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• And with all this emphasis on truth, you can probably guess the tone of what’s coming. 

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• Some of these letters we’ve been reading in Revelation have actually been quite encouraging in terms of how the churches are doing (we saw that last week); some have been more rebuking; others I guess are a bit of a mix. But this last one to Laodicea is brutal. 

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• So what is the truth about them that Jesus lays bare? Well, it’s actually two truths. 

• One is that they are simply too casual in their approach to God. 

#5

• I don’t know how you’re getting on with the hosepipe ban at the moment. But spare a thought for the city of Laodicea. It had no water supply at all. Which did cause serious issues. The nearest water was to be found either in the cool springs about 6 miles south or the hot springs about the same distance north. 

• But whichever route the water took from those places, you could be assured that by the time it got to Laodicea it was grim. It was tepid and horrible. What started as cold water 6 miles ago was no longer refreshing – thanks to the Mediterranean sun; what was hot water was no longer useful. Either way, it ended up just lukewarm and useless

• In our terms, we’d say it was no good for either a nice cooling elderflower cordial or a piping hot espresso. It was just.. in the middle – tepid – so good for nothing really.

• Well, that – says Jesus – is a picture of the spiritual life of the Laodicean church.

• Verse 15.

• 15( I know your deeds,) that you.. are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!

• We don’t know exactly what lies behind the rebuke here. It maybe they were trying to plot a middle path in terms of their lives and witness to Jesus: ‘we’ll join the local guilds, unions, which are dedicated to pagan gods… we’ll join them, but we won’t actually join in with the worship of those gods. 

• Something like that, maybe. A middle path. Blurring the lines a bit. Which might sound wise. A sensible compromise. But it turns out: blurred lines and sensible compromises are of no interest at all to Jesus. 

• In fact ‘of no interest’ is putting it mildly. See what he actually says. Verse 16.

• 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

• You ever had that experience, when you’ve taken a sip of what turned out to off milk or somethin…

• [!!!]

• [Sorry…]

• That is how Jesus reacts to what we might call ‘sensible compromise’, or middle-path Christianity. Casual Christianity. 

• He is allergic to it. 

• He wants nothing more than to get it out of his system. 

• And it’s not just that; it’s not just the casualness. But the complacency that so often goes with it. 

#6

• Here’s the thing about Laodicea. Despite those water supply problems, it was a very successful city. We were talking about associations people might have with Southampton. For Laodicea, it would have just been prosperity. Success. 

o It was successful economically. Its banks had money to burn. When the city suffered an earthquake in AD61, they were awarded emergency financial assistance from Rome. But you know what their response was? ‘No it’s OK – we got this’. They were loaded!

o And the city was successful in terms of health: their eye hospital was respected far and wife.

o And it was successful in terms of trade. Its big industry was textiles and clothing. That’s what the wealth of the city was built on. 

• But once again, Jesus picks up on that reputation of the city to describe the people of the church there.

• Verse 17:

• You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’

• That’s their attitude. They think they’re sorted. They’re self-sufficient. They don’t need anyone or anything. Not even Jesus. Not really. 

• Whatever situation they’re in, their attitude is basically what the city said after the earthquake: ‘I’ve got this’. 

• In other words, they’re just complacent.

• Because what’s the reality? What’s the truth Jesus wants to lay bare?

• What does he say?

• But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, 

• In other words, you have really not ‘got this’ – not in any way that matters spiritually, or in terms of eternity.

• (wretched, pitiful, ) - and just look how he twists the knife in those next 3 words

• You are poor – all that money in your bank accounts – it’s worth nothing in the big scheme of things

• You are blind – all that bragging about your best-in-class eye hospital – when you can’t even see what’s in front of your eyes

• You are naked – all those clothes you ship off around the empire, while all the time you’ve got no spiritual protection at all for the day Jesus returns –

• That is complacent, isn’t it?

• They’re like those deluded, overconfident passengers on board the Titanic. 

• With that casualness when it comes to their lifestyles and decisions. And complacency when it comes to their heart-attitudes

• This is the diagnosis made by the great truth-teller Jesus.

• And it’s unpleasant to contemplate, isn’t it? Because most of us, I imagine, don’t need an awful lot of thinking time to realise the shoe likely does fit for us, all too well!

• Don’t you think?

• Or is it just me?

• I was pondering this myself. Just looking in the mirror, as it were. And I think the way casualness shows up for me personally is most often not in what I do but in what I fail to do. It’s not that I go around committing heinous evils all the time (although of course there are plenty of things I do that are wrong). It’s more the opportunities for showing love or care or kindness or encouragement or courage or diligence – or whatever it is – that I fail to take. The opportunities to speak up for Jesus that I fail to make the most of. That’s the biggest thing that makes me casual. The sins of omission, more than the sins of commission.

• Does that chime with you at all? 

• And complacency? That attitude of ‘I’ve got this’? Again, looking in the mirror, I think for me it’s most often the instinct just to back myself, rather than carefully and prayerfully bringing it to God and looking to him for wisdom and strength and so on. 

• Is that just me? Or does it resonate with you?

• If it does, then you and I – we both need to listen to the reality laid bare by the Amen.

• And not just listen to the reality. Listen to the appeal that goes with it.

• Let’s move on to the middle part of the letter. Where we’re encouraged to come to Jesus and – secondly – listen to the plea urged on by his love.

#7

• It was lovely to have opportunity earlier on to give thanks together for little Naomi. But just a word of warning to you, Tom and Jenna. At some point along the line, and maybe many points, you are going to yell at her or at least speak firmly to her, in such a way that she cries. And that will be hard to see. 

• It’s possible that you will reflect afterwards and you’ll decide that you really shouldn’t have spoken to her like that. But it is equally possible that you will conclude that actually you should, even though it made her cry. Because she needed to hear what you had to say, in the way you said it. In fact not to have said it would have been to fail to love her. If you’d just let her run into the middle of the road without screaming at her to come back, that would have been a terrible failure of love.

• And that is how it is with Jesus and us. Look on to verse 19?

• Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline.

• In other words rebuke and discipline are not incompatible in love. Far from it. They are an expression of love. 

• Let’s be honest here. I did warn you that this was going to be a brutal letter. And it has been, hasn’t it? 

• But here’s the reason. The reason is that Jesus loves his people. He loves you and me – if we’re truly his. He wants the absolute best for us. 

• Which means when we stray off course, he’s not just going to leave us to it: ‘Oh that’s their problem! They can sort it out’ 

• He’s not going to just look the other way while we self-destruct. 

• No, he’s going to draw our attention to the reality of our erring, and then he’s going to urge us to get back on the right track. 

• So what does that look like for the Laodiceans? 

• It looks like reorientating our heads, refocussing our eyes, away from ourselves and on to Jesus – when it comes to finding our sufficiency.

#8

• Have a look back to verse 18. 

• When Jesus says ‘I counsel you to buy from me’, the emphasis is not on the word ‘buy’ but the word ‘me’. 

• ‘Buy’ is possibly just language that the Laodiceans will understand. They’re into money and purchasing and so on. 

• Or else it’s deliberately picking up the language of Isaiah 55: 

“Come, all you who are thirsty,

    come to the waters;

and you who have no money,

    come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

    without money and without cost…

Give ear and come to me;

    listen, that you may live.

• That was the Lord God 800 years earlier imploring Israel to look to him (rather than anyone else) for their sustenance. And now here is Jesus using the same language to implore the church to refocus their eyes on him (instead of themselves) to find what they need. 

• To say, in effect: ‘I haven’t got this – I need you Jesus to help me’.

• What do they need?

• (I counsel you to buy from me…) gold refined in the fire so you can become rich; he’s the one who can give true riches to these people who – contrary to what they thought – are impoverished. This is the gold that was created through the suffering of Christ that will allow us to stand the test of judgement day – riches you can take with you into the life beyond

• and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness. Again this is a covering that will leave you without shame on judgement day and beyond.

• and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. That is: with what Jesus gives us, we can exchange all the ways we see things, all those opinions we have about things - which may happen to be fashionable or acceptable in our circle or in our age or our little corner of the internet – exchange those opinions for truth – truth that will last into eternity

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• All this can be ours, if we shift our focus towards Jesus.

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• And that means away from ourselves. End of verse 19: be earnest and repent

#9

• Repent just means turning away from the path you’ve been walking along to this point. 

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• It’s obviously something we do in a radical way at the start of our Christian lives. 

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• If you’re not yet a follower of Jesus, even if you’ve been trying to convince yourself that you are, it’s something you’ll need to do, and to be very honest with you, today wouldn’t be too soon! Turn around. It’s a head thing, and a heart thing and whole life thing. Turn around. Start life in a whole new direction.

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• But you know what? That repenting is also something we have to keep on doing every time we find we’ve veered off course again, which is likely going to be pretty often! 

• In this case, it means put clear water between your recent habits of looking to find sufficiency in yourself - and the new habit you’re looking to develop with God’s help, of finding that sufficiency in Jesus. 

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• This is the plea of Jesus: to refocus and repent

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• Now I know. This does feel quite heavy. And particularly so for a church like Loadicea, when there was no horrific bad behaviour they were caught up in. And no terrible heresy they were buying into. 

• But the point is: Jesus sees the heart and the underlying realities as clearly as what’s on the surface. And here in Laodicea there was this culture of not really being serious about giving themselves to God – that casualness – and not really looking to Jesus to supply their needs – that complacency.  

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• It was the culture of the Titanic, you might say.

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• And it’s a culture that disgusts Jesus, makes him sick, makes him want to vomit, and that takes people away from him. So it can’t continue. They need to take urgent action.

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• And I suppose what I’m wondering is: what about our culture here at Christ Church? Or – I suppose, if you’re visiting from elsewhere – the culture of your church? But let’s start here.

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• Our culture as individuals in community: are we modelling to each other what this sort of repentance might look like? Are we demonstrating to each other a life of finding sufficiency in Jesus? 

• I mean, that’s how we learn about life, isn’t it? We don’t just learn from the Bible. We learn from other people, most likely the people around us. So is that the culture in your Connect group? Each person proactively, intentionally, prioritising their Christian commitment in radical ways, and turning away from that self-satisfied ‘I’ve got this’ mentality? Involving the rest of your group in that process. Showing your hand, making yourself vulnerable. Asking for their prayers and encouragement. Because it’s too serious a matter not to do that. 

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• And what about our culture as a church? A church like ours – with all our programmes and events and activities and groups and busy-ness and so on. We’re a prime candidate for succumbing to the temptation of self-sufficiency, aren’t we? How are we going to make sure that’s not a path we go down. Or if we’ve already gone some way down that path, that we’re prepared to turn around and get off that path and find our sufficiency afresh in Christ? Are we prepared to repent where we need to?

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• Listen to the plea of Jesus.

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• Finally, listen to the offer made possible by his victory

#10

• It has to be said: these verses at the end of the passage are truly staggering. Verses 20 in particular has caught the imagination of artists and evangelists and all sorts. And you can see why. Look at the promises here.

• The first is that Jesus – even after everything he’s said – is still prepared to come back into our lives. 

#11

Verse 20.

• Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

• That verse has often been understood in terms of conversion. An invitation to someone to take their first step of letting Jesus into their lives.

• Well, it’s a good picture of that, I suppose. But of course in context, that’s not what it’s really about. It’s not about establishing relationship with Jesus. It’s about renewing that relationship. Rebooting it.

• The point is: because of our casualness and our complacency, our fellowship with him has been compromised. He’s somehow been consigned to somewhere outside. And he’s left standing outside. But you know aht? He’s absolutely up for that fellowship being restored. He’s knocking, waiting to be invited in. Right now!

• Well, what are we waiting for?!

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• But not only that. Not only is he prepared to come in to us and sit down at our table. He invites us to come with him and sit down on his… throne!

#12

• Verse 21

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• To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne

• It’s an offer he can make, because he’s already the conquering king. He’s already taken his seat in glory:

• ( I will give the right to sit with me on my throne…)… just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.

• By his death and resurrection, and ascension and glorification, Jesus has trodden the path he needed to tread in order to make this offer. But make it he does!

• Jobs are getting hard to come by these days, aren’t they? But look at this job offer: 

• Join me here on my throne – says Jesus! Help me rule the new creation! Reign with me.

Well I wonder if these words of Jesus have broken through into our lives? Have they? 

#13

Have they broken through enough to convince us to get off our Titanic and commit ourselves to him? To hear the one knocking at the door? And get up and let him back in?

You know there is another association with Southampton – apart from the football and the uni and the docks and Titanic. It is in the first great hymn-writer in the English speaking world – Isaac Watts. I wonder if I can ask you to close your eyes for a moment while I read some words of his many of us have sung many times – and invite you to own them and mean them right now.

…

1 When I survey the wondrous cross

on which the Prince of glory died,

my richest gain I count but loss,

and pour contempt on all my pride.

2 Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast

save in the death of Christ, my God!

All the vain things that charm me most,

I sacrifice them through his blood.