John, that lovely apostle, faithful to the end, was blessed in being shown the prophetic history of the Christian Church as accounted in The Revelation of Jesus Christ. In the revealing of “things which are soon to take place”, he was shown seven messages that would be in transit through time and opportunely delivered.The last letter, to the church of Laodicea, is universally recognized as directed to the final dispensation and is characterized by the Christian Church in today’s western world. This church is described as “the lukewarm church”. The passage is as follows:
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 spew you out of My mouth. 17 ‘Because you say, ” I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” Rev 3:15-17 NASU
Imagine a jar of water, hot on top and cold at the bottom. For the water to become lukewarm, we’d need to turn the jar upside down. This is how I see the church today – upside down. We have lost the intense love and faithfulness to Christ that the early church had during the first three centuries of heavy persecution as depicted by the church of Smyrna and again during the period of revivals as typified by the church of Philadelphia. Today’s church doubts the authority and veracity of the bible as God’s Word, sees little evidence of the Spirit in healings, spiritual manifestations and the exercising of Spiritual gifts. Yet instead of being completely turned off, we play church. We have not only become diluted, but tepid and apathetic. The vibrancy the Church once had has waned to indifference.
Today’s Christians, don’t believe they need God. After all, we have all we need. If we fall ill, we go the doctor. If we’re hungry, we go to Supermarket, If we’re threatened, we call the police, If we have spare time, we turn on the TV, or PlayStation. If we lose our job, we have employment Insurance. The kind of problems we face is running out of chips and pop in the middle of the movie.
We may have, at one time, been excited about God and church, when we were in our impressionable teen years; we read our bibles and attended youth groups or bible camps. But now, grown up, there are so many other things more important – like the hockey play-offs, or Saturday afternoon golf – besides the work of the church is looked after by the pastor. After all, that’s what he’s paid for, right?
Unfortunately, the pastor’s salary of, say, $75K annually, keeps him and his family also busied in today’s modern, stuff-littered world. There’s the plethora of box stores: Walmart, Home Depot, Superstore, Winners, Canadian Tire, Mark’s Work Wearhouse, Sport Chek, Shoppers Drug Mart and Chapters, just to name a few. The pastor is also a huge sports fan, and it seems one of his favourite teams is always in the running for the play-offs. And he’s an avid news junky – after all, he needs to stay on top of world events. Then, there are the many generous patrons who regularly beckon him for a game of golf, dinner out, coffee at Timmy’s, the latest theatre production and varied charity events. And to keep their money flowing, they all need to be stroked and preened. I honestly don’t know how he keeps up. Inconveniently, for the pastor, family and church responsibilities often fall behind. Compared to the early church, the Apostles modelled, today’s church is indeed upside down.
In order to find the solution to our lukewarmness, we first need to identify the problem and its source. We need to retrace our steps. In comparing the early church to today’s church, we immediately identify key areas of deviation. The early church was characterized by regular manifestations of the Holy Spirit. It was also organized and instructed by apostles in how to abstain from moral corruption, i.e: premarital sex, extra-marital sex, same sex, self-sex, selfish sex, abortion, astrology, gossiping, gambling, gluttony (super-size me), bitterness, back-biting, lying, cheating, and such. The early church Christians were also instructed in how to protect themselves from spiritual attack, how to recognize the presence of demonic forces, how to deliver one that is demonized, and instructed in correct doctrine. Additionally, the church members were taught to identify their spiritual gifts which would be exercised accordingly:
“When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts unto men… and He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.” Eph 4:8,11,12
It’s worth noting that the word, pastor, in the singular, never occurs in the New Testament, particularly the term, “senior pastor”, or “youth pastor”, or “assistant pastor”. Additionally, the pastor was considered the “overseer”, or deacon and this position was not a paid position, but one of the gifts or responsibilities of a gifted member. The term, pastor is defined as follows:
“a shepherd, one who tends herds or flocks”, is used metaphorically of Christian “pastors,” Eph 4:11. “Pastors” guide, as well as feed the flock, cf. Acts 20:28, which with v. 17, indicates that this was the service committed to elders (overseers or bishops); so also in 1 Peter 5:1,2, “tend the flock… exercising the oversight,” RV; this involves tender care and vigilant superintendence.(from Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, Copyright © 1985, Thomas Nelson Publisher)
It’s also interesting to note, that the pastor and teacher were listed last in the order of the offices as gifted by Christ. They were also not ordained positions, as was the “evangelist”.
While today’s church is sermonized by “the pastor” of the assembly, typically a “senior pastor”, seldom does he/she teach on issues of morality or spiritual warfare. Sound doctrine is often under attack in today’s churches, and pastors are often afraid to take a stand where they might be labelled as “too radical”. We’re more afraid of how we look than of God, “who can destroy our body and our soul in hell” (Matt 10:28).
Today’s opulent churches are not much different than the assemblies depicted in The Revelation in the message to the Ephesians.
But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lamp-stand out of its place, unless you repent. Rev 2:4,5(NASU)
Unfortunately, they did not repent, and their candlestick was removed; the church was broken up in 96 AD. I can imagine how heart-broken the apostle John would have been to have known the church he, himself, was an elder, would slide into such lukewarmness. And as we reflect on the role of the body of Christ on earth, can we see how we have lost the vital vibrancy we have as God’s people being the light of the world and salt of the earth? Can we, with eyes open to things unseen, see how our love of the world is blinding us to a world of lost souls falling through the cracks to an eternity of outer darkness?
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