Jesus and Lukewarm Christians // Overboard with Jesus, Part 1

Christianityworks Official Podcast

Have you ever had a lukewarm cup of tea? There’s simply nothing worse, so imagine … I mean, just imagine … what a lukewarm Christian feels like to the God who sent His Son to suffer and die for you and me. Just imagine.

DON’T BE A LUKEWARM CHRISTIAN

One of the things that hits me between the eyes over and over again is how honest and direct God is. That may sound a little odd. I mean, you’d kind of expect God to be honest and you’d expect Him to be direct, I guess, but one of the habits I established over a couple of decades ago now is to spend some time in God’s Word (the Bible) pretty much each and every morning. Sometimes when I’m travelling or I’m under severe time-pressures it doesn’t quite work out, and on those days the things that I remember from His Word … well, those things sustain me. But to live a life of joy, a life that’s full and fulfilling, let me tell you there is simply no substitute for listening to God speak; seriously, and that’s what reading the Bible is all about: Listening to God speaking to us.

Just this morning, around 3:15 am it was, before I sat down at my desk to prepare this message, I was in God’s Word. Psalm 32 is where I was up to, and the sheer power of what God had to say just blew me away. We’re going to chat about that particular Psalm later on in this series of messages, but right now, I want to head off to the other end of the Bible – the book of Revelation, where Jesus is talking to a church, and He’s talking to them about being lukewarm. Have a listen. Revelation 3:14-22:

“And to the angel of the church of Laodicea, write: The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the origin of God’s creation: I know your works; you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were either hot or cold, so because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

For you say, “I am rich; I have prospered and I need nothing.” You don’t realise that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. Therefore I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich, and white robes to clothe you and keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. I reprove and discipline those whom I love; be earnest, therefore, and repent.

Listen, I am standing at the door knocking. If you hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with Me. To the one who conquers I will give a place with Me on My throne, just as I Myself conquered and sat down with My Father on His throne. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”

To be perfectly honest with you, I’ve been to many churches like the one in Laodicea. I’ve met many people who call themselves Christians, who would have fitted comfortably into a pew in that church. That lukewarm cup of tea I mentioned earlier … You know what that’s like. You take one sip and you just want to spit it out. Right? Hot, sure; that’s nice. Cold – well, you know, ice tea is a very refreshing drink. But lukewarm? Puke! Right? What a vivid picture, and to the lukewarm Christian, that’s exactly what Jesus is saying here.

Like I said, God is really honest and direct on the things that count. Sometimes you hear preachers trying to … I don’t know … soften the blow; put a better spin on the message; try to make sure that people don’t feel too uncomfortable with what Jesus is saying. I mean, what spin merchant these days would let Jesus get out there and say, “If you want to be My disciple, take up your cross every day and follow Me because if you want to save your life, you’re going to lose it, but if you’re prepared to lose it all for Me, you’ll find it?”

It’s not a particularly popular message, but then Jesus … well, Jesus is a straight shooter. He knows that on the really important things in life, and this whole hot-cold-lukewarm thing is actually really important … He knows He has to cut straight to the quick, and so as we launch into this series today (it’s called ‘Overboard with Jesus’), please don’t expect me to mince my words. There are people listening to this broadcast today who are living out a lukewarm brand of Christianity: A form of Christianity where they say they believe in Jesus, but they don’t live as though they do.

You see, what you say only tells the rest of us who you want to be; it’s what you do that tells the rest of us who you really are. And for so many people, ‘I believe in Jesus’ comes out of one side of their mouth, but in their hearts, they say to themselves, “Well, I’m rich, I’ve prospered, I really don’t need anything.” As author Michael Green once put it, my job here is to strip you naked and to show you that the clothes in which you once boasted are after all nothing but insubstantial rags. The things we have, the things we’ve achieved, one day will mean absolutely nothing.

Over the last few months, I’ve buried two friends. I’ve been to their funerals and sat in the pews, and listened to what people said about them. They were both amazing people; one a man, one a woman. The man was generous and loving and kind, and he poured himself out for people, but he didn’t believe in Jesus. The woman? Well, the same in her own way; generous and selfless and kind, but she did believe in Jesus. Today, neither of them exist on this earth anymore; their bodies have returned to dust. What really matters now, at this end of the equation, is their relationship with Jesus.

The man sadly will spend eternity separated from God; the woman, right now, is in the presence of Jesus worshipping Him. Let me ask you: When you get to the end of your life, how do you want things to turn out? It’s sobering, but then this isn’t my message; this is Jesus talking. This is Jesus, right here right now, speaking to you. I’m just His servant. I’m just His mouthpiece and today, He’s calling out to you.

Today, He’s asking you to look in the mirror and ask yourself, “am I living my life like I’m full-on for Jesus? Am I living my life as though He is the single-most important thing in my life, or am I just kidding myself? Am I just going through the motions and living out a comfortable Christianity?” And if it’s the latter, this is what He’s going to say to you! Right here and right now:

Therefore I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich, and white robes to clothe you to keep your shame of nakedness from being seen, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. I reprove and discipline those whom I love; be earnest, therefore, and repent.

In other words, ‘Come to Me’, Jesus is saying, and get things that truly matter: Forgiveness, holiness, wisdom and insight, so that you can live your life the way He always planned; so that you can have all the things that He wants to give you, here and now, and for the rest of eternity.

Jesus speaks to us very directly. He speaks very plainly for one reason: Because He loves us. He reproves and disciplines those whom He loves, and I believe … In fact I know that there are some comfortable Christians who’ve been warming pews down at their local church for way too long, whom Jesus wants to drag out of their comfort-zones today, and it’s my privilege today to call you back to Him; to share His words with you. So if you’re feeling just a tad uncomfortable, if you feel like you’re squirming a little in your seat today, if the words of Jesus are just a little too close to home, then I’m pretty sure this message is for you.

Be earnest, therefore, and repent. Get real with yourself, and turn back to Jesus. Admit it if you’ve been lukewarm. Turn your life back over to Him. That’s what He’s calling you to do today; Plainly, directly, lovingly because your life, your life, depends on it.

ESCAPING THE LUKEWARM FAITH

It’s a real dilemma, isn’t it? If you believe in Jesus, on the one hand, sure, you want to live your life for Him, you definitely do, but on the other hand, there is so much going on; so many pressures. The day-to-day is hard work, right? My children are all grown-up now. We just recently had number two son (he’s thirty-four years old) staying with us for ten days before moving overseas for a while. I remember what hard-going it was when he was a teenager.

I mean, he was a great kid, but teenaged boys … Well, they’re a handful, aren’t they? But now, as a thirty-four-year-old, it was such a pleasure to have him around; easy to get on with; none of that teenaged tension, just a sheer pleasure. And just quietly, really satisfying to see him grow up into such a remarkable young man.

But often, when Jacqui and I are out, we see parents struggling with their kids. It’s hard-going. It takes so much time and energy, and it’s draining. On-top of that, there’s work; keeping the household running … You get the point, right?

It’s great to have a plan to live your life for Jesus, but actually doing that … Where do you fit in the time to pray? Where do you fit in the time to read your Bible? How can you show the grace and the mercy and the love and the sacrifice that you’re meant to show, that you want to show, when all the pressures of the world seem to be caving in on-top of you? So what happens is that passion, the enthusiasm that you once had for Jesus, starts to wane. Right?

This wonder, this sense of awe at having a personal relationship with the God who created the universe, of walking daily with Jesus, it goes from being full-on to … well … taking a backseat; from being hot to being lukewarm. And it’s not living that lukewarm life that we’re chatting about in this series called ‘Overboard with Jesus’. Let’s have another listen to the powerful words of Jesus, spoken to the church in Laodicea, and indeed to every one of us as we find ourselves sometimes in that place I’ve just described. Revelation 3:14-22. Jesus says:

I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot, so because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. For you say, ‘I am rich; I have prospered; I need nothing.’ You don’t realise that you’re wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. Therefore I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich, and white robes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. I reprove and discipline those whom I love; be earnest, therefore, and repent.

Listen, I am standing at the door knocking. If you hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with Me. To the one who conquers, I will give a place with Me on My throne, just as I myself conquered and sat down with My Father on His throne. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

So Jesus is calling us out of our comfort and complacency; out of that place where our faith in Him’s taken a backseat to all the cares and indeed the comforts of this world – to get real with ourselves, to focus back on what’s really important, to be earnest, and to repent.

Great. If you just listen to that half of the message, man, it feels an awful like condemnation. It feels an awful like Jesus waving His big bony finger at you, and shaking His head. There’s such a fine line sometimes between being condemned and being convicted of right and wrong, but today I have some really good news for you – some great news. Romans 8:1:

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

The devil condemns; God convicts. There’s a big difference. Condemnation is meant to draw us away from God, as we become mired in guilt. That’s what the devil wants; to draw you away from God, but God has a different approach to dealing with sin. It’s a redemptive approach. It’s an approach of reconciliation. Here’s Jesus talking about what the Holy Spirit does in our lives. John 16:8:

And when He comes, He will convict the world of its sin and of God’s righteousness and of the coming judgment.

I remember when I was a young man, I was a smoker. Three packets a day. Absolutely hooked. I tried to give up, but it was a struggle and I always ended up back on the dreaded weed until one day, I was in a hospital-room and I watched a woman die of lung cancer. I actually watched her take her last breath. That thing they talk about – the death threat, or the body not wanting to give up … That’s exactly what happened, and I remember walking out of that room, taking a half-full packet of cigarettes, and throwing it in the bin in a brightly-lit, antiseptically-cleaned corridor. That was over thirty-five years ago now, and I haven’t had a single cigarette since.

You see, that’s what happens when we’re deeply convicted of something. It changes our behaviour, and that’s what God wants to do. He didn’t send Jesus to condemn the world, but to save the world, and what today’s message is about isn’t condemnation; it’s conviction. Jesus quite clearly is putting His finger on this whole lukewarm-Christianity thing; absolutely. He doesn’t mince His words because He’s going for impact – the very same impact that the death of that woman before my very eyes had on me.

I said a moment ago that conviction is redemptive. That’s a bit jargony, isn’t it? What does that mean? Well, I think Jesus says it best:

I am standing at the door knocking. If you hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with Me. To the one who conquers, I will give a place with Me on My throne, just as I Myself conquered and sat down with My Father on His throne. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

I love His choice of words there. ‘I’m knocking. If you hear My voice today, if you open the door to your heart to Me today, I’ll come in and sit down, and we’ll share a meal together.’ Back in those days when that was written, as I guess is also true today, the idea of sitting down and eating together was a sign of friendship and fellowship.

Jesus is saying, “I get where you’re at. I’m holding up a mirror to your face here, so that you’ll realise exactly how lukewarm your relationship with Me has become. But once you hear that, once you get that, I’ll draw close to you and we’ll have a dynamic real intimate relationship, and you will become a conqueror – not because you had the strength, but because of the victory that I won for you on that cross and through that empty tomb. My victory will become your victory.”

Wow! You see, that’s Jesus speaking to you and me today. Do you get it? Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to them today. He wants you back; you. He loves you. His Word today is meant to convict you, deep in your heart, of the poverty of your situation, and Jesus is calling you back. He’s knocking today on the door of your heart. Do you hear Him? Will you get real and repent? Will you let Him in today?

Because Jesus, this Jesus who died for you and rose again for you, He has a whole new life ready and waiting for you – a life so rich, so vibrant, that you can’t begin to imagine! The life that He brings, yes, it will have its challenges; it will have its trials, and it will have its suffering, but He’ll also bring the sort of contentment and satisfaction that a lukewarm faith, a lukewarm relationship with Jesus, can never bring. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to them today.

COMFORT AND COMPLACENCY

Comfort and complacency are, to a great extent, the incubator of lukewarm Christianity. Next week we’ll be seeing how Jesus calls us out of the boat in the middle of the storm, just as He did Peter; out of our safety and comfort and complacency. You can read about it in Matthew 14:22-33.

Now, I have to tell you, I have been on that boat in a stormy ocean many-a time. In fact, I started my walk with Jesus in that boat far from the land, with waves crashing over the bow and the wind against me. Fully the first three years of my faith-walk with Jesus were spent in that wretched little boat. Seriously, some days I could not imagine how I was going to make it through to the next day; no idea. Maybe it’s hard for you to believe that of the guy with a smooth voice on the radio, who seems to have his life together … Get revelation today.

No one is immune from the stormy-boat time as I call it; not you, not me, not even Jesus. Go and visit Him in Gethsemane. Go, visit Him in Golgotha. No, not even Jesus is immune. Those very same people who want to marginalise your Christian faith, want to shout down the faith that Jesus put in your heart, they’re the people who’ll tell you what success looks like, what beauty looks like. And the average Christian has become so intoxicated with success and beauty and wealth and comfort, with the allure of what the world offers, that we’ve lost sight of the reality of suffering in the Christian walk; of uncertainty; of losing everything, which is actually what Jesus calls us to. We’ve lost all of that and we’ve replaced His truth with the lies of this world, as though it’s all about success. Give me a break! How many successful people have been so miserable that they’ve taken their own lives or overdosed on drugs or worked themselves into an early grave?

If you remember one thing from our time together today, remember this: Suffering is a normal part of walking with Jesus, and your stormy-boat experiences … They’re no accident. Nor should they be a surprise, because in the middle of your storms, your God is up to something good; something amazing, getting you ready for the next thing, and that’s exactly what He was doing for me in those three years.

I remember when the day for me to answer His call out of the boat came. It was the day I resigned from the consulting firm I was working for. I used to own the company, but I’d sold it, and the new owners were only too happy to keep me on. Our finances weren’t all that crash-hot,; it was a huge leap of faith.

Back in the IT consulting game, things were safe; life was good, the money was regular, and I have to say, the money was pretty good too. I went through months of struggling this way and that. This was Jesus calling me out of the boat. It seemed safe back in the boat; it seemed scary out there on the ocean with Him. It always does, let me tell you. For me, it never gets easier because the steps of faith He asks me to take just seem to get bigger and harder and scarier. I don’t think it was ever meant to be easy. It’s like the first time I jumped off a high tower into the water below, on an obstacle course in the army. Scary as! And the next thing they asked me to do was to rappel out of a helicopter from a few hundred feet above the ground, and on and on it went from there.

It’s been well over a decade since that step of faith from the IT consulting career into the struggling, ailing little ministry of ChristianityWorks, as it was back then, and I’m no longer wondering what-if. I’m so glad I took that step! As tough as it’s been along the way (there have been many setbacks and many disappointments), and as many as the challenges are that lie ahead, I know that when I’m sinking, Jesus will reach out and grab me, as He always does. I know because He does it over and over again. In fact, as far as I’m concerned, there’s only one place to be: Overboard with Jesus, because He is faithful beyond measure. That’s why it’s worth opening the door; worth sitting down and talking to Him; worth following His call on your life. He is faithful beyond measure.