Laodicea The Church of Lackluster Faith
Revelation 3:14"Write this letter to the angel of the church in Laodicea. This is the message from the one who is the Amen--the faithful and true witness, the ruler[1] of God’s creation:15"I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish you were one or the other! 16But since you are like lukewarm water, I will spit you out of my mouth! 17You say, `I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. 18I advise you to buy gold from me--gold that has been purified by fire. Then you will be rich. And also buy white garments so you will not be shamed by your nakedness. And buy ointment for your eyes so you will be able to see. 19I am the one who corrects and disciplines everyone I love. Be diligent and turn from your indifference. 20"Look! Here I stand at the door and knock. If you hear me calling and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal as friends. 21I will invite everyone who is victorious to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne. 22Anyone who is willing to hear should listen to the Spirit and understand what the Spirit is saying to the churches."
Laodicea lay forty-three miles southeast of Philadelphia, and about a hundred miles from Ephesus. It had many characteristics, all of which Christ used so that the Church here would understand its plight before Him. Laodicea was a great commercial town world famous for its medicines, and black sheep. It was also a royally wealthy town that in addition to Ephesus and Pergamos was named an assize town. Like Philadelphia, and Sardis in 17 AD, Laodicea had also been destroyed and supplied with support from the Roman Empire Tiberius. Unlike Philadelphia and Sardis though Laodicea had another great earthquake in 60 AD. This earthquake also destroyed this town. This time; however, they did not ask for support from the Roman Empire, instead they choose to rebuilt the town on their own. This led them to believe that they could do anything by themselves. It lead to there demise ultimately spiritually. When we choose to lean on our own understanding and strength, we ultimately end up denying the One who gave us that wealth. It is as King Nebuchadnezzar who thought he was something great, until Daniel revealed through the explanation of a dream that the king thought he was something great, while God had shown him through that particular dream that it what the King of Kings who had put Nebuchadnezzar on the throne not any man, but the King. This resulted in the Nebuchadnezzar being lead out into the wild and him being driven out into the wild. (Daniel 4) We have a choice just as the so called Christians at Laodicea to either truly embrace God, or as King Nebuchadnezzar to embrace ourselves and embrace the punishment for our sins, and the chastisement of God that comes with it.
Vs.14, “"Write this letter to the angel of the church in Laodicea. This is the message from the one who is the Amen--the faithful and true witness the ruler of God’s creation.”
“Amen” This is a direct reference to Isaiah 65:16 where God is described as the God of Amen. It may also come from Jesus statements verily, verily, which are Amen. The word Amen is a word, which was used to affirm and to guarantee a statement as absolutely true and absolutely trustworthy. For Jesus to use the word Amen here in the introduction is to assert His Claim that what He says to us is the truth from God Himself thus the reader of this letter ignores it as his own peril.
“The faithful and true witness” Once again, Christ is asserting His claim to the truth of His Work among the church here. Literally Jesus is making reference to John 14:6 where Jesus says, “I am the Way, Truth and the Life.” He is indeed the truth, which the world may deny, but those who are born again by the Spirit and the Word know is true, because of His work in there lives, of redeeming them by His Cross and ultimately changing them from a person who was focused on themselves into a person that is focused on Himself.
“The ruler of God’s creation.” Ruler in the New King James Version is translated beginning. The Greek word for beginning is Arche, which does not mean that Christ was the first person God created; but rather that Christ Himself is the source or origin of creation (Revelation 22:13) Through His power everything was created. (John 1:3; Hebrews 1:2) This particular church had a lot of similarities with the church at Colossae, which was not far at all from Laodicea. In fact commentators have said that it very may well be that the heresy at Colossae has spread into Laodicea causing this church to be as it was when Christ addressed it. The reason why they say that is because the main problem with the church at Colossae was gnosticism (from the greek word gnosis, or knowledge) that taught that Christ was a created being, one of a series of emanations from God. Its followers claimed that they possessed a secret, higher spiritual knowledge above and beyond the simple word of Scripture. Paul wrote to the church in Colossae to combat this heresy in Colossians 1:15-17, “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before God made anything at all and is supreme over all creation. Christ is the one through whom God created everything in heaven and earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see--kings kingdoms, rulers, and authorities. Everything has been created through him and for him. He existed before everything else began, and he holds all creation together.”
This was the reason why this church was dead, because they rejected the teaching of Scripture and instead accepted another gospel instead of accepting His deity, and authority as the Son of God. The very denial of the deity of Christ is a hallmark of all cults.
15"I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish you were one or the other! 16But since you are like lukewarm water, I will spit you out of my mouth! 17You say, `I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.”
The language of the above verse comes from Laodicea’s water supply. Because it traveled several miles through an underground aqueduct before reaching the city, the water arrived foul dirty and tepid. It was not hot enough to relax and restore, like the hot springs at Hierapolis. Nor was it cold and refreshing, like the stream water at Colossae. Laodicea’s lukewarm water was in useless condition. Hot would refer to those who are spiritually alive and posses the urgency of living a transformed life. Those who are spiritually cold on the other hand are best understood as those who reject Jesus Christ. The Gospel leaves them unmoved and unchallenged because they have no interest in the things of God rather self, not His church, but there own human accomplishments. The sad part is that they take for themselves and make no pretense about it. The lukewarm fit into neither category either. The lukewarm are like those who sit at church and claim to know the Lord but don’t do anything with what they posses. Jesus addressed this in Matthew 7:22-23, Paul in Romans 10:2, and again in 2 Timothy 3:5. Macarthur points out, “These smug, self-righteous hypocrites are far more difficult to reach with the gospel than cold-hearted rejecters. The latter may at least be shown that they are lost. But those who self-righteously think that they are saved are often protective of their religious feeling sand unwilling to recognize their real condition. They are not cold enough to feel the bitter sting of their sin. Consequently, there is no one further from the truth than the one who makes an idle profession but never experiences genuine saving faith. No one is harder to reach for Christ than a false Christian. Jesus’ paralleling critique of the self0righteous, self-deceived Pharisees and Sadducees was that “the tax collections and prostitutes would get into the kingdom of God before them” (Matthew 21:31). Laodicea was a very rich city as we started in the opening. This wealth gave the members a false sense of security and in turn lead to spiritual pride rather than spiritual humility.
Jonathan Edwards in Religious Affections wrote, “I am bold in saying this, but I believe that no one is ever changed, either by doctrine, by hearing the Word, or by preaching or teaching of another, unless the affections are moved by these things. No one ever seeks salvation, no one ever cries for wisdom, no one ever wrestles with God, no one ever kneels in prayer or flees from sin, with a heart that remains unaffected. In a word, there is never any great achievement by the things of religion without a heart deeply affected by those things.” This is the condition of the church here that they were unwilling to repent; they wanted what they wanted, the way they wanted instead of living for God. Mere conformity to God does not suffice Him, but inward conformity does. It is the heart that God seeks to change, for in the heart stems all of life’s issues. It is the heart that must be stirred up in order to be hot or cold for Christ. If a heart is hot for Christ it will burn blazing like fire in the bones, and if it is not it is cold. When a Christian’s heart is cold it is a truly sad thing. Many in Christianity profess to be Christians, but they show by their own lives that they are not indeed saved! This is astonishing, for people to call themselves Christians (literally meaning little Christ’s) while living a life that goes in direct opposition of the Word of God. Simply put these Christians who are cold think that there is some “higher” truth that they must attain before they can be saved, but this is not true. It is inward obedience to Christ’s commands that determines if a person is truly on fire. A person who is on fire for the Lord, who has famed the flame of his/her faith, will show it in his/her character. Our Character is formed by this inward obedience. It is the molten fire that we go through in the process of going through the flame of God that we must realize this is for my own good.
When we are cold in our faith we are unrepentant and living in sin. God has given us every way through His Word, and His Spirit to live out the Christian life. The Christian life is to be lived out in the Word in order to be in Christ, and then in the Spirit, so that we would live out what we have learned in the Word. Any progression in the Christian life must first start with a removal of the layers of sin in one’s life in exchange as Hudson Taylor called it for the crucified life that our Lord gave to us through the Cross.
John R.W.Stott in ‘What Christ thinks of the church wrote, “Perhaps none of the seven letters is more appropriate to the twentieth century church more than this. It describes vividly the respectable, sentimental, nominal, skin-deep religiosity, which is so widespread among us today. Our Christianity is flabby and anamic. We appear to have taken a lukewarm bath of religion.”
The present state of Christianity in America is very sad indeed. Pastors, elders, and laymen being involved in pornography, masturbation and other such deeds, which God does not approve of. They say, ‘Look, I can do as I please because I am in a position where I do not have to truly open up.’ It is this very attitude that has caused so much of the publicity with the sexual scandals in the Catholic Church. It is the attitude that we can hide our sin before God. Our sin to God is wide open and He can reveal it at anytime, but in His mercy He chooses not to, because He does not want to defame His name. We defame the name of God. After all Christ did to save us on the Cross from the pits of hell, and raising us to life do we really think that He must accept us. Hell is not a place to mess with. Hell is a place of eternal torment, and we are but once step away from that. Yes, w are hanging by a thing thread from eternity and hell; the only one who can save us from that eternal torment is Our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.
In my sermon on the Matthew 5:8 titled, ‘The Transformation of the heart’, I wrote, “On the Cross, Jesus put on display both systems, and tore them both apart, so that we could come before Him, and enter into His very presence. When Jesus said, "It is finished" on the Cross- , it is at that point that we were able to have eternal life. Redemption was accomplished.”
Vs.17, “17You say, `I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.”
Jonathan Edwards in Religious Affections wrote, “I am bold in saying this, but I believe that no one is ever changed, either by doctrine, by hearing the Word, or by preaching or teaching of another, unless the affections are moved by these things. No one ever seeks salvation, no one ever cries for wisdom, no one ever wrestles with God, no one ever kneels in prayer or flees from sin, with a heart that remains unaffected. In a word, there is never any great achievement by the things of religion without a heart deeply affected by those things.” This is the condition of the church here that they were unwilling to repent; they wanted what they wanted, the way they wanted instead of living for God. Mere conformity to God does not suffice Him, but inward conformity does. It is the heart that God seeks to change, for in the heart stems all of life’s issues. It is the heart that must be stirred up in order to be hot or cold for Christ. If a heart is hot for Christ it will burn blazing like fire in the bones, and if it is not it is cold. When a Christian’s heart is cold it is a truly sad thing. Many in Christianity profess to be Christians, but they show by their own lives that they are not indeed saved! This is astonishing, for people to call themselves Christians (literally meaning little Christ’s) while living a life that goes in direct opposition of the Word of God. Simply put these Christians who are cold think that there is some “higher” truth that they must attain before they can be saved, but this is not true. It is inward obedience to Christ’s commands that determines if a person is truly on fire. A person who is on fire for the Lord, who has famed the flame of his/her faith, will show it in his/her character. Our Character is formed by this inward obedience. It is the molten fire that we go through in the process of going through the flame of God that we must realize this is for my own good.
When we are cold in our faith we are unrepentant and living in sin. God has given us every way through His Word, and His Spirit to live out the Christian life. The Christian life is to be lived out in the Word in order to be in Christ, and then in the Spirit, so that we would live out what we have learned in the Word. Any progression in the Christian life must first start with a removal of the layers of sin in one’s life in exchange as Hudson Taylor called it for the crucified life that our Lord gave to us through the Cross.
In my sermon on the Matthew 5:8 titled, ‘The Transformation of the heart’, I wrote, “On the Cross, Jesus put on display both systems, and tore them both apart, so that we could come before Him, and enter into His very presence. When Jesus said, "It is finished" on the Cross- , it is at that point that we were able to have eternal life. Redemption was accomplished.”
We have to choose whom we will serve; whether that be our riches, dreams or whatever, but we ought to point our lives towards the truth towards the one who is True and instead accept that our lives are but a glimmer in the sky compared to His majesty, and give ourselves wholly over to Him, for His purposes.
Revelation 3
18I advise you to buy gold from me--gold that has been purified by fire. Then you will be rich. And also buy white garments so you will not be shamed by your nakedness. And buy ointment for your eyes so you will be able to see.
Here Christ advise is very serious. The context here suggests first and foremost that what Christ is speaking about is entering into a relationship with Him by faith through what He did on the Cross. The treasure that Jesus spoke about in the beatitudes here applies. It is by grace that we are saved. Christ was then offering a pure, true salvation that would bring them into a real relationship with His Son not the false one that they and many today are engaged in Laodicea’s famed black wool symbolized the filthy sinful garments with which the unregenerate are clothed (Isa 64:6; Zech 3:3-5). In contrast with this Christ offers them white garments (3:4-5; 4:4; 6:11; 7:9; 13-14; Isaiah 61:10), symbolizing the righteous deeds that always accompany genuine saving faith (19:8). Blindness is aa repeated theme throughout the NT (Matthew 15:14; 23:16-17, 19,24,26; Luke 6:39; John 9:40-41; 12:40; Romans 2:19; 2 Cor 4:4; 1 John 2:11), which goes to show that what is in view here is the lack of understanding and knowledge leading to spiritual truth and salvation by grace through what Christ accomplished on the Cross.
Verse 19I am the one who corrects and disciplines everyone I love. Be diligent and turn from your indifference.
Those who follow Christ can expect to be reproved, and disciplined if they continue to live in their sin, instead of looking into their lives and examine them under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Here again we turn to the fact that they were unregenerate meaning unwilling to repent of there sins and were thus rebuked accordingly by Christ. Here then we see that Christ was reproving which shows His extent was to expose and convict them of there sinners which was in the NT refers to God’s dealing with sinners (John 3:18-20; 16:8; 1 Cor 14:24; Titus 1:9; Jude 15). Discipline then would refer to punishment Luke 23:16,22) nd is used of God’s convicting of unbelievers (2 Tim 2:25). This then is not referring again to believers but to unbelievers to repent of there sin and come into a relationship with Him. Then the Lord’s compassion is thus shown to the unregenerate church to come to saving faith since they identified with Him, lest He convict and judge them (Ezek 18:30-32; 33:11) They would have to in order to be saved be diligent and turn from their indifference which is tantamount to the attitude of mourning over sin and hungering and thirsting for righteousness of which Jesus spoke (Matthew 5:4,6). While repentance is not a meritorious work, the New Testament call to salvation always includes it (Matthew 3:2, 8; 4:17; Mark 6:12; Luke 13:3, 5; 15:17, 10; Acts 2:38; 3:19; 8:22; 11:18, 17:30; 20:21; 26:20; Romans 2:4; 2 Cor 7:10; 2 Tim 2:25; 2 Peter 3:9). In repentance, the sinner turns from his sin to serve God (1 Thess 1:9). Martyn Llyod Jones points out, “Repentance means that you realize that you are a guilty, vile sinner in the presence of God, that you deserve the wrath and punishment of God, that you are hell-bound. It means that you begin to realize that this thing called sin is in you, that you long to get rid of it, and that you turn your back on it in every shape and form. You renounce the world whatever the cost, the world in its mind and outlook as well as its practice; and you deny yourself, ad take up the cross and go after Christ. This message seems to have been lost although Acts 11:18 says, “Repentance that leads to life.” So we see that repentance from our sin leads us to the new life that Christ offers to us.
20"Look! Here I stand at the door and knock. If you hear me calling and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal as friends.”
The focus here is upon the Lacodicean church not to as many would use the fact that Christ is speaking to a single human heart as many have used for there own purposes. Christ will come in and dine with the repentant church or share a meal refers to the fact that sharing a meal in ancient times symbolized the union of people in loving fellowship which speaks of fellowship, communion and intimacy. Believers will dine with Christ at the marriage supper of the Lamb (19:9), and in the millennial kingdom (Luke 22:16,29-30) Dine is from deipneo, which refers to the evening meal the last meal fo the day (Luke 17:8; 22:20; 1 Cor 11:26) where the underlying reek is rendered “sup”, “supper”, and “supped,” respectively. The Lord then demonstrated His mercy yet again here in this personal invitation to the church.
21I will invite everyone who is victorious to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne. Christ invites us, those who overcome the world through living truly for Him to come up to Him, and have life and sit on His throne. 22Anyone who is willing to hear should listen to the Spirit and understand what the Spirit is saying to the churches."
As always this is a call for the individual to understand what the Spirit is saying, so that the churches may understand what the Lord is saying. The message to this church is simple; repent and open up to Christ before the night of judgment falls. John Macarthur said, The implication for true believers is that, like Christ, we must compassionately call those in the apostate church to repent and receive salvation in Jesus Christ. He who overcomes (all believers (2:7,11, 26;3:6,12; 1st Jon 5:5). We will enjoy fellowship with God forevermore in eternity but Christ offers more, promising to seat believers on the Throne He shares with the Father (Matthew 19:28; Luke 22:29-30), which symbolizes the truth that we will reign with Him (2 Tim 2:12; Revelation 5:10; 20:6; 1 Cor 6:3). The right to sit with Christ on His heavenly throne is but one of the many promises made to overcomes in the letters to the seven churches. Overcomers are promised the privilege of eating from the tree of life (2:7), the crown of life (2:10), protection from the second death (2:11), the hidden manna (2:17), authority to rule over the nations (2:26-27), the morning star (2:28), white garments, symbolizing purity and holiness (3:5), the honor of having Christ confess their names before God the Father and the holy angels in heaven (3:5), to be made a pillar in God’s temple (3:12), and to have written on them the name of God, of the new Jerusalem, and of Christ (3:12). The reference to 22Anyone who is willing to hear should listen to the Spirit and understand what the Spirit is saying to the churches here again refers to the fact that the apostate church has a choice to either repent as do all people in all of history. You can either choose to repent or live in your sin and be confirmed in that sin or repent and have eternal life. The implication is that for true believers like Christ, we must compassionately call those who are in the apostate church to repent and receive salvation in Jesus Christ (Jude 23).
Pastor David
