To the Church of Laodicea

Revelation 3:14-22

Immanuel – 1/23/22

We come to the last of the seven churches, and arguably the most famous epistle of the seven. Jesus’ first century warning to the lukewarm church in Laodicea has had powerful effect on many American churches in our century.

And so it should. When we came to the first of Jesus’ epistles – the one to the church in Ephesus. I told you that these seven churches stand as figureheads for all the churches that would follow. The messages given to the seven are messages given to the Church Universal. Therefore, these each have meaning for Immanuel.

This is why each letter ends with these words from Jesus:

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

These are not messages exclusively for one church, they are messages for all churches.

But it is important to remember that each one of these seven churches really existed and Jesus addresses issues that they were really wrestling with. Jesus’ message to the church in Laodicea is no different; and parts of His message are hyper-specific to this first century city.

Purpose

What does it mean to be lukewarm?

How does one overcome lukewarmness?

Read Revelation 3:14-22

Christ’s Identity

To the pastor of the church in Laodicea write: The words of the Amen.

One final time in these epistles, Jesus’ identity is exactly what the church needs to remember. It is what the Laodicean church specifically needs and it is what we need today. Understanding Jesus’ identity, and trusting in it, is how the church overcomes. By speaking His identity, Jesus is giving us the keys to overcoming.

Jesus says that He is the Amen. This is to say that He is the final word. He is the entrance into covenant with God – there is no other. He is the Yes to every heavenly promise (2 Corinthians 1:20) – there is no other. He is the open door unto eternal life – there is no other. The word that the Living Amen speaks will stand forever. Indeed, Jesus is the final word. He is the Amen.

Jesus’ next self-proclamation is an echo of earlier revelations:

Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings on earth. -Revelation 1:5

To the church of Philadelphia Jesus said that He is the True One and the Holy One. The particular needs of the Philadelphians demanded that Jesus bring justice, that He be a holy and true Judge that will end injustices and vindicate His suffering people. Such was the encouragement they needed.

But as you can already see, the needs of the Laodiceans were quite different. They needed Jesus, the faithful and true witness, who sees the hearts of men truly, who knows the deeds of His people. Before the eyes of the faithful and true witness, sinners are laid bare and those who repent of their shame are given honor.

In Revelation 1:5, John wrote that Jesus is the firstborn of the dead. Here Jesus says that He is the beginning of God’s creation. We need to be absolutely clear on this point. Jesus is not saying that He was the first thing created. The Son of God is uncreated. He is fully God; and as such He is eternal – without beginning or end.

Just as Jesus once prayed:

“I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” -John 17:4-5

Jesus pre-exists creation. He abounded in divine glory in the endless ages before the world was spoken into existence. In fact, it is through Jesus that all things were created. Or, to put it another way, when God spoke, Jesus was the Living Word that went out and created according to the Father’s will.

[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent. -Colossians 1:15-18

Therefore, when Jesus declares that He is the beginning of God’s creation, in Revelation 3:14, it is not a statement about when Jesus began. It is a proclamation that Jesus is supremely preeminent. He is above all things and in Him all things hold together. In Jesus all things find their beginning – thus, He is the beginning.

This is the One that calls His church to account. Christ, the eternal, preeminent, glorious, faithful and true witness; He sees all! And now He begins to bear testimony against His church.

Read vs 15-16

These two verses are some of the most famous in all of Revelation – and it is right for them to be so. These words of Christ are especially penetrating for us who live in the wealthiest, most comfortable nation that has ever existed on the face of the planet.

There is a common misunderstanding about what hot and cold means in this passage. We usually associate hot with people who are spiritually on fire and cold with people who have no relationship with Christ. But that does not fit the context of Jesus’ message to Laodicea.

We better understand the nature of hot and cold, and thus lukewarm, when we better understand Laodicea and its region. As I said, Colossae was about 10 miles from Laodicea. Another city was about 6 miles to the north: Hierapolis.

Colossae was nestled into a tight valley surrounded by high mountains and cold water would come cascading down these mountains and run right through the city. A river then carried this cold mountain water the 10 miles to Laodicea. The water was perfect for drinking – cold and refreshing.

All throughout antiquity, Hierapolis was famous for its hot springs. They are famous even today. These hot springs, sometimes bubbling out of the ground at 212 degrees, are rich with a brine of minerals. The waters were renown for their healing qualities. People from all over the Roman world would travel to Hierapolis to find comfort and healing as they soaked in the pools.

Well, the hot water of Hierapolis eventually made its way into Laodicea. The refreshing cold from Colossae and the healing hot from Hierapolis would join, mixing into a briny, lukewarm, nauseating liquid. Drinking it would most certainly induce vomiting. Such liquid you would spew from your mouth!

The Lukewarm Church

Now we can better understand Christ’s testimony against the Laodiceans. They were neither hot nor cold, providing neither healing nor refreshment. Is not the church to be the place of healing for the nations? Is not the church to freely offer the living water of Christ? The Laodicean church failed to offer either of these life-giving waters.

Jesus said that the church in Sardis was dead. But at least in Sardis there were still a few that had not fallen to the sins of complacency and pride. In Laodicea it seems like no one is left. This is not to say that they have fallen away from the faith. But it does mean that their faith became so ineffective, so impotent, that they were lukewarm. Their works were as worthless as a warm glass of salt water.

Or, better, as Jesus once spoke about: they are like salt in danger of losing their saltiness.

And because their works bring no healing, bring no satisfaction, Christ is preparing to spew them from His mouth. The Preeminent Amen is preparing to excommunicate this lukewarm church!

Read vs 17

Christ’s words have far more punch when you understand that Laodicea was a very wealthy city. Their wealth came from three important industries: banking, textiles, and a famous salve for eyes called Phrygian Powder. It was used to strengthen weak eyes.

And all of this wealth had created a very independent culture in Laodicea. They didn’t need help from anyone.

The Roman historian Tacitus even records an example for us. In 60 AD, while Nero reigned, a terrible earthquake was felt by all seven of the churches in Revelation. But of the seven, Laodicea was the only city to be leveled. The damage was so severe that Rome offered financial assistance to rebuild. But Laodicea was so wealthy that they refused the aid and quickly rebuilt; boasting that they did not need assistance from Rome. Colossae and Hierapolis, on the other hand, took the money.

Laodicea did not need to humble themselves and accept help. They had all they needed. They were prosperous and comfortable. And even when that comfort was shaken, they just pulled themselves up by their boots straps and took care of business. Charity? No thanks!

It truly is a good thing to be in a financial position where you are able to weather a storm. And wealth can be a good thing, so long as you use it to serve Christ and His kingdom.

But the problem wasn’t Laodicea’s wealth, it was their individualism, it was their self-reliance, it was their spiritual indifference. A gathering of people who have no needs and are indifferent towards the world around them is not a church, it is self-righteous country club.

What a struggle this is in our American culture. Certainly we Americans are self-reliant and independent. In fact, they are among the most praised qualities in our culture. We in the church can fall into the same dangerous trap as the Laodiceans, thinking that we are decent people doing pretty well for ourselves.

“Life isn’t perfect, but I certainly don’t need a savior. What I really need is to be my authentic self.” That is the pinnacle of abominable individualism. Yet the Bible says that our most authentic self is wretched. In other words, we are morally disgusting. We are the exact type that God would spew from His mouth.

For we look around our world and know that injustices and pain prevail everywhere. The poor sleep in the cold. The unborn are torn to piece in the womb. There are people in our neighborhoods, even in this church, struggling deeply with a myriad of difficulties. You might even feel it in your own heart: a distance from God.

But still we swipe through Instagram, click over to Netflix, fire up the PlayStation, or turn on the TV; and all the urgencies of the kingdom of God are washed away by quick hits of serotonin and dopamine - flashing pixels injecting it right to the brain. We indifferently sacrifice our communion with Christ on the drivel of endless entertainment.

And just like the Laodiceans, such self-righteousness and indifference blinds us from seeing that we are pathetic wretches, poor and naked. But the True Witness sees.

What does it mean if there is nothing to distinguish us from the world which surround us? It would mean that we are lukewarm, we have reached equilibrium with the temperature of the world.

Let it not be true of Immanuel! Let it not be true of us! How desperate we need Jesus’ words to Laodicea!

A true follower of Christ, and a faithful church, is called to glories far greater. We must work to heal and sooth the broken and wretched. We must offer gospel truths that invigorate and quench the parched soul. We must be about spreading this great kingdom into which we have gracious been granted access. We must remember how desperate our situation without the presence of the Amen.

Read vs 18-19

Notice that Jesus offers the church gold, clothing, and an eye salve. Are these not the very things that Laodicea put their stock in: banking, textiles, and eye salve? But for all their earthy riches, they have accumulated for themselves destitution.

Though their banks be filled with gold, they have devalued their faith to a cup of warm salt water. They may have the finest black wool in all of Asia Minor, but their spiritual disobedience is their shame and nakedness. They send Phrygian Powder across the empire, but at home their sight utterly fails them.

I am reminded of one of Jesus’ parables.

“‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God.” -Luke 12:20-21

Discipline

Oh that the church would be rich towards God, and regard the world’s wealth as rubbish compared to Christ! But when the gaze of the saints falls indifferently from heaven and lusts after the things of earth, Christ lovingly rebukes.

The words that Jesus gives to the church in Laodicea are indeed words of reproof. His words are discipline. At some point before I reached my teens the most painful discipline was not physical; it was knowing that I had disappointed my dad. I wanted Him to be proud of me. His disappointment cut like nothing else. Jesus’ words of rebuke should have the same effect for those who love Him.

Don’t we want our King to be proud of us and our church – the way He was proud of the church in Philadelphia?

But when Jesus disciplines, when His disappointment is made know, it is not to condemn and it is not to crush. Just as verse 19 says, His discipline is to reignite passion. It is to draw us towards repentance.

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by Him. For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

-Hebrews 12:5-8

Your trials are not meaningless. All of God’s sons and daughters need heavenly discipline. Through them the Father teaches. And for them, Christ gives the church these seven messages.

Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight the paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather healed. -Hebrews 12:12-13

Yes, Jesus rebukes that His church might blaze with holy fire, consecrated and cleansed from all that was unclean. His discipline is to lead a repentant church to cool oases, where the thirsty find their delight in living waters.

Read vs 20

Christ’s Offer

But what love and patience has Jesus! Despite all their failings and poverty, Jesus’ love for them has not diminished. Praise the Son, that He is indeed the faithful witness! For…

If we are faithless, He remains faithful – for He cannot deny Himself.

-2 Timothy 2:13

Those with pitiable faith, Jesus offers to refine it more precious than gold.

So that the tested genuineness of your faith – more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. -1 Peter 1:7

Those shamed by the nakedness of their guilt, Jesus offers His own clothes of righteousness.

For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. -Galatians 3:26-27

And when our sight begins to fail, and it becomes harder and harder to see the things of God, Christ promises to anoint our eyes.

May [God] give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power towards us who believe.

-Ephesians 1:17-19

In every area that Laodicea is found wanting, Jesus is eager to provide. As it was for Laodicea, so it is for Immanuel.

And what is the price of such incalculable treasures? Only that you would turn away from your broken cisterns that hold no water and trust Jesus to be the satisfaction of your soul. See that you are blind and run towards the Light of the world.

Again, what is the price of all this? The end of Christ’s revelation tells us.

The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.

-Revelation 22:17

At some point down the road we can explore the idea that the price is free – it only costs your life.

For once our thirst is sated, then we happily give our lives to join in our precious Savior’s invitation, and passionately call to all the thirsty yet to taste such waters of life.

I want to briefly point out a widespread abuse of verse 20. Many have taken this verse to mean that there Jesus stands, knocking on the doors of our hearts, waiting for us to make him our lord and savior. And in such a scheme, the Son of God becomes a weak deity at the mercy of man, pleading with wretched sinners to open their hearts to him.

But that is not the Jesus of the Bible! For He is the Amen, who has the final word; the Preeminent One, who holds all things together by the power of His word; who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens! Such a Mighty One does not knock in vain!

Verse 20 is not a plea with individuals for their salvation. Verse 20 is nested within a message to a lukewarm church in Laodicea; on the very brink of excommunication by the King Himself. Verse 20 is a reminder of the kind of King that Jesus is.

Though He is the preeminent, eternal, glorious Son of God; He is eager to be with us. He desires communion. That is indeed what we are seeing in verse 20, communion/the Lord’s Supper/worship within a family.

Verse 20, therefore, is Jesus calling His church to commune with Him and worship Him. The lukewarm church must turn from their communion with the world and worship of things that fade, and turn instead to the Living Amen.

Only then will that lukewarm water become something life-giving and satisfying. Only then will the church deserving excommunication rejoice in the grace of communion with Christ restored.

How, then, does the church overcome lukewarmness? By running to Jesus! By never letting the door shut! We immerse ourselves in His word, and let His word discipline us before we ever disappoint our precious King. We love those around us, offering them the healing hands of Christ and the refreshing waters of life found only in the Living Amen.

Oh that our hearts would burn for Jesus and overflow with rivers of living water! May we be counted among the overcomers!

And for the overcomers, not only does Christ grant communion with Himself, He gives an honor that should leave every reader speechless.

Read vs 21

Christ gives the highest honor in all of heaven: a place upon His throne. This does not mean that Jesus has an enormous throne and we will all sit upon it. Like so much else in Revelation, it is symbolic: the highest place of honor in heaven.

The highest honor in heaven…and then you recall that we all were once wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. We deserved to be spewed from the Almighty mouth. Instead He has made us rich, has clothed us in righteousness, has allowed us to see Christ. What amazing grace! What astounding generosity! What unmeasured and unmerited love!

[For we] were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. -Ephesians 2:3-7

If that does not make you race toward the door and swing it wide open, to want nothing more than to commune with Christ, then what will? If that will not make you leap for joy and fall on your face in worship, then what will?

What an absolutely incredible offer to the children of wrath! What an offer to prodigal children that have lost their way and become lukewarm! The throne of the Preeminent and Living Amen stands before you. Overcome the indifference, overcome the temporary comforts, overcome your self-reliance, and sit with Christ in glory.

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”