Revelation 3:14-22

¹⁴ And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; ¹⁵ I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. ¹⁶ So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. ¹⁷ Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: ¹⁸ I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. ¹⁹ As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. ²⁰ Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. ²¹ To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. ²² He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

How would it make you feel if someone said to you, “You make me sick!” It probably wouldn’t make us feel very good at all. The last of the seven churches has that as its indictment. “I will spue thee out of my mouth!” are Christ’s words to them because they are “lukewarm.” What could a local church possibly do that would lead to such a statement? As we approach this letter, we must allow the Holy Spirit to search and probe our hearts and be honest with ourselves so that we might avoid what it is to be “lukewarm.” The church at Laodicea is the last of the seven churches of Asia Minor to receive a letter from the Lord Jesus in Revelation 2-3. It is perhaps the more well known to us because there is much talk in our time about “lukewarm Christianity.” But, what does that mean? The church at Laodicea had lost its way. They had lost their effectiveness. They were worse than the dead church at Sardis. While Sardis was steeped in sin, they still had a few who were faithful to Christ. The church at Laodicea was a church that had gone a step farther and shut Jesus out altogether. They were independent and self-sufficient. For that, they made our Lord sick. The call to the Laodicean church was to turn back to the One that they had left. With Him they had everything. Without Him, they were and had nothing. To avoid the trap of the Laodicean church, you and I must consider four things that can be drawn from this letter. We will examine two this week and then conclude our series in Revelation 2-3 with the final two next week.

First, we must recognize that Christ alone is supreme. The city of Laodicea was part of a triad of cities with Colossae (10 miles to the east) and Hierapolis (6 miles to the north). Laodicea was known for its one geological flaw and that was the fact that it had to pipe its water supply into the city. The water would come from the hot springs of Hierapolis and the cool springs of Colossae. By the time it reached Laodicea, the water was tepid, smelled terrible, and was unhealthy. The city was wealthy because it existed at the intersection of the trade routes that ran east-west to Ephesus and north-south from Pergamum to the Mediterranean Sea. It was known for its medical advancements in the temple of the Phrygian god Men Karou and the medical school that was associated with it. They developed an eye salve that was sent all over the Roman Empire. The city had a thriving industry around black wool that was sought after around the world for clothing and carpeting. Finally, the city was also known for being a strategic banking center. Because of its wealth, the city was self-sufficient. They didn’t need the help of the Romans to build back the city from earthquakes. The Roman historian Tacitus once wrote, “Laodicea arose from the ruins by the strength of her own resources, and with no help from us.” The founding of the church in the city is not recorded in Scripture, but Epaphras seems to have founded the church in nearby Colossae. It is likely that since these cities and churches were so closely associated (Colossians 4:13-16), that it was founded in connection with the Colossian ministry. To this church, Jesus identified Himself with three titles. First, He is “the Amen.” Second, He is “the faithful and true witness.” Lastly, He is “the beginning of the creation of God.” The first two titles stress Jesus as the God of truth. He is able to assess and judge rightly and righteously because He sees and knows all. He is “the Amen” (meaning “truly”) and “the truth” (John 14:6). As the One who alone reveals God the Father, He is “the faithful and true Witness.” The third title is actually also found in the letter to the Colossian church. “The beginning” describes Jesus as the pre-existent One and the One responsible for creating all things (Colossians 1:15-20; John 1:1-4). He alone needs nothing as Creator and Sustainer of all. To the self-sufficient church in the self-sufficient city of Colossae, He reminded them that He alone is supreme above all. They had not arrived. For us today, we must always keep this perspective. Life is not about us. It is about the One from whom all things come and to whom all things belong. None of us are a creator. He is. None of us are the source of truth. He is. He is supreme and He alone.

Next, we must remember that Christ alone is sufficient. In verses 15-17, Jesus levied one of the harshest indictments we can find in Scripture. Using their water supply as an illustration for their spiritual state, He called them “neither cold nor hot” but “lukewarm.” Because they were “lukewarm” He threatened to “spue” them “out of” His “mouth. The water of the city was sickening to its inhabitants, both from its smell that came from the bacteria that grew in it and the distance it traveled in the pipes into the city. We understand that meaning, but what does it mean for the church to be “lukewarm.” Some think that “hot” refers to passion and zeal for Christ and “cold” to refer to hardened opposition, while “lukewarm” refers to compromised indifference. The difficulty with that view is that both the hot water of Hierapolis and the cold water of Colossae offered positive benefits (i.e. healing and refreshment, respectively). It is probably best to understand “lukewarm” by the definition that Jesus gave in verse 17 when He said, “thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.” “Lukewarm” water served no good purpose. It wasn’t healthy for hydration. It wasn’t cool and refreshing. It wasn’t warm and soothing. A church and a Christian become lukewarm and lose their usefulness and fruitfulness when they become pridefully self-sufficient and self-absorbed. They were arrogantly self-sufficient. What does God hate more than anything else? Pride. It was not their apathy, but their self-sufficient pride that rendered them ineffective, useless, and sickening like their water supply. The Apostle Paul came to understand the necessity of humility, understanding human weakness, and dependence upon Christ. When dealing with his “thorn in the flesh” He wrote, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). Laodicea was a city that trusted in its wealth, its medicine, and its clothing. The church was a church that trusted in its own resources and strength. They thought they had arrived. They were no different than the Pharisee in Jesus’s parable who saw himself as superior to the tax collector that couldn’t even look up to heaven because of how guilty he felt (Luke 18:9-14). Jesus tells us that the tax collector went home right with God because he trusted in God’s mercy, but the Pharisee did not because he trusted in his own righteousness and superiority. Notice the emphasis in Revelation 3:17, when Jesus tells us the church’s line of thinking with the words, “Because thou sayest I…” “I” can be the dirtiest word in the English language. The name Laodicea means “rights of the people” and that name fit the church. They were all about themselves. Left to ourselves, you and I “can do nothing” (John 15:5). A great verse to consider on this matter is Proverbs 11:22 which says, “As a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion.” That verse teaches us that the best of appearances and the best of resources in the hands of those who do not possess true godly character are useless and destructive. They become like jewels to a pig. Likewise, what good is all of the beauty and right appearances in the world to a woman without godly “discretion?” It is not real. What good does it do for the whole world to respect us and consider us something when before Christ we are “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” We can convince everyone around us we are saved. We can cover our unrighteous hearts with good works, religiosity, false piety, proper behavior, and orthodox theology, but inwardly be as wicked and vile as any. The tax collector in Jesus’s parable in Luke 18:9-14 had betrayed his countrymen and stolen from them. He was an outcast and disdained by his family, etc., but went home justified because he saw his need and humbled himself before the Lord. The Pharisee remained lost because he compared himself to the tax collector, looked down his nose at him, and failed to notice the pride in his own heart that was more detestable to God than anything the tax collector had done. We must remember that our sufficiency is and will always be in Jesus.

Perhaps today you find yourself where the church of Laodicea or that Pharisee from Jesus’s parable stood. You have thought highly of yourself. You live your life comparing yourself to others, continually saying you are better than others, and you’ve convinced yourself that your right before God. However, before the eyes of “the Amen” who is “the faithful and true witness” you stand “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” There must come a time in every person’s life when they see themselves this way. We do not osmosis into the Christian faith by just gradually accepting and believing right things. We come to God one way and that is with our heads humbly bowed before His Son in recognition of our desperate need to be delivered from our sin and ourselves. If we have never been humbled before God in such a way, then we are in desperate need of His saving grace today. Next week, we will pick up in verse 18 and find that Jesus offers all that we need, but we must humble ourselves and come to Him. We must recognize our bankruptcy, His supremacy, and His sufficiency. Otherwise, we can never be a follower of His or an effective witness in His name.