Laodicia / Revelation 3:14-22
The Anchor Leg of Church History
It is a difficult task to look at this final church, because the letter to Laodicea covers the time in church history called the modern church—the very age that you and I live in. What makes it so interesting is that the spiritual decline across these seven churches has been pretty steep, and it culminates here. You will notice there isn’t an eighth church. I believe this is the anchor leg. This is the final age of church history before our Lord takes us home, and yet, you’re going to find that it’s not a very glorious time for God’s people.
The name Laodicea is a combination of two words, leos and dike, which literally means “people rule.” This was a church that was exceedingly wealthy in its context. In fact, they were so wealthy that when a catastrophic earthquake leveled the entire city in AD 60, they turned down Rome’s offer of national crisis funds. They told the government, “We don’t need it. We have enough ourselves.” They rebuilt their own city with their own money. This prosperity was a wonderful thing, but it came with a consequence that was common in their day and is just as common in ours: wealth can often lull us to sleep and take away our spiritual edge.
The Problem with Prosperity
This church is the wealthiest of the seven, and yet it receives the sternest rebuke. It’s fascinating to see what Jesus says about the wealthy. I don’t think Jesus has a problem with the size of our bank accounts; I think it’s what wealth does to us. When you’re wealthy, it’s easy to feel no need for Christ, no need for a Savior, and no need to reach out to a righteousness greater than your own. If you need something, you just buy it.
John Mayer has a song called “Something’s Missing” that is one of my favorites. He asks, “Why is it that all the things I need always come with batteries?” He asks what that means, but he doesn’t answer it. He just leaves the question out there. I think if we’re honest, we’re like that. We medicate ourselves with our wealth. We are wealthier than 90% of the world’s population; if you went overseas, most of you would be considered millionaires. We live in a prosperous culture, and some of us don’t realize how much we rely on that comfort.
Laodicea was a financial hub because of three things: massive financial commerce, fine black wool, and a famous medicinal eye salve. Yet, Christ has some very specific things to say to this wealthy community. He begins this letter by giving us a snapshot of exactly what this church needed.
Revelation 3:14 (NASB)
’To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this:
The Unchanging Witness
The affirmation Jesus gives of Himself here is threefold. First, He says He is the “Amen.” This is a Hebrew word that we just transliterate into English. It means “truly” or “unchanging.” Isaiah spoke of the God of Truth, or the God of Amen.
Isaiah 65:16 (NASB)
’Because he who is blessed in the earth Will be blessed by the God of truth; And he who swears in the earth Will swear by the God of truth; Because the former troubles are forgotten, And because they are hidden from My sight!
When we flippantly say “Amen” at the end of a prayer, it means “So be it. Let it be unchanging truth.” Jesus says He is the unchanging one. That was vital for this church because they had a changing, shifting view of who Christ was. Their primary error was a faulty Christology. They had gutted Christ of His power and made Him a religious frame that changed according to public opinion. He became whoever you wanted Him to be. Does that sound familiar today? You talk to people and everyone has a different, contrary opinion of who Jesus is, and everyone claims to be right.
Jesus also calls Himself the “faithful and true witness.” The word for witness is martus, where we get our word “martyr.” He is the faithful and true martyr. Plenty of people claim to be committed to Jesus, but it’s all fun and games until they nail you to a cross. Paul told the church at Philippi that Jesus humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death.
Philippians 2:8 (NASB)
Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Finally, He says He is the beginning of the creation of God. If I asked who created the world, most would say “God” from Genesis 1. But when you look at the New Testament, you see that Christ was the agent of that creation. Paul told the Colossians that all things were created through Him and for Him.
Colossians 1:15-17 (NASB)
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, [both] in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities– all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
So when Jesus says He is the source and supreme person of creation, He’s getting their attention. He’s saying, “This isn’t a casual letter from some guy down the street. I am the Amen, the faithful martyr, and the Creator of all things.”
The Nausea of Apathy
Jesus tells them, “I know your deeds.” The word He uses, oida, means complete and full knowledge. That is either encouraging or terrifying. We’ve all done something stupid and thought, “Okay, nobody knows.” King David thought that when he stayed home from war, saw Bathsheba, and eventually had her husband Uriah killed. He thought he could spin it and hide it, but God knew the whole time.
Revelation 3:15 (NASB)
’I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot.
Jesus looks at their deeds and sees they are neither cold nor hot. In Laodicea, this was a very physical illustration. Their water was piped in for miles. Nearby Hierapolis had hot springs for resorts, and Colossae had cold, fresh mountain springs. But by the time the water got to Laodicea, it was lukewarm. If you’ve ever been to Hanford, you know about bad water—that sulfur smell has got to go. Jesus uses this to describe their spiritual state.
Revelation 3:16 (NASB)
’So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.
He says, “Because you’re lukewarm, I’d like to spit you out of my mouth.” The word there refers to an emetic—something that makes you puke. This is powerful language. He isn’t saying they make Him angry; He’s saying they make Him sick.
What does a lukewarm believer look like today? Often, it’s someone who is “over-churched.” You’ve been around it so long that you’re immune to it. You can speak the language, you can pray the big words to impress people, but you’re just going through the motions. You’re just waiting to get to Chipotle. It’s a lonely, sad place to be because your heart isn’t just cold—it’s apathetic. And the opposite of love isn’t hate; it’s apathy.
Blindness and the Need for Mercy
The reason these people made Jesus sick was their self-assessment. They thought they were doing great.
Revelation 3:17 (NASB)
’Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,’ and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,
They said, “Life is great, bro. I’ve got the car, the apartment, I don’t need anything.” They hadn’t experienced persecution or the furnace of trial; they just lived in delight. But Jesus sees the heart. We can fake the externals, but God discloses the motives. Jesus tells them they are actually wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. That is a bad combination, especially when you don’t even know it.
Revelation 3:18 (NASB)
I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and [that] the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.
He gives them counsel based on their own commerce. They had a great economy, black wool, and eye ointment, but Jesus tells them they need His gold refined by fire. They need His white garments of purity, not their black wool. And they need His eye salve so they can finally see who they really are.
I remember when I first heard a guy tell me I was a sinner. I was ticked! I thought, “You don’t know me! Clean out your own closet!” I tried to mask my life behind a jersey number, thinking if I just played good football, I wouldn’t have to deal with the fact that I was a toolbox inside. But then I started looking at the skeletons in my closet, and my eyes were opened. I realized I needed something bigger than myself.
Jesus told a parable about a Pharisee and a tax collector. The Pharisee prayed big, 50-word prayers about how great he was, while the tax collector stayed in the back, beating his chest, saying, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” I guarantee you God wasn’t looking at the guy in the front. He was looking at the man who knew he was blind.
The Discipline of a Father
If you feel the Lord shaking you up right now, don’t run away. There is a reason for it.
Revelation 3:19 (NASB)
’Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.
Discipline comes out of love. Have you ever felt the “divine smackdown”? You’re doing something stupid, and you sense the Lord beating on you, saying, “What are you doing? You know better than that.”
My daughter is two-and-a-half and absolutely psychotic. We went to the coast recently, and I took her to the “fishy zoo” (the aquarium). She was losing her mind. But she’s two, so she wants to run around and hit people and be crazy. As a parent, I have to discipline her. Not because I hate her, but because I love her. When she starts back-talking her mama—which is a hot button for me—I “light that backside up” a little bit. Suddenly, the wax melts out of her ears and she can hear real good.
God is no different. He isn’t a vengeful deity looking to shoot lightning at you; He is a loving Savior who wants to bring you back into alignment. He tells us to be “zealous” and repent. Zealous doesn’t mean being a nutcase; it means being intensely serious about what God is doing.
Proverbs 29:1 (NASB)
A man who hardens [his] neck after much reproof Will suddenly be broken beyond remedy.
When we bow up to God and say, “No, I want it my way,” we need to remember who is going to win that battle. I win every battle with my daughter because I’m the dad. God is going to win every time, too. So, let God have His way with you. He’s actually good at His job.
The Knock at the Door
To this church that had rejected Him, Jesus makes a famous invitation.
Revelation 3:20 (NASB)
’Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.
This is a group of believers who had shoved Jesus outside and said, “We’ve got the pipe organ and the padded pews; we don’t need You.” You can find churches like that all over this city—places where they talk about 15 ways to be happy, but there’s no Bible, no Jesus, and no sin. He is on the outside wanting to get back in.
This applies to us as a church, but it also applies to you personally. If you’ve been straight-arming God, He’s standing there knocking. If you open the door, He doesn’t come in and say, “You sorry sucker, I told you so.” He comes in to dine with you. He offers a promise to the overcomers.
Revelation 3:21 (NASB)
’He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
Standing Against the Culture
We live in the age of Laodicea. The Enlightenment of the 1700s and 1800s tried to tell us the world would get better and better until we ushered in a utopia. Then World War I and World War II shot the wheels off that philosophy. Now, we’ve moved into a culture anchored to mysticism rather than text. Hollywood is obsessed with Kabbalah and ancient mysticism because they are groping for something bigger than themselves. If money could buy utopia, Hollywood would have it figured out, but they’re more schizophrenic than we are.
Several factors have brought the modern church to this lukewarm state. First is the availability of information. Everyone has Google, but that doesn’t mean the information is credible. Second is consumer expectations. We want everything customized—our cars, our food, our clothes. We bring that to church. If the music isn’t perfect or the pastor doesn’t say what we want, we hop to the next place. We never commit because it’s all about us.
Third is the breakdown of the family. So many of us come from divorced homes. We were forced to microwave our maturity because we weren’t allowed to be kids. We are starved for affection, so we move in with people who don’t care for us just to feel something. Finally, there’s a shift in authority. We don’t listen to the scriptures; we listen to music and film. We let songwriters and directors be our theologians.
When the scriptures don’t rule and Christ doesn’t rule, the people rule. Lao-dike. That is where we are.
Our hope is that a ragtag group of people would stand against these prevailing winds. Our hope is that we would open our Bibles and say, “I don’t want to just be a Christian; I want to be a follower of Christ.” We need to be hot for our Lord. We need to submit to His reproof, read what the Word says about morality and nobility, and obey it. We must invite Christ back into the center of our lives and exalt the Scripture as our rule for life. I don’t care what the media says; I want to find out what God says.
Let’s pray.
Lord, thank You that You haven’t left us to figure this out on our own. We don’t have to seek some mental existential experience or Nirvana. You have given us chapter and verse. You’ve given us an incarnate God in Jesus Christ who lived, died, and did what no one else in history has done: He rose from the dead. Show us another who has risen, and we will serve him—but until then, everyone else is flatlined except for One. As we follow Christ and live according to Your Word, help us to have courage. In Christ’s name, amen.