Church Series - Laodicea

“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

(Revelations 3:7-13)

The church in Ephesus had works, was vibrant in activities but lacked the essence of devotion, love. The church in Smyrna was pounded and oppressed but remained steadfast. In the pounding, God promises relief, restoration and a crown. The church in Pergamum lived right in the midst of evil. Despite trying as much to remain devoted to God, some feel to the lure of food and drink and a different style of worship.

The church in Thyatira, unlike Ephesus, had love, faith, hope and perseverance and more importantly they had the first love. So unlike the Ephesians who went through the motions, the church in Thyatira had fire in their belly like the early church in the book of Acts, an almost perfect state to be emulated. However, like Pergamum, they were compromised. They became permissible to idolaters mixing iron and clay in worship.

In Sardis, unlike the poor and oppressed Smyrna, they appeared to be alive – had “a reputation of being alive” – looked spiritually vibrant on the outside. In terms of endowment, Sardis was the focal point from other churches. They had the masses, the programs, the facility and the resources but were spiritually dead. The Philadelphians were vulnerable but remained resolute. They were deprived of natural protection but they got supernatural affirmation, protection and promise.

Laodicea was an ancient Greek metropolis situated about 160 kilometers west of Ephesus on a major highway. It had water supply sources from and two nearby cities, Hierapolis and Colossae. The supply from Hierapolis was the site of hot, spa-like waters, used for medicinal purposes. Nearby Colossae was known for its cold and pure drinking water. The city suffered numerous earthquakes just like Philadelphia but unlike Philadelphia, the authorities offered to rebuild the city, perhaps due to its economic importance to the empire. However, the inhabitants of Laodicea declined the offer and rebuilt the city themselves. It is credited as home to wealthy people who erected beautiful monuments as part of rebuild process.

The Jesus introduces Himself to the church as “the Amen”, “the faithful and true witness”, the “ruler of God’s creation.” This depicted as a faithful and true witness doing only the will of the Father. The tone was set for the message that was to follow. Jesus not only rebuked the Laodiceans for being lukewarm but He first introduced what characterizes a true witness.

Just like the church in Sardis, the Laodiceans had been hit by the complacency bug. However, this church was also spiritually arrogant in its self-satisfaction. Of the seven churches, it was the only church Christ did not commend for anything. There was absolutely nothing to find commendable about this church. It shows you how far they had fallen.

The two water supply sources are symbolic representation of the spiritual forces at play in this church. However the state of this church was so complacent that it was not quite clear where to place them in the scheme of things. Jesus says He would spit out this church from His mouth. It the context of water, He may have been referring to the drinkable water. Remember, the discussion He had with the Samaritan woman? “the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:14). Clearly when He tasted this water, it wasn’t the water that He had given this church. It was not an eternal well spring. It was adulterated and undrinkable. They had released effluence of pride in the water. The supply was there (devotion) but not drinkable. It means for all their works, it was devoid of the power of Christ and the Holy Spirit.

They were also described as poor and unclothed. They were told to buy gold refined in fire to obtain wealth. This city was known for its wealth and the inhabitants believed equally so. Tie this to the beatitude that says, ‘blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’ (Matthew 5:3). Jesus is described in Malachi 3:3 as the refiner of human souls. This church needed a serious smelting of their souls to purify the hearts and remove the pride and arrogance that had gotten in their heads.

Jesus also asks them to get white garments to cover their spiritual nakedness. They thumped their chests and said, ‘I don’t need a thing’. The height of arrogance and self-righteousness. Isaiah 64:6 says that our forms of righteousness is like filthy rags. So these guys who thought they didn’t need a thing were actually so deluded and looked ridiculous in the eyes of God. But why couldn’t they see this?

Because they were blind.  They were asked to apply salve in their eyes so they could see. They could see their nakedness, their poverty in spirit and their lack of potency as effective light and salt of the earth. A bacterial infection of self-sufficiency and reduction of God to a valet or butler (who carried their prayer requests and availed the answers as and when asked for) had eaten their spiritual eyes to total blindness. Their garments of righteousness had been replaced by filthy rags patched up in laborious religious acts. Their worship didn’t appeal to the taste buds of their king of kings. The rusty hearts was a representation of a junkyard, a far cry from the glittering gold they thought they were.

But there was a window. The rebuke was out of love. Jesus was not far away. He was right at the door pounding and saying, ‘hey I don’t know in whose name you have been praying to but I sure am right out here and I wouldn’t mind having a bash with you, open up.’

Jesus is making the same call today. There are too many sunglasses being thrust our away in the form of self-help to shield the strong rays of the truth. We look cool in the shades and shielded from the harsh rays. The tragedy is, these shades transform our perceptions by putting a shade of themselves. Pride here, arrogance there comes in such a subtle way. We don’t realize that our perspectives about eternity are gradually changing until we notice that its actually night time and we can no longer see with the shades. The clarion call to buy salve is now. We must cure our eyes of the ravages of infections of carnality.

Jesus was victorious and was rewarded for being a red hot heavenly ambassador with clear vision, white garments and a heart of gold. You wanna sit at the throne with the King of Kings, you gotta take of those shades and a blazing ambassador. If you fear what will they say, know that they have nothing to say because Jesus has already silenced them. He did so with the accusers of the adulterous woman, He can do it again. Stand up and fight with the conviction that eternity is within your grasp.