Text: Revelation 3:14-22
Laodicea was about 160Km east of Ephesus. It was a leading banking and textile centre. It was a centre for the wool industry and was particularly famous for a soft, glossy, black wool. Laodicea also had a medical school and was particularly well known for a certain eye ointment known as Phrygian powder which brought comfort and healing to the eyes. All of these facts are used by the risen Christ as he addresses this church.
TO THE CHURCH IN LAODICEA
The Lord Jesus Christ has three things to say to His church in Laodicea.
- A SHATTERING VERDICT (vrs 15, 16). 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. In Hierapolis, six miles to the north of Laodicea, there was some famous hot springs. In Colossae, ten miles south east there was a cold stream. Both hot water and cold water have benefits. We all like a drink of cold water on a hot day and a hot bath to end a busy day. The Greek word used in vrs 16 for spitting out of the mouth is emetikos from which we get our English word emetic. An emetic is a substance that is used to induce vomiting. This is the effect that the church at Laodicea had on him. It was neither hot so as to provide healing for the spiritually sick nor was it cold so as to provide refreshment for the spiritually weary. It was, bland, tepid, lukewarm.
- A SHOCKING DIAGNOSIS (vrs 17). Secondly, in vrs 17 we see a shocking diagnosis. 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. What was their main problem? It is given away by the simple phrase “I do not need a thing.” Self-sufficiency lies at the very heart of lukewarmness. If the words of Christ are anything to go by the most shocking thing about self-sufficiency is that it leads to self-deception – “I do not need a thing.” Laodicea was the Zurich of Asia Minor (the banking capital). Their verdict was I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing. Jesus says, you are wretched, pitiful, poor. Laodicea was the Groote Schuur of Asia, the medical centre of the day and famous for an eye ointment. Jesus looks at them and says – “you are blind.” Laodicea was the Milan of the ancient world (a textile centre) but Jesus tells them – “you are naked.”
- A STRIKING INVITATION (vrs 18-20). Jesus Christ has said some harsh things about this church. There is only one thing worse that could have happened to this church than receiving such a scathing letter and that would have been to have received no letter at all. As Jesus says in vrs 19, those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline. It is infinitely preferable to be disciplined by God than to be dismissed by him. Christ offers this lukewarm church a striking invitation. In fact he gives them two pictures of encouragement. The first picture is the offer of a shopping spree. “You say you are rich but I have told you that you are poor. Buy from me gold refined in the fire. Come to me for true wealth – refined gold.” On this shopping spree they could purchase clothes to cover their wickedness and eye salve to help them to see. The second picture in this striking invitation is of a fellowship meal. Look at vrs 20. If there was a prize for the most consistently abused text of scripture it would be this verse. The idea conveyed is that Christ is knocking at the door of the heart of sinners and requesting an invitation to enter. This is not the primary meaning of the text. Who is Jesus speaking to? Believers or unbelievers? Christ is knocking on the door of his own church. The problem with Laodicean believers today is that they have shut the Lord out of their lives. They need to hear Christ’s invitation to renew communion with him. Perhaps Christ is knocking at the door of your life and saying, “it has been some time since we had genuine fellowship.”