Revelation 3:14-22, “Surrendering to the Truth of Jesus”
Following Christ our Head • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Laodicea was a city with a lot to be proud of. It was a self-made city. They had developed a special black wool and had a school of medicine that developed new medicines and compounds like an eye salve. They were early supporters of Rome, and a local leader named Polemon had been granted a throne that he passed on to his sons for generations.
They had earthquakes like most other cities in that region. But unlike cities like Philadelphia, they had acquired enough wealth that they did not need help from the Caesar in Rome to rebuild. In fact, after one earthquake in AD 60, they rebuilt their city better than before without anyone’s help. They were self-sufficient. In every way but one.
The one problem Laodicea had was that when it came to water, not all was as it seems. The water that flowed there naturally was from a hot mineral spring and by the time it reached the city, it was lukewarm and was not useful as drinking water because of the high mineral content. So, most of the drinking water was piped in via aqueducts. They had a solution to every problem and were very self- assured people. Which, in terms of a relationship with God, is itself a problem.
The Christians in Laodicea were wealthy and comfortable. There is no record of persecution in that city in the first century. They seemed to be successful. But not all was as it seems.
In our passage today, Jesus is telling that church, and I believe the church in America in the 21st century, it is time to surrender to the truth of Jesus. If they keep masking their spiritual complacency with their wealth and status, they will be rejected by Jesus.
Jesus is the Truth
Jesus is the Truth
As in all of the letters, Jesus begins by telling us about His attributes. In this case, He calls Himself,
“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.
The amen is the final word confirming the truth. Jesus will have the final word in all of God’s plans for our world. But as we have seen before, Jesus is adopting divine titles. This word comes out of Isaiah 65, speaking of God.
so that he who blesses himself in the land
shall bless himself by the God of truth (amen),
and he who takes an oath in the land
shall swear by the God of truth (amen);
God is the God of truth. He doesn’t lie. So if He says something, He has the final word and all we can say is “amen”. Jesus is true because He is God. He is the faithful and true witness of God’s love and grace, of His justice and holiness. He is the faithful and true witness of the power of sin and satan because He did battle with them on the cross. But He is also the faithful and true witness of the limits of their power because He overcame them. If He tells us to trust Him for salvation from sin and death and to never fear the enemy, we can believe He speaks the truth. As He said,
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
In the rest of the book of Revelation, Jesus is calling on the church to be His faithful witness to the world, but we only do that by our union with Him. He is the faithful and true witness. If Jesus Christ is in the church, He empowers our faithful witness to the world. If He is outside, asking to be let in, we are weak and powerless.
He also says He is the beginning of God’s creation. This doesn’t mean He was the first person created. The word here means He has first place. The word can also be translated “ruler”. He is at the source or head of creation. He participated with God the Father in creation. He is creation’s ruler.
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.
So, if the church is following her head, she will be listening attentively to Jesus and obeying every word that comes from His mouth. If He isn’t even in the room when we meet, we are lying to ourselves. No matter how successful we become in numbers or status, if Jesus is not the Truth with whom we commune, we become useless.
Churches can measure their success in different ways. How many people in the seats, how many books published by the pastor, how many baptisms, how many people follow our social media, how lit our youth group is, or how many people were helped by our community service. All may not be as it seems. Jesus knows what’s going on in the church.
“ ‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot!
Jesus uses a different measure. How does Jesus measure our success? Let’s keep reading.
Victory is Communion, Not Comfort
Victory is Communion, Not Comfort
If you were to gauge the success of a church, how would you gauge it? You could use the spiritual temperature. How do most churches today measure spiritual temperature? Numbers and sound. If there is a big, energetic gathering with enough powerful worship music and people singing with their hands in the air, experiencing high emotion, that is one way some churches gauge their spiritual temperature.
Jesus uses temperature to measure the health of the church too. But it’s different than we would think.
“ ‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
We could assume that Jesus would want a church that’s hot, on fire for Him, the flame of the Holy Spirit burning brightly. But why would he want a cold church? Isn’t that the opposite of how we think about spiritual health? Because these temperatures don’t describe energy but usefulness.
The temperatures here reflect the water system of Laodicea. The water flowing through the city in the river was lukewarm, room temperature. That might be comfortable, but it’s not useful. The water had flowed from hot mineral springs north of the city. Those hot springs were useful. People would bath in those springs for healing and health.
Or you could cool the water and remove some of the dangerous minerals and it would be useful to drink and bring refreshment. Both hot and cold were life-giving in different ways. But lukewarm is just sickening.
Jesus is essentially saying, I wish you were either cold and refreshing in your ministry, or spiritually healing like a hot spring. Either of those would demonstrate that Jesus is present in the church. But your ministry is lacking the healing and refreshing life of Christ. Jesus says it’s sickening.
What had gone wrong?
For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
They had become self-sufficient. This is such a dangerous place to be in ministry. Some people have enough skill, charisma, and resources that they can accomplish a lot totally on their own, without the need for Jesus at all. Jesus is a name attached to the outside of their ministry, but not the life within. Many churches have plenty of money and can hire a pastor with all the skills and charisma, and they can do a lot of good work in Jesus’ name, and they will meet Him face to face one day and He will say, depart from me, I never knew you.
The church in Laodicea had plenty of money and very little to no persecution. Everything on the outside looked good. Rich, prosperous, in need of nothing. But not everything was as it seemed. They did not realize they were wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. Prosperity had blinded them.
Prosperity makes life comfortable. But it doesn’t make you stronger spiritually. We are at our best when we are aware of our weakness and our need for God. When we are feeling at our best, our actual condition may be very different. And when we are feeling wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and exposed, we may be ready to cry out to Jesus. And that’s a really healthy thing, because He is our strength. When we confess, I have nothing in myself, but in Christ, I have all I need, we are ready to follow His counsel.
I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.
How do we buy all this stuff if we’re poor? This would remind the readers of Isaiah 55,
“Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.
The strength and riches we need come from God’s word to us. We can’t buy them with money. We receive the riches of Christ. Paul described them this way,
And because of [God] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
When we are abiding in Christ, growing in union with Him, we can boast in these riches we find in Him. Or, going back to Revelation 3:18,
I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.
The gold he offers is refined by fire. It is forged through tribulation and suffering. It isn’t gold you can spend on comfortable chairs and good coffee. It is the riches of union with Jesus Christ. The white garments are not ball gowns and the best jeans, they are the righteousness of Christ. When we are clothed in His righteousness, we have no shame. The Laodiceans were known for their medicines, but there was no concoction the doctors had invented that could cure the spiritual blindness that comes from complacency, self-sufficiency, and easy living. When we confess that in ourselves we are blind, the Messiah who opened the eyes of the blind has exactly what we need.
Jesus has so much mercy. Here is this church that is full of themselves. They are not crying out in prayer that Jesus would help them. They have all but forgotten Him. But He still loves them.
Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.
He loves us. Even in our spiritual complacency, in our arrogance and pride, He loves us. And if He is speaking words of correction and conviction to us, that is His mercy to us. It is an opportunity to repent and let Him back in to all the places we have left Him out.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
Think about this, Jesus is outside the church waiting to be let in. There are churches that have left Jesus out of their ministry, their decision making, their community life, their leadership, their service. But if anyone hears His voice and opens the door, there is a deeper communion for us when we wake up from our self-sufficiency and confess our need for Jesus and let Him back in.
To the Laodiceans, who prided themselves on the throne granted to their hometown boys by the Roman Empire, Jesus says, there is a better, more eternal reward.
The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ ”
We are not at our best when we have all the money we need and the most charismatic leaders and the most gifted members. We are at our best when we are on our knees, crying out to Jesus to lead us, teach us, feed us His word, to be our strength and life. Our victory is not in our comfort, but in our communion.
Communion
Questions for Discussion
What are you thankful for this week? What has been difficult this week?
What do we learn about Jesus in Revelation 3:14-22, especially verse 14?
Why are these important for the church?
What do we learn about ourselves in this passage?
How can we grow in being a healing and/or refreshing church?
Can you share about a time when you thought you were sufficient or strong, but your weakness was exposed, and God used that experience to strengthen you?
What are the dangers to the church of being self-sufficient? What message does this passage have for that church?
How can we as a church grow in communion with Jesus? In what ways can we grow in making Jesus our Head?
How will you respond to this passage this week?
Who is someone you can share this passage with this week?
