Revelation Episode 4: Letters to the Churches- Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, Part 3

In this section, Jesus turns his fiery gaze upon the lukewarm Laodiceans to urge them to repent of their unbelief and believe in him for salvation.

- Podcast Transcript -

Wes

Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study podcast. This podcast is just one of the many resources available to you for free from Two Journeys Ministry. If you're interested in learning more, just head over to twojourneys.org. Now on to today's episode.

This is Part 3 of Episode 4 in our Revelation Bible Study podcast entitled Letters to the Churches: Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, where we'll discuss the letter to the church at Laodicea in Revelation 3:14-22. I'm Wes Treadway, and I'm here with Pastor Andy Davis. Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we're looking at today?

Andy

Well, as we walk through this, the seventh letter to the most dreadful, actually, and the most wretched of all the seven churches, I think we should do so with a certain sense of fear and trembling.

The Lord said in Isaiah, "This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and who trembles at my word" (Isaiah 66:2). And so, this is a terrifying warning to a lukewarm church, a nominal church that Christ would vomit out of his mouth because of their lukewarmness. And as I and others look at the church in the West and Europe and in America, we see a lot of nominalism and lukewarmness. And it is good for us to read these words with a sense of conviction and a sense of yearning to know the truth and have Christ speak to us. If we're genuinely born again, the Lord will not say to us that we're neither hot nor cold but lukewarm, but actually we do have heat in us by the Holy Spirit. But we know that we could be stronger in our fire. But there is a warning here given to those that are neither hot nor cold, and we need to heed it carefully so that we can minister properly.

Wes

Well, let me go ahead and read verses 14-22 in Revelation 3 as we begin.

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. 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. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 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. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. 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. 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."

Wes

Andy, Laodicea was about 40 miles southeast of Philadelphia clustered with Colossae and Hierapolis in the Lycus River valley. It was near the hot springs of Hierapolis, which one author says in their way over the plateau become lukewarm, and in this condition discharge themselves over the cliff right opposite Laodicea. This church receives the strongest rebuke Christ gives to any of the seven churches. At the beginning, how does Christ describe himself to this dreadfully disappointing church at Laodicea?

Andy

All right, so the church at Laodicea, he says nothing good about them, and he presents himself as in all seven of the churches as one who has the right, the authority to speak to each of the seven churches including this church at Laodicea. Here he designates himself saying, "These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, and the beginning," or some translations have, "ruler of God's creation." And so those titles are very significant.

First of all, he is the Amen. This is the word we say after prayer, and it means "I stand with that," or I agree to that. It's said of Jesus in Corinthians where he is the Amen to all of God's promises. So, God rolled out a promise in the Old Testament, and Jesus is the Amen to that or the fulfillment of that. So, Jesus is basically the final word. He is the final word in every matter. The one who says Amen to all of the intentions and purposes of God. He is also the faithful and true witness. In other words, what he's saying about each of the seven churches, what he's saying about this lukewarm church at Laodicea is faithful and true and should be heeded, should not be dismissed. Everything Jesus said was perfectly true.

"Jesus is basically the final word. He is the final word in every matter. The one who says Amen to all of the intentions and purposes of God."

And then he is the beginning of God's creation. So, let's take that as the translation. "The beginning of the creation," means that God the Father created all things through Christ. Jesus is said in John 1 to be the Word, and through him all things were made. And so, it is by the power of Christ, in some mystical and impossible way for us to understand within the Trinity, all things were made. So, he's the beginning of everything that exists, and so therefore he has the authority to address this church at Laodicea.

Wes

Not only does he have authority, he has knowledge. And this has been evident in all these letters as we see things that are known of these churches and commented on. What does it mean here when Christ says, "I know your deeds that you are neither cold nor hot"?

Andy

Well, Jesus said very plainly in the Sermon on the Mount about false teachers: "By their fruit, you'll know them" (Matthew 7:16). So we look at the fruit, and we can know the tree. And so, this is the consistent pattern. It's by the works I can know the condition of the tree. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. And so, he, the perfect fruit inspector, is able to determine the state of the tree, what is the tree like by the fruit? Speaking more directly to this language, by your deeds, I know you. And so, he says, "I know your deeds and they reflect the condition of your heart, honestly. I know that you're neither hot nor cold based on your deeds." So, he is looking at their works and has determined that they are lukewarm. They're a lukewarm church.

Wes

Now why do you think he says, "I wish you were one or the other"? If hot is good and cold is bad or vice versa, why would he wish they were something bad?

Andy

I've heard some analogies that I do not find helpful here. Some say that... Like tea, for example, people like hot tea and they like iced tea, but they don't like... Who likes room temperature tea? As a matter of fact, I don't think there are hardly any drinks that people prefer at room temperature, maybe wine or something like that. But I'm not a wine drinker, so I don't really know. But I mean I think we usually prefer either hot or cold. I think that whole way of thinking is not helpful here.

I think consistently in the Bible, cold is bad and hot is good when it comes to God. So, heat represents zeal, it represents fire, represents energy. Very good example of this is in Luke 24, after the resurrection of Christ, he went on the road to Emmaus and the two disciples with him. And he opened the scriptures to them as they had been downcast and depressed concerning what had happened with Jesus. And they hadn't been able to properly interpret the message coming from the empty tomb yet from the women that were bringing some testimony that he was alive, and they couldn't make any sense of it. And Jesus rebuked them and then started to show them everything that was written about himself in the Old Testament. And as he was unfolding these Scriptures, they became more and more kindled. And at the end, they summarized after Jesus disappeared from being with them and they realized at last it was Jesus. They said, "Were not our hearts burning within us when he opened the scriptures to us" (Luke 24:32)?

Again, it speaks of John the Baptist. He was a lamp burning and shining. So, there's that sense of fire and zeal. Even in this passage, if you look at verse 19, what does he say to the church? The counsel that he gives them, what does he tell them to do?

Wes

He says, "Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent."

Andy

That's heat. He's not saying, "Oh, be cold." He doesn't want them to be cold. He wants them to be hot and zealous as Romans 12:11 says, "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord." That's fire language. So, in this case when it comes to God, hot is good and cold is bad.

For example, Jesus said in Matthew 24:12, "Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold." So that's a bad thing. Jesus isn't saying, "I'm counseling that you should become cold." He doesn't want them to be cold. But therefore, we have to figure out then why is lukewarm worse than cold? And that's an interesting question. We don't know for sure, but clearly in this scripture, he openly says it, "I wish you were either hot or cold. I do not want anyone to be lukewarm." Why not? Well, I think it's because they're to some degree inoculated from true Christianity by having heard it all and not loving Jesus as a result. There really isn't anything more that can be said. They've heard the gospel, they know about Christ's life, his death, his resurrection, and it's resulted in this lukewarm Christianity. They're in great danger. There's nothing new to say. There's no new insights that they can have. And they've responded with nominalism and with distance and lukewarmness.

"I wish you had never heard the gospel than hear it and respond like this." It's similar to 2 Peter when he says, “It would've been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was given to them. Of this it is true that 'a dog returns to its vomit, and a sow that is washed goes back to a wallowing in the mud'" (2 Peter 2:21-22). Now Peter's not saying it's good for people not to have known the way of righteousness. He's not saying that. He's saying it's better to not know the way of righteousness than to know it and live like this. I think that's the same logic here. It would be better for people to have never heard of Christ and never heard the gospel and be cold, dead in their transgressions and sins, and know that they're on the outside. They're not claiming to be Christians, they're not claiming in any way to follow Christ. It's better than to be completely, it seems inoculated from genuine Christianity.

So, this is a dangerous situation. It has to do with nominalism and being mild and lukewarm about Jesus.

Wes

So, in understanding verse 15, we might even say something like, hot is good, cold is bad, but lukewarm is even-

Andy

Worse.

Wes

... Worse.

Andy

It's the worst. Yeah.

Wes

What does Christ threaten this lukewarm church in verse 16?

Andy

He threatens to vomit them out of his mouth. They're disgusting to him. So here we see a sense of the passion that Jesus has for his church. This is not a mild response. This is, "You absolutely nauseate me. You make me sick to my stomach."

You think about it like, Wes, as we know, just churches in America and in Europe and people that meet and come to church and they would claim to be Christians. They would check that box on a government form or just metaphorically check it, "Yeah, I'm a Christian." And I'm not just talking about Easter and Christmas type Christians. That's pure nominalism. But even just those that go regularly to church, but it just doesn't make a difference. They're very indifferent. They mildly listen to the sermon and then they go home, and it does very little for them. Jesus wants to vomit churches and people like that out of his mouth. It's really terrifying because you're neither hot nor cold. "I'm going to spew you out of my mouth." That's what he threatens. Basically, I think this is a sense of, "I'm going to remove the lampstand. I'm going to get rid of you entirely. I'm not going to tolerate you."

Wes

Up to this point, we've really just had these statements about the church, but verse 17 gives really terrifying insight into what made this church lukewarm. What was that and how should we understand verse 17?

Andy

"You say I am rich, I've acquired wealth, and I do not need a thing." And so, it seems to be material prosperity. And so again, we go to the churches in the West and America and in Europe and there is tremendous prosperity. And as a result, nominalism. So here these people in Laodicea seem to have acquired wealth. They're wealthy and because of that they don't really need Jesus. They don't really need the things of God. They're not crushed like the church at Smyrna and desperately holding onto Jesus and passionate about him. They're not very ardently aware that they're aliens and strangers and know that "here we have no enduring city, but we're looking for a city that is to come," as it says in Hebrews 13:14. No, they're pretty comfortable here. They like this life. They like this world. They're comfortable, "Oh yeah, we get Jesus in addition, we get Jesus to boot."

I think you see the same thing in Psalm 73 about the man who was very distressed about the prosperity of the wicked. And it says, "They're prosperous on earth and their mouths lay claim to heaven." It's like we get heaven and earth both. We get the wealth on earth, and we get heaven thrown in to boot. And Jesus is saying, "No you don't. No, you don't." And so, the problem seems to be this material prosperity. As a result, they think they don't need anything. They don't need Jesus. They're not desperate.

Wes

The rest of this verse really gives the reality which is far different from their self-perception. They view themselves one way, but Jesus who knows all, gives them the true state of things. What does he say in the rest of this verse and why is that vital for them to understand if they're going to be healed?

Andy

Well, he says, "You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked." So, first of all, just the initial statement, "You do not realize that you are..." So, you mentioned it, and the way you phrased the question, their self-perception was completely wrong. I go again and again and again to the incredibly important statement made by John Calvin at the beginning of the Institutes, "Nearly all the wisdom that we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists in two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves." Well, they don't know themselves. They don't know who they are. They don't recognize their true spiritual state.

And so that's the issue here. They think that they are much better off than they are. They think they're rich, and they actually are poor. They're wretched, he says. So, they're in a horrible spiritual condition. They are pitiful, meaning worthy of pity. They are poor. So, they have nothing spiritually, completely poor. And they are blind and naked. So, they don't see their condition. They're not clothed with the righteousness of Christ and all that. And he'll get into answering each of these, and we'll walk through that. But the self-knowledge, I think of this in a medical situation. Jesus is the physician of the soul. And frequently, I think his healings all picture the true healing we all need, which is spiritual healing.

And so, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. I've not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance" (Luke 5:31-32). These folks didn't think they needed to repent from anything. So, imagine going and visiting an oncologist, a cancer specialist, and you feel fine, feel good, but he's got the results of your test. And he says, "You do not realize that you have terminal cancer. It's terminal if you don't get it treated. It can be treated, but the treatment will change your life and you have to give yourself fully to it. And if you don't, statistically you're likely to be dead in six to nine months." You don't realize it yet. That feels about the same way here. You do not realize that you're wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.

Wes

What counsel does Jesus give this church in verse 18? And how does this connect with our understanding of salvation?

Andy

Yeah. He says, "I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so that you can become rich, and white clothes to wear so that you can cover your shameful nakedness, and salve to put on your eyes so that you can see." So basically, let's go to the end and then work back. "I can give you true wealth, complete covering for all of your sin, and true spiritual sight." Those things are salvation. That's what he offers. And they can only receive this if they bring the currency that he is willing to sell it to them for. He says, "I counsel to you or counsel you to buy from me the following things." All right? So, this is very interesting.

First of all, before we get to the word buy, I like the word counsel. If I could just say to all of our hearers, when Jesus gives you advice, take it. It's that simple. It's like all of God's commands are invitations and all of his invitations are commands. When he invites you to the wedding banquet, you better come. When he gives you advice like this, you better take it. All right, so what is the advice that he gives? "To buy from me gold refined in the fire." So purest gold, the best, highest quality gold. Now we could say refined in the fire means connected with persecution like the church at Smyrna was going through and Philadelphia as well. So, it could be referring to worldly persecution. In other words, be willing to be counted among the followers of Christ and pay the price. It could be that or it could be just said, he's saying highest quality gold, the real gold, the pure gold like Psalm 12:6 says, "The word of God is like silver refined in a furnace, purified seven times over." The highest quality gold.

Anyway, "Buy from me gold." What do I have? What is the currency? "And I also counsel you to buy from me white clothes so that you can cover your shameful nakedness." Well, where are we going to get a robe like that? What would the price be for such a robe? And what about this ointment that would enable you to see? What would the cost be for such effective medicine?

Well, it brings me to Isaiah 55:1 which says, "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters. And you who have no money," he says, "come buy and eat without money and without cost." So, what is this come buy without money? And I think the currency of this exchange is emptiness. True need, being genuinely a spiritual beggar, like Matthew 5:3, "Blessed are the spiritual beggars." Ptochos-totally destitute. "Cry out to me, and I'll give it to you." So, if that's the currency, "You bring me nothing, I'll give you everything. So that's how I'm going to counsel you buy."

And what are you going to get? You're going to get gold, genuine gold and you will be rich, truly rich, and you are going to get white clothes to cover your shameful nakedness. All sin produces shame. Genuine shame is connected with sin. And for us to be unclothed, naked, is a shameful thing. Jesus says, "I am willing to cover your nakedness." That is a clear picture of atonement. As it says in Psalm 32:1, "Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered." So that's a covering he offers through his atonement and that is the covering of his own perfect righteousness. "I'm going to give you a robe to cover yourself."

By the way, this white robe theme is big in the Book of Revelation. The martyrs wear the white robes under the altar as they're crying out for vengeance and all that. They're wearing white robes. In Revelation 7, there's a multitude from every tribe, language, people, and nation, and they're wearing white robes. These white robes, this is that covering of your true story. And what is your true story? Well, we know what your true story is. There's no one righteous, not even one, but Jesus will cover it. And then salve, a spiritual eyesight so that you can see. And this must be a spiritual sight, the ability through the spirit, through faith to see the truth. That's what he offers.

Wes

In verse 19 he says, "Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent." Why is it vital for us to embrace the rebukes Christ gives when we need them?

Andy

Jesus is the one that's pictured as having a sharp double-edged sword coming out of his mouth. And I think that sword is a surgical scalpel with the elect, and it's a slaughtering killing sword with the non-elect, with those that he will judge at the second coming in Revelation 19. So, for them it's death, but for us it's a cutting of a tumor. And he has to cut like the sharp double-edged sword is the word of God. And so, when Jesus comes and rebukes you, you need to heed it.

I would say if you look at the Book of Proverbs, one of the key issues in the Book of Proverbs is the difference between the wise man and the fool. And one of the characteristic differences is what you do with a godly rebuke. You get a godly rebuke and you're a wise man, you'll heed it, and you'll make changes in your life. If you're a fool, you shuck it off. Seven blows on the back of a fool, it does nothing. They shuck it off. And so, he says, "Look, those whom I love, if I love you, I rebuke you."

So fundamentally, I've said before, the Book of Hebrews is an epistle of warning. Everything written in the entire Bible is written for the benefit of the elect. It doesn't benefit the non-elect, it just increases their judgment on judgment day. For us, it benefits. So serious stern warnings in the Book of Hebrews are for us. We heed them. So, because he loves us, he gives us these verbal spankings. He gives us these rebukes. And so, because I love you, I'm going to rebuke you. I think that's also in Hebrews 12:6 where it says, "He disciplines every son he receives, and he chastises them with words." And we get spanked sometimes because the father loves us. So, if you're a child of God, you heed those rebukes and you take it seriously. "I rebuke them, and I discipline." So be on fire. Let your heart be flaming within you. Have a sense of urgency within you to repent.

"Everything written in the entire Bible is written for the benefit of the elect. It doesn't benefit the non-elect, it just increases their judgment on judgment day."

Wes

Now, verse 20 certainly was addressed to the church at Laodicea, but it also stands as a timeless invitation toward intimacy with Christ. And we've commented before about the relationship of this verse to a healthy prayer life. But what is the door here and what does Christ knocking on the door represent?

Andy

Oh, what a powerful, powerful verse Revelation 3:20 is? "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me."

You and I, Wes, read a classic on prayer by O Hallesby called Prayer, and it began with Revelation 3:20. And the concept is that Jesus is knocking on the door of your heart, a door of your life. It's a metaphorical knocking. We know that. Jesus is not physically here on earth to knock on anything. So, it must be a spiritual knocking. And therefore, it's appropriate to say he's knocking on my heart or on my conception of him, on my awareness. And he wants in, he's on the outside and wants in. Now we could just say we're talking about the church here. So, he's not even in the church. There's also some indication there's no people within the church. "If anyone hears my voice." It could be there's not even any born-again people in the church at Laodicea.

But let's make it individualized. He is speaking to the individual. "If anyone, if any one person hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me." And that's a beautiful promise. That's an invitation to intimacy and fellowship. That eating. Jesus does a lot of eating in the gospels and in the Book of Acts also at the beginning, right before his Ascension. So, he spends time with them, and he reclines at table with them and not just the Last Supper, but many, many times. And so, there's that sense of intimacy and a fellowship. So how does it work with prayer? It's a sense of I want to get closer to Jesus and he wants in, he wants me to love him, and he wants me to open myself up to him and say, "I want you, Lord." And so, there's that fire toward Jesus. I want to have an intimate relationship with him.

And the redoubling language is really interesting. "If you open the door," he says, "I will come in and eat with you, and by the way, you'll also eat with me." It's like, well, why the redundant language? I think it's because there's that sense of this is an intense, close, intimate relationship in which we are both enjoying it. I will enjoy eating with you, and you will enjoy eating with me. It's a beautiful verse.

One last thing. The idea of Jesus knocking on the door should not in any way overturn a sense of the sovereignty of God and salvation. It's like someone have depicted this picture of Jesus knocking on a vine-covered door. It's like a medieval castle or something like that and he's knocking. And they point out that there's no doorknob on that side and it's all this sort of stuff. And it goes to a kind of an Arminian free will type of thing. And Jesus won't force himself on us. It's like, look, let me tell you something. If you actually do open the door to Jesus, the Holy Spirit worked that in you. Give him full credit. The Spirit of Christ has moved you and taken out your heart of stone and given you a heart that's moving toward Christ, give him full glory and credit.

Wes

How does the fact that the saints will sit with Christ on his throne relate to the Father's authority in verse 21?

Andy

Well, he says, "He who overcomes will sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne." Actually, the verse says, "I'll give the right to sit with me." You have the right to do that. That's a big deal. You think about Revelation 4, which we're going to get to soon, and Revelation 5, which is the throne and a throne of Almighty God, central reality in the universe. And not just anyone can come up and sit on that throne. That's a big deal. Now in Revelation 5, the Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, stands in the center of the throne. He has the right to be at the center of Almighty God's throne because he is God. And so, he has the right to sit with his Father and his throne. "But if you overcome and you are zealous and repent and you have that faithful life with me, you'll sit with me." So, one preacher put it, "Lap in lap in lap," something like that. So, it's like a nested sitting.

Jesus said, "All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me" (Matthew 28:18). So, his authority is derivative from the Father, all authority comes from the Father. And then our right to rule comes from Jesus.

Wes

What should we make of the repeated invitation to hear what the Spirit says to all seven of the churches? And what final thoughts do you have for us on this passage we've looked at today?

Andy

Ironically, there's a lot of similarity between the final promise of salve for eyes so that you can see, and he who has an ear, let him hear. It's the same thing. It's the sense of openness and receiving information, spiritual truth. And so, all seven letters have ended the same way. If you are spiritually alive, listen to what the Spirit is saying. Take this to heart.

So, for me, I know that I'm not lukewarm. I know that because it's pretty clear that these are not converted people. I know that I'm not cold. I know that I'm hot because I have an ardor and a zeal in my heart for Christ, and I love him and the same with you. But what I get out of this is I get and desire to be more on fire for Jesus, have more intimacy, open the door of my heart to him more, dine with Jesus more than I do. And also look out for others that this is true of, that they are lukewarm, and they are in danger and tell them the truth. So that's how I would hear this and put it into practice.

Wes

This has been Part 3 of Episode 4 in our Revelation Bible Study podcast. We want to invite you to join us next time for Episode 5, entitled A Heavenly Throne and Heavenly Worship, where we'll discuss Revelation 4:1-11. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast and may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to be with you all.