THE
LAODICEANS CHURCH
Introduction: The church of Laodicea was located 100 miles east of coastal Ephesus. Laodicea was situated along a well travelled trade route. The strategic position made the city an extremely prosperous venue for commercial, financial and medical trades of the day. All those are good but of no spiritual values in Christ.
Laodicea was an extremely wealthy city, being renowned
for its banking establishments, for its medical schools that specialized in an
ointment to cure certain eye afflictions and for a luxurious clothing from the
wool of its sheep flocks. A city and a church that was very self-confident and
self-sufficient.
A) The Lukewarm Church
Rev. 3:15-16 – “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold
nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16 So then because thou art lukewarm,
and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.” KJV
The Lord says the believers in Laodicean church is
neither hot nor cold but lukewarm. The church was lukewarm. They lacked fervor
and passion. There was no burning zeal for souls, nor a desire to press on in
God for perfection. The Lord says that He is going to vomit them out of His
mouth. He despises Christians that are halfhearted and non-committed and living
on the perimeter. The Lord wants every believer to be fervent and totally
committed to Him.
B) The Spiritual Blind Church
Rev. 3:17 –
“Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of
nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and
blind, and naked:”
The church was very proud and self-confident. They were
indeed rich and increased with goods, naturally and financially. However, they lacked
the true riches of Jesus Christ as they were spiritually poor, blind and naked.
The church that is lukewarm needs gold, white garments
and eye salves from God in Revelation 3:18
C) The Lukewarm Church Need Jesus – Rev. 3:17-18
17 Because you say,
‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that
you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— 18 I counsel you to buy
from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments,
that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed;
and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.
Revelation
3:19-22
19 As many as I
love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand
at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come
in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. 21 To him who overcomes I will
grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My
Father on His throne.’22 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says
to the churches.”
D) The
Lukewarm Church needs three things from God:
1.
BUY GOLD REFINED IN THE FIRE
a)
Our Working Faith is likened to Gold - 1 Peter 1:6-7 - (NASB)
6 In this you
greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have
been distressed by various trials, 7 so that the proof of your faith,
being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire,
may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus
Christ;
b)
Build up Your Most Holy Faith - JUDE vs. 17-21
Maintain Your Life with God 20 “But
you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the
Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy
of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”
c) Come,
Buy and Drink!
Isaiah
55:1, 2 - “Come,
all of you who thirst, come to the waters; and you without money, come, buy,
and eat! Come, buy wine and milk, without money and without cost!
2 Why spend money
on that which is not bread, and your labor on that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the
richest of foods.
2.
BUY WHITE GARMENTS ITS FREE
The Lord Jesus told them the Laodecian believers that
they were naked spiritually and recommended them to buy white garments from
Him. What are these white garments? The Word of God answers in the book of
Revelation when it tells us about the great crowd that the Apostle John saw in
heaven:
King James Bible – Rev. 19:8
“And to her was granted that she
should be arrayed in fine linen, clean
and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.”
And he said to me, “These
are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in
the blood of the Lamb. For this reason, they are before the throne of God;
and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne
will spread His tabernacle over them. (Revelation
7:9-16) (NASB)
White garments are the ornaments of the saints and they
are WHITE because they were washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb who
is Jesus Christ. This is what the Lord Jesus required from the saints in
Laodicea – to wash their garments in His blood and whiten them.
b) Believe
in Christ Righteousness Philippians
3:8-10 - (NKJV)
8 Yet indeed I
also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as
rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own
righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in
Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know
Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings,
being conformed to His death,”
3.
ANOINT EYES WITH EYESALVE
a) How to anoint our eyes with eye salve that we may see?
To see we need “eye salve” to “open our spiritual eyes”
Although Laodicea were producing the best eye salve in
antiquity, the inhabitants of Laodicea, and especially those who considered
themselves Christians, were blind when looking at their spiritual state.
Therefore, the Lord Jesus tells them to buy eye salve from Him to see their
spiritual state. The Word of God is this eye salve, as David wrote in the book
of Psalms:
i) Psalms 19:8 - “the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.” (NASB)
ii)
EPHESIANS 1:18 New King James Version
“the eyes of your understanding being
enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the
riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,”
iii) Proverbs
20:12 KJV
“The hearing ear, and the seeing
eye, the LORD hath made even both
of them.”
b) The Purpose of
Jesus' Parables
…13 That is why I speak to them in
parables: ‘Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or
understand.’ 14 In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled: ‘You will be ever
hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
15 For this people’s heart has grown callous; they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their
eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would
heal them.’…Berean Study Bible - MATT.
13:14
D)
The Church Must Repent
Rev. 3:19 – “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be
zealous therefore, and repent.”
The Lord chasten those whom He loves. True love tells
people when they are wrong, hoping that they will see the truth and change.
E) WHAT
IS OUR SPIRITUAL CONDITION?
1) How much do you care about your living with God? How
much time do you invest for each of them? Are you satisfied with your Christian
faith? A man who is poor in spirit will never be satisfied with his spiritual
condition and he wants more of God.
Cry for your faith to be perfected, your white garments
be kept white and see with the “Seeing eye” and with the seven Spirit of God in
Isaiah 11:2.
2) The LORD is desiring to open our spiritual eyes MORE
and MORE as He gives unto us the Spirit of Wisdom and the Spirit of Revelation (Ephesians 1:17). He desires to give us the 7
Spirits of God in Isaiah 11:2. Many will
begin to SEE and have VISIONS like never before in the last days.
ALTAR
CALL:
Let
us repent of our lukewarm-ness and carelessness. Let us ask God for the fire of
the Spirit to consume us so that we can be hot and vibrant for the Lord in
serving Him. Let Him cloth us with
righteousness and anoint our eyes with eye salve that we may see. Let our faith
be strong and faithful in these end times.
