To the Church in Laodicea
14 “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. 15 I know
your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or
the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to
spit you out of my mouth. 17 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. 18 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.
19 Those whom I love I
rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. 20 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.
21 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. 22 Whoever has ears, let
them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Let us look at verse 14,
There are four truths about Jesus Christ
1. He is the
Amen. He is the amen because He is true,
He is the amen because He is certain.
amen." is used to affirm the truthfulness of what is to be said. Jesus by His work the amen, or the one who
makes the promises of God certain, but every time He speaks what He says is
also true. What He did puts the amen to punctuate the promises of God, what He
says is always true.
2. Faithful. No
one can be trusted like Jesus. What He
says He will do He will do. God is
faithful. He will never forsake us or
leave us. Story of Ruth illustrates
this. Naomi loses all than gets it all
back through Ruth and Boaz.
3. True . Every
time He speaks what He says is also true. What He did puts the amen to
punctuate the promises of God, what He says is always true. He is the faithful
and true witness. He is completely trustworthy. He is perfectly accurate. His
testimony never fails to be reliable. In fact, in John 14:6 He said, "I am the way, the truth and
the life." He is, of course, the perfect true witness.
4. Witness. Jesus
is speaking what He has seen but also knows.
That is what the Holy Spirit does as well. He takes what is shared and He passes unto
us.
In Vs 15 Jesus reminds them that He knows their
deed. They are neither hot or cold. This church is known as the complacent,
compromising and content church.
Everything to them in Hunky Dorey but it is not. T
In vs 16 – They are
lukewarm and because of that that are about to expelled by Jesus. They are distasteful, putrid, smelly, like
dead fish. In short they are vomit. Jesus is warning them that they are about to
be dealt with. This is a graphic
illustration but it gives us the point.
Talk about me and eggs and Ketchup
Vs 17 – This is what they
are saying about themselves. “I am
rich,” need nothing. Let me remind that
prosperity is the real enemy of the church not poverty. When you got all the wealth you need or want
why do you need God? Talk about the rich
man and Jesus. I have acquired wealth.
This church is focused on wealth, materialism and goods. Sounds like the prosperity doctrine. I do not need a thing. They had people, wealth, programs and pastors
but not spiritual life.
Jesus said they had five things
wrong with them. They were wretched,
pitful, poor, blind and naked. What they
said was not how God saw them. We need
God’s vision to see what is happening.
