Christ Church Sunday Morning Service (8:30 am & 11:00 am)
Grace & Peace: Revelation #35
Douglas Wilson“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11)
“I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent” (Rev. 3:18–19).
The church at Laodicea was spiritually poor, and the likely reason was that they were not poor at all when it came to material goods. Laodicea was a wealthy city—it was a center for banking, and also had a thriving wool and linen industry. They were also famous for a medical school, and for an eye ointment that was made there out of Phrygian powder.
The Roman historian Tacitus once wrote this about the city’s recovery from a major earthquake in 60 A.D.: “Laodicea arose from the ruins by the strength of her own resources, and with no help from us” (Annals, xiv.27). They were rich, and the church there was an apparent partaker of the general wealth. And this meant in turn that the Christians were tempted to provide a sort of pious echo of that pagan wealth instead of offering a true alternative to it.
And so the Lord challenges them to receive true riches in place of their shadow riches—but He makes a point to use images drawn from their shadow wealth. Buy refined gold from me, gold refined in the fire (banking). Buy white raiment to cover your nakedness (textiles). Anoint your eyes with a spiritual eye salve (medicine). For more on this background, see Storms and Beale.
There were some severe spiritual problems in the six other churches of Asia, but the Lord somehow finds something to commend with them. But not here. This church really was, from front to back, wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. And yet . . .
What is the Lord’s response to this wretchedness? He invites them to be zealous in repentance. And He invites them this way because, as He puts it, He loves them. Why did He rebuke and chasten them? “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.”
Grace & Peace: Revelation #34
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11)
“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” (Rev. 3:17).
The reason why the church at Laodicea was lukewarm was because when it came to riches, they were hot. In short, their wealth made them self-sufficient, and self-sufficiency is what lukewarmness in religion is. The reason the Lord would spew them out of His mouth is because they had said to themselves that they were “rich, and increased with good.” The end result of this was that they had “need of nothing,” which meant they had need of nothing from the Lord. If you don’t need anything, then you don’t need anything from Him.
This is the perennial temptation that comes with wealth, and Scripture warns of this constantly. The Israelites were warned as they came out of the wilderness—where God gave them water from the rock and bread from the sky—that they would be tempted to this self-sufficiency. “And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.” (Deut. 8:17). The rich fool looked out on his need for bigger barns with some complacency (Luke 12:18). Jesus says not to lay up treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy (Matt. 6:19). And Paul tells the rich in this world not to trust in “uncertain riches” (1 Tim. 6:17). In short, the Laodiceans apparently thought that in their case riches would not do what riches always do.
And the apparent lack of need in one area covers over the desperate actual need in another. While they said they had “need of nothing,” what did they in fact need? There is only one thing worse than being wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, and that is to be all five of those things and add to it the sixth misery of not knowing about it.
Grace & Peace: Revelation #33
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11)
“And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:14–16).
We come now to perhaps the most famous of the seven churches of Asia. This is the lukewarm and tepid church of the Laodiceans, the basis for many sermonic rebukes of lethargic congregations.
The rebuke comes from the Lord, the one giving all these messages to the angels of the respective churches. He identifies Himself here with a series of striking images. Jesus is the ultimate Amen—Amen is one of His names. He is the faithful and true witness (martys), so when we faithfully bear witness to Him, we are bearing faithful and true witness to the faithful and true witness. And then last, He is the arche of the whole creation of God, meaning that He is the integration point of all things. In Christ all things hold together, Paul says, going on to use the same word (Col. 1:17-18). The Lord Jesus is the one in whom the entire cosmos coheres.
The Laodiceans were lukewarm in their works. If they had been cold, it would have been refreshing, and if they had been hot, it would have been comforting. But as it was, they were the room temperature church, the tepid church. Laodicea had to pipe their water in, and Colossae had cold springs about ten miles away. Hierapolis had hot springs, but they were about six miles away. By the time the water got to Laodicea, it was lukewarm and useless for everything except for the apostle John’s metaphor.
Our works are intended as water for the Lord to drink. Cold is good, and hot is good, but tepid works are the kind that the Lord will spit out.
NEW Sermon Short: Jesus is Your Repentance
Pastor Wilson recently finished a series of sermons on Psalm 71-80. The final one (on Psalm 80) had an especially poignant reminder that Jesus is our repentance. All forms of human repentance really devolve into self-preservation and self-righteousness. The Spirit alone grants to us faith and repentance, and this alone is our plea before the Father.
“Repentance is not the coin that we come up with to put into the vending machine of God’s forgiveness. All of it is the gift of God. Not just the salvation afterward, but the repentance and faith that receives the salvation.” –Pastor Douglas Wilson
For the full sermon click here
VIEW OUR FIRST SERMON SHORT HERE
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