Revelation 3:14-22 * December 19, 2004 * Advent 4 * Pastor Pagels

In the name of Christ Jesus, dear friends:

There is a certain two-year-old in my household who loves the doorbell. In fact, she will ring the doorbell for hours without stopping if you let her. The only thing she likes more than ringing the doorbell is answering the door. The sound of the doorbell has the same effect as a starter’s pistol. A single ring leads to a mad dash from any place in the house to the finish line, aka the front door.

Maybe there is a person or a pet like that in your home, someone who gets excited whenever a person walks up to your house. It doesn’t matter if it’s the mailman or the Schwan man or even a complete stranger. They just can’t wait to get to the door.

Unfortunately there was no one like that in the church at Laodicea. They weren’t highly motivated. They weren’t easily excitable. They were comfortable with the status quo. And they didn’t want anyone to bother them.

But Jesus wasn’t about to let them be. And Jesus loved them too much to let them go. And so he wrote them a strongly worded letter to wake them up from their spiritual slumber.

While it is true that the Lord addressed this letter to a specific congregation, he also caused the apostle John to preserve the inspired text for people like us. Therefore, it is our privilege this morning to read and apply the words of…

ADVENT LETTER #7: TO THE CHURCH IN LAODICEA

“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. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

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. 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.

Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. 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 him, and he with me.

To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 3:14-22).

The beginning of the seventh and final letter in this series follows the pattern of the previous six. The Lord’s first order of business is to introduce himself as the author. To the church in Laodicea Jesus reveals himself as “the Amen” (14).

Normally we associate the word, “Amen,” with the end of something like a hymn or prayer, but this letter begins with Jesus calling himself “the Amen.” Amen comes from a Hebrew word meaning “truth.” This title isn’t all that strange if we remember that Jesus also described himself as “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6).

The God of truth is also “the faithful and true witness” and “the ruler of God’s creation.” With all the different names and titles Jesus could have used to describe himself, why did he choose these two? A look ahead at the rest of the letter will give us a pretty good idea. God’s faithful witness was writing to people who had become faithless. The all-powerful Creator had to rebuke a congregation that had become enamored with its own accomplishments.

But before we look at what Jesus says to the Laodiceans, we must first look at what he does not say. This is the only letter in Revelation without a single word of praise. Even the church in Sardis (which Jesus describes as “dead”) had a few faithful people. But not Laodicea. No compliments. No kind words. No saving grace. Nothing but this harsh rebuke:

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other. So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth” (3:15,16)!

The problem with the church in Laodicea was that there were no problems with the church in Laodicea. There was no internal strife driving people back into the Word. There was no external pressure driving people to their knees.

Jesus wanted these Christians to be on fire for the Lord. Jesus wanted them to feel something, anything, even if it was rejection because at least that was the starting point for a law-gospel witness. What Jesus could not stand was their take-it-or-leave-it attitude. What Jesus could not tolerate was seeing the gospel message being received with little more than a yawn. What Jesus could not accept was a confession that said: “Here I stand…but I can stand somewhere else if you prefer.”

The Christians in Laodicea were guilty of apathy and indifference, but those two sins were only symptoms of a much more serious spiritual problem. Listen to Jesus’ diagnosis: ‘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” (17).

Laodicea was a very wealthy city. A government mint had been built there. The city was the home of a booming textile industry. And it was the place where a much sought after eye salve had been invented. Imagine Wall Street and Fifth Avenue and the Mayo Clinic all rolled into one.

The members of this congregation profited from these industries along with everyone else, but at what expense? When did they stop going to church so they could catch up on back orders? When did they stop talking about God? When did they stop praying to God? At what point did they reach the conclusion: “You know what. We don’t really need God?”

Whether they realized it or not, these Christians had become the victims of their own success. And no matter how much money they deposited in their bank accounts, they were still spiritually bankrupt.

Maybe there is something to the claim that it is easier to deal with adversity than success. Maybe the church experts are on to something when they observe that healthy churches are usually in debt. But before we shake our fingers at the comfortable Christians in Laodicea, before we pat ourselves on the back because our church has plenty of debt, perhaps we should take our own spiritual temperature and see if it reads “lukewarm.”

If our eternal salvation depends on us always burning to do the Lord’s will, always yearning to share Christ’s love, always turning fervently to the Spirit for gifts to use in His service, then we are lost. If Jesus is going to spit out everyone who is not constantly on fire to win souls, care for souls, pray for souls, then we are lost.

That thought doesn’t fill our hearts with warm, fuzzy feelings the week before Christmas. That sentiment doesn’t sound anything like peace on earth and good will toward men. But that is exactly what Jesus was saying.

Why was he so uncharitable? Why did he have to chew them out, especially since that hadn’t done anything terribly wrong? What was his underlying motivation? Would you believe that Jesus rebuked them out of love? “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent” (19). Desperate times call for desperate measures, and the situation in Laodicea was desperate.

It was desperate, but it wasn’t hopeless. Jesus wanted to rescue them, but first he needed to get their attention. Jesus wanted to save them, but first he had to get them to understand that they needed to be saved. That’s why he didn’t pull any punches. That is why Jesus called on every member of the congregation to repent.

And then he said: “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 him, and he with me” (20). Some Christians read this passage and conclude that a person must open his/her heart to Jesus, or that a person must make a conscious decision to believe.

We do not. We believe that we cannot or by our own thinking or choosing believe in Jesus Christ or come to him. We believe that because Jesus has done everything, we don’t have to do anything to be saved. The broader context of Scripture tells us that salvation is a gift from God, and that God even gives us the faith to believe. And the narrow context of this letter defines Jesus’ knock at the door as a call to repent, not a call to believe.

But if we see in this verse only a point of disputed doctrine then we are missing out on something special. These are words of hope for wayward Christians. These are words of comfort for every Christian because Jesus says in no uncertain terms: “I am not about to give up on you.”

Jesus didn’t give up on his disciples even though they deserted him in his time of need. Jesus didn’t give up on the thief on the cross even though he admitted that his punishment was deserved. Jesus didn’t give up on the Christians in Laodicea, and he hasn’t given up on us either.

Instead of giving up on sinners like us, Jesus gave up his life for sinners like us. Instead of treating us as our sins deserve, he took on himself the punishment we deserved. Instead of condemning us to eternal death, he invites us to join him for a heavenly feast.

And where Jesus finds repentant hearts, wherever he finds the warm glow of faith, the Lord promises great reward: “To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne” (21).

Where is the best chair in your house, the one that is the most comfortable, the one that everyone fights over? Can you picture it? Now think of something better, much better. Imagine sitting on God’s throne in glory. This throne is the seat of God’s almighty power, but thanks to the Lamb of God it is also God’s throne of grace.

Jesus is the Lamb who was slain (5:12). Jesus is the Lamb who has washed our robes and made them white in his own blood (7:14). Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords (17:14). He has overcome sin and Satan and death. He has given us the right to sit with him on his throne. And he has given us the promise that we will reign with him in heaven.

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (22). By now this has become a familiar refrain because Jesus makes this declaration at or near the end of each of the letters to the churches.

But I would like to close this morning, not with the final words of this letter, but with the final words of this book because they provide a fitting conclusion to this sermon, this sermon series and the Advent season. “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus” (22:20). Amen.