Revelation 3:14-22

““To the angel of the church in Laodicea write the following: “This is the solemn pronouncement of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the originator of God’s creation: ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot! So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth! Because you say, “I am rich and have acquired great wealth, and need nothing,” but do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked, take my advice and buy gold from me refined by fire so you can become rich! Buy from me white clothing so you can be clothed and your shameful nakedness will not be exposed, and buy eye salve to put on your eyes so you can see! All those I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent! Listen! I am standing at the door and knocking! If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into his home and share a meal with him, and he with me. I will grant the one who conquers permission to sit with me on my throne, just as I too conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’””

‭‭Revelation‬ ‭3‬:‭14‬-‭22‬ ‭NET‬‬

Sometimes, we grow up hearing a verse out of context over and over and over and over and think it can be applied one way, when really that verse doesn’t even mean close to how we’ve heard it, and when we look at it in context, it has a much more powerful meaning, and its application is even better. In reality, John 3:16 cannot be understood properly outside of the context of John 3.

Usually, the goal of taking a group of people, not just teenagers, on a retreat or a missions trip is to escape from routine life and to refocus on God and possibly to encounter God in a new way and when that happens, there’s a stirring in one’s soul, and it catches fire, right? Then when one individual is stirred, the whole group returns “on fire for God” and there’s no telling how long it lasts. Why does it have to fade? Where do we get this idea of being hot or on fire? Is that biblical? Rev. 3 most likely.

The other issue we see is really in v. 20. Question: Who lives inside of you? Jesus? Holy Spirit. But so many sermons are going to see v. 20 as evangelistic and as someone getting saved, especially when we present the gospel to little children. I hate to be the bearer of bad news. But God doesn’t have a body, and Jesus doesn’t live inside your heart. 

What’s the big deal? Well, I’m not trying to pick battles here or frustrate anybody. But this passage has a truth far greater than these things.

So let’s start at the beginning. In verse 14, we learn that John is commanded to write to his seventh and final church, located in Laodicea. Jesus is the One who has messages for all these churches. He is described in chapter one in a majestic vision—terrifying actually. John redefines Jesus here for this church specifically as the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. These things speak directly to the needs of this church. Jesus does not lie. He has authority. He reigns supreme, and when He speaks, you had better listen.

Ok, I’m listening. 

        Now, Laodicea. V. 15. I know your works. Well, that’s kind of cool. If you compare this with all the other letters, for example, Jesus said the same thing to Ephesus in 2:2. To Thyatira in 2:19. To Philadelphia in 3:8. This could be very encouraging. An open door which no man can shut. Wow! Isn’t that comforting that when no one else notices your service or when no one else encourages you, Jesus is keeping track. And so Laodicea comes up to the podium for her annual review. Laodicea, I know your works, too. Go on… 

        V. 15b-16. Tell me how you really feel. 

So this is obviously where we get the different temperatures, but what do they mean? We can kind of get the hot one. That’s burning, passionate, pursuing God. Then lukewarm is how we always get yelled at for being stagnant, indifferent, not really caring about God, more like going through the motions. I can kind of get that. But then what does that leave for cold? Being anti-God? Outright rebellion against God? Hating God even? Because Jesus says I know your works, and they are not really passionate in either direction, and I really wish they were. Would Jesus really say, I wish you were at least not indifferent to the point of living in rebellion to me? I mean, I know He speaks in hyperbole sometimes, but that just doesn’t make sense. I don’t think Jesus would wish for us to sin. Right? Like, c’mon.

This isn’t talking about our spiritual temperature, but if we knew the cultural context, we may have a better idea. Laodicea did not have its own water supply, but it was close to two other cities that supplied water for Laodicea. One city was famous for a natural hot spring, used for bathing and medicinal purposes. The other city had rivers and other springs with cool water used for drinking and other things. Both hot and cold water are positive things and necessary for civilization to flourish. But, by the time the water traveled to Laodicea, the hot water had cooled, and the cool water had warmed, and so both had pretty much leveled off, and so Jesus compares the church to the situation. They are not providing spiritual healing or refreshment to those around them. This is a condemnation of the church for their lack of witness and works to the community. They are lukewarm, in that in the midst of chaos and tribulation in the broken and fallen world of the Roman Empire, they have lost their impact. We’ll see that they have chosen materialism. They have chosen impurity. And they are not being faithful to the Lord. 

So what does Jesus say? VV. 17-18. This is what I just said. They consider their situation to be perfectly fine. They have all that they need. They are rich physically, but Jesus has a different perspective. The refined gold and white garments speaks of purity of lifestyle. He says, Church, wake up. You are blind to how the people outside the church are able to see your life and notice impurity. This is by far the harshest letter written to the seven churches. Jesus gives no encouragement, no commendation of anything good they’ve done. They have a terrible witness, and yet, He does not leave them stranded. He gives them hope.

V. 19. I’m not yelling at you, because I’ve already spit you out and left you to fend for yourself. There’s still time to correct this, church. You can still impact your community. You can still go good works. You can still provide healing and refreshment to your community. But, right now, you need to repent. 

Then we get to v. 20. So often, we think of this as Jesus standing at the door to someone’s life, and for children the door to someone’s heart, and He’s out there knocking, and if we let Him in, He will come into us, and we can begin a relationship with Him. But in context, who is Jesus talking to? The church. People who already have a relationship with Jesus. So what is this talking about? 

Well, first we have to have a little English lesson, too. If you read v. 20 closely, you’ll read all the way to “hears my voice, opens the door, I will come in to.” See that? Perhaps the most important part of the entire verse is that little gap between the n and the t there. Did you notice that there are two words there and not one? Do you think there’s a difference between “into” and “in to”? What is it? Yes, I can come into or enter a room. I can come into my car. And I guess I can metaphorically enter into a relationship. But what does coming in to something mean? 

        See, the “in” part is already covered. So the “to” part means something about the purpose or location of the “him.” Jesus is not entering “him.” He is entering the house (or perhaps the church) and standing in front of the person or entering the house for the purpose of being with the person. And that little gap that changes “into” to “in” “to” tells us that. (And the Greek preposition confirms this. Though it could be taken both ways, it more often is used as a sense of direction, not location). 

In addition, why is Jesus entering the house? To eat with him. Fellowship is restored. So the lukewarm, not caring, even sinful church of many members—if they choose to repent, if they choose to hear Jesus knocking, can turn from their lifestyle, can heed His discipline, and can realize that their tale is not over. They can have restored fellowship once again. Whoever chooses to humble themselves to God’s discipline as a sign of mercy and love can sit down at dinner with Jesus. 

Because let’s face it. The rest of the book is about terrible trials and tribulation. No matter whether you believe the church will be here during the Great Tribulation or not, even during these three chapters, the theme is present that the church faces terrible things now (at least during the Roman Empire, and we’ve seen in throughout history). And the next two verses talk about enduring and conquering, and the only way that’s going to happen is by maintaining a relationship of fellowship with the Savior. It’s not going to happen by thinking I’m rich. I don’t need anything. And if I sin a little bit along the way, that’s ok. No! Repent, don’t be useless water that has no witness for those around you. 

But that can only happen when your heart is yielded to the rebukes of God, willing to hear His voice, willing to open the door and have fellowship with the Savior again. He disciplines the ones that He loves. He knocks on the door of those whom He loves, asking for a restored relationship. Don’t be so proud to (1) think you never need a divine rebuke and (2) to despise it when it comes. All He desires is for His children to have strong fellowship with Him, so that they can have a powerful testimony to the world. When the first is broken, the second can’t happen.  

As v. 22 says, If you have ears, hear what the Spirit says to the churches.