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Revelation 3:14-22

 

“Knock knock!”

 

“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. Those who are victorious will sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne. “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.” 

Revelation 3:20-22

 

Here’s another of John’s portraits of Jesus – a simple picture of him knocking on a door but whose attention is he trying to attract? In the first instance it is the church in Laodicea. But he is trying to get your attention too... can you give him some time to speak to you?

 

 

A Postcard from Patmos

 

There is a key to understanding the book of Revelation: take the trouble to see John’s Apocalypse through the eyes of the first readers. It will help us to understand this postcard if we pay a little visit to Laodicea.

 

Your first sight of the city is impressive, it sits on a low hill in a very broad valley; there are snow-capped mountains in the distance and a river flows by. The buildings are new and very expensive. This is what you expect because Laodicea is famous for its financial services; it has some of the biggest banks in the region. There is also an impressive medical school. By the river you can see that cloth is being hung out to dry – endless rows of washing lines – this is evidence of another source of wealth - they make lots of cloth here. You have come a long way and you are thirsty, so you dip your mug into the river and take a big swig of water. Immediately you wish you hadn’t; It tastes revolting. You thought it would be cold, but it is very warm. Not hot enough for a refreshing bath (like the water in nearby Hieropolis) nor cold enough for a refreshing drink. This water is warm and it tastes brackish – five minutes after drinking it you throw up.

 

Now read Revelation 3:14-22; some of the expressions should already make sense.

 

Jesus could find nothing to criticize in Smyrna or Philadelphia, but he could find nothing to commend in Laodicea. It is as though they have taken on the flavour and temperature of the local water and Jesus is quite blunt, “You make me want to throw up!” he says.

 

Why such strong language? Let us resume our tour of Laodicea. As we wander ‘round the town we notice dozens of temples and religious buildings, but there is one that stands out among the rest because there’s a long queue of people waiting to get into it. We are British, so we join the queue! Then we notice that we are queuing to offer a sacrifice to the Roman emperor Domitian. As each person makes their sacrifice worship the emperor and call him Dominus et Deus (Lord and God). When the job is done the temple official gives each person a certificate to prove they have made the sacrifice.

 

Naturally, the Laodicean Christians hesitated, but the officials could be very persuasive. “Look, there is no need to make an issue out of this. I worship in the temple of Artemis and I make the sacrifice. We are not asking you to abandon Christ, just to worship Caesar as well as Christ, what could be wrong with that?” The Christians in Laodicea took the easy way out and sacrificed to the Roman emperor.

 

This is what Jesus means by ‘lukewarm’: they have acknowledged Caesar as Lord and then gone back to worshipping Jesus as though nothing had happened.

 

 

Lukewarm Christians

 

If Jesus were addressing the Church in Britain today he may say the same things. The Laodicean community were wealthy enough to feel safe, and clever enough to double-think their way into spiritual compromise. Let me put it another way, they were a classic example of what we would call today, Lukewarm Christians. John tells us all about them (17-18).

 

Today, we are not required to worship Caesar, but we are under constant pressure to compromise in a hundred different ways, to absorb the sexual mores of our culture, to indulge in it’s celebrity worship. Perhaps the greatest pressure of all is to succumb to the god of Consumerism: the religious belief that buying stuff will make you happy – the Laodicians were great consumers.

 

 

A Christian is secure because he or she has ‘treasure in heaven’. A lukewarm Christian feels safe because they have treasure on earth as well – their wealth is the source of their security (17). They have banking (gold), textiles (cloth) and a skilled medical service (ointment).

 

When the Laodiceans were confronted with the choice, to sacrifice to Caesar or to refuse, they fudged the issue because it seemed safest. Lukewarm believers are very risk-averse and safely conscious; words like sacrifice or cutting edge are frightening to them because their key values are safety and security.

 

There is a spiritual problem with a safety-centred life – all spiritual progress depends on faith: faith is taking risks for Jesus and trusting him to keep you safe. Lukewarm Christians are so risk averse that faith is not possible and nothing ever happens. So Jesus is challenging them to ‘buy’ their security from him.

 

Being a Christian involves risk (faith) from the start. Jesus calls us to repent and believe him – that means to say ‘no’ to sin and say ‘yes’ to him. That is a risk. Then Jesus tells us to obey him by letting the church dip us in water – a little symbol of our new life. This is a risk: we might drown!

 

Actually, there is a bigger risk involved:

 

This week, somewhere in the North of England, a foster carer was struck off because a 16-year-old Muslim girl in her care had become a Christian and was baptized. This Christian lady did not lead the girl Christ, and I understand that she was quite negative about her being baptized, but she was dismissed for allowing it to happen. This 16 year old could have chosen to have sex with her boyfriend, or with her girlfriend if she wanted. But instead she chose to be a Christian and to be baptized. What do you think would have happened if the girl had decided to be an atheist, or a Buddhist? You are right, no one would have batted an eyelid, but because she became a Christian Social Services decided that someone must pay. As a result, her Christian carer is struck off, denied her income, and has lost her home.

 

All because a girl was baptized in 21st Century Britain.

 

You see the risks attached to being a Christian can be very great and in the UK it is becoming more dangerous. We must be wise of course, not every issue is worth a confrontation, but some things cannot be avoided... should not be avoided. We refuse to fudge the issue and, putting our faith in God, take the risk and defy the powerful.

 

“Hang on Dave!” I can hear someone say, “Are you really saying that if we come under pressure from the government to obey laws that deny Christ’s lordship in our lives, we should disobey the government and face the consequences?”

 

Yes.

 

 

Who does he think he is?

 

Does it make you feel uncomfortable that the gentle Jesus of the gospels is here making such powerful and costly demands on us? How could the Jesus who healed the sick and comforted the outcast have morphed into the Christ who challenges us to confront the powerful?

 

Well perhaps you need to remember that Jesus was a confronter of the powerful – and he wants us to do the same. We also need to remember that we are his apprentices and he wants us to do the job right... that means he will confront us when we fall short of his standards.

 

He won’t let us settle for lukewarm faith – he wants us to be a community of risk-takers.

 

There is a beautiful proverb, tucked away in an obscure corner of the old Testament – here it is in the Authorised Version:

 

Open rebuke is better than a love which conceals. Faithful are the wounds of a friend.

Proverbs 27:5

Your mates will always back you up, but your real friends will tell you if you have made a mistake – a good friend will confront you and make you feel uncomfortable when your mates just tell you that you are right and buy you another drink.

 

You need faithful friends who will tell you the truth. In these postcards from Patmos Jesus is showing himself to be the friend of these churches.

 

So the friend of the Laodicians confronts their complacency (18-19) because he is their friend. And of course, this passage is purely ironic: they cannot buy gold, or white robes, or healing ointment... these are the gifts that Jesus gives freely! All they have to do is open the door.

Open the door!

 

There is an ancient prophecy that speaks of a huge banquet at the end of time, when the Messiah sits down with his friends and they party like no one has ever partied before – here it is:

 

 

In Jerusalem, the Lord Almighty
will spread a wonderful feast
for all the people of the world.
It will be a delicious banquet
with clear, well-aged wine and choice meat.
There he will remove the cloud of gloom,
the shadow of death that hangs over the earth.
He will swallow up death forever!
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away all tears.
He will remove forever all insults and mockery
against his land and people.
The Lord has spoken!

In that day the people will proclaim,
“This is our God!
We trusted in him, and he saved us!
This is the Lord, in whom we trusted.
Let us rejoice in the salvation he brings!”

Isaiah 25:6-9

Scholars call this the Messianic Banquet, I call it The Party at the End of the Universe. Now read Revelation 3:20-22 in the light of this Party; do you want to party like it’s 1999?

 

Jesus gave us a way of remembering that this party is our ultimate destination. We take bread and wine and remember his body and blood, and by eating and drinking together we express our faith that one day this party will take place.

 

Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.

 

Jesus said, “Open the door and let’s eat together”. Today, as we respond to him, let’s take that invitation quite literally!