Revelation 3:14-22
You’ve heard me say many times that church should be a hospital for the sinner. The Word of God cuts us open and the Great Physician, Jesus, does the surgery. We have people in critical condition, lost, in need of a saving relationship with Jesus. We have people who are healing, we have people who have been hurt at other hospitals, and we have those who are in rehab or recuperation. You name it, we’ve got it! This is the one place in which it’s ok to be broken. Why? Because Christ heals! Laodicea had a hospital for the sinner that wasn’t helpful. An unhelpful hospital is a harmful.
Background: Laodicea was not in a strategic location for the Roman Empire, but it was a strategic trade route. It had a banking center and it produced a highly desirable black wool. Laodicea also had a medical school! They invented an eye salve and an ear ointment. It was located near a hot springs and the cold springs of Colossae. Both types of springs had healing value, but water at room temperature has no value. Here is a picture of the where Laodicea is located. Here is a picture of the aqueduct system.
The Unhealthy Situation vv.15-16
What is Christ saying? The church was prideful and powerless! They were not dependent on the power of God, but deceived that they had it all! Here’s the image we gain from the hot and cold water. We realize that ice and heat in rotation can heal an injury! You have hot springs a few miles away and you have cold springs a few miles away. Laodicea had problems with its water supply, which was brought by aqueduct six miles from the south. By the time the water reached Laodicea, it had become lukewarm. It was unclean, and undrinkable, the kind of water that makes you sick, that you might spit or vomit out of your mouth, as Jesus is said to do, metaphorically speaking, with the entire Laodicean church. The sickness in the church is not a coldness toward Christ and a need for white hot revival, it’s the sickness of self-sufficiency. No dependence on God. The people, thinking they could heal in their own way, bring the water to the patient when it is convenient, when they are comfortable. What happens when we do things according to convenience? The healing effect of the water has lost its value! The water is no longer hot or no longer cold. We’ve spent too much time moving water, when we should have spent time taking the person to the source of healing! We have got to bring people to Jesus! We have got to be desperate for Jesus!
When is the last time you’ve invited someone to church, a Bible study, to share a meal with you in which you were intentional about sharing Jesus with them. Jesus is the healer! Are we being helpful or harmful?
The Unholy Sadness vv.17-18
The sadness is that they were deceived! Their monetary surplus produced complacency. When we are comfortable, we are not desperate for the work of God. They were deficient apart from Christ.
We need Christ’s riches v.18 We need Christ’s righteousness v.18
We need Christ’s remedy v.18
The Ultimate Solution vv.19-22
To Immediately turn to Jesus v.19
To Invite Jesus to transform v.20 (Are you hungry for Christ to satisfy you?) Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
To Initiate and Indicate trust in Christ’s reign v.21
Are you helpful or harmful? You’re helpful by sharing the truth of Jesus Christ. You’re harmful if you know the cure to the disease of sin, yet never give the remedy. Today is the day that can all change. Give full surrender to Jesus Christ! It’s my desire that we be a helpful healing hospital for the sinner! Would you join me in prayer? Would you stand in the gap, and say that your desire is that Oak Hill Baptist Church would help bring eternal healing? Two things will stop us from doing this; 1) Pride and 2) Powerlessness. Both are things that are not of Christ!