The Church Without Jesus Christ
Revelation 3:14-22

In the letters to the Seven Churches the power and sovereignty of Jesus Christ can be seen, partly in the way He reveals Himself to the churches, and partly in the way He rebukes, and /or commends and condemns them. This church of Laodicea has no commendation from the Lord, the other six do. The church of Laodicea has only condemnation, and a call to repent. It is really a picture of the state of a many churches of the day.

I. JESUS REVEALS HIMSELF AS THE ‘AMEN’ – THE ‘SO BE IT’ (v. 14).

+What ever Jesus has said, or is about to say will definitely come to pass.

1. He is the God of truth.
2. He is truth, fixed and sure.

+ Jesus is the One who has, possesses and owns everything.

“The earth is the LORD’S and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” (Psalm 24:1).

1. Again Jesus is presenting a characteristic of Himself which the church needs.
2. As Sovereign He owns and possesses all things.

+ He reveals Himself as the very source of all creation. “…The beginning of the creation of God…” declares in fact that He is the Creator, not a created being (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16).

+ He is the source of the needs the Laodicean people did not realize they had.

II. THIS CHURCH ONLY REGISTERED THE TEMPERATURE OF THE ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH IT EXISTED (vv. 15-16).

+ This is a church which only acted as a thermometer.

1. It was no more than a stagnant water or a dead body.
2. Its environment was all it registered.

+ A thermostat is used for raising or lowering – controlling the temperature of the environment in which it exist.

1. Every child of God should be like a thermostat.

+ Jesus says of this church, “You make me sick”.

1. It seems that they are willing to sacrifice truth for peace.
2. They have afterall compromised with their society.

+ The greatest need the world around us has is that they see Jesus Christ in those who are His – for the church to be the Church – and not living as the world.

III. THE CHURCH HAD GROWN COMFORTABLE, COMPLACENT, AND UNAWARE OF THEIR SPIRITUAL CONDITION (vv. 17-19).

+ Because of the material riches they had been blessed with they had drifted into lukewarmness and had become a negative testimony for Christ.

1. Lukewarmness happens when blessings are many and the worship of Jesus slacks off.
2. Pride and self-satisfaction is the ruin of many individuals and churches.

+ Their blindness kept them from seeing their nakedness, and poverty.

1. Spiritual blindness leads to spiritual bankruptcy.

+ These people were clothed in the richest of garments materially, yet without the righteous garment of Jesus, they had nothing of God.

1. They were clothed in “Fig leaves” before the eyes of God.

+ Blindness is sometimes caused by poor diet – malnutrition.

Warren Wiersbe said, “Diet has bearing on the condition of one’s eyes, in a spiritual sense as well as a physical one.” THE BIBLE EXPOSITION COMMENTARY, by Warren W. Wiersbe, p. 580, VOL. 2.

1. They had feasted heavily on material things and were fat and lazy.
2. They had neglected the Word and worship of God in Christ and were blind as a bat without sonar, in Spirit.

IV. THE PROXIMITY OF JESUS IN RELATION TO THIS CHURCH IS OUTSIDE THE DOOR, KNOCKING (vv. 20-21).

+ Jesus is outside the door of His Church, and the people don’t even realize it.

+ Unaware of His absence they don’t even hear His knocking on the door.

1. Maybe they could think that knocking sound is too much of a challenge requiring some uncomfortable act, but not Jesus.
2. Maybe that knock could be a feeling of guilt that is reminding of the need to repent.

+ For those who will open the door and let Him in there is great fellowship and feasting in His presence and glory.

+ The promise to the “Overcomer” is an eternal one.

1. To sit with Jesus on His throne (Ephesians 1:3; 2:6).
2. He has called us to be overcomers, placed in us His Spirit who seals us to that great day.
3. Why do we want to persist in our own way, knowing that the riches of Jesus are ours through overcoming faith in Him?

V. THE FINAL CALL FOR THE CHURCH TO HEAR WHAT THE SPIRIT SAYS TO THE CHURCHES (v. 22).

+ Many individuals and churches are in the Laodicean condition.

1. Now is the time to hear.
2. Hear the Spirit as He directs you to Jesus.

+ If the Laodicean church did not repent they were judged.

+ If the Church today does not repent of its comfortable complacency judgment will come on all who do not overcome.

+ Let none of us who are in the Body of Christ get to the place where we do not even notice the absence of Jesus.

-Tim A. Blankenship

For more on this final letter to the Seven Churches you may go to Fire and Hammer and read The Sovereign King