Through the 7 churches in the book of Revelation, God reveals the problems the church can face. We learn from these problems. This sermon will discuss the problems the church of Laodecia faced.

Rev 3:15-16
The first problem the Laodecian church had was that their spiritual state was like lukewarm water - neither cold nor hot. They thought this state was acceptable. But Jesus said because they were lukewarm, He would vomit them out of His mouth. This was a serious problem concerning their lives.

Actually according to our experience, lukewarm water is the most acceptable for drinking. Too hot or too cold water is what we would spit out. Why would we spit out lukewarm water?

The river passing through the city of Laodecia comes from a spring not too far away. The water that flowed from there would become lukewarm when it reached Laodecia. When it reached further downstream to the city of Colosse, it would be cold. A famous phrase would be that the hot water at the source could be used for medicinal purposes, the cold water from Colosse was refreshing, but the lukewarm water from Laodecia makes one want to spit it out, because the water from the hot spring still carried the taste of sulphur. You needed to treat it before drinking it. If you drank it before treating it, you would’ve spat it out immediately. Therefore being neither hot nor cold didn’t refer to the temperature but quality of the water. That’s why Jesus said He wished they were either cold or hot. This wasn’t referring to zeal as Jesus would want us to be hot with zeal and not cold. What He meant was that the hot and cold spring water was useful. But the lukewarm water was not useful and had to be spat out.

The Laodecian church believers were very talented. They were so rich, they lacked in nothing. That’s not an easy feat. All of us want to be rich and lacking in nothing. But do we have the capability to do so? We might have some savings but to have need of nothing, we would have to be very rich.

There’re indeed very talented people. But it’s a pity they only employed their talents in the world but aren’t willing to do so for the church of God. They contribute so much to society but not to the church. Of course if they aren’t children of God, there’s nothing to say. But if they are, then it’s a pity they only contribute to the world.

Matt 25:30
The Lord Jesus classified the servant who received one talent as the unprofitable servant. He could’ve at least put the talent into the bank but even this he didn’t do. So the Master threw him into the outer darkness. We’re all useful, that’s why Jesus chose us. But are we willing to be used by the Lord? At the very least we ought to be concerned for and pray for the church. In the eyes of God, this is very basic and fundamental. If we do these things, we’re considered a profitable servant. This can be done by even young children and the elderly. We need to put in time and effort to fulfil this fundamental responsibility. If we take a step further, we ought to use our talents to serve God. Whether up on the pulpit or below the pulpit, in preaching or pastoring; we ourselves know where our gifts are. We ought to put in effort in those areas.

After all, Jesus said that to more who is given, more is required. Jesus knows how much we have. We ourselves know how much we have been given. Of course we shouldn’t compare ourselves with other people but we should do our utmost towards the Lord.

We shouldn’t be like the Laodecians who used their talents in the world but not on the church of God at all.

Rev 3:17
The second problem was that they themselves reckoned their spiritual state was good/rich. From a physical viewpoint, they were indeed rich. The city of Laodecia was a financial and economic centre. It was one of the richest city in minor Asia. In AD61, there was a great earthquake. A few surrounding cities were destroyed - Ephesus and Sardis didn’t have the financial capability to rebuild their cities. They needed to seek help from the Roman government. But the city of Laodecia didn’t need to seek for help. They were able to rebuild the city bigger and more beautiful than before. Roman historians praised the city of Laodecia as a model city in their records. Therefore members in the church of Laodecia thought they were rich spiritually. The Lord Jesus also reckoned they were right that they were rich and had need of nothing in the matters of this life. But with regards to eternal life, they had nothing. They were wretched, miserable, poor and naked.

Would you want to pursue wealth in this life or wealth in the life to come? If we seek riches in this life, the speaker suggests we should first seek riches in the eternal life. After seeking riches in eternal life, then you can seek riches in this life to enjoy yourself. But most times people who seek riches for eternal life place less emphasis on seeking riches in this life.

Abraham was very rich. He brought 318 servants to save Lot. Don’t imagine Abraham was a poor ahpek living in a measly tent. Abraham was actually very rich and powerful. But he was willing to listen to the word of God to live in tents. He didn’t love the world. Strictly speaking, he looked down upon the world. Paul says we are people who are despised by this world; it seems we are undeserving of the world. But from the perspective of God, these group of people are whom the world is not worthy of; only heaven is worthy of them.

We need to realign our thinking. It’s not that we can’t pursue riches in this life. It is when we use our entire lives to pursue riches in this life. What if our lives are required of us tonight? (What if the virus visits us tonight?)

Truly, our lives are temporary. Often in uncertain times, we think we need to be very careful. Will we just allow our lives to be lost in this world or to go to the place God has prepared for us?

God loved the Laodecia church and so pointed out their problems to them.

Rev 3:18-19
Often our children say we have changed and don’t love them when we scold them. They’ll mention some distant relative will give them $200 when they just ask. But then they complain we are so stingy in giving them money. The child doesn’t understand.

Only when he gets married and becomes a father himself does he realise how much his father loves him.

Often we complain that Jesus doesn’t give us what we ask for and feel He doesn’t love us.

Jesus tells us to buy from Him. To buy means a price needs to be paid. This price isn’t paid in dollars and cents. We need to put in our time and commitment. We need to put in a heart of repentance. The Holy Spirit is given to us free of charge. But we need to ‘buy’ it from the Lord, with our heart. With a zealous heart of repentance. We need to put in time to buy from the Lord. If we aren’t willing to pay the price, we won’t be able to buy from the Lord.

Do we expect the Lord Jesus to pour the Holy Spirit on your without even asking? Give you a blank cheque to deposit in the bank but you don’t even want to make a trip to the bank. “Why can’t you just transfer it directly?”

We seem to apply the same things to our life of faith as well. “Jesus can You automatically protect me and give me the Holy Spirit?” “Jesus don’t need come to church on the Sabbath Day la I just worship You at home. Aren’t you omnipresent? Do we really need to go to the place where Your name is?”

Jesus counsels us to buy from the Lord. We can’t buy it from the world. What we can buy from the world may be beautiful but it won’t last; it’ll be corrupted. But what we buy from the Lord is eternal and incorruptible.

Some people say not to buy from IKEA because it always breaks down HAHA. But even if we buy expensive furniture, how long can it last?

Let us have the realisation to buy from the Lord not the world.

What do we need to buy from the Lord?

1. Gold
   Gold refers to our faith. But not all gold can withstand the fire. Only genuine gold. Likewise not all faith can pass through the test of fire. That’s why we just buy from the Lord hold refined in fire. In other words we must ask the Lord to strengthen our faith so it can pass all tests. Because only a genuine true faith can withstand to the end.

2. White garments
   Laodecia city is famous for making this garment called Tremitha. It’s very popular in minor Asia. Those who donned it were looked up to. It’s even guaranteed this garment will never spoil in your lifetime. But in the eyes of the Lord, there’re no garments that will last forever. Only the white garment bought from the Lord will last forever. We’d be clothed and not be naked.

But haven’t we already put on this white garment from the Lord when we get baptised. Why do we still need to buy then? Not as a spare. But because we may get our garments dirty. We can’t cleanse ourselves. We can only rely on the Lord to cleanse our garments so it’ll still be white. We can only buy this and ask of this from the Lord.

As what John tells us in 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Many people have the misconception that they can rely on themselves to receive perfection. They say, “If you’re not perfected, you can’t enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Even if I’m not perfected today, I’ll be perfected on the day I die.” But when they passed away, they were not at a state of perfection. They did spiritually nurture themselves but by their own effort, can they really be perfect? They still had imperfections.

The speaker isn’t saying they can’t be saved. By the grace and forgiveness of God, they still will be.

It is when we don’t have a repentant heart and only believe the Lord will have mercy and forgive us - like the church of Laodecia who think they haven’t really done a lot of bad; didn’t murder or commit adultery; just enjoy riches more, travel the world more, eat better. If we just enjoy ourselves and travel the world eating all sorts of delicacies, the Lord Jesus will rebuke us. We have so many inadequacies but we seek all this worldly pleasures.

If we ask the Lord to forgive us of shortcomings, He will forgive us. There’s the need to come to the Lord to buy the white garment so we may be presented clean before Him.

1. Eye salve
   The third thing we need to buy is eye salve. The city of Laodecia is famous for its medicine - ears and eyes. So the people of Laodecia had sharp eyes and ears because of the eye salve and ear medicine. But their spiritual eyes were blinded. They couldn’t see the way to eternal life but only the riches before them. That’s why Jesus said to get eye salve from Him to anoint their eyes. What does this refer to? The Holy Spirit.

Eph 1:18
“the eyes of your understanding being enlightened”
We often see a person who receives the Holy Spirit looks lightly upon things in the world and pursues eternal riches.

The Lord Jesus is waiting for us. But there’s a deadline. When it comes, He’ll close the door of grace. At that time we’ll have to knock on the door but He won’t open the door again. Can we then say the Lord Jesus is merciless for having closed the door? The Lord Jesus will tell us we have opened the door for so long and called out to us so often. We have heard His calling but have not heeded. We keep thinking there’s more time before the door closes but we don’t know when it will. While it’s still open, let us grab hold of the opportunity. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to fill us.

Rev 3:20-21
Isn’t the Lord already in our hearts when we believe? This should be the case but in reality, many members don’t have the Lord in their hearts. They only think of the Lord once in a while. To have the Lord sitting in your heart is very different than thinking about the Lord sometimes.

Logically speaking, when we talk about the heart it refers to the mind. But emotionally, it’s different.

We need to examine our own faith. We believe in the Lord in our minds. We are familiar with the words in the 66 books of the Bible. But is the Lord in our hearts or knocking outside?

Actually Jesus can enter our hearts without needing to knock. We already belong to Him after baptism. Our baptism certificate certifies that on that day, we give up our lives to the Lord and accept Him as our Master.

The Lord Jesus could’ve immediately entered our hearts. Why does He stand and knock then? Because He doesn’t want to force anyone. Logically, He could rule our hearts but emotionally, He doesn’t want to do this. He wants us to esteem this relationship and love.

Song of Solomon talks about this kind of love.
Song 5:2-3
The Beloved refers to Jesus and the Shunammite woman refers to us the church. The Beloved knocks on the door. “Open for me, my sister my love. For my head is covered with dew, my locks with the drops of the night.”

Imagine how long He had walked in the night or had been knocking to have His locks all wet from the drops of the night?

But the Shunnamite woman replied, “I have taken off my robe; How can I put it on again? I have washed my feet; How can I defile them?”
This was a childish excuse. How long does it take to wash feet and put on a robe?

She thought she had all the reason in the world to not open the door. But after a long time she was conscience stricken. However, her Beloved had turned away.

She had really repented and truly desired the love of her Beloved. She no longer gave excuses. Because when she opened the door and saw He was gone, she didn’t just shrug her shoulders and go back in. She went out looking. Whoever she met, she asked if they had seen Him.

That describes all of us. Our Lord is knocking. But we tend to let anything enter our hearts except the Lord Jesus.

Suppose our father says he’ll buy something for us next week. But we say, “No! We want it now!” When we really want something, we won’t delay.

When will we mature and realise what the most important thing in our lives is?

The Lord Jesus tells us that there’re many things we can do without. But there’s one thing that we can’t. We wouldn’t just regret forever. We would be in suffering forever.

Therefore let us open the door of our hearts and let Jesus come in.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus wants to come into our hearts? To grant to him who lets Him enter to sit on His throne.

We used to do what we wanted in our lives. But when we believed, we understood Jesus is Lord of our lives. We should let the Lord Jesus rule in our lives. We can’t rely ourselves to enter into eternal life. Unless we don’t want eternal life and want to live with the devil. Some people say there’re lots of people in hell anyways.

But if we want to enter into eternal life, there’s only one way. By allowing Jesus to enter our hearts and letting Him rule our lives.

Rev 3:21
“To Him who overcomes, I’ll grant to sit with Me on My throne.”
If we don’t allow the Lord to dine with us, we won’t be able to sit with Him on His throne.

Let us become victors. To overcome ourselves. To open up the door to the Lord to dine with us. Then in the future in the Kingdom of Heaven we will sit with Him on His throne.

Mag the Lord help us. Let us be a victor; to allow the Lord to come into our hearts and dine with us.