On Wednesday, we contemplated The Laodicean Syndrome.  We noted that ”the Laodicean syndrome of self-righteousness convinces you that you are clothed in grandeur, but in reality you are shamefully naked.  It convinces you that you are wise and significant when in reality you are pitiful and blind.”   After His straightfoward rebuke of this church, Jesus’ words are direct but merciful.

I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich;

and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness;

and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

Revelation 3:18-20

Jesus’ diagnosis of this church had been grim – “you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.”  They had thought themselves rich of their own accord – Jesus says that in reality, they are poor.  The remedy?  Buy from Him true gold which has been refined in the fire.  They needed to trade in their fools’ gold for the real thing – true salvation through Christ.

“They needed gold that was free of impurities, representing the priceless riches of true salvation.  Peter wrote of a ‘faith…more precious than gold’ (1 Peter 1:7), while Paul defined saving faith as ‘rich in good works, having the treasure of a good foundation for the future’ (1 Timothy 6:18-19).  Christ offered the Laodiceans a pure, true salvation that would bring them into a real relationship with Him.”

MacArthur, 138

They thought they were clothed in the splendor of their own self-righteousness, but they were actually shamefully naked.  Jesus offers them white clothes to cover themselves.  Throughout Revelation we find God’s people clothed in pure white garments – once they came to Him in true saving faith, casting themselves on His grace and not clinging to their own rags of self-righteousness, He promised to clothe them and make them truly holy in His sight.

They thought they had great wisdom and insight, but they were actually blind.  They needed the kind of salve that only Jesus could provide, restoring their spiritual sight.  In Acts 26:18, Paul records His commission from Jesus – He was to go  “to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” The Laodicean church, although they thought that they were spiritually healthy with 20/20 vision, was full of individuals blinded by self and desperate for a supernatural healing through saving faith in Jesus.

It is compelling to me that Revelation 3:20 (“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears my voice…”), a verse that is so very familiar to us within the context of evangelism, is addressed to a church.  Friends, as I have shared before I am absolutely convinced that there are droves of pastors, church leaders, members, and attenders who seem to look the part and are dreadfully lost.  These people are confident in their spirituality – they see themselves as richly robed in their good works and endowed with great spiritual insight.  In reality, they are wretched and spiritually lost, blind to their need for Christ and unable to fully see the truth, naked before the holiness of God when their self-righteous rags fall away.

Verse 19 gives clear instruction – So be earnest, and repent. Working harder is not the trick.  Being more committed is not the cure.  The only thing that can remedy the spiritual sickness in our souls is to recognize our wretchedness and repent – to ask for the Lord Jesus to cover our shame with His righteousness, to take the scales off our eyes and allow us to see, to humbly receive the riches of true salvation that we will never be able to earn.

As this last letter to the churches comes to a close, the emphasis of Revelation will switch from earth to heaven,  from present to future, from the church to Israel.  The church is not directly referenced from chapters 4-18 of Revelation – and I believe the reason for that is the rapture: the church has already been taken from the earth when this timeline begins.  This letter to the Laodicean church is the final statement to “lost Christians” – the last warning in the sequence before the rapture takes place.

Be sober, be diligent.  Examine your hearts, share truth with those around you – and never assume that the person next to you in the pew is already a true follower of Jesus.  I think we need some evangelists in our churches, sent to church people who are blind to their spiritual poverty.

Behold, He stands at the door and knocks… time is ticking.

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