07 July 2024 // Revelation 3:14-22
SCRIPTURAL APPLICATION: Read Revelation 3:14-22
SERMON REVIEW:
The Credibility of Christ: vs. 14
The Condition of the Church: vs. 15-17
A. Their metaphorical illustration -
B. Their claim-
C. Their shame –
D. Their lack of accommodation –
The Counsel of Christ: vs 18-19
The Invitation of Christ: vs. 20-22
QUESTIONS:
LIFE APPLICATION:
DIGGING DEEPER:
Laodicea (v. 14)
Laodicea was one of three sister cities in the valley of the Lycus River. Colossae (with famous cold springs), Hierapolis (with hot medicinal springs), and Laodicea were in the region of Phrygia, some forty miles southeast of Philadelphia. If this was the last stop on the original postal carrier’s route for dispatching Revelation, he could return to Ephesus, his starting point, by traveling a hundred miles due west.
Laodicea was founded in the third century B.C. by Antiochus II, the Seleucid king. (He named the city for his wife, Laodice. Their grandson, Antiochus III would later conquer Sardis.) It lay at the juncture of both east-west (Pisidian Antioch to Ephesus) and north-south (Pergamum to Attalia) highways. Being a vital crossroads city made it a major commercial success.
In New Testament times Laodicea had a great reputation as a banking center. Laodicea’s famous textile industry specialized in black woolen fabric. The most serious problem with Laodicea was its lack of reliable water. The stone Roman aqueduct that piped water into the city from springs south of town had to be designed to clear the stones of mineral deposits. Even then the water was barely drinkable.
Like other cities of the region, Laodicea was subject to earthquakes. Several occurred throughout its history. When Nero offered imperial aid to help the people recover from the disastrous quake of A.D. 60, the city was wealthy enough to decline his offer. The site was eventually abandoned, but the modern town of Denizli is nearby.
The Church of Laodicea
Laodicea was probably evangelized, with the other cities of the Lycus valley, during Paul’s Ephesian ministry (Acts 19:10)—not by Paul in person but, it appears, by his colleague Epaphras (Col 4:13). Nevertheless, Paul regarded those cities as part of his appointed mission field, and he had a sense of pastoral responsibility for their churches (Col 2:1). He mentions the church of Laodicea in his letter to the Colossians: he asks the Colossian Christians to convey his greetings to those in Laodicea (among whom “Nympha and the church in her house” are specially mentioned), and he directs that this letter be read also in the Laodicean church, and that the Colossians read “the letter from Laodicea” (Col 4:16). The “letter from Laodicea” (possibly a letter of Paul’s to be procured by the Colossian church “from Laodicea”) is unknown to us: it has been suggested, not implausibly, that it was destroyed in the earthquake of A.D. 60. The letter has been identified with the canonical Letter to the Ephesians; this identification, first made by Marcion (ca. A.D. 144), has little probability. Later an apocryphal “Letter to the Laodiceans” (a mere cento of Pauline phrases) enjoyed a wide circulation in Western Europe; a Middle English version of it appears in several copies of the Wycliffite NT. It ceased to be included among the NT writings from the Reformation onward.
The church of Laodicea was one of the seven churches of Asia addressed in Revelation. In the letter to Laodicea (Rev 3:14–22), the church is rebuked for allowing the wealth and comfort enjoyed by the Laodiceans in general to blunt the edge of its Christian confession: materially affluent and self-sufficient, it was spiritually “wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked.” The city’s economic prosperity, eye ointment, and wool could do nothing to help this spiritual destitution. The lukewarmness for which, thanks to this letter, the name of Laodicea has become proverbial, may reflect the condition of the city’s water supply. The water supplied by the spring at Başpinar, it is suggested, was tepid and nauseous by the time it was piped to Laodicea, unlike the therapeutic hot water of Hierapolis or the refreshing cold water of Colossae (Rudwick and Green 1958); hence the Lord’s words, “Would that you were cold or hot!”
The warning was apparently effective: the church of Laodicea continued for long to maintain its Christian witness. Between A.D. 161 and 167 a bishop of Laodicea, Sagaris by name, suffered martyrdom. In his time, said Melito, bishop of Sardis, at the beginning of his Easter Festival, there was much debate at Laodicea about the proper day for the celebration of Easter (Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 4.26.3). Sagaris was a Quartodeciman, holding (with Melito himself and other church leaders in the province of Asia, including Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna) that Easter should coincide with the Jewish Passover, on Nisan 14, regardless of the day of the week, in opposition to the growing body of Christian opinion which held that Easter should always be celebrated on the first day of the week, on which Jesus rose from the dead. Sagaris’ part in the debate is invoked by Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus, another champion of the Quartodeciman position, in a letter on the subject which he addressed ca. A.D. 190 to Victor, bishop of Rome (Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 5.24.5). Polycrates and other Quartodecimans appealed to the precedent of John, the beloved disciple, who spent his last years in the province of Asia.
A church synod held at Laodicea around A.D. 363 promulgated 60 rulings—the Canons of Laodicea—which were acknowledged by later church councils as a basis for canon law.[1]
Salve (v. 18)
Laodicea was famous for a medical school connected with the temple of the god Asclepius, similar to the Asclepion in Pergamum (see “Deeper Discoveries” for chapter 2). The Laodicean physicians were particularly noted for a “Phrygian powder” described by Aristotle as useful for the cure of eye disease. The Greek word is kollourion and occurs only here in the New Testament. Note the irony in Christ’s command in this verse—that which citizens of Laodicea were proud of for providing physical sight could not help provide spiritual sight. The Laodicean Christians must “buy” from Christ, the sole supplier. His price: repentance.[2]
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. To what extent do you agree with the statements made in the opening of this chapter: The description of Christ standing on the outside of the Loadicean church knocking for permission to enter should make us stop and think. This is not comforting but alarming. If the final description that we see of Christ in relation to one of his churches at the end of the first century is that of seeking entry, then we should view this as a warning to be heeded nineteen centuries later.
2. If Revelation 3:20 is addressed to churches rather than to people who do not know Christ as Savior, then discuss the issue of whether it is valid to quote the verse in evangelistic preaching and presentations.[3]
PRAYER:
[1] F. F. Bruce, “Laodicea (Place),” ed. David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 230–231.
[2] Kendell H. Easley, Revelation, vol. 12, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998), 66–67.
[3] Kendell H. Easley, Revelation, vol. 12, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998), 68–69.
SERMON REVIEW:
The Credibility of Christ: vs. 14
The Condition of the Church: vs. 15-17
A. Their metaphorical illustration -
B. Their claim-
C. Their shame –
D. Their lack of accommodation –
The Counsel of Christ: vs 18-19
The Invitation of Christ: vs. 20-22
QUESTIONS:
- What did the message teach me about God/Jesus/Holy Spirit?
- What did the message teach me about the human condition?
- Is there anything I need to confess, repent, or be grateful for, because of this passage?
- How do I need help in believing and applying this scripture to my life?
- How can I encourage others with this passage?
LIFE APPLICATION:
DIGGING DEEPER:
Laodicea (v. 14)
Laodicea was one of three sister cities in the valley of the Lycus River. Colossae (with famous cold springs), Hierapolis (with hot medicinal springs), and Laodicea were in the region of Phrygia, some forty miles southeast of Philadelphia. If this was the last stop on the original postal carrier’s route for dispatching Revelation, he could return to Ephesus, his starting point, by traveling a hundred miles due west.
Laodicea was founded in the third century B.C. by Antiochus II, the Seleucid king. (He named the city for his wife, Laodice. Their grandson, Antiochus III would later conquer Sardis.) It lay at the juncture of both east-west (Pisidian Antioch to Ephesus) and north-south (Pergamum to Attalia) highways. Being a vital crossroads city made it a major commercial success.
In New Testament times Laodicea had a great reputation as a banking center. Laodicea’s famous textile industry specialized in black woolen fabric. The most serious problem with Laodicea was its lack of reliable water. The stone Roman aqueduct that piped water into the city from springs south of town had to be designed to clear the stones of mineral deposits. Even then the water was barely drinkable.
Like other cities of the region, Laodicea was subject to earthquakes. Several occurred throughout its history. When Nero offered imperial aid to help the people recover from the disastrous quake of A.D. 60, the city was wealthy enough to decline his offer. The site was eventually abandoned, but the modern town of Denizli is nearby.
The Church of Laodicea
Laodicea was probably evangelized, with the other cities of the Lycus valley, during Paul’s Ephesian ministry (Acts 19:10)—not by Paul in person but, it appears, by his colleague Epaphras (Col 4:13). Nevertheless, Paul regarded those cities as part of his appointed mission field, and he had a sense of pastoral responsibility for their churches (Col 2:1). He mentions the church of Laodicea in his letter to the Colossians: he asks the Colossian Christians to convey his greetings to those in Laodicea (among whom “Nympha and the church in her house” are specially mentioned), and he directs that this letter be read also in the Laodicean church, and that the Colossians read “the letter from Laodicea” (Col 4:16). The “letter from Laodicea” (possibly a letter of Paul’s to be procured by the Colossian church “from Laodicea”) is unknown to us: it has been suggested, not implausibly, that it was destroyed in the earthquake of A.D. 60. The letter has been identified with the canonical Letter to the Ephesians; this identification, first made by Marcion (ca. A.D. 144), has little probability. Later an apocryphal “Letter to the Laodiceans” (a mere cento of Pauline phrases) enjoyed a wide circulation in Western Europe; a Middle English version of it appears in several copies of the Wycliffite NT. It ceased to be included among the NT writings from the Reformation onward.
The church of Laodicea was one of the seven churches of Asia addressed in Revelation. In the letter to Laodicea (Rev 3:14–22), the church is rebuked for allowing the wealth and comfort enjoyed by the Laodiceans in general to blunt the edge of its Christian confession: materially affluent and self-sufficient, it was spiritually “wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked.” The city’s economic prosperity, eye ointment, and wool could do nothing to help this spiritual destitution. The lukewarmness for which, thanks to this letter, the name of Laodicea has become proverbial, may reflect the condition of the city’s water supply. The water supplied by the spring at Başpinar, it is suggested, was tepid and nauseous by the time it was piped to Laodicea, unlike the therapeutic hot water of Hierapolis or the refreshing cold water of Colossae (Rudwick and Green 1958); hence the Lord’s words, “Would that you were cold or hot!”
The warning was apparently effective: the church of Laodicea continued for long to maintain its Christian witness. Between A.D. 161 and 167 a bishop of Laodicea, Sagaris by name, suffered martyrdom. In his time, said Melito, bishop of Sardis, at the beginning of his Easter Festival, there was much debate at Laodicea about the proper day for the celebration of Easter (Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 4.26.3). Sagaris was a Quartodeciman, holding (with Melito himself and other church leaders in the province of Asia, including Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna) that Easter should coincide with the Jewish Passover, on Nisan 14, regardless of the day of the week, in opposition to the growing body of Christian opinion which held that Easter should always be celebrated on the first day of the week, on which Jesus rose from the dead. Sagaris’ part in the debate is invoked by Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus, another champion of the Quartodeciman position, in a letter on the subject which he addressed ca. A.D. 190 to Victor, bishop of Rome (Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 5.24.5). Polycrates and other Quartodecimans appealed to the precedent of John, the beloved disciple, who spent his last years in the province of Asia.
A church synod held at Laodicea around A.D. 363 promulgated 60 rulings—the Canons of Laodicea—which were acknowledged by later church councils as a basis for canon law.[1]
Salve (v. 18)
Laodicea was famous for a medical school connected with the temple of the god Asclepius, similar to the Asclepion in Pergamum (see “Deeper Discoveries” for chapter 2). The Laodicean physicians were particularly noted for a “Phrygian powder” described by Aristotle as useful for the cure of eye disease. The Greek word is kollourion and occurs only here in the New Testament. Note the irony in Christ’s command in this verse—that which citizens of Laodicea were proud of for providing physical sight could not help provide spiritual sight. The Laodicean Christians must “buy” from Christ, the sole supplier. His price: repentance.[2]
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. To what extent do you agree with the statements made in the opening of this chapter: The description of Christ standing on the outside of the Loadicean church knocking for permission to enter should make us stop and think. This is not comforting but alarming. If the final description that we see of Christ in relation to one of his churches at the end of the first century is that of seeking entry, then we should view this as a warning to be heeded nineteen centuries later.
2. If Revelation 3:20 is addressed to churches rather than to people who do not know Christ as Savior, then discuss the issue of whether it is valid to quote the verse in evangelistic preaching and presentations.[3]
PRAYER:
[1] F. F. Bruce, “Laodicea (Place),” ed. David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 230–231.
[2] Kendell H. Easley, Revelation, vol. 12, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998), 66–67.
[3] Kendell H. Easley, Revelation, vol. 12, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998), 68–69.