It is difficult to see the Lord’s description of Laodicea in the book of Revelation in a positive light. But the lesson we need to take away from it is how great a love the Lord has for us. No matter how much we may have damaged our relationship with Him, He is always knocking on the door of our hearts. And we need to open that door and let Him in, honestly evaluating ourselves as we commune with Him, and let Him make a personal covenant with us.
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Show Notes:
I think we resist learning the lessons of Laodicea in the book of Revelation because no one wants to be associated with the lukewarm church that the Lord spews out of His mouth. But we need to read the example of Laodicea with a new understanding. First of all the Laodiceans did not get to their state of lukewarmness overnight. They had been refusing the Lord for a long time. And we must end the pattern of refusing the Lord in our own lives. Next, we must see that the picture of the Laodicean church in Revelation is a picture of God’s deep love for us.
Even though the Laodiceans had continually refused Him, the Lord was always knocking on their door, always pleading with them to let Him in. That means that no matter how separated from the Lord we have become, we can always open the door to Him and let Him back into our hearts. The Lord said, “If anyone opens the door ….” He is not addressing the Church in general. He is speaking to each one of us individually. If you open the door to the Lord, He will come in and dine with you personally.
As we read in the Hebrew Scriptures, people ate together to make a covenant, and the Lord wants to make a personal covenant with each one of us. But for that to happen we must first take the initiative to open the door of our heart to let Him in. Then by seeing Him we will be like Job who said, “I have heard about the Lord before, but now my eyes see You. Therefore, I retract and repent in dust and ashes.” There will be a brokenness, but there will also be the joy of experiencing His love, of having a personal covenant with Him in His blood that is so necessary in these times.
Key Verses:
- Revelation 3:14–22. “If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him.”
- Jeremiah 31:31. “I will make a new covenant.”
- Matthew 23:37–39. “How often I wanted to gather your children together.”
- Hebrews 12:18–24. “You have come to … Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant.”
- Hebrews 12:25–29. “See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking.”
- Job 42:1–6. “Now my eye sees You; therefore I retract, and I repent.”
- 1 Corinthians 11:23–32. “A man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.”
- Isaiah 1:18. “Come now, and let us reason together.”
Quotes:
- “No matter how many times we may have refused Him in the past, He’s looking for us to open our hearts, to sit down with Him, and to, in essence, negotiate a new covenant.”
- “He’s looking for something to happen on a level that is beyond what we as believers have ever known or ever understood before. And as this happens, we will find ourselves being very humble, very much in repentance before the Lord and opening our hearts in a way that maybe we were not able to open our hearts before.”
- “Let us find that place of brokenness in our heart where there can be true repentance and true hunger to relate to Him in a new way.”
Takeaways:
- We have refused the Lord many times in our relationship with Him. But it is time to stop doing that. I feel like we are coming to a place in the timing of the Lord in these days when we need to be far more cautious about saying “No” to Him.
- No matter how extensive our previous refusals of Him have been, Christ comes again to plead with us in these last days.
- It really is time for us to make a personal covenant of peace with the coming Messiah. We talk a lot about the new covenant. And I believe there is a covenant once again that the Lord wants to make, and that is a very personal covenant with each one of us.
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