THE BEST PROMISE
Revelation 3:14-22
The Church With Unconscious Need – 1900 AD – Until The Trumpet Sounds

Last time we left off with the promise that we were going to look at the most critical issue facing the bride of Christ here in the 21^st century. Let’s begin with an oft quoted verse and see if we can’t see something fresh. 

Rev 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. 

Here is what makes God different than all the other gods of this world; He is a seeker of man—He comes looking for us. There can be no better picture than that of Jesus standing outside of a locked door with no handle on the outside; a door that can only be opened from the inside. 

Every man is lord of the house of his own heart; it is his fortress; he must open the gates of it, and he has the mournful prerogative and privilege of refusing to open. J.A. Trench 

If Jesus hadn’t knocked first it is certain that the Laodiceans would never have knocked. Think about the picture painted for us of the bride and the groom in the Song of Solomon that portrayed this very thing:

Song 5:2, 4-6 I sleep, but my heart is awake; It is the voice of my beloved! He knocks, saying, “Open for me, my sister, my love, My dove, my perfect one; For my head is covered with dew, My locks with the drops of the night.” … 4 My beloved put his hand By the latch of the door, And my heart yearned for him. 5 I arose to open for my beloved, And my hands dripped with myrrh, My fingers with liquid myrrh, On the handles of the lock. 6 I opened for my beloved, But my beloved had turned away and was gone. My heart leaped up when he spoke. I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.

Here we have the bride slumbering in her chamber and when her lover knocks she is slow to rise from her comfort. By the time she opens the door he is gone and she cries out for him but can’t find him. With Jesus on the outside there can be no fellowship or, as He showed to the Laodiceans, no real wealth. He is knocking on the door to the Christian’s heart—not the door to some stranger who doesn’t know Him.  

Be sure to catch the message here. He rebukes them and then asks them to dine with Him (deipneo; the main meal of the day), which in the oriental custom was a significant occasion for having intimate fellowship with one’s closest of friends; the most important meal of the day. 

John 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. 

Picture it this way. In Jewish custom if a stranger stopped by one’s house toward the latter part of the day (the time of the meal Jesus is referring to) the owner was obliged to ask that person to come in and dine with them. Listen to David: 

Ps 23:5-6 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.

 When your invited guest was enjoying his meal you poured him a glass of wine. After the meal you poured him another glass and if you filled it half way it was a sign to him that it was time to leave. On the other hand if you filled it to overflowing it was a sign that you wanted him to stay the night. Oh how rich are David’s words; my cup runs over – I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. All that we need to do is open the door.

So outside the Laodiceans’ door He stood, waiting to come in and have fellowship with anyone who heard His voice of rebuke and repented. Even though their lukewarm sin was disgusting and repulsive to Him there was still a chance for them. He was willing to be received with the hospitality that would be shown to a friend or stranger. The language here is so plain. The act of knocking implies that we desire admittance and that we recognize the right of the one who lives there to open the door to us or not. We would never intrude or force their door open. In fact we would do just the opposite. If we are sure that they heard our knock and were not admitted we would quietly turn away. 

Jesus desires to be admitted to a relationship with us but He recognizes our free will and will not force admission into our heart. If we open the door He comes and dwells with us but if we don’t answer He turns quietly away; maybe to return and maybe not. Like the lover in Solomon’s song, perhaps when we get around to rising out of our comfort (our worldly slumber) and open the door He may be gone. The spiritual state of the bride between waking and sleeping, being slow to open the door to her divine lover, speaks to the lukewarm church and the lukewarm believer. 

Tragically there are people who go to church all their lives but never hear the knock. They never deal with the issues of sin and repentance—to them there is a heaven to gain but no hell to shun. The only cure for a lukewarm church—a lukewarm Christian—is readmitting the one that they have excluded; the Holy Spirit. 

I am reminded of a story about an old man who showed up at a church just before Sunday service. He was very unkempt and unclean as he was homeless. When he entered the door the usher came forward and asked him to step outside. He was informed that he would need to improve his appearance if he wanted to attend the service and as soon as he did he would be welcomed. The old man left with tears falling on his soiled shirt and he sat down on the curb. A moment later Jesus sat down beside him and asked him what was wrong. The old man lifted his tear filled eyes and looked at Jesus … they said I couldn’t come in because I’m not clean. Jesus put His arm around the old man’s shoulders and smiled … I know what you mean, I’ve been trying to get in there for the past 25 years myself.

Rev 3:21 To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.

In every case it is to him that overcomes—the conqueror—that the final promise is made. Every promise is made to the one that is faithful unto death, and here we have the “Best Promise.” Jesus has conquered already and is sitting down with the Father and the one who conquers through Jesus will sit down with Him on His throne. How astonishing this statement is after all that has been said to this group of believers. This is the worst of the seven churches and yet the most “Blessed Promise” of all was made to it, showing that the even the worst can repent, finally conquer and reach the highest state of glory. 

Rev 3:22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Laodicea was a church that was popular and full of people with good intentions. It was not a place where the Holy Spirit could deal with sin and sinners. Its door was closed and yet Jesus patiently kept knocking out of love. And so He knocks at the door of churches and hearts in America today, an America that is unfortunately the home to many Laodicean churches and believers. 

The Laodicean church was blind to its own needs and unwilling to face the truth. Yet honesty is still the beginning of true blessing when we admit what we are, confess our sins and receive from God all that we need. If we want God’s best for our lives and our churches we have to be honest with Him. He is always honest with us and what He pointed out to the Laodiceans bears strong consideration in America today. 

They had lost their vitality. They were not burning on fire for God nor were they frozen in their spirituality; they had a lukewarm heart. They were comfortable, complacent and didn’t realize it. As believers we have no excuse for not being passionate in the Spirit and in our prayer. 

Next time you’re sitting and enjoying a cup of coffee or tea just think about how bad it gets if the waitress doesn’t come with a refill; a refill which we need because we haven’t been drinking it fast enough or paying attention to it until it has become lukewarm. 

There is no divine commendation given to this church because they were too busy commending themselves. They thought they were glorifying God when in fact they were dishonoring His name. The Laodiceans were independent, self-satisfied and secure; they thought they didn’t need anything but how wrong they were. 

John 15:5-8 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

The branch doesn’t tell the vine what to do and without the vine it withers and dies; good only for fuel for the fire. The church at Smyrna thought it was poor when it was really rich and the Laodiceans boasted that they were rich when in fact they were poor. In my opinion this is why churches and believers decline spiritually. They begin to measure success by the world’s standards instead of by spiritual values. The result today is the same; in the eyes of the Lord they are “wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked.” 

So what’s the solution? We need to pay the price to get true “gold tried in the fire.” Nothing will make Christians examine their priorities faster than suffering.  

The letters to the seven churches are given to us by no one less than Jesus Himself so that we might examine our own lives and ministries. Judgment is coming to the world but it won’t start there. 

1 Peter 4:17 For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?

How does Jesus get on the outside? How does a church or a believer get to the place where they think they’re doing fine but are spiritually dead? Read the complete Song of Solomon to understand who it is that loves us and how he sees us. It is also the story of the bride who tells her lover when he knocks that it’s too early and she’s too tired; by the time she finally opens the door he is nowhere to be found. 

Is it too early for the church in America? Is she too tired? Are you? Do you take time to be with the Lord when He knocks or are you too busy? Do you then wonder where He is later on when you want Him? There is real danger for the believer as there is for the bride, especially after she has been one for awhile. Her self-centeredness leads to taking her bridegroom for granted. It is our failure to respond to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and being caught up in our “own holiness” that separates us from Jesus. 

Paul Minear in his commentary on Revelation wrote: 

The only cure for poverty-stricken disciples was to purchase Christ’s gold which is refined in the agonies of the shared passion. For their nakedness, the only recourse was to buy such clothes as the naked Christ had worn on the Cross. The blindness of self-deception could be cured only by understanding the correlation between Christ’s love and His discipline. These three purchases constitute a substantial definition of the kind of zeal and repentance which was the burden of all John’s prophecies. The thrust of these commands moves in the direction of rigorous warning. They are tantamount to saying, ‘Open your eyes’ and ‘Carry your Cross.’ This Letter argues against the widespread assertion of many interpreters to the affect that John’s chief concern was to provide consolation to a persecuted Church. Nearer the mark would be the opposite assertion; that John, like Jesus, was concerned to bring not peace but a sword.

The “Best Promise” is that those who are victorious will sit with Him on His own victorious throne; share it as a victor. Jesus makes this promise to every believer—even to those who have deteriorated like the Laodiceans. He is speaking to every man, woman and child now as He has to every generation; it is not too late. Whether that door remains closed or swings wide open to receive His forgiving love and grace is up to each and every believer. No one can take that responsibility for another and Jesus will never force the door open.  How do you hold a dove? Not with a clenched fist but with an open palm. Holding it tight will only make it fight to get away while an open palm gives it the choice and encourages it to stay and not fly away. 

This letter is both the sternest of the seven and yet the most tender. In spite of their condition Jesus wanted them to know that He still loved them but He needed to shake them out of their stupor before it was too late. He didn’t want to stand by and watch them continue to spiral down but He wasn’t going to compel them to repent; He can only knock. Their freedom of choice was preserved and it was their choice to answer the door to restoration or ignore the knock at their own peril. 

Let not the true church in America—the bride of Christ—become today’s Laodicean church, the end time apostate church; the church that forsakes Jesus. Let her rather become the church at Philadelphia, the overcoming and victorious bride of His second coming. Let that also be the goal of each of us who claim to be the bride of Christ. 

In the final part of this series we will take a collective look at what these letters mean for the church and believers today. We will also look at how they are already impacting this next—and I truly believe the last —move of God that is about to take place. He is preparing for His return and these letters are a wake up call for His bride. In them we have not only found rebuke but we have also found a strong message of love and encouragement. It is my prayer that the Lord will help each of us to hear what the Spirit is saying today, not only to the church but to each of us—His precious bride.